Manga Entertainment has announced the release of Japan’s first fully-digitally-animated feature film Blood: The Last Vampire. Produced by Japan’s Production IG Studios, “Blood: The Last Vampire” will be released in select theaters this summer and on DVD later in the year. Audiences will also have the opportunity to see the film digitally projected theatrically in selected theaters.

“Blood” marks a first for Japanese animation. While computer animation has been increasingly common in both American and Japanese animation, the new film from Production IG is the first Japanese film to be entirely animated in CG. In the last five years, American computer animated films such as “Toy Story” and “Antz” have typically been created as family films and have only recently gotten to the level where photorealistic humans are becoming feasible. “Blood: The Last Vampire” and the upcoming U.S. film “Final Fantasy” will be the first films to delve into more adult territory.

On the Ginza subway line – the last train heading toward Asakusa, a girl sits quietly in a dreary subway car. Her name is Saya. With a piercing gaze that would force even an adult into submission and lips tightly drawn with determination, she is the savior sent by the “organization” to vanquish the blood-sucking chiropterans that have concealed themselves among their human hosts. Clad in a Japanese school uniform, and wielding an ancient Samurai sword, Saya must infiltrate the American school within the Yokota military compound, uncover the source of the pestilence, and eliminate it.

Manga Entertainment has added several features to the upcoming DVD release. Presented in anamorphic widescreen and containing a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track, the disc will contain the documentary “The Making of Blood”, an image gallery, original Japanese theatrical trailers, and DVD-ROM content.

Pulling in praise from some of Hollywood’s big shots including James Cameron and Andy Wachowski, “Blood: The Last Vampire” will be available on DVD August 28th.