Any live action version of a manga or anime, especially one which aims to appeal to an American audience, has to make concessions. Usually these concessions render the whole thing oddly flat or nonsensical: the film of Dragonball Z (Dragonball: Evolution or was it Salvation?)made no sense and pleased no-one. And here we have Blood: The Last Vampire, at least sporting a colon but with a title that appears not to refer in any way to the film. OK, its true that our heroine does appear to drink blood. Which may make her some sort of vampire. But since the rest of the film seems about destroying demons, and vampirism is never mentioned it seems unclear why her status as a vampire, last or not, is relevant. And she’s not a vampire anyway, as the film makes clear, she is one of the seemingly endless legion of half human, half vampire vampire killers such as Blade or BloodRayne or Vampire Hunter D. What I never understood about these hybrids (aka Dhampirs) is they always seem obsessed with killing vampires, when they seem uniquely positions for success in general society, usually having all the advantages of being a vampire, and none of the downsides. But they are always there with the hunting vampires thru time…
But in Blood: The Last Vampire, our lead is called Saya. Not Blood. So it should be called Saya: Another Movie Dhampir. And the fidelity to the plot of the film to the title of the film tells you all you should know about this retread of the endless shadow war between good and evil. In particualr the part that has Saya dressed as a Japanese schoolgirl for the entire film despite being over 300 years old. Sure her single minded vampire hunter is searching for demons in a school, but its an American military school where her guise raises extreme suspicion straight away. Throw in a pointless secret society and you will be in no way surprised to discover that the villain ALSO happens to be our heroines mother. Frankly you sigh with satisfaction when the film abruptly ends with Saya trapped in some sort of dream dimension, with little likelihood of salvation. Because that would be in a sequel that will, on this evidence, never happen.
Mind you BloodRayne got a sequel, Blade got 2 so maybe this is another sekrit power of Dhampirs.