Genre: Horror

Creator: Mamoru Oshii

Running Time: 48 minutes.

Reviewer: StorminNorman

Sometimes, it seems, that all the best anime is produced by only a small clique of people that includes Masamune Shirow, Hideaki Anno, Hayao Miyazaki and Mamoru Oshii. Associating any particular anime, be it series or film, with one of these names is bound to make it highly successful, and have everyone claiming that it breaks new ground for anime.

It's no surprise then, that Blood: The Last Vampire is a groundbreaking anime that is going to be very successful. Created by the same man responsible for the Patlabor movies and Ghost In The Shell, it has a lot going for it. It's also the first anime feature to be created entirely using computer graphics, with all the characters rendered in 3D, but with a technique called cel-shading used to create a 2D look (a similar technique is used in the Sega DreamCast game, Jet Grind Radio). All backgrounds and camera animation is computer generated. The result must rank as one of the best looking anime films ever.

Blood: The Last Vampire is set in the community around a US military base in Japan at the time of the Vietnam war. The main character, Saya, is a demon hunter asked to hunt down a group of demons terrorising the township on Hallowe'en, sort of like a Japanese Buffy Summers, but without the annoying scooby gang to hold her back. Around her demon hunting exploits is the sniff of US Military secrecy, and a community that seems almost beaten into submission by it.

To add realism, much of the dialog of B:TLV is actually in English, as all the American characters seem to exclusively speak it, while Saya herself is multilingual. Thankfully the script is not the cringefest of most dubs, and the voice acting is actually pretty good on the English side of things. It is quite strange to watch however, as hardened subtitle fans (such as myself) may find that they keep looking for subs when they don't have to. It's a very strange experience.

Without question, the best part of B:TLV is the animation. It is utterly magnificent, with John Woo style camera direction, and absolutely perfect character animation. The characters themselves are drawn in a realistic style, similar to that of Serial Experiments Lain. The upcoming Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie, which is also entirely digitally composed (although it uses `real' 3D rendering for the characters as well) is going to have to be pretty impressive to beat B:TLV.

The sound in B:TLV is just as good as the visuals. The demons make the appropriate demonic noises, the audio effects, especially during the heavy action scenes, are suitably pounding, and the orchestral score, particularly over the closing credit sequence, is excellent.

Perhaps the biggest failing of B:TLV is the same failing that it's predecessor, Ghost In The Shell, has. It is simply far too short. I always felt that GitS never quite managed to properly flesh out the concepts and ideas it presents over its 79-minute running time, and B:TLV is even worse, being only 48 minutes long, but presenting enough material for a decent 2-hour vampire flick.

Film length is relative however, and even a 2 hour movie can feel short if it isn't paced properly. B:TLV's pacing isn't in question-- it is well paced-- but it feels more like an episode of a TV series than a feature length film. 48 minutes is nowhere near the length that this film needs to be to prevent the viewer from getting to the end and thinking, "Great? Where's the rest of it?" It's worth noting that the figure of 48 minutes includes the closing credits, which are about 3-4 minutes long.

So, does that mean that Blood: The Last Vampire, the latest classic from the creator of GitS is a 48 minute technology demo? The answer, sadly, is yes. B:TLV simply doesn't get enough time to create an engrossing or engaging story. As a (lengthy) short film, doubled with another film of similar length, it may work, but as a standalone feature film, it fails dismally.

That's the real disappointment with this film. It simply ends before it gets a chance to really begin. Perhaps Mamoru Oshii should go back and look at his Patlabor films to see how to create a film of decent length without leaving a feeling of too short in the viewers mind. Still, it is an excellent technology demo.