I don't know why, but I wanted to sit down and Watch Blood: The Last Vampire today. All I feel after watching it now is how disappointed I was when I later saw Blood+. Not that Blood+ was at all bad... I thought it was great. Looking back, it doesn't stand out that much to me, but I do remember how the character and plot development throughout the whole saga had me repeatedly really feeling for the characters in ways I don't very often... and on top of this was a layer of "OMGGGG this is so corn-ball..." But yet it still got to me! Felt like the pacing was a bit stretched at times, but it came back around every time. Ended up being a lot darker than you'd expect from a show that's message is all about who your family is and what that means - and I really appreciated that about it. Anybody who's never seen it but maybe heard of it and put it aside should probably watch it. Pretty well-executed. Dunno that it fares all that well strictly as a vampire show. It's really used more as a plot device than anything else. To me it was more of a shonen with a vampiric sheen.
It was just so not what I wanted walking away from the Movie. B:TLV was just a classic vampire hack-n-slash with cool, gritty artwork. One of those hyper-violent early 2000's thingamajigs. Just a lot of fun. Blood+ was like, this epic saga stretched across an epoch. Meanwhile the fights and animation weren't nearly as interesting. Honestly, the show is still better imo. You get a lot more out of it. But I feel a much stronger pull towards the movie. I think it's just that the movie gave so little... just this short little rush that made me want more. While Blood+ was like a journey. Finishing it was like coming home from a good, long road trip.
Just so we're clear, not talking about the 2009 live-action abomination! Still trying to figure out why and how that wound-up existing. I'm talking about the movie that came out ~2000.
In the spirit of campy vampire stuff I'm going back to Hellsing Ultimate next. AAAAAAAAAA-MEN! And then maybe Vampire Hunter D.