Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9659 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-09-17
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Subtitled in: Japanese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 48 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Blood the Last Vampire brings a moody atmospheric quality all of its own to the Japanese animated film tradition. In a few short enigmatic scenes, we learn of the young girl Saya who is working for nameless government agencies and is sent, after one of her killings, to pose as a new pupil at an American school on an air force base. The Vietnam War is underway, but this does not concern her--she is involved with a far older war. All we ever find out is that she is not quite human, and that two of her schoolmates (and a whore in the mean streets adjacent to the base) are something yet again. Much of what ensues--gore and metamorphosis and nightmare chases--is all the more confusing for being seen through the eyes of a schoolteacher who never learns very much. This is a dreamlike film which does not have to make entirely literal sense, far more so than the creator's more famous Ghost in the Shell. It is also a memorable stage in the development of digitised animation. --Roz Kaveny

Special Features
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
English
Japanese
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround English Japanese
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Original Japanese Trailers
Image Gallery
DVD ROM
Manga Previews
Web Links
Danish\English\Finnish\Norwegian\Portuguese\Swedish

Synopsis
On an American military base in Japan, a new kind of vampire emerges: Teropterids. They are monstrous shape-shifting creatures that can only be killed with special swords. A mysterious girl named Saya is the last "original," the only person capable of dealing with the menace of these monsters. Posing as a student at the base's school, Saya races to hunt down the beasts before they turn an ordinary Halloween bash into a bloody massacre. Production IG, known for their pioneering digital effects, describes BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE as a full digital animation movie, which means that even though many sequences were animated using pencil and paper, the artwork was digitally scanned. Inking and coloring were completed by computer, as were several other special effects. Hiroyuki Kitakubo was chosen to direct the project because of his digital experience (he oversaw the movie sequences in the GHOST IN THE SHELL game for the Sony PlayStation.) The film is also notable for the participation of screenwriter Mamoru Oshii, who helmed GHOST IN THE SHELL and has written a novel that takes place in BLOOD's universe. Despite its resemblance to BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, BLOOD succeeds in creating its own gloomy, chiaroscuro world.

Customer Reviews

short but so sweet
well, you have to balence the good and the bad, wieghing in at less than 50 minutes with very little extras (dvd) would normally make it hard to recommend.
But, as short as it is, this is an amazing peice of animation. the first five minutes of film had my jaw crashing to the ground, the movement was so sweet, pity there was only another half hour or so of it!
the plot is 'ok' but the charecters are good... a nice change from the usual 15 year old school girls in skirts.
in the trailer on the dvd i noticed footage that wasnt in the movie...
so i think it was cut!!! it would explain the short length!!!

Excellent film with stunning animation
This film is very good, despite it short length it has a story that quickly pulls you in and characters who really capture your imagination. The animation is excellent and the combining of the animation and computer effects was seamless.
This film is a must see for all anime/manga fans.

A Spectacular Flurry Of Dark Atmosphere And Brooding Visuals
Despite the claim on the front that this film is by the 'makers of Ghost In The Shell' it's a statement that's only half true. The director of G.I.T.S assembled this team of exceedingly talented young animators and has helped them produce this stunning piece of work. But to be honest such name-dropping on a title this magnificent is needless.

The story is bare-boned. Not because there is none...but because it is clear that we are only witnessing a small part of the story. This isn't the beigging, and it certainly isn't the end, and refreshingly the film never apologizes for its lack of a begginning/middle/end with the standard ridiculous manga excuses. We don't need to know why there's a vampire (possibly the last) working for the government (possibly?) tracking down demons masquerading the earth as humans. We've heard all the stupid explanations before and they never stick, so it's nice to just be given the piece of art as it is. And it is a piece of art.

As you've probably already read-this has been toted as the first anime to use full digital animation. Again-another half-truth. It is in fact a dizzyingly perfect mix of traditional cel animation/cgi/and stunning digital special fx. The director can fully explore the surroundings of the characters in a way they never have been able to in anime. The camera sweeps and jutters thru' the gorgeously painted cityscapes and never resorts to the boring traditional techniques of animation. This is a film where finally animation is being used to its fullest as we see things we could never see in celluloid cinema.The colourization and sharp/yet grittness of the charactors is astounding, and those odd moments in the best of anime is in constant flow here as every scene dazzles the senses with detail and depth.

Of course there has to be something bad about this film, and if anything its merely the running time.At a fullfilling yet tantalizingly short 50minutes this film will leave you desperate for more. And you'll leave unsure as to whether the studio has begun the perfect series or left you with merely a demonstration of the talent at there finger tips. Either way - it's going to be amazing finding out.

One last thing to take note of here is that the dialogue flips between astoundingly well voice-acted japanese And english in an extremely refreshing decision for anime that finally eliminates the often difficult and awkward decision of choosing subtitles or not.

An insightive half hour making of documentary is included, a plethora of manga dvd previews,some crisp stills from the movie,and the orginal trailor of the film (with cut out shots) is held within the making of...

If you like this film then check out... Ghost In The Shell, Perfect Blue, Lain, Akira, Hakkenden, Princess Mononoke, Patlabor 1 & 2, Wings Of Honneamise.