Blood: The Last Vampire

"The world will come to consider this work as the standard of top quality in digital animation," says Titanic director James Cameron of this committee-made anime entry which is a) not fully digitally animated as suggested, b) not 83 minutes as the cover art claims, but rather 47 minutes, and c) not the "masterpiece" that pre-pub hype has made it out to be. In a narrative nutshell: Saya, the last original vampire (whatever that means) is sent to Japan's Yokota Air Force Base, circa Vietnam War-era 1966, to don schoolgirl garb and wield a Samurai sword against some nasty chiropterans (apparently a strange breed of vampires). Beyond a few well-staged battle sequences, and some very nicely animated scenes, there is precious little to sink your narrative teeth into in this three-quarters of an hour tale featuring less backstory than what you'd find in an Aerosmith music video. The 21-minute bonus documentary, "The Making of Blood: The Last Vampire"--a rambling, repetitious, self-adulatory bore--is neither insightful nor interesting to any beyond the crew's family and friends. An optional purchase for larger collections with significant anime holdings. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)