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It has been suggested that Blood: The Last Vampire (video game) be merged into this article or section. () |
| Blood: The Last Vampire | |
|---|---|
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| Demographic | Seinen |
| Genre | Action, Horror, Adventure, Thriller, Drama |
| Movie: Blood The Last Vampire | |
| Director | Hiroyuki Kitakubo |
| Studio | Production I.G, Aniplex |
| Released | November 18 2000 |
| Runtime | 48 min |
| Related | |
Blood: The Last Vampire is a Japanese anime film produced by animation studio Production I.G and Sony's anime production arm, Aniplex. It was distributed across North America by Manga Entertainment. The film has been praised for its blend of 2D and 3D elements, with Academy Award winning director James Cameron stating: "Digital imaging has entered a new era. The world will come to consider this work as the standard of top quality in digital animation."[1] It received the Grand Prize for animation at the 2000 Japan Media Arts Festival.
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Plot
The story is set in the American Yokota Air Base located in post-WWII Japan, a few months before the beginning of the Vietnam War. Its main protagonist is a girl named Saya, who hunts hematophagous bat-like creatures called Chiroptera for a secret organization known as Red Shield (赤い盾?).
Characters
Saya (小夜 Saya?, lit. evening) hunts Chiroptera using a katana. It is implied that she is the last remaining vampire and called "the only remaining original". Saya has no weakness to sunlight, although it is unknown if she has any of the other vulnerabilities often attributed to vampires. She does, however, become distressed when she encounters religious paraphernalia. Saya displays superhuman senses and strength, as well as cunning, resourcefulness, and skill. The manga series suggests she was a human-vampire hybrid. Her age is unknown, but a picture of her with nine other people is shown in the movie with the date 1892 and the word "vampire" attached to it. Though she holds most humans in disregard, she seems to have some sort of respect for David. Voiced by Youki Kudoh. David is an operative of the Red Shield. Chiroptera, meaning "hand wing" and translated as 翼手 (yokushu, lit. wing hand) in Japanese, are hematophagous bat-like creatures. They are extremely long-lived individuals that are comparable to humans in intelligence. Their natural appearance is much like a large, monstrous, long-limbed bat. Chiroptera live by feeding on human blood. They possess extraordinary speed, strength, and supernatural healing abilities and can heal almost instantly from any non-lethal wound. The only way to easily kill them is by introducing any amount of blood from Saya into their bloodstream, which destroys them.
Franchise and spinoffs
After the film's success as a cult hit, Sony and Production I.G built up a franchise around the film which involved games, novels, and a manga. Initially only released in Japan, the manga and novel have since seen a North American print in English. Kudoh reprised the role of Saya in a follow-up two-part PlayStation 2 game, produced by Sony's computer game production arm, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan (SCEJ), which saw a Japanese-only release in 2000. It featured the same animation quality as the film, a host of new characters, and a score composed by Yuki Kajiura. Due to the game being divided over two discs (which led to a final price of ¥6000), retail sales were not as high as anticipated. In late 2005, with the airing of the new Blood+ anime (see below), Production I.G and Sony announced a Japanese release of a "Blood" game on a single disc for both PS2 and PSP platforms. Though at first uncertain whether the intent was to re-release the 2000 game, or design completely new adventures based on the anime, clarification revealed both scenarios were the case. The 2000 re-release for PSP on the Japanese retail market was on January 26, 2006, as the fifth of Production I.G's popular YaruDora series. There is also a trilogy of novels written by Mamoru Oshii. The first two are titled Night of the Beasts and Seduction of Blood, but only Night of the Beasts is currently available in English. The books deal with a large amount of philosophy, which gives a glimpse into the psyche of the vampires (one example is that they don't hide the bodies of their victims because they have little concept of death in their own species, and don't understand the stigma humans associate with dead bodies). In 2005, Sony and Production I.G announced the creation of a TV series entitled Blood+ based on the original movie. It is held to be an alternate universe, as the series does not follow the events of the PS2 game or subsequent manga, both held to be sequels of the film. Saya's voice actress for this series was a relative newcomer, Eri Kitamura. The series premiered on MBS and TBS's Saturday prime time 6:00pm timeslot on October 8, 2005 and finished broadcast on September 23, 2006. It was licensed for international distribution by Sony Pictures Television International. Production I.G and SCEJ announced in early December 2005 that the Blood+ video games, based on the anime, will be released in Japan. Two versions of the games for both of Sony's PS2 and PSP platforms are scheduled, with a tentative release date of December 31, 2006. There is, of January 2006, no word on whether Sony or Production I.G will be bringing either game to the North American or European markets. Currently, Blood Plus (Blood +) the series based on the film, is showing on Cartoon Network Adult Swim (Oct/Nov 2007) with Original Character Designer Chizu Hashii.
Live action film
In May 2006, Bill Kong, producer of the acclaimed movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, officially announced that he will produce a live action adaptation, and Ronny Yu (Fearless) will be directing the film.[2] As of September 2006, Ronny Yu disclosed the first preview aspects to the film's story[3] in an interview for Ain't It Cool News. The film is to be set at a United States Army camp in Tokyo during America's occupation of Japan right after the conclusion of World War II. When asked if he will be moving the story to the present day, the director denied so, vehemently replying that the movie will look more visually stunning if set at the midst of an immediate post-WWII Japan. Technically, if it follows the canon of the film and subsequent works, the movie can be considered a prequel. Ronny Yu further disclosed that filming will start in early January 2007 in Tokyo, Melbourne, and Buenos Aires, with a release date for the movie to open in the United States expected in Spring 2008, although this has recently changed. The filming will now be starting March 2007 in China and Argentina. Korean actress, Jun Ji-Hyun[4] (My Sassy Girl, Windstruck) will play the role of Saya. Additionally, the French firm Pathé will be in charge of producing the movie and managing the distribution rights and license under the consent of Production I.G, the studio which owns the original copyright to the film. The film is expected to come out before June 2008.
References
External links
- Blood: The Last Vampire at Manga.com
- Blood: The Last Vampire at the Internet Movie Database
- Blood: The Last Vampire (2008 live-action) at the Internet Movie Database
- Production I.G official website
- Blood in Cyberia first HQ images of the live-action movie (Spanish)
