Monday 2 June 2014

Blood: The Last Vampire: The Anime (2001) vs. The Live Action (2010)

I have seen two movies based on the same source material, and have discovered the anime to be shorter than the live action version. Somehow it is the former which was well received by critics and audience, while the latter was not. So let's see why this is the case.




The plot revolves around Saya, a female who is on a hunt for the vilest and oldest demon, Onigin. A high school has become a breeding ground for demons called bloodsuckers, and a school nurse has become caught in a crosdfire and now bears witness to the infestation. Now it is up to Saya to draw out Onigin and kill it for good. Saya plays her role as a cold, fearless warrior who shows no laxity to nonsense in her fight against evil.



Similar plot to the one above, but too much detail irrelevant to the hunt for Onigen has been added to make film longer. For instance, Saya not only has to protect a schoolgirl named Alice from Onigen and its underlings, but also from The Council whose agents kill General Howard McKee, Alice's father, and try to kill her off as well to cover up their felony. To add insults to injury, there are several plot twists alluding to Onigen's alternate forms, and a backstory to Saya's past which does not fit in with the plot at all.
On top of it all, the real other issues with this version are Alice, who plays the annoying deadweight of a damsel-in-distress; the awkward CGI work on Onigen; the overly prolonged assault scene of Saya against the demons. The worst of it is the ending where some female demon--who reveals herself to be Saya's mother!--is the main enemy, and no explanation was offered regarding Onigen--whether he died or not. It is then after all this we finally witness Saya crack and weaken to a sentimental wreck! Anticlimatic.

So if you find the anime and live action movies based on the same material, sticl with the anime for it is quality that counts and not the running time length.

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