So then, onto the second disc I've received in the Manga Force series Blood: The Last Vampire. This is another beautiful looking movie, more so than Ghost in the Shell. It is mostly hand drawn with some 3D work and computer effects thrown in. Okay, so it's not got the gloss and shine of Spirited Away or Laputa or more modern movies but it gritty visuals blew me away, especially all the camera angle panning and the odd camera shake effects.

The basic outline of the story is that there's a secret special services (isn't there always?) and they are tasked with the destroying of vampire demons.  As usual, vampires can't be killed with a swift blow to the next with a half brick in a sock - so there's a lot of blood letting with swords to be done.  The team appears to be two western characters and a kick-arse Japanese schoolgirl.

The vocals are in both Japanese and English. The Japanese speak Japanese  when they're speaking Japanese and the Americans speak English when they're speaking English. The Japanese lines are subtitled and this works well, breathing reality into the characters.

The crushingly disappointing thing about this is the run length, it's only 48 minutes long (despite the DVD cover saying 148 minutes, unless that includes the extras).  Now that wouldn't be upsetting if the film felt like it ended there. But it just ends - she goes out, visits a US army base then kills some vampires, job well done.  HEY! That's not enough!  I don't know if it was heavily cut, or they did a "Lord of the Rings" and ran out of money or something.

This is capped off by grainy war stills in the end credits of the soldiers fighting in Vietnam. I'm not too sure of the significance of that.  But was oddly moved.

(well, the movie is set right at the start of the Vietnam war, but this has no part in the plot)

So. It would be a sure fire 5/5 if it wasn't so damn short. But because I loved it anyway it's a 4/5 from me.


Cheers

Chris