Blood-C: The Last Dark

AidanAK47★ 3

Ah, Blood. To put it basically it was animes equivalent of Buffy the vampire slayer. Starting off from the fairly decent Blood: The Last Vampire movie and then moving on to the mediocre but well received Blood+ series. And then our dear old Clamp decided to try a hand at giving the blood series a new look. Enter Blood-c, a name which gave me a bad feeling from the get go. A series which suffered from abysmal storytelling, over-exaggerated gore which looked more comical than disturbing, characters with little likability and it says a lot when you can say that half the series can beskipped without anything significant being lost. Now we have Blood-c The Last Dark, a title which still makes no sense even after having seen the film. So let me answer the first question you have. Is it better than the tv anime series? Honestly, yes it is. But considering the quality of the tv series that isn't really something hard to accomplish. Despite that it still remains a poor film. Starting with story. Much like the tv series, a large amount of the film feels like padding. We are treated to a familiar vampire fight on a train which in turn causes Saya to meet the members of a a group called "Surat" which happen to be teenagers.(Naturally) From this moment on the plot progression comes to a complete halt. For well over forty minutes we are shown mainly the overly out of place comical characters of Surat. But then plot kicks in gear again and remembers what it's supposed to be focusing on and we are treated to an action scene and really that's about it. This supposedly inspires one of the members of Surat to get their ass in gear and direct Saya to the end boss. (Which apparently is a building that nobody can find despite it being clearly viewable from the coast of the city.) From that point on all the characters of Surat are rendered completely worthless. They don't appear again except for the epilogue and they don't effect the plot in any way. The finale is rather disappointing and anti-climatic. I had hoped that the writer would have learned from the tv series that twists that come out of nowhere for shock value is not good storytelling. Apparently they didn't. It really says a lot when they take the time to create a giant monster which in turn is defeated in a single strike within moments. Overall a large amount of the story feels unnecessary and plot points such as the curfew placed on minors are dropped with little explanation or exploration. I cannot say the art was bad. However I can say I was underwhelmed by it. If you were keeping an eye on anime news then you would know that this movie received a grant from the government so there was no reason they couldn't go all out with the animation. Still I didn't see anything truly impressive. Honestly the quality was similar to that our the currently ongoing psycho pass in my opinion. This is just speculation but either all that cash went into the characters exaggerated reactions and cg or it might be the reason Production I.G has seen a sudden increase of productivity with anime series. Sounds is something I can't comment on as I didn't take much notice of it. Though if I had to derive an opinion based on my watch I would deem it forgettable. Characters are something of an oddity. Saya has traded her annoying bubbly carefree personality from the tv series for a more stereotypical broody cold type. There really is not much to say about it. Our main antagonist is a jumbled mess. Mainly because he has little to no focus in the film at all. He appears briefly at the beginning, briefly at the middle and then at the end. So his motivations remain confusing and nonsensical. The rest of our characters is where the movie spends most of it's time with which to me is rather odd way of using your limited time. This is because of the pointlessness of these characters to the main story. The members of Surat hold no purpose in the story besides two instances of telling her "Go here to find Fumito" and justifying a silly twist at the end. In retrospect that time spent developing them could have been better used to develop our two main characters seeing as they are the ones effecting the actual story and most need fleshing out. Also I really need to point out again just how out of place these Surat members are. They act much like characters in a sitcom and clash greatly with the atmosphere of the story itself. You can't exactly show us Saya killing a monster brutally and expect us to brush that off and enjoy comic relief. On that note, a loli learning to type on a keyboard with her feet is the most ridiculous thing I have seen. I mean even someone who isn't that into computers can tell you that not many computers allow you to use two keyboards at the same time, also no computer lets you type into two windows simultaneously. So that really makes typing with your feet a pointless skill. Really I feel sad for the blood series. If only a competent writer was hired then maybe something great or at least fairly enjoyable could have came out of Blood-C. But here I am watching an hour and forty minute film with a bored look on my face

moephistopheles★ 3

IG and CLAMP definitely had the potential to turn this trainwreck of a series around for the better. The finished product? Nothing but bitter disappointment about how a great piece, Blood: The Last Vampire, could be turned into this. The issues definitely begin in the characterisation. Nobody is interesting. There is no emotional attachment to any of the struggles they go through, and we 'care' because the movie tells us to. Fumito definitely had the potential to be a remotely decent villain, but even there we are let down. The animation is mixed, but overall it is fairly negative. Much similar to the series Blood-C, themajority of art enjoyment comes from the monster design - and while a lot of what appeared is clearly rehashed from Blood+ and the entire Blood series (if you dare group them together), it is still the high point. For the remainder of the scenes, the animation is carefully guised to look pretty with that distinct I.G. style, but with some inspection the flaws are gaping. The CGI scene? Lets not go there. The plot itself made no real sense. The concept was clear, but the whys and hows of it were significantly lacking. There is no resolution, or even understanding, of the events that transpire and why we should be interested in them. Watanuki appears simply as CLAMP fanservice, in a drawn-out sequence which was really unnecessary. Blood-C has concluded to be a trainwreck of a project. With I.G. having input, one would have hoped for a return to the glory days of Blood: The Last Vampire. However the final project is nothing short of ridiculous, and while it is a definite improvement from the series it is still not cutting remotely close to average.