In Japan, the vampire-hunter Saya, who is a powerful original, is sent by her liaison with the government, David, posed as a teenage student to the Yokota High School on the eve of Halloween to hunt down vampires. Saya asks David to give a new katana to her. Soon she saves the school nurse Makiho Amano from two vampires disguised of classmates and Makiho witnesses her fight against the powerful demon.
With its dour insularity and clingy fidelity to realism, this overhyped slashfest fails to rise above the extravagant pointlessness that plagues inferior anime.
– Mark Holcomb,
Village Voice,
14 Aug 2001
rotten:
Is much more effective at evoking a paranoid mood than at telling a coherent story, and the jerky action sequences are among the film's weaker visual elements.
– Stephen Holden,
New York Times,
17 Aug 2001
rotten:
The story ... is the sort of convoluted and often incoherent mess that is typical of the genre no doubt, rabid anime fans are better equipped to decipher its intricacies
– Frank Scheck,
Hollywood Reporter,
22 Aug 2001
fresh:
Another example of animation that shows just how deep something as seemingly superficial as a cartoon can get.
– Tom Maurstad,
Dallas Morning News,
25 Oct 2001
fresh:
A moody, mysterious fright film with a painterly beauty.