Blood: The Last Vampire

The year is 1966.  On the eve of the Vietnam War, an American Military Base in Yokota receives a mysterious visitor: a beautiful Japanese girl looking to attend school nearby.  What they aren’t aware of is this girl is here to save them from a danger far worse than the forthcoming war.  Creatures of the night, known as Chiropterans, hide in plain sight among the humans.  As students and staff quietly fall victim to their hunger, only Saya has the skill and abilities to face them on even ground.  There’s a reason for that: Saya isn’t quite Human herself.  No…she is the last “original.”

Blood: The Last Vampire is a unique experience of an Anime.  As a short film, it delivers all that it promises and more in its short 45min runtime.  You’ve got scares, mystery, genuinely terrifying monsters, cute schoolgirls wielding Samurai swords, and an artstyle that is unlike anything seen in most Anime of its kind.  There is the other edge of that sharp blade, meaning because its so short, there is a lot to be desired.  But overall, considering I just had the painfully soulless (and often times cruel) experience of watching its successor, Blood-C, Blood: The Last Vampire is a masterpiece by comparison…which I know in many circles it already was. 
 

The Resident Evil Retrospective Part 3-Rebirth of Evil

While it sold well, Resident Evil 6 was a failure with critics and the fanbase.  The near universal consensus was that the games had strayed too far from their survival horror roots and had become all out action blockbusters on the scale of Gears of War or Call of Duty.  And when one of your protagonists is capable of punching enormous boulders while inside a dormant volcano…well let’s just say it was time for Capcom to seriously reconsider their approach for the next mainline entry.  Because it’s Resident Evil, a 7^th game was inevitable.  The only question was, how would Capcom go about righting the wrongs of the last few games and return the franchise to its glory days of Resident Evil 4?

 

T5W#375-Top 5 Otakon 2022 Cosplays

While I could obviously do this kind of Top 5 the week after a Convention Highlights list, I like saving cosplay themed Top 5 lists for October, you know, Halloween and all.  While I think 2023 will be a bigger year for me when it comes to Conventions (not missing another Katsucon), 2022 saw me return to my first full Otakon in 3 years (last one was 2019).  You can check out the highlights list from back in August right here: (http://gundamanimeblog.blogspot.com/2022/08/t5w364-top-5-otakon-2022-moments.html).  Today however, I’ve got the usual tough job of choosing my 5 favorite cosplays from one of my favorite places on Earth and trust me, it never gets easier, sorting through thousands of pics and cosplays, and I freaking love it.  Ok, enough stalling, here are my Top 5 Otakon 2022 Cosplays.

Blood-C Part 3 Episodes 9-12

Saya’s happy little life crumbles around her as her school and friends fall to a merciless attack by the Elder Barins.  Haunted by visions she doesn’t understand, Saya is now at her weakest and most vulnerable.  At last, those who have been pulling the strings in a terrifying experiment reveal themselves and divulge the truth.  Is Saya the kind and happy Shrine Maiden fighting to keep a promise to her mother?  Or is she something else entirely…something that has been asleep for far too long and now seeks revenge?  The whole truth can now be told.

I really hate it when I’m right sometimes.  Blood-C has done quite a job wasting time with being cryptic and frustrating that even if it delivered answers in the finale, nothing it could give me would be satisfactory.  Well the curtain was lifted from behind this tale of extremely bloody mayhem and…I have no idea if I want to see things “resolved” in Blood-C: The Last Dark, even if they are actually resolved.
 

The Resident Evil Retrospective Part 2-Evolution of Evil

The road to the next mainline Resident Evil game was a long and arduous one.  Several different versions reached various states of development before either being scrapped, picked apart piece by piece, or being remade into entirely new franchise…yeah some might forget that Devil May Cry started life as a build for a Resident Evil sequel.  Low and behold, three years after Resident Evil Zero dropped on the family friendly Nintendo Gamecube, the next chapter of the horror franchise would arrive and wouldn’t just herald a new direction for the series but the gaming landscape as a whole.