Blood C The Last Dark was an absolutely gorgeous waste of time. ^_^
I never reviewed the TV Blood C for two reasons: 1) There wasn’t really any Yuri, not even if you squinted and 2) I couldn’t see past the murderous rage I felt when the series ended without an ending (having also had not much of a beginning and only a bit of a middle towards the end), a coy “Tee-hee, come see the end in the movie, tee hee!” My deep feelings of “Fuck you, I don’t care how the series ends, because duh, Saya will win and move on…alone in the dark, as she has with every other iteration of the series” kept me from caring. But enough time has passed and I found myself watching the Funimation release.
If you have not watched the TV series, the movie was different enough (and expository enough) to follow without prior knowledge. In fact, the movie was stand-alone enough to pretty much render all but two things from the TV series meaningless. Hey, nothing like wasting my time for a few months. No biggie.
The movie begins after Saya has recovered her memories and is hunting the bad guy from the series, Fumito, while killing giant people-eating bugs. The number of people eaten in the movie was surprisingly small, since the TV series made a real point of making us watch the gore.
Saya is befriended by a raggle-taggle band of conspiracy theorists who are “hackers” (and one actually is shown using a mouse, but then she is also shown using a keyboard with her feet, so it cancels out.) They meow-meow-mewow to meow-meow the meow-meow, because really who cares? All we’re tuning in for is Saya.
Saya, who power ups when she has to protect a girl. This particular girl is named Mana and is sweet and cute and wants to be Saya’s friend and is lonely since her father was killed and we’re sososo glad that Saya holds her hand. It’d be nice if she could visit Mana from time to time, but of course she won’t.
In the end, Saya wins and moves on…alone in the dark, as she has with every other iteration of the series.
Ratings:
Art – 9 The background art was gorgeous, but faces occasionally Picasso’ed out. Guess we only had time and budget for foreground or background – and streets, buildings and signs are easier.
Story – 3 Shutupshutupshut!! Stop talking!! This could have been 2 final episodes of the anime with no loss at all.
Characters – Scooby and the Gang – 8, Bad guys – 2 Ohgawdpleasestoptalkingyouaresoboring
Yuri – They touched hands! In a tense, emotional moment. 2
Service – 9 Bath scene for no reason at all, except to see to Saya and Mana’s nipples.
Overall – 5 It was really beautifully drawn…and an absolute waste of time and money, plotwise. Nana Mizuki was fantastic as Saya in the TV series, but this part was so grim and cool, it was kind of a waste of her talents.
I’m ready for the next iteration now.
Oh yeah, that ‘end’ to the TV show PO’d me. *lol* The only reason I got Last Dark was it was on sale. And yeah, not much of a ending here either…
While the art was generally excellent, I was not a fan of the CG bits at the end. It just felt too forced and didn’t mesh well with the more traditional art style of the rest of the movie.
@Shannon – Yeah, but it’s not like we ever get an “ending” from a Blood entry, after all, Saya is a loner, moving through the night…. ^_^
@Joel – I agree, it looked kinda cool, it just basically had no meaning at all. Total waste of time. ^_^
I liked the original Blood: The Last Vampire anime and the live action movie. Hated Blood+. Hated Blood C with the fire of a thousand suns.
When Blood C started and the vampire was wearing glasses… let that sink in… a vampire wearing glasses… I knew we were in for a moe fetish fest. I hate being right all the time.
The Blood C movie might as well be Highlander II for all I care about it.
Hackers? “It’s not the 80’s, no one says ‘hack’ anymore.” Now I’m quoting Tony Stark again.
People do say “hackers”, they’re just referring to beardy Unix folk or people trying to sell themselves to venture capitalists. Neither group would particularly benefit from contact with vampires!
Not in anime – hackers are always little girls, with an octopus-like ability to type really fast as if hacking occurs during codeathons.
“The number of people eaten in the movie was surprisingly small, since the TV series made a real point of making us watch the gore.”
I did notice that while the TV series was visually light but dark in tone, the movie itself was visually darker but much lighter in tone. Guess they were trying to make the movie more mainstream-friendly.
Coming from someone who’s not at all a violence/gore fan, I personally thought the series was genius. It tried something new with the character Saya, with a new setup, with its own twists and turns, and gave the audience an ending (although I’m using that word loosely) they never would’ve seen coming. And the shock value of that last episode alone would never have had the impact it did if not for the prior episodes’ steady pacing. When rewatching the series from the start, one feels the disturbing dark atmosphere from the get-go which continues permeating throughout its 12 episodes, even in all the scenes that appear mundane and innocent, something that not a lot of series or stories in general achieve.
And I thought the movie itself is great, not just because of the phenomenal cinematic animation, but a lot of the little things, like this time around Saya having actual friends after the prior phoniness (not spelled out but still well-illustrated), ones who are willing to fight beside her, and actually make for likeable side-characters.
The ending may not have amounted to a great deal, and I wish there was a lot more to it, but I still believe ‘Blood C’ is still overall a better title than people give it credit for.
It was great…it just had no ending and the movie was still no ending. ^_^