Well after watching the Blood C series and moving onto the original, I can say the difference is quite big. Not that I don't like it ofcourse, it was a enjoyable watch and hopefully theres more to it when I get onto reading the novels or manga.

If you've watched Blood C already, then this is not quite the same universe, as this is set quite a bit in the past. The main archetype of Saya stays the same with just a change of setting and plot. However if you have not watched Blood C and want to watch this first then I recommend it. It's a great watch, with some engaging action and some thriller bits there and there condensed into around 48 minutes of runtime.

Characters

Saya is well.. Quite different from what I've seen. Although shes pretty badass and has more humour which is nice. I got a little laugh at the Konichiwa bit. It was also interesting to see her hairstyle change from her big ass twintails into nice small braids, with her having more drip in this film too.

As for David's and Louis' dynamic, its a bit of a shame that Louis took a backseat for most of the show but to be honest after finishing watching it I thought it turned out okay. I didin't really get their affiliation to Saya but overall their characters were pretty memorable.

And lastly Hokeni was pretty funny of a character. Shes kind of down to earth and isn't something that newer anime shows do nowadays; hell this whole film isn't the norm nowadays which is a shame. Old anime certainly does have a charm to it. But regardless, Hokeni's part in the story was well done, and it was funny to see her get gaslit into believing the whole thing didin't happen after she practically nearly killed herself.

The monsters were also quite spooky as goes for Blood C too, with the vampires being more on the horror side than it's sister series.

Sound

I loved the OST for this film, I thought it fit quite great. When we were shown the bar or the main dance hall the change of jazz music contrasting the situation was also quite nice. Overall nothing really bad to say, the music did what it had to do and it helped immerse more into whatever was currently on the screen.

As for sub vs dub, I just went with the sub. Not because it's been the main way I've been watching the series but it also made the most sense with there being some english lines regardless of sub vs dub as american soldiers in Japan was one of its main points.

The dub sounded fine too, but the english words were a bit slugged out and slowed (not as a learning english type of vibe but even the english characters sounded odd, ironically Saya sounded the most normal)

Visual

Now the reason I probably rate this series this highly is because of the visuals. They were really good. I can only name 1 time I had a problem with the show (where the kids were walking alongside the plane with blank faces) but overall it was a marvel. Again this is probably more of just me being a sucker for older animation styles, or ghibli esque or the lot.

So when the characters kept their details during intense scenes etc I was quite happy to watch it, hell even the detail on the monsters were goated. The backgrounds themselves were also okay, the CGI was great, pretty fluid animation, I cannot complain.

I also really liked the used of chromatic aberration in certain scenes like when Hokeni started going a bit cookoo in the dance hall, or the different effects used throughout the show. Just nice. Very nice colours. Can I just say how dope the beginning train sequence was? Even before we got to see inside the carriage they were flexing the detail of the tunnel, that did make a big impression to me.

However I'm just not a fan of big lips. It's a me thing.

Story

This definatly felt to me as more of a experience rather than something I would care about looking deeper into, and thats not necessarily a bad thing. Not all media is created equal. The scenes were badass, Saya did what Saya does (but it was nice to see her struggle more realistically with stupid stuff like a fake blade etc).

The only real time I formed a thought was during two scenes, the first one being how the hell did nobody notice the monster in the dance hall dripping with blood. And secondly being how did Hokeni know how to prime a gun. Who knows. Not that important really and couldn't care less but just stating that these were my only real thoughts. Actually a third thought. How was the vampire being tracked with GPS bruh (when we got to see inside of David's and Louis' car). spooky vampire energy tracker.

It was nice to see at the end a peek into Saya's past as a vampire with the dated photo, but it made me question why they would show her that photo at all. If you want to gaslight her into believing nothing happened then why show her that? dunno.

So I suppose this only gets a smaller score from me because the story is kinda a background thought, but don't get me wrong I do like turning off my brain and enjoying stuff from time to time this was nice!

TLDR plot and final thoughts -----------