Blood: The Last Vampire

[Mofo Rising]

Anybody seen this one?

BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE is the latest anime from the creators of GHOST IN THE SHELL.  At least that's what the cover said, and it was enough for me to buy it sight unseen.

The main selling point of the movie is the animation, which is top notch.  If you are going to be exposed to Japanese animation for the first time, this movie would be a good place to start.

Unfortunately, it's only 45 minutes long.  They blatantly sidetrack you on the box, claiming the length of the movie and the "making of" as the running time, marking it about 90 minutes.  Sneakily fraudulent.

As for the story, I liked it.  It takes place on an American military base in Japan.  There is a school where the American children go to.  It contains two monsters.  Chiropterans to be exact.  Into this school a shadowy government organization sends a young girl who's good with a sword.  She stalks and attacks the monsters, things happen and nothing is really explained in the end.  I really liked the setting for this movie, it's interesting and multicultural.  The characters even speak different languages, English or Japanese depending on who is talking.

I also liked how they did not explain every little detail.  We barely learn anything about the main character, even when it's obvious that there is a lot to learn.  We see the occurences of the plot with no setup to prepare us in the beginning, we follow the actions through and receive no explanation at the end.  It's all very tantalizing and should get your curiousity running.

(Of course I heard this was just the prologue of a planned series of books and video games.  The movie may remind you of a television pilot more than anything.)

Four slimes.  I recommend buying it for anime fans.  For everybody else it's at least worth a rental.

[FishStik]

It was good but too short like most jpanese/anime films. One thing I don't like about japanese/anime films is they are to short, or the few exeptions, they are two long. I have this on anime that is 3 1/2 hours long. I like horror type animes. if you like this one you will like th new vampire hunter D. it was good, alot better than the orginal

[Phan88]

I need to check this out.