6 / 10
score
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The Disc
 
Extra Features
I half expected a commentary from some anime or animation expert, or someone well versed in Japanese cinema but all the disc has is a 20 minute making off, a trailer and two versions of the film: the Telecine version and the Digital Data version.  The press release says that the Telecine version is SD but they both looked very similar with the Digital Data one only looking marginally sharper.
 
The making of is an interesting piece, produced at the time the film was made and contains interviews with members of the production crew who talk about working with computers and the process of creating a digitally animated film.
 

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The Picture
Manga have really given this a stellar transfer with a superb HD picture.  The contrast levels are excellent, as are the colours which are vibrant though the blood isn’t as bright as I expected.  The character design is very good and the transformation sequences involving chiropterans are well animated – the demons are pretty fearsome looking specimens and their fights with Saya have a real weight and viciousness.
 
The Sound
The voice acting is appropriate and well done with some characters switching between English and Japanese – this is an English language film and the Japanese has forced subtitles. 
 
The disc has both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM stereo (both English) and they are both superb tracks, clear and immersive but the DTS track has the edge with particularly bombastic combat sequences and explosions.  The film is very well scored and you don’t lose anything (music-wise) by choosing the LPCM option – I watched it with both and would go for the DTS-HD Master Audio next time.
 
The subtitles for the Japanese language sections are clear and easy to read though it is a little odd that they put speech marks around certain words, such as ‘I’m not allowed to kill “humans”’.
 
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Final Thoughts
There will be fans of Blood: The Last Vampire who consider it a classic piece of anime and the Blu-ray release is well overdue whereas there are probably others who dismiss the digital animation as a gimmick and consider films like Akira, Ghost in the Shell and Deep Blue far superior.  I’m not well versed enough in anime to express an opinion one way or another but this isn’t as intelligent or thought provoking as those three films and master directors like Miyazaki have been producing superb hand drawn animated films for years.
 
The RRP of £24.99 strikes me as a little high, especially considering the running time of the feature, but there will be fans – you know who you are – who have been waiting for this.

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