| Review by Jim |
| Plot: It's the 1960's and the Vietnam war is imminent. During this period, a century's old vampire called Saya must battle blood-thirsty creatures called Chiropterans that have taken nest in an American military base in Okinawa. A 50-minute killfest ensues Review: The problem with this anime and a lot of the other short feature-length animes (think Grappler Baki) is that they're just too damn vague for their own good. Some of these (or as I like to refer to them as "one shot" anime movies) could easily be made into a great series, such as Cyber City Oedo. Granted there's probably more of Blood episodes/movies floating around in Japan, but the fact of the matter is that there are so many questions that are unanswered. In fact it was so vague that the only way you'd know the evil creatures in the movie are called Chiropterans is by going to its official site. But this doesn't mean that Blood is a bad anime, in fact it has quite a few pluses that work in its favor. The first obvious plus being that Saya has no qualms about slicing up someone she thinks is a Chiropteran. She cuts them up in a ferocious, but ultimately in unimaginative ways. They're all real gushers. Unfortunately, there are about maybe three or four Chiropterans at the most, so some of them stick around for a while instead of kicking the bucket as fast as possible. The other plus is that while Saya is as vague of a character as you can get, she still has some personality. If you take out a crucifix (or any other sort of religious symbol for that matter) expect to get decked by her, or if you say God/Jesus she'll tell you to shut the hell up before she tears your throat out. Another aspect I liked about the 50 minute anime is that the overall animation was smooth, even during the scenes that were obviously using computer-generated effects. They don't push the boundaries of Japanese anime, but they are still of high quality. Personally, I thought they resorted to using a bit too much of the computer-generated effects, but that doesn't really bother me. But in each movie/anime a little rain must fall, and with all the good going for this anime there's some bad to follow it. As stated before, this anime is vague as it can be. You could hardly tell that Saya was vampire if it wasn't for the title and the ending. True she shows super strength, but she doesn't indulge in any other vampire tendencies. Why is she working for that organization? Why are they hunting the Chiropterans? What are the Chiropterans motives? None of this is ever explained at all. This makes Saya a hard person to root for or like in any sort of sense, especially considering how goddamn rude she is to, well, everyone. Another character I didn't like was the nurse, who didn't really add to the storyline at all. All she did was manage to get her fat ass in trouble (repeatedly) and Saya's way. The nurse could've been splattered all over the wall and it wouldn't have made the slightest difference to me. My last complaint is that the setting wasn't milked at all. It's 1960s Japan, a setting begging to be taken advantage of, but instead there's just a military base. C'mon, at least have a little more of the story take place outside the base. Blood: The Last Vampire is by no means a bad anime, but it fails to be special or memorable and is a fraction of what it could've been had the anime been panned out some more. Perhaps even extended to 90 minutes or more? In short, the famous words "where's the beef?" sum up the experience. I could really go either way with Blood. If you haven't seen it, you're not missing out on much, and if you have seen it you probably feel disappointed. Blood would make a decent viewing, if only for the smooth animation and gore alone, but not much else. If there are more movies/episodes, then I'd probably give Blood a higher rating, but as it stands now there's only this 50-minute movie, so as a final judgment Blood is merely a so-so anime. |
| Rating: ** |
 |