The first 5-minutes of Chris Nahon's "Blood: The Last Vampire" hit the net

by Chris MaGee

Yes, everyone knows that I've been pretty hyped about Chris Nahon's live-action take on Production I.G.'s 2000 animated adventure "Blood: The Last Vampire". I am a big fan of the original tale of Saya, a half-vampire girl employed by a shadowy U.S. agency out to destroy a demon infestation in post-war Japan, and all the still and trailers up to this point have looked very promising. When I saw the report over at Anime News Network today about how Yahoo Japan was streaming the first five minutes of the film, due out in North American theatres later this summer, I immediately clicked the link and settled in to see what was what. Sadly it turned out to be one of those amazingly choppy streams from Japan and was virtually unwatchable, but god bless YouTube where the first five minutes had already been posted. What's the end verdict? Well, after an opening crawl about how demons took human form after the Onin War in the 16th Century (actually it was the 15th century, but...) and the demon slayer Kiyomasa was killed by the demon queen Onigen, the action begins. It's pretty damn faithful to the animated film, but once people start opening their mouths... well, look out! There's not only some pretty bad acting, but some very bad English-dubbing. Ouch! To see for yourself check out the first five minutes of "Blood: The Last Vampire" embedded below.