Netflix Instant Queue Fridays: Blood: The Last Vampire
Holy shit, it’s October! You know what that means, right? No it’s not time for your monthly tooth brushin’. It’s time for endless Halloween-related things all month long on the site! Fuck yeah. And we’re gonna start it off right today with this dumb-as-nails anime: Blood: The Last Vampire.
Okay, so after posting Memories on here a few weeks ago, it would seem to me that you all seem to completely hate using any sort of your brain during an anime movie. So I bring to you Blood: The Last Vampire, which is essentially the anime equivalent of an over the top Hollywood action movie. Sitting here and explaining the plot of Blood to you would simply do it a disservice, as even suggesting that it has a plot to follow is on par with expecting a cultured experience in your local Wal Mart.
What Blood does do well however, is simply be badass. The animation definitely seems lacking until any sort of action scene, where it then shifts into overdrive to produce some of the most eye-popping action scenes ever animated. You won’t give one shit about a missing plot, as you’ll be content to follow it all the way to the end just to see what crazy assed shit is going to happen next. Oh, and it’s also set during Halloween, which makes the entire thing even cooler.
So yeah, F the plot, and just sit back and enjoy the carnage. Just enjoy all the eye candy while you also enjoy some well-deserved pre Halloween candy. Don’t get too comfortable though. We’ve got a whole month left of shit like this to go.
In Wal-Marts defense, you can have a very cultural experience there. A very typical American culture experience. Just not one that reflects well on this country.
I remember skipping through the larger portion of this anime, because I kept searching for the story and kept failing to find it. I agree that there is nothing in this one other than fight scenes. It’s probably just as you describe it, they were trying to reproduce the phenomenon of a Halloween slasher style monster movie.
Not everything has to have a story.
Sometimes just a bunch of mindless violence is right on time.
I don’t generally like anime but I found this one to be top notch. It was entertaining on many, if not most, levels. I have been left with a delightful set of memories that I will cherish until the end of my time. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, I suppose, but I loved it.
I think it’s a difference of whether you are watching the movie for popcorn entertainment value or otherwise. Take independence day for instance, that’s a great popcorn flick that evokes a lot of emotion, but also has a pretty solid character development and a fun theme. A lot of people are able to get behind a movie like that. Movies like this, I think, are focusing in on a very narrow audience that likes this style of monster movie. I suppose, then, that it has to be taken as either a failure at that, or an art object that embodies that select theme. For me a movie has to have character development and an evocative and logical story arc. A good example of my kind of movie is Memento. A movie like Blood The Last Vampire couldn’t be further away from Memento, so we’re dealing with opposing slices of life in these two artistic presentations. I still think that this movie is aiming at the Hollywood Monster Movie feel, and that bores me to death, but I think it must have some value if it expresses that theme well. It’s just not value that I am able to proximally appreciate in my reviewing of it.
Consider, however, that a movie like Independence day not only reaches a broad audience, but also has niche value as well. This is what I’m going to argue is what makes a movie a great movie or just a mediocre themed movie. It is possible to have a theme expressed well while also being generally pleasant to most viewers. I don’t, personally, think that Blood The Last Vampire has the momentum to pull this off.
Anyway, there’s some quasi-Cassirian philosophy for you, lol. Fun subject to contemplate.
It is a movie about a schoolgirl that kills vampires with a sword. I’m not sure what could have a more broad appeal.