Strong and Moving!

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Japanese animation films aren't usually the kind of thing I watch - I think some bozo at my rental firm must have confused this with the 2009 live-action version - but I decided to give it a go anyway. While I can't say I was pleasantly surprised by this film, I had no problem sitting through its brief running time.Apparently, this film was intended to be the second in a trilogy. Why they made the second film first God only knows, but presumably shortage of funds was the reason why this is the only film out of the three to be made. Because of this the film starts a little abruptly because it's assumed the audience are familiar with the central characters. Apparently Saya, a schoolgirl, is a one-of-a-kind demon hunter who is having a few issues with her taskmasters and rather reluctantly chases demons to a school on an American military airbase.The animation is a strange hybrid of CGI and hand-drawn that doesn't really work, although having said that, some scenes stand out for their impact, and there are some decent attempts at making this more than just another animation. The direction is quite imaginative - if derivative - but the basic weakness of the plot ultimately lets the film down.

Like the riveting "Ghost in the Shell", "Blood" is proof that visually stimulating anime and a solid story are as good - if not better - than any live action film.The story is simple, straightforward, yet solid. With minimal dialogue, the action speaks for itself and carries Saya's tale wonderfully.Many complain the movie is too short, and it is by general film standards, which dictate feature films should be nearly 80 minutes or more. Maybe the animators, whose work is bold, beautiful and brilliant, ran out of funds, but I'd like to think that the story was good enough to be told in a mere 48 minutes without shoehorning garbage into the tale as useless filler that would only detract from the narrative.This is clearly one of the best anime films of all time. Besides horror and vampire fans, it's a great movie for anyone who loves a quality driven story. Don't miss it. (In 2009, a live action version of "Blood" has been released. So far, the response has been exceptional, but I have yet to see the feature.)

I just caught this on Sci-Fi's Ani-Monday, and it was a pretty cool piece of anime. They ran it for about 42 minutes, while according to several sites, the actual version runs 48-49 minutes, so obviously, stuff got cut. Luckily, it wasn't noticeable to me, though I'm sure I'll find out what was missed when I pick it up on DVD.All right, on to the movie! It's your basic vampire anime (no shortage of those), centered around a 'girl' named Saya. The powers-that-be that she works under set her up to infiltrate a school on an airbase, to investigate some recent killings there. That's your basic non-spoiler plot.The cons? As many have already said, it was very short. Extremely little in the way of explanation, back-story, or character development. No Hagi. :( The good stuff? The animation was of an interesting and quality style. The action and gore were definitely there, it definitely didn't drag.So why did I give it 7 stars? I've been a die-hard follower of Blood+ since it began airing in the U.S., which is the series which is set *after* the events of 'Blood: The Last Vampire'. Thus, I already know who Saya is, along with her 'handler' of sorts David, as well as what they are fighting.Bottom line? If you just watch this without seeing Blood+, it's just a cool little movie about vampires. However, if you first watch the series, it becomes an awesome bit of back-story; a view of Saya before the events of Blood+ (which you'll love if you watch Blood+, since flashbacks are limited to a scant handful of specific times). No Hagi, Diva, or Chevaliers, but this is a must-have, and much like an extra-long episode to enjoy and complete the collection.

This movie has nice looking vampires and action but very little story, build-up and development in itThis is a 3D-CGI animated movie in which, the backgrounds and everything else is photo-realistic looking, while the characters are still obvious animated ones, done in a typical Japanese anime style. It's an interesting combination that not always works out too well though. The contrast between the drawn characters and the background is often too big, which makes it in parts work out distracting.This originally was supposed to be the middle part of a 3 part series. But due to budget reasons only this middle part got made. It's unfortunately all too obvious that this was a middle part. None of the characters and events get properly introduced and build-up. It makes the story too much of a disjointed one. The movie is also way too short for some proper development and build-up of course.Now the story mostly doesn't make sense, simply because you don't know what and why things are happening. Guess the concept still showed some serious potential but I guess we'll never know how good this actually could had been if all 3 parts had been made instead of just this one. Well maybe in a way we'll still know soon how much potential this movie and concept had, since a live action version of this is current in post-production.The vampires are all good and scary looking. Many horror movies can learn from this. The action is also good and so is the gore. Yes, this movie is really filled with tons of blood but all of this of course can't fully make up for the lack of a proper- and properly developed script.Its short running time is action filled enough to consider this a watchable movie but yet the movie is too short to consider it a really good one as well.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/