Blood-C ~ the last dark

Saya is back, but this time she isn’t singing about the laundry.

I finally got a chance to watch Blood-C ~ the last dark, and it was well worth it. I enjoyed the Blood-C television series, and had been looking forward to the movie after that crazy ending. The movie served as an excellent capstone to the Blood-C mini-franchise (a new interpretation of the Blood world by the creative force that is CLAMP). My intention here isn’t to summarize the plot, or give theories or even criticisms. Instead I just want to point out a few things that I really enjoyed about the movie. No spoilers are included.

For those wondering if they should watch the TV series first, or if they need to watch the first two Blood offerings first: The Blood-C material stands on its own; there is no need to have seen the first two Blood productions (one a movie, one a TV series) to understand or enjoy Blood-C. That having been said, I think you would get a bit more out of the Blood-C movie if you have seen the Blood-C TV series first. The TV series sets up the revenge story that plays out in the movie. The TV series and the movie are very different in tone, however.

Production I.G. did an amazing job with the animation in Blood-C ~ the last dark.

The first thing I wanted to comment on was that the animation was superb. Scenes like the one looking down on the crowd shown above were fully animated, which is highly unusual, because animating the complex motion of lots of individuals is notoriously time-consuming (read “costly”). There were very detailed animations of coffee pouring, and a very impressive car chase. Obviously it is tough to convey the effectiveness of animation in a still shot, so you will either have to take my word for it, or watch the movie yourself.

Saya picks out a new katana: Another scene in which the lighting and textures and animation all came together perfectly.

Kumihiro Watanuki smokes a pipe: They’re not even trying to be subtle about it anymore.

One of the points in Blood-C that caused some outrage while the shows was airing was the way CLAMP … well, was CLAMP. They managed to tie the Blood universe to their own CLAMP-verse via the trans-dimensional shop that Watanuki manages in xxxHolic. In the TV series it was just strongly implied, but “the last dark” owns it. And truth be told: the shop looked great!

There were other places where CLAMP-isms came through, such as in occasional places where characters had elongated bodies. I was never bothered by these things. I don’t have any problems with CLAMP having a distinctive style, or imagining all of their stories somehow share a universe.

Saya continues to fight against the “old gods”.

I’m very happy that Blood-C ~ the last dark lived up to my expectations. I enjoyed the TV series and thought the movie was even better. In fact the movie was one of the best animated features I have seen out of Production I.G. in a while.