The anime series
Blood + and the short film
Blood the Last Vampire (2000) were very good anime. It also spun off PS2 and PSP games. The anime and manga had a deep plot and a vampire mythology that was a little more fresh than most. They used mythology and settings from ancient Egypt, Bordeaux France, Viet Nam, Okinawa, Russia and New York City making it exciting. The major conflict was the inner turmoil of Saya the half breed who was challenged to apply her humanity to her job of eliminating Chiropteran (vampires). Her sister Deva plays the part of a feral evil twin and nemesis. The operatic singing of Deva could have been made into something very spooky on the big screen. You follow the sisters through 50 episodes that are pretty suspenseful. It has some eye opening twists, one involving boy – rape by a female vampire, which is something that you wouldn’t see on American television, that’s for sure. The last ten episodes of the anime alone would have been enough to make a fantastic action movie. However the
Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) live action movie did none of this.
Somehow the train that is at the beginning of the film got hijacked. Suddenly there are characters that are not in the story line. They introduce a typical female in distress American summer scream type as a side kick for Saya. Instead of the silent and long suffering Hagi, and the five elegant and deadly Chevalier that surround Deva, we have a chick. They named her Alice no less. Could this have been any more trite? They did not get into the blood curse – which is the essence of
Blood. They whole angle of genetics and technology is left out. The interesting government conspiracy level is never explored. That part of the story arch lifted the series up a notch to resemble something as deep as
Ghost in the Shell but depth was clearly not what they went for. They even changed David’s stoic legendary role to some throw away guy named Michael. Sure re-tellings and alternate universes are understandable and make good OVA’s. The short anime film
Blood the Last Vampire (2000) was far apart from the anime series
Blood + where you could call that an alternate Saya. But it makes sense because each time the Queens wake up from the 30 year cocoon sleep their personality adapts to the times they are in and the people that they imprint on. Unfortunately the Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) movie is terrible. It has nothing going for it. It is embarrassing to be a Blood+ fan and see this. We would like to see something that advances anime movies into the American theaters, and more on DVD’s. But when they turn out garbage with bad acting, unkempt fight scenes that are covered up with flashy strobe lights, and have winged monsters that look like they are action figures tossed around on strings, you aren’t entertained, you just get pissed off. The animation was horrible. The directing on this film was a bandage job for all its flaws. Dark lighting was overused to cover up blunders. The movie needed a pair of Japanese or Egyptian twins with fighting skills. You mean to tell me that there aren’t two Japanese actresses or cosplayers even, who would have been up for this role? So if you are a fan of the anime please don’t go to this abortion of a film, because you will rip your hair out. This film gets 1 drop of sanitized black blood out of 10.
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