Blood: The Last Vampire

Duration: 46m21s
Type: Film
Rating: 9/10
Summary: An excelent piece of animation let down only by its length.

Production IG and Manga Entertainment are the partnership responsible for the amazing 'Ghost in the Shell', and so my expectations were high for 'Blood:The Last Vampire', and they did not disappoint.

Blood is set on a US air base in Japan in 1966, at the start of the vietnam war, this is not however their greatest threat. Vampiric Daemons called Chiropterans are loose, and feeding. Enter Saya, the last 'original' vampire, and the only person capable of hunting the Chiropterans on equal terms. The military provide Saya (who has the appearance of a young girl) with a cover, as a pupil at the base's school, from where the hunt begins.

Blood uses a combination of CG and traditional animation to spectacular effect. The quality of animation is such that CG elements and animation elements and combined in a way that they do not appear disjointed, and are even at times indistinguishable.

Appearance, however, is not Blood's only strong point, as it is a well written and original look at the popular vampire theme, so commonly seen is modern media. The vampires in Blood are mutated and grotesque creatures, unlike the more traditional human looking 'original vampires', alienating them from both the humans, and from Saya, who looks normal.

The only thing that lets Blood down for me is it's length of the feature, as at under 50 minutes, it seem brief to say the least. This is due mainly to the way Blood was conceived, not as a standalone film, but as a franchise, expanding characters and plot through anime, manga, and a game. But for those who will only see the film, 50 mins doesn't seem enough.