Blood: The Last Vampire

Original Title: Blood: The Last Vampire
Romanized: Blood: The Last Vampire
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

In the 1960s, at the time of the Vietnam war, there is another war being fought. A war with demons. Saya, who is said to be the "last remaining original" is part of an organization to combat this menace. Going undercover in an English-speaking military school in Japan, Saya faces her next assignment against "them".

Quick Review

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Legion
Review Date: 2005-01-24

Essentially a chapter out of a larger story, Blood: The Last Vampire almost totally forsakes background information about the story and characters, and the actual plot is quite thin. Even so, the content of the movie is fast-paced, solid, and entertaining. Perhaps more interesting still is the all-digital nature of the production, mixing hand-drawn art with computer coloring and effects and near-photorealistic backgrounds, all of which works quite well--much better than other early attempts. Also of note is the mixed-language dialogue; the mix of American and Japanese characters are voiced by native English and Japanese speakers respectively, plus some bilingual actors including Yuuki Kudoh as the main character, Saya. Though a little rough around the edges, it's an interesting experiment.

In the end, while the story and characters were thin, it's acceptable considering Blood isn't finished yet. The short runtime of the movie may also put off some people, but Blood has aspects beyond its story that makes it worth a look.

US DVD Review

This is a very good DVD with only two minor flaws. The video transfer is one of, if not the best I've ever seen on any DVD, period. And it's anamorphic to boot! The audio in presented in it's original English/Japanese hybrid in stereo and 5.1. The stereo track was definitely above average and came across quite well. I can't take full advantage of the 5.1 track, but I've read from many sources that it's one of the best 5.1 mixes ever made. There are also two subtitle tracks. One translates the Japanese dialogue only, while the other one translates both the Japanese dialogue and the credits, which are in their original Japanese (Manga did very little syndication work on this title). One may wonder what the use is behind having two subtitle tracks, but the second track only translates the opening credits, not the ending credits, meaning there's no translated cast. For what it's worth, I was able to identify a few characters with a little research, and I listed the actors that were credited with their English names, but I'm afraid that was the best I could do. That's flaw number one.

In terms of extras, there's a twenty minute "Making of Blood" segments that's quite interesting and reveals a lot behind all the technical work that went into this movie. What I found unfortunate was that there wasn't any explanation behind the choice of recording most of the dialogue in English, an explanation about how they went about it, etc. There's also a Japanese trailer, a photo gallery and the usual Manga extras. The second minor flaw is the DVD (and VHS for that matter) lists the running time as 83 minutes. The actual movie runs about 48 minutes with the credits and the "making of" feature runs 20 minutes. Even if you were to round the film's run-time up to 50 minutes, you only get 70 minutes. I actually use the word "strange" to describe this decision, as 83 is a pretty exact number.

Content Guide

A few graphic scenes net this one a 17-up in the eyes of Manga Video.

Violence: 3 - It doesn't happen too often, but the violence in this movie is pretty graphic.

Nudity: 2 - A brief scene during a murder investigation.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - A bit of flirting.

Language: 2 - Most of the swearing was on the English dialogue, oddly enough.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a novel. The novel has what the movie didn't, such as background story and a conclusion.

Manga's official website for the film is still available as well, at BloodTheMovie.com; it has some images and information, as well as the trailer.

Availability

Available in the US from Manga Video on English/Japanese DVD. Was previously also available on mixed-language VHS.

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