Blood: The Last Vampire (2000) |
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Blood: The Last Vampire (2000) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Anime |
Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Making Of Biographies-Character Notes-The History Of Blood, Saya Profile, Production Equipment Biographies-Crew Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Perfect Blue, Ninja Scroll, X Trailer-Black Jack, Macross Plus, Ghost In The Shell DVD-ROM Extras-Screensaver, Wallpaper, Trailer Gallery |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2000 | ||
| Running Time | 46:17 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Hiroyuki Kitakubo |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Madman Entertainment |
Starring | Youki Kudoh |
| Case | Click | ||
| RPI | $34.95 | Music | Yoshihiro Ike |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) Isolated Effects Track Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
 |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | Yes | ||
| Subtitles | English | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Blood: The Last Vampire is an animated feature set in a US military base in Japan in 1966. A mysterious group of American officials place a young girl undercover as they attempt to find a number of vampire demons.
This short feature combines state-of-the-art 3D computer animation with traditional 2D animation techniques. The result is a fantastic-looking presentation that seamlessly blends the two animation techniques. Brilliant shading and lighting techniques complete the gorgeous looking transfer.
Unfortunately, this stunning looking feature is let down by its extremely short running time and shallow script. The characters' motivations and histories are never clearly explained and the story raises more questions than it answers. Despite these shortcomings, many viewers will still find this feature entertaining as it provides an insight into the future of Japanese animation and displays how computer 3D animation may be used while still retaining the traditional look and feel of 2D animation.
This video transfer has been digitally generated from the original computer-based source and consequently a near faultless image is presented.
The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer is consistently sharp throughout. No low level noise was detected at any time during the transfer. Shadow detail is excellent at all stages with high levels of detail visible during the numerous dark scenes.
The colours for the intricately-shaded animation are accurately represented at all times.
Three instances of macro-blocking are visible at 12:03. Each of these errors occur for only a single frame and are only slightly disruptive to the viewer.
No instances of aliasing were detected during the transfer. No film artefacts are present during the transfer.
A single set of yellow English subtitles are available for the Japanese sections of the audio track. No subtitles are provided for the English portions of the soundtrack.
| Sharpness |  |
| Shadow Detail |  |
| Colour | |
| Grain/Pixelization | |
| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
The default track is a Dolby Digital 448 kbps 5.1 mix, but a Dolby Digital 224 kbps 2.0 track and Dolby Digital 448 kbps 5.1 isolated musical score are also provided.
The dialogue is always clear and easy to understand throughout the transfer.
As this is an animated feature, there are the expected obvious problems with audio sync for each soundtrack. At no stage during the transfer were any audio dropouts detected.
The score by Yoshihiro Ike portrays the characters emotions and suitably supports the on-screen action.
The surround channels and subwoofer are used aggressively for both effects and the score throughout the transfer to create an enveloping soundfield.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use | |
| Subwoofer | |
| Overall | |
An interesting collection of extras are provided on this disc. Some users may have some problems when playing the Blood, Perfect Blue and Blackjack trailers. I had no problems playing these on a standalone player but on a PC using PowerDVD when playing each of the trailers, the disc stopped instead of returning to the menu.
This interesting extra contains a number of interviews with animators and key staff involved with the production where they discuss working on the feature. This is presented with English subtitles, a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.
This is a collection of 11 still frames from the feature.
This is a 7 page profile on Youki Kudoh who provides the voice talent for the main character in the feature.
Information is provided for the following staff members: Kenji Kamiyama, Miki Sakuma, Yusuke Takeda, Chieko Ichimanda, Hiroshi Kato, Hiroyuki Kitakubo, Katsuya Terada and Kazuchika Kise.
A short list of hardware and software used for this production.
This is a brief 9 page time line for the Blood universe.
This trailer is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.
This trailer is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.
This trailer is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.
This trailer is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
This trailer is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
This trailer is accessed by selecting the Blackjack trailer and is presented with a musical Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
This trailer is accessed by selecting the Macross Plus trailer and is presented with a musical Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.
A Blood-themed flash screensaver for both Windows and MacOS and two wallpaper images at four different resolutions are included. A MPEG1 version of the trailer (1:14) is also included.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;
The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;
The Limited Edition Japanese Region 2 version of this disc misses out on;
Obviously the limited edition Japanese Region 2 disc is the version of choice but viewers should note that none of the extras included have English subtitles.
Blood: The Last Vampire is a stunningly animated feature that unfortunately is let down by a poor script and short running time.
The stunning video transfer is only slightly marred by a small single group of artefacts.
The impressive surround audio mix suits this innovative feature.
An interesting collection of extras is provided giving an excellent insight to the making of this feature.
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| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Toshiba 1200, using S-Video output |
| Display | Sony KP-E41SN11. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Front left/right: ME75b; Center: DA50ES; rear left/right: DA50ES; subwoofer: NAD 2600 (Bridged) |
| Speakers | Front left/right: VAF DC-X; Center: VAF DC-6; rear left/right: VAF DC-7; subwoofer: Custom NHT-1259 |