Following Armageddon, an apocalyptic war, mankind faces yet another menace: vampires. The continuous confrontations between the races have split the world into separate factions. The race of vampires, Methuselah, are affiliated with the New Human Empire; whereas the humans, deemed Terrans by the vampires, make up the Vatican Papal State. Furthermore, extremist groups like the Rosenkreuz Order strive to rekindle a war, despite the factions' attempts to avoid direct conflict.
To combat terrorist organizations, the Vatican has implemented the AX unit. Led by Cardinal Caterina Sforza, the AX agents investigate vampire-related disturbances with hopes that the Terrans and the Methuselah will one day achieve peaceful coexistence. Amongst the AX unit is priest Abel Nightroad—a seemingly disoriented but gentle-hearted fellow who is a fierce vampire slayer on the battlefield. Joining the unit as his partner is agent Sister Esther Blanchett, a brave and gentle young nun troubled with a tragic past.
As the two grow closer, they begin to uncover signs of malicious schemes and dark forces working in the shadows. But the path they walk is riddled with misfortune that might just force them to confront the memories that plague their hearts.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Lumen_Caeli
Some people say it's a Hellsing rip-off, some people say it's a Trigun rip-off, some people say it rips off scenes from Equilibrium (which it does), however, that doesn't change the fact that the series is enjoyable... sort of. Story: Why I say "sort of" is because of how confusing this story can be. It sort of assumes that the viewer has already read and manga and/or the novels. I've watched TB with many of my friends and in almost every episode I have had to explain to them what is happening - Why is an episode called "the Iblis" when they never explain what theIblis is? Why is Abel a Crusnik? Why is the world in the state that it is? What's with the flashback scenes? Etc, etc. Also the pacing is sort of off - an episode full of action will be followed by an episode of nothing but political intrigue and sitting around talking. I give Story a 7 if only because it is somewhat inaccessable to new viewers, possibly to the point of frustration if you don't know what's going on, and also for the pacing issues.
Art and Sound are very good so I give them both 9. The art is beautiful (except for the stupid CG, which there is thankfully not much of), the music is great, and if you're watching the English dub, the voices are actually not bad at all (except Ion... *shudders*)
Character gets a 10. Lots of character development throughout the show. I've heard Abel is similar to Vash, so if you like Vash you may like him as well. Most all of the characters are complex and interesting. Even many of those that seem flat at the start later reveal many sides to themselves. I think that is my favorite thing about this anime, how even minor characters grow and develop as the story progresses.
Enjoyment gets a 9 from me. However, I predict most people would enjoy it at maybe an 8 (or possibly a 7) level, which is why I rate it overall 8. It's a great story and generally underappreciated, but I do understand that it's quite inaccessable unless you already know the backstory. So my suggestion is this: Read a synopsis of the backstory first, then watch the anime. Better yet, read the manga or the novels first. Trinity Blood is best enjoyed as a unit (manga, novels, and anime) rather than as just an anime. All three of the storylines are slightly different, each adds its own dimension to the world. As a stand-alone anime TB is pretty good, but taken with the other works it is amazing!
toanbui
Reviewer's brief notables: If you're a fan of the Trigun series, Trinity Blood just might be the next best thing. ______________________________________________________________ Story: There are several things in the story that, I believe, need to be included into the current synopsis. There are many key details that viewers must acknowledge to fully appreciate the story behind Trinity Blood. In the series' current setting, there are two forces: the Terran (Human) and the Methuselah (Vampire). The story is based 500 years after the Armageddon in the future of Europe. The anime does carry much of European architectural design and also displays many notable landmarks that are found in Europe presently.The Terran population is more resembled upon civilized life presently. They have a monarch approach of government rule that is highly organized and nobly respected. As it seems to the story, the Roman Catholic Church is the foundation of the political and martial power of the Terran including the presence of a Pope. The Terran force is also referred to as the Vaticans.
The Methuselah population was once human. At a time, there was an outbreak of a virus infecting human beings. The virus would feed on the host's blood cells until they deplete. Soon after, they thirst for more blood to keep themselves alive. Symptoms of the virus include the mutation of their genetic makeup and also to latent superhuman abilities that varies between hosts. With the crave for blood and newfound abilities, they are commonly and ironically called Vampires.
Both the Vatican and the Methuselah forces are engaging an ongoing war. Both of these races have the same motive: to eliminate the opposing race. This does not relate to everybody though. There is a resistance group that wants the Terran and Methuselah to coexist in harmony. This group being called, "Ax". The members of "Ax" include very aristocratic individuals from both sides of the field.
As for the real story review, I think this anime has outdone itself. Trinity Blood has a very rich and deep plotline that is very consistent and also very engaging. Trinity Blood reveals an ample amount of information for its 26 episode season, but is also simple to understand. There are two things that I have to complain about. First being how there are several plot holes in the season about Abel's past and identity. Second, being what I feel, an incomplete ending. It seems as this anime, though ironically, pushes an abundant amount of information at you, and yet seems to slip some of the more significant essence. If excluding that setback, I'd say this series is nearly perfect.
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Art:
I truly like Trinity Blood's style of animation. The style is mostly seen in more action-oriented genres, like Trigun, but possibly a step better in quality. For the animation, there is nothing really to complain about. On the other hand, the CG behind Trinity Blood is quite terrible. For its time in production, I'd expect far better CG. The CG looked very edgy and choppy--also looks, and feels like it doesn't belong with the standard animation. Being that, I give the Art an Eight out of Ten.
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Sound:
The introductory song to each episode fit in nicely with the opening animation and the overall feel of the anime. Nicely done. The music scores in this anime are nicely done as well. The music was very appropriate at each scene. I gave the Sound portion an Eight because in some instances in the series, the background music was overplaying the voices of the characters, especially during sensitive and important scenes where the characters talk in a soft manner. It just seemed to really bother me.
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Character:
The main character in this anime, Abel Nighroad, is much like and often compared to Vash the Stampede of the anime, Trigun. They both are very cooperative and kind also somewhat of a pacifist. They also have refused to kill any human at any point of time. They have a lust for food; Abel being tea with 13 spoons of sugar and Vash being of donuts. Also, the two characters have very devastating capabilities with immeasurable potential.
Throughout the series, there is some MAJOR character development. Possibly taking up most of the series itself. There are several flashbacks and isolated thinking scenes that reveal much more of the characters. I personally, was swept up by almost all of the characters which made me have their upmost support.
Character development is, what I think, the real strongpoint of this anime. It is possible the very thing that had me hooked to this anime.
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Enjoyment:
I can't say that you won't enjoy this series if you're not ready to see some very gory violence (blood, severed limbs, decapitation). Though with all the violence, it really makes Trinity Blood more engaging and much deeper. It's just not the same without it. Trinity Blood is one of the very few series' where I can freely just literally shout at my computer all my many emotions that go on throughout the series. Very engaging indeed. As I've mentioned, or along the lines of, the enjoyment factor is upon the character development--well, for me it is. I would say that I would enjoy this series much more if it had a second season to cap off some of the missing links in the series.
Nyron
"Trinity Blood" is basically the most esoteric term for "shitty plagiarism" ever concocted. It's the name given to a series about a bipolar four-eyed immortal space vampire and his gaggle of irrelevant friends on their quest to get to the end of a story where the author was killed before he had a chance to end it. Why was he killed? Hellsing and Trigun were raking in lots of money at the time and their authors caught wind of some douche stealing their ideas and peddling it to stupid girls by plastering shoujo art all over them. In this writing I will explain every reasonto avoid the remnants of that fanfiction-writing hack's life.
Reason Alpha: What's on the Screen.
This animated fanfic stars Vashucard, member of the Heavensing organization. She's a bumbling doofus with glasses who kills no humans, but murders vampires. When she gets mad, she spouts out some babble about releasing safety locks and restrictions, and turns into a drill-haired dame with lipstick and fangs. Joining him are a mary sue in a nun outfit, robo-Piccolo and some other guys you won't remember because they're only relevant for one episode.
And those episodes are the only good ones. The fanfic starts by introducing semi-enjoyable characters(aside from the terrible main duo) in one-shot episodes that are never referenced or called back to again. After that 90 or so minutes of collective entertainment, you're stuck watching some shittilly-paced crossover story about absolutely nothing, with no conclusion. At the end, the viewer gains nothing but the bare minimum of visual entertainment. They walk away with no morals learned or memories of good presentation and writing. It's a completely worthless, ephemeral experience that lasts 12 hours.
I wish there was more to dissect or rant about, but there really isn't. I could talk about how Vashucard's back story is the same as Vash the Stampede's, or how the series ends the same way Hellsing(the first anime, the bad one) did with random resurrections and shit that never mattered, but then maybe I'd be flagged for spoiling the writings of some dead ass with the imagination of a 11-year old girl? I could talk about the endless camera pan shots and fade-ins that draw in the eyes of girls looking for pretty-colored bishounen, or badly choreographed and unsubstantial amount of action the fanfic offers, but those are self-explanatory.
Reason Omega: What's not on the Screen.
Have you seen Hellsing? Have you seen Hellsing Ultimate? Have you read Hellsing? Have you watched Trigun? Have you read Trigun? Have you seen or read the dozens of other mediocre vampire shoujo anime and manga that are better than this? How about all them vampire action movies with actual action? If you answered no to any of those questions, fix it instead of watching this. If you answered yes to all of the previous questions, then only watch this to have "that one piece of shit" on your list. There is not a single valid reason to watch this tripe at all.
This fanfiction is a stupid, badly written, boring and unfinished waste of my time, your time and the time of the brave men who made the trek to throw Yoshida Sunao into a volcano.
Virtualcloud
I first heard about trinity blood on a forum in the summer of last year. Not too much detail was given except for the small facts that it had vampires and a group of super soldiers working for the Catholic Church fighting against each other. Slightly intrigued I started browsing the web to research it a bit more, before I decided to watch it. During that research I found this description on the back story. ‘When Earth's population drastically increased, humanity was led by the United Nations attempt to colonize Mars. During the colonization, they discovered two alien technologies: the Bacillus and the Crusnik nanomachines. Thecolonists installed the Bacillus in their bodies which transformed them into Methuselahs. Continuing wars on Earth eventually led to "Armageddon," the apocalyptic event that happened 900 years before the start of the story, and the colonists returned to Earth to help with rebuilding. However, when the colonists returned to Earth, a war broke out between the Methuselahs and the humans who had remained on earth.’
This prologue was the main reason I decided to watch Trinity blood. Not only did it explain how vampires came into existence but why humans are at war with them. On top of that my favorite studio Gonzo was the creator.
I went into the first episode with excitement and for the most part I found the first episode very entertaining and fun to watch. The story follows a man named Abel Nightroad, a member of the Vatican and an AX agent trained to kill vampires. While traveling on a airship back to the capitol the ship is attacked and over taken by a pure blood vampire. Nightroad confronts the vampire on top of the airship where he shows his true form, a Crusnik, a being that feasts on vampire blood. This transformation is awesome on every sense of the word and I left that first episode with good feeling. The artwork was beautifully gothic and dark, setting the mood perfectly. The english dub was decent (as you aspect from funimation) and the main character had a split personality and was interesting to watch.
I left that first tale in the series with high optimism and excitement for the remaining 23 episodes. Want followed was some of the most inconsistent story arcs I have ever seen. The series hit a break wall already in the early episodes. It had become so boring with too much text and not enough action or development happing. I was thinking of the dropping the show around the fifth episode when out of no where I would get the awesome action packed episode I was looking for. Then straight after, the show would be back to boring text episodes where nothing happens. It seemed for every great episode I watched, 2 crap ones immediately followed, and the cycle would continue like that.
The show also suffered from lack of development for the supporting characters.
We are finally introduced to other AX agents who have great potential to be developed characters and they are barely in it.
For its faults there was something about Trinity blood that made me keep watching. It maybe because I got into a routine of seating through the pointless episodes, because I new, in the back of my head that soon there will be a kick ass episode right round the corner. And I was right.
The series had its strong points for sure. The soundtrack was haunting and fantastic along with the character designs being extremely cool. The development on the main character is also one of the highest points of the show. Half the fun of the series is figuring him out and his back story is revealed bit by bit making you want to keep watching.
I recommend this anime to any one who digs vampires or who needs an action fix. But be warned it’s not for everyone, a series like this needs attention and above all patents. You need to bear through the bad, to get to the good
notanormalchild
I have to say that I was extremely dissapointed in this anime. I origonally decided to watch the series because my friend got me into the manga, which, in my opinion, was very good. I figured, it'd be better in action, right? Wrong. The anime starts out completly random, which could be forgiven, but it entirely ignores the cardinal rule of anime by explaining the basics by at least the end of the second episode. This leaves the viewer completly and utterly lost. The first episode starts with an adventure on a plane, then the second one jumps to when he's at the church. If I didn't know whatwas going on via manga, I'd be so confused. They don't bother to explain why he's working for the the church, how he got there after the plane incident, and who the robot guy is. It just jumps in and expects you to know.
In addition, all of the episodes have absolutly no relation to each other AT ALL. Except for when it says Part 1 and Part 2, each episode could take place anywhere in the series.
My verdict: Go manga on this one.
DakenFrost
Well, i finally finish to watch this anime. It should be better never seen it. I forced myself to see it until the end and i can see now that it have the most NONSENSE episodes never seen. Why? Let me explain few things. -ATTENTION: MAY CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS(not on the main story)- 1)Abel < Vash Someone says that Abel is the bad copy of Vash(Trigun Anime). Well it's true, but very very the worst copy seen. In one episode he stated that i had promise(in the past) to not kill no one else. Well in the first episode he kill a vampire telling "you are been executed". Inanother episode airships are attacking a city with a big tank drove by a bad guy. Like often happen, he get mad and oneshot everything.
2)Immortal enemies
The WORST thing in an anime. They had been shotted, exploded, cutted and? They are still here. Ok Dietrich can use dead body BUT THAT BODY WAS EXPLODED WITH THE TANK! The vampire woman that abduct the witch girl was kicked by "Demon-Abel"; now you are a kick-ass freaking demon: if you want kill someone you SHOULD KILL HIM and if you don't want kill him you should take him to prison but NOOO!! Surprise and ambush! She is still alive! I never expected this!
3)Non-sense plot
Radu burn the palace where Lady Caterina hoping that the Vaticano will kill Ion. Ion come back wounded and what he does? He aid him and save his life. Later he go to prepare the boat: 10 mins to take a gun and come back. Perfect time to let Esther and Ion talk a LOT. It was already the dead body? So why the hell he should suffer the wounds?! Just kill Ion! This is only an example, a lot of scenes are non-sense only to show useless things (like the vampire woman revenge only to show that the robot have "feelings")
4)The best scene
Demon-Abel hit hard Isaak Fernand etc etc. He is on the ground heavily wounded. When Abel miss his target he just say "It's time to go", stand up and disappear. A THAT KIND wound SUPPOSE that you cannot move easily but he just stand up and disappear in one second (the disappear skill is like a teleport because no one in the all Vaticano caught him).
This anime's fans will forgive me. It is nice, but only for who doesn't expect a TRUE story from it.
knightlight567
I want to write a great review about Trinity Blood, but in truth the show only deserves an okay review. The first few episodes look quite good, and it looks like its going in a good direction. However, the show starts to decay. It cuts away from scenes the audiences wants to see. The plot stops makings as much sense. Through it all, it has its moments, but the overall quality of the show declines throughout the series, and is never as good as it is in the beginning. Story- The show starts with a story. Around half way through it transitions into a differentstory. Both have the potential to be cool, but neither follow through on the promises they make.
Characters- Similar story, there is great potential in almost every member of the cast, but most fall short of that one defining moment of awesome.
The Art and Sound are fine.
Overall, if you considering watching Trinity Blood, do it. The first few eps are good. However, don't be surprised if you don't feel compelled to finish it.
Xalengurth
First of all, I will say that I did not watch Trigun before seeing this. This I say because most people will tell you that this is a ripoff of Trigun. I have not seen it at this point, so I do not know. ___________________________________________________________________ Prologue: The anime was a great one, if you are a fan of action this has plenty of it, if you want drama this has plenty of it, if you are a fan of vampires this has plenty of it, if you are a fan of sci-fi this has plenty of it (no mechas though), and last of all if you enjoyhistory and some political fiction this has plenty of it.
Personally, I really enjoyed the allusion to historical empires and political ideologies present in the anime. For example: The New Human Empire (aka Empire of the True Race / Methuselah Empire) is very influenced by the Ottoman Empire, going as far as to have the Imperial Janissaries do the same job they did in the actual Empire, being the household guard of the Emperor (Empress, in the case of the anime) that and a mix of the earlier Byzantine Empire which was succeeded by the Ottoman Empire. Vatican is representative of the EU, and an allusion to the medieval Christian philosophies of the Roman Catholic Church. Albion is, I believe, the modern England adapted into the anime controlling only the British Isles at this point as well as being neutral in the Vatican - Empire tensions. Also, being born in Istanbul and spending the first 5 years of my life there (as well as many visits) I can say Istanbul was very nicely adapted into the Byzantium of the anime, which is the capital of the Empire as it was in the Ottoman Empire. Hell, even the parts of the city are accurately portrayed!
One thing I did not like about the anime was, it does not give much background information at all... The story is perfect! But the only thing the anime tells you is that there is a conflict between Vampires and Terrans and that this leads to tensions between the Vatican and the Empire. For this I had to read various sources to get information about the background, which might have led me to enjoy the anime fully. However, I really hesitated giving this a 10 because of that, had it portrayed the background nicely I would not have even thought of any other score.
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Story:
The story is perfect! However, if you are reading this I suggest that you do not become discouraged by the length and keep on reading as I will be telling much of the points of the story that I wish were told at the first episode.
At one point in the history of Earth, humans colonized Mars. And the colonists discovered two types of nanomachines there left by an earlier civilization: the Bacillus and the Crusnik. They subsequently injected the nanomachines, and those with the Bacillus were turned into the Methuselah, or as termed by normal humans (called Terrans by the Methuselah) into vampires. However, those with Crusnik installed into them do not live, except for four, who are Abel, Cain, Seth and Lilith.
When the colonists returned to Earth, a war broke out between the Methuselahs and the humans who had remained on earth. Abel, Cain, and Seth took the Methuselah's side&mdash;while Lilith supported the humans' side. The continuing war eventually led to &quot;Armageddon,&quot; the apocalyptic event that happened 900 years before the start of the story. During the war, Cain went insane and killed Lilith. In grief, Abel took her body to the Vatican where she was buried. Abel remained at her side, weeping for her, for 900 years.
At the start of the story, there is an uneasy truce between the Methuselah and the Terrans. The Roman Catholic Church is a major military power determined to protect humans from the Methuselahs, with its seat of power based in the Vatican. The Methuselahs have their capital of Byzantium, which is surrounded by a field of particles to filter out UV radiation, protecting the Methuselah population. However, the Methuselah have an Empress that wishes for peace, and the Vatican is reluctant to start hostilities against the Empire because the Empire is the most technologically advanced nation on earth, with weapons and machines that surpass both the Vatican arsenal and Albion.
Both groups use &quot;lost technologies,&quot; such as airships, missiles, and computers, to engage in a cold war with one another. A third great power, Albion also plays a role in the war with its superior arsenal of lost technology and weapons and higher level of manufacturing ability versus the Vatican. The independent monarchy of Albion is a primarily human country, however the secret of their expertise in lost technology is found in the Ghetto, an underground city of enslaved Methuselah. It is these Methuselah who operate and manufacture the lost technology, but with the death of the Albion Queen, some of the enslaved vampires begin a rebellion for the freedom of all of the Ghetto residents.
Last of all, Crusniks are beings that drink the blood of Methuselah, while the Methuselah are beings likened to vampires because of their superior strength, agility, prolonged life span, regenerative traits and their inability to be exposed to the sun (as the nanomachines would burn the host) together with their weakness to silver and their necessity to regularly drink human blood because the nanomachines are constantly destroying their red blood cells. They can have children, and they can eat normal food.
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Art:
The art / animation is good as it is not an old anime. The blurry-ish look really gets one into the story's dramatic and tragic tones. The way the faces of each character is drawn also hints at their respective character personalities. Also, the facial movements and eye effects truly reflect the mood of the characters.
The color choices used in the anime are really good for the atmosphere of the overall plot.
Other than those, there is not much I can say about the animation as it is not really an old anime.
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Sound:
The OP and the ED were both really good, even when I did not really want to spend much time I could not stop myself from watching / listening them.
The music and sounds used in the anime really help in setting the atmosphere of the moment. Especially I paid attention to it at the final episode where it really fit in with what was going on. There is no other way that I can describe that than saying it was &quot;Epic&quot;.
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Characters:
I was actually kinda disappointed as there were no special characters like, say Lelouch, in this anime. They were all rather typical characters, you know, the guy with the tragic past (who I think over exaggerated it), the whiny-yet-nice-so-you-cant-get-mad-at girl, the little aristocrat boy who falls in love with a commoner and can't bring himself to say so, the best friend who betrays but then comes back in the end as he is about to kill his helpless best bud, the empress in disguise, the fanatically loyal guy who goes mad with his loyalty only to realize his mistake at the end... etc.
So the characters are all ones used in previous works with not much originality other than their adaptation into the awesome storyline of the anime.
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Enjoyment:
I really enjoyed this series, however the enjoyment at the beginning was limited due to the frequent plot changes at the first few episodes and the storyline that was not efficiently given at all.
Later on though, after the involvement of Esther into the plotline, the enjoyment increased as I started seeing political conspiracies, fanaticism, ideologies, and tragedy... of course not forgetting the epic action scenes which were really good btw.
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Overall:
Although due to the lack of information about the background storyline at the beginning, I really hesitated giving this show such a high score, I could not help but do so knowing the actual storyline and having finished the series together with the ending.
I really hope they would make a continuation of the story, as after properly knowing the storyline the series is truly a masterpiece quality one. That is of course in my opinion.
Nevertheless I highly recommend this anime, and I REALLY REALLY want to point out that you SHOULD DEFINITELY READ ABOUT THE BACKGROUND STORY BEFORE STARTING THE SHOW!!! What I wrote about the background story in the story section should be sufficient, although of course knowing more doesn't hurt ;).
vadz
All I can say is wow, I found the art and the sound to be outstanding but what is the point. This show I would love in another universe in some weird campy fashion. What makes me particularly sad about this series is that it had potential to be distinguishing and as good as Hellsing or Blood+ but it does earn a moniker in my worst anime list as a "number 2." The talent behind the art and the voice acting especially from funimation that gives us Fullmetal Alchemist and the Samurai 7 dubs, were all wasted in this god-awful mess of a show. Thelargest gapping problem for me at least is that the show sincerely focused on geo-politics yet they little focused on vampirism. Was there some tears to the script. Plus the characterizations were just flat or just embarrassing for example I found Ester to be very attractive but then she must have this emotional attachment to an obnoxious retard named Abel. That is much I can remember from Trinity Blood because when I am writing this, I just got back from watching There Will Be Blood. Even that had more Blood than this piece of poo.
vincentlaw_fan
Okay, here is my review for the anime Trinity Blood after watching the complete series. Story (10) - Purely fascinating. Classic Vampire-Human drama and all that would encompass such with a amazing twist. A Japanese "what if tale" about the "Vatican" church, and all of it's not-so-known enforcers. (If only that we're really the case, how much cooler a religion would be.) I am happy to say that there aren't many filler episodes within this series, which is great. I love a hard-written story driven anime, and this one has that for sure hands down. Art (8) - Only have seeing atotal of three anime series now, I would say this was nothing all that spectacular. It was indeed, just very good. Nothing was hard to make out, all of the backgrounds, character designs, both futuristic and or medieval was done very well. I will note one thing that did stand out, the weapon of Abel Nightroad was quite possibly the single coolest melee weapon I've yet to ever see in any genre.
Character (9) - Well, as a new review-er. It was hard to pick a favorite for this series, at first it was Tres, in the end however I would have to go with Caterina Sforza, being a large part of the show herself, she had a very commanding presence and always brought a light to the situation at hand. As for the rest of the cast, all was quite brilliant, each character possessing a particular skill that was either distinct and/or original. The only reason why it didn't earn a (10) was due to some of the childish like behavior from Abel Nightroad, I found it to be a tad over-done considering the role of him. Well, and... Who doesn't love a Crusnik... I mean seriously...
Overall (9) - For the lover of Vampires-Humans in a "plot-vs-plot" but not sure what's-what. Does that make sense to you? Strong storyline, great character inter-personal relationships, hardly any filler episodes. Mysterious Crusnik Vampire class. A great series that won't make you feel bad for not going to church!
indi135
The story and characters in this series are fantastically enigmatic and complex. Ultimately the characters and their relationships are as interesting as the overall plot line. The biggest drawback to this series is that it ends without really explaining some important aspects of the story. The lack of background throughout the series provides suspense and intrigue, but anyone who has not read the Manga will probably want to look up a synopsis of the plot at some point. However, the series is definitely worth watching anyway. The vampires are largely classical Braum Stokes in nature, though, there are a few interesting twistswhich crop up in the plot and backstory. The ambience is dark and mysterious, giving the show a dramatic feel. However, Abel’s antics serve to lighten mood from time to time. Abel displays many different faces throughout the series-though it seems they are all part of him rather than just masks he wears-providing his character depth not easily achieved in the typical conflicted protagonist role. Abel’s dorkiness is endearing and is necessary to balance the more serious and painful reality of his past and his current mission.
The change that comes over Abel when he releases into his fighting modes is shocking. He becomes horrible and beautiful, valiant and creepy, powerful and weak. While his essential shape remains the same, the change in his hair and eyes is chilling. That Able becomes terrible in his fighting form while the enemy of the world goes from charismatic in his human form to angelic in his fighting form is an appropriate archetype for real life. Abel’s form is honest to its own nature, while the success of the antagonist is largely due to his devious nature. He is a master at showing others what they want to see until they are no longer useful to his own purposes.
Though there are some obvious similarities between Abel and the main character in Trigun, the feel of this series is vastly different. Enough so, that the two series don’t target the same audience. Where Trigun is often lighthearted and silly, Trinity Blood’s plot weighs heavily as it addresses a variety of social and personal conflict issues.
Overall Trinity Blood is an intriguing story which draws the viewer in both through the overriding plot and through the depth of the characters and their own personal struggles. However, the series should have been extended to include an explanation to the history of events which propelled the world into the current state of affairs. Instead viewers are forced to look to other sources for any resolution to the story.
oscer191
Vampires have been in the media for a long time. Everything ranging from the 1900s till today. But vampires today are not at all what they were years ago. vampires today are sugar coated diamond gay boys that prefer to hook up with young girls that are 1000s of years younger than them (im looking at you twilight). So as you can imagine, walking into a show such as trinity blood was either going to be a hit or miss. To sum it up before you read the rest of this; i enjoyed the hell out of this show. Ill try and keep this reviewas short and straight to the point as possible.
~STORY~
The story for this show is actually pretty good. in this world lives vampires and humans (obviously). The two species are at the brink of war with each other and it's up to the church to take power and try to resolve the issues and prevent war. As the story progresses though we learn of things such as each sides motives and the "enemy of the world". Theirs alot more to this story, but explaining it would treed on spoiler territory.
~ART~
Being that this show was made back in 2005 ill admit that there are some flaws. However though, this show looks really good. The action scenes and transformations were eye candy and kept you interested till the end. at least it was for me anyway.
~Sound~
Other than the OP and ED, i can't say that there were many tracks that stood out. Don't get me wrong, the music fit the over all tone of the show and defiantly shined when needed. But there were no songs that I can say were amazing and tell you to go buy the OST. The music is good, but not amazing.
~Characters~
I think this is both the strongest but weakest point of the show. The main characters got alot of time, development, and connection that had me admire the characters. But the antagonist and side characters didnt get much to it. Some of the side characters never really changed though the show, which is unfortunate but hey, what are you going to do?
~ENJOYMENT~
This show was alot of fun. the show reminded me alot of trigun for reasons that im not willing to explain. It had alot of action, good characters, humor, and a story that kept me guessing at times. This show is not for everyone, but if you enjoy a somewhat dark shows, vampires, or trigun, There is a really good chance you will love this show.
However I would advise you to stream the show before you buy. I advise this because the show is not for everyone, as mentioned. Also there is ALOT of religious references in this show. I dont know how people feel about religious context in there shows, if your not a fan of it...at least stream it, It's still a fun show.
Joe_Devaney
Overview: "Trinity Blood" is a gothic horror anime with a twist. Not only does it contain one of the most drastically different take on vampires this side of "Blood+", but it forgoes the usual setting of the genre in favour of a post-apocalyptic distant future. The results are... mixed, to put it mildly. While the series does have some great visuals and fantastic sound design, it unfortunately falls a little short in the storytelling and world-building department, and ultimately never even comes close to making the most out of its huge potential. Story & World (6.5/10): 900 years after a failed attempt to colonize Mars led tothe creation of vampires and the near-annihilation of the human race, the Roman Catholic Church has evolved into a major military power determined to protect what remains of humanity from the threat of vampires, or Methuselah as they call themselves. The protagonist of the story is Father Abel Nightroad, a priest who works for an organization known as the AX, short for Arcanum Cella Ex Dono Dei (Latin for Papal State Affairs Special Operations Section), which stands as the primary defence against the Methuselah. However, while Abel may seem goofy on the surface, he hides a dark secret- he is actually a Crusnik, an especially rare type of vampire that feeds on other vampires, who has chosen to side with the humans and protect them from his own kind, a decision shaped by trauma from a tragic past. It is up to Abel and the other members of the AX to counter any threats posed by the Methuselah, all while trying to find a way to have the two races co-exist together and bring an end to the centuries-long war.
Does this premise sound complicated to you? Well, it only gets more complicated as time goes on, which certainly isn't helped by the fact that the anime rarely takes the time to explain anything. From the first episode, we're thrust into the middle of the conflict without so much as an introduction, with most of the stuff I have already said being all there in the manual. As such, anyone who goes in without at least some second-hand knowledge of the series is bound to be more than a little confused, with things only becoming slightly clearer overtime. The individual arcs and episodes are still enjoyable enough on their own, with some being better than others, but the overarching story that ties them together is pretty lacking, to say the least.
The setting of the series is certainly fresh, with a lot of gothic architecture to be found, mostly Italian due to it being centred around the Vatican, and where people use what they call "lost technologies" such as airships, missiles and old-fashioned computers, though there is more advanced technology as well including a living, breathing robot (more on him, later), which makes for a very interesting combination of both the past and the future. There's also a good few episodes where we see society from the perspective of the Methuselah, mostly to show us that Abel isn't the only vampire who's not out for blood against humans, and in fact many of them share humanity's goal of co-existence. Sadly, while the world is very interesting, it's overall pretty underdeveloped, with the almost complete lack of exposition meaning that we're rarely given any insight as to how various things work. And while the last few episodes live up to what you would expect from a season finale, the story ultimately ends with little to nothing actually resolved, and, much like "Kaze no Stigma" and "Highschool of the Dead", it's unlikely to ever be continued due to the original author passing away before the written story could be completed.
Art & Animation (8/10):
A lot of people will most likely dread to hear that Gonzo is the studio who animated this series. Fortunately, any fears you may have should be quickly put to rest, as this is easily one of their best efforts. The characters and environments are all very well-drawn, with none of the rough edges one would normally expect from a Gonzo anime, and the animations are just fluid enough to be believable. It definitely doesn't look spectacular, as there's still the conspicuous CG effects Gonzo is notorious for, but these are infrequent enough to not ruin the overall quality, and overall this is definitely one of their better looking anime, especially for its time (2005-2006).
Sound & Dialogue (8.5/10):
The music, while far from terrible, tends to blend into the background for the most part, with very few memorable tracks coming to mind. What's absolutely memorable, however, is the opening theme "Dress", which perfectly captures the gothic atmosphere of the show, and is good enough that I found myself listening to it every single time I started a new episode. The ending theme "Broken Wings" is great as well, having a soothing, somber feel to it that makes it especially good to listen to at the end of episodes with tragic endings, of which there are quite a few. On the other hand, the voice acting is brilliant, having a slew of great talents that really make the most out of their roles, with Troy Baker, Christopher Sabat and Colleen Clinkenbeard, who provide the voices of Abel, Tres and Esther respectively, being standout examples.
Characters (7.5/10):
There doesn't seem to be any real expectations as to how people of religion should act in this world, as Abel's general mannerisms are far from what you'd expect from a priest, being very goofy, clumsy and absent-minded, though he's also very kind, compassionate and considerate. When he activates his Crusnik form, however, he becomes very sober, ruthless and overall completely different from his other persona, though his compassion still remains. While he is a very interesting and likable protagonist, he does have a bad habit of contradicting himself, at one point claiming that he's vowed never to take another life despite having killed multiple people only a few episodes earlier. While one could argue that he means he won't kill unless his hand is forced, the poor phrasing makes him come off as a hypocrite. There are also times when his goofy persona makes him more pitiful than charming, which is a shame since that's by far his most prominent persona due to him only using his Crusnik form as a last resort. One character that never annoyed me, however, is Tres Iques, another AX agent who's frequently paired up with Abel. Take Arnie's second Terminator, give him two pistols with nearly unlimited ammo and an actual backstory, and you pretty much have Tres. Due to being a robot, Tres, in contrast to Abel, is ruthless and no-nonsense when dealing with those he deems a threat, though he is capable of compassion and even has a sense of humour, albeit a very dry one. And as one would expect from a character voiced by Christopher Sabat, he is a total badass, having literally inhuman aiming skills, hence his codename "Gunslinger". I just wish he showed up more often- despite being a main character, his role is greatly reduced in the second half of the series and he doesn't come back again until near the end, though the role he plays then proves to be crucial to the show's climax.
Next up is Esther Blanchett, an orphaned girl who was raised in a covenant and meets Abel in one of the early episodes. After her home is destroyed and Abel saves her from a group of vampires, she travels to the Vatican with him, becoming his most prominent companion throughout the series. She is generally quiet and timid, but also very brave, compassionate and kind. Unfortunately, her character arc could definitely use a little work, with one major part of her backstory coming out of seemingly nowhere in the final arc of the series with almost no foreshadowing throughout the series. There's also Ion Fortuna, a young Methuselah who proves to be one of the show's most important characters despite only being introduced about halfway through. Due to his young age (by his species' standards, at least), he starts off as a total brat with a strong distaste for humans, which is definitely not uncommon among his kind, though he soon mellows through interactions with Esther, with whom he becomes very close friends with. His development is pretty decent despite his late introduction and there are a few moments when I really wanted to hug the poor boy, though given the show's dark atmosphere the same can be said for a lot of characters, Abel himself included.
The final member of the main cast is Caterina Sforza, the leader of the AX agency and Abel's superior. Her character will most likely bring Integra Hellsing to mind for a lot of people, with even how she first met Abel being very similar to how Integra first met Alucard. She is by far the most reasonable authority figure in the Vatican, often serving as the mediator between her ruthless older brother Francesco and cowardly younger brother Alessandro, the latter of whom is Pope despite his young age, though due to his meekness he pretty much never uses his authority or power, leaving the important decisions to his siblings. Besides who's already been mentioned, the cast of characters is quite large, disproportionately so in regards to the length of the series, and so while some of them get their moments in the sun, others are lucky if they even get any characterization. Quite a few of them are also killed off for real, so you should definitely be wise in regards to who you get attached to.
Enjoyment (7.5/10):
"Trinity Blood" is definitely not short on action. While there are plenty of drama scenes, almost every episode has either a fight scene or some kind of suspense to keep the viewer invested between episodes. And while the series is very dark, as you no doubt suggested from the genre, it never goes overboard with it and has plenty of heartwarming and even funny moments. This very much works in the show's favour, as it makes the tragic moments stand out all the more instead of simply being something you would expect from the series.
Overall:
"Trinity Blood" isn't a bad gothic horror anime by any means, but it's nevertheless a series that feels incomplete in many respects and ultimately falls pretty short of delivering everything that it promises, making it yet another anime that could have been so much more than it ended up being, albeit due to no fault of its own given the author's early death. It's still worth watching for its originality, atmosphere, characters and action, but if you find yourself wanting more by the time the credits roll, don't say I didn't warn you.
Score:
6.5+8+8.5+7.5+7.5=38/50=7.6/10
DollaHolla
This anime had a whole lot of potential. It has all the right elements for any avid vampire or action junky. Sure, it steals some things from Vash (especially toward the beginning when Abel is half goofy klutz half amazing vampire hunter) and also several things from Hellsing but that in itself would of been just fine. My main problem with this anime is the fight scenes. Everytime, what could be, a epic fight scene comes up they do a few blows then immediately switch scenes, half the time never showing what happened. This happens in basically every good battle. Another issue, is they seemedafraid to push the envelope. For example, without spoilers, someone bleeding profusely only for them to be fine a few minutes later. ______________________________________________________________
Art:
I Liked the animation in Trinity Blood. It's nothing too fancy, but personally I dislike anime that tries to distract you with beautiful visuals. Certain scenes had great detail and the character design was superb.
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Sound:
Most of the time I hate the music in animes. There are very few exceptions, but this is one of them. They seemed to match up the soundtrack very well to the mood of the individual scenes.
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Character:
This was the animes strongest suit. After watching it completely, I'm sure that if the character development and interactions between different characters weren't so enjoyable, I'd of never finished.
The main character, Abel Nightroad, was fun to watch every single episode. You never knew what he was going to do next. They also did very well with the scenes between Abel and his "friends". The scenes with Abel and his "Tovarish" were especially compelling.
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Enjoyment:
I did enjoy this series, but it was certainly a big let down in many ways, as I stated above. However, due to the great character development, above average comedic elements, and decent storyline, I still liked it.
I imagine reading the manga would answer many things, but I feel as if animes need to be made viewer friendly. As if the manga doesn't exist in the viewers world.
fr0z3nshad3
Story (8.0) - At start is a bit confusing,but after seeing some episodes i got to understand it and it doesn´t sound so bad at all..in fact is a good one. It starts with a priest, called Abel Nightroad and is job is to solve the problems with vampires for the church. At some point the story turns to the negotiations between the church and the empire, where most of the vampires live. But here is a group that wants to create a war between the church and the empire, to bring destruction to the world, and for that they do everything to interferein the peace talks. I wont tell you the result, if you want to know watch it ;).
Art (8.6) - I liked it. Character design, ambience design also good, graphics also look good.
Sound (7.5) - Just enough to not make this anime worse just because of this aspect. I didnt like it at all, but i dont think it was that bad, and it didnt really bothered me..besides is not that the quality of the sound is bad, i just didnt like it..you may think the oposite so i will give an 8 on here.
Character (8.8) - I like some of the characters, especially abel, but the others arent much worse. They are well develloped and thats good, some of them also look cool, 9.
Enjoyment (8.2) - I enjoyed it, it worth the time i spent watching. There are a lot of moments where there is almost no action, but action moments are also in great number in this anime, and that makes the anime much more interesting.
Overall (8.4) - An 8 close to 9, describes an anime that i consider very good and that i recommend to all that like action. At last worth a look, you may not like it, but you may also find a good way to spend your time.
sry about my english if there is some mistakes, i tryed my best, i hope you understand ;)
TheVampireSaint
I am going to state this as simply as possible. When I review anime, a 7 is a 70% which means the anime was average but nothing special. I noticed most people would say that was worth a 5, or a 50%, but that is an F. If an anime didn't have any obvious flaws other than being nothing special, then I don't think it failed. So please read my reviews with this in mind. This is why most of my ratings seem on the high end. If I enjoyed it enough to finish it, it should be getting a C, not any lower. Trinity bloodis a very solid anime with good characters and an interesting story. I was tempted to rate the anime higher, but in the end I would say that Trinity Blood is good, but not too much more than that.
Story(7/10)
Though the story was good, it wasn't particularly original. There is a vampire empire, there is the Vatican, there are political disputes. It all works well together, but the themes and background aren't exactly original. Watching this also reveals a lot of similarities to Trigun's story line and concepts.
Art(6/10)
There isn't too much to say here. The animation is good, and certainly won't bother you. However, it has aged quite a bit. I wish it had chosen more of a style, other than a very generic art.
Sound(6/10)
The soundtrack is nice, but sometimes feels somewhat random or repetitive. It seems like there are only four or five songs. In the end, the sound falls short for failing to be memorable.
Character(8/10)
I would say that the characters are the strongest piece of Trinity Blood. The develop well over the episodes, and are generally enjoyable. I can't think of any character that I outright disliked and wished wasn't there. For the most part, the characters are well rounded; they have enough backstory to feel important, but not so much that the series felt like watching flashbacks.
Enjoyment(7/10)
Definitely worth your watch, if nothing else. The engaging story and characters really make this one interesting. There was enough action to be entertaining, but enough dialogue to flesh out the story. I just wish there were a few more episodes at the end to explain what happened, and what the results of the final battle were.
Trinity Blood is a very solid anime, pulling inspiration from Hellsing and Trigun. It was a nice watch that wasn't too heavy, but wasn't too light, if you know what I mean. I recommend this to anyone who likes Vampires, politics, or action. Like many of the other anime I have reviewed, I do not recommend this to anyone who expects their world to change after watching this. I would also say if you are easily bored by dialogue, this isn't for you.
ktulu007
Last week I talked about Gonzo with a look at Final Fantasy- Unlimited. This week we have another Gonzo anime with Trinity Blood. The series began as a series of light novels by the now deceased Yoshida Sunao. It was adapted into a manga that's still ongoing and into this anime which aired in 2005. Let's take a look at it and see how Gonzo did with this one. Story: In some indeterminate time in the future, humanity has changed. We're separated into two basic types. The ordinary humans of today, called Terrans and the vampiric Methuselah. There's a territorial; divide with a lot of western Europebeing Terran controlled & eastern Europe being Methuselah with some neutral nations acting as a buffer. Unfortunately, the uneasy peace is being threatened by the Rosenkreuz Order. It's up to Father Abel Nightroad and his comrades at the Vatican to put an end to their machinations.
The biggest issue with this series is a simple one. Virtually everything that happens in it is really obvious and predictable. Because this story doesn't so much put twists on clichés to make it its own as run down the list and pick all the ones it likes to just throw in completely true to form. And this is a point I've made before, a good writer can use unoriginal ideas and turn them into something unique. Terry Pratchett did it with his personification of Death. Miyabe Miyuki did it with a story about a boy transported to another world, even if the Brave Story film was bollocks, the novel did a really stellar job with it. But an unskilled writer will just toss every over done, tired, generic plot point they can into their work and it just comes across as trite. Which is what happens here. I'll give some examples but I won't name names because I don't want to spoil a lot. There's a bit where the series makes sure to point out something unusual on one of the female characters and the obvious place to go with it is that she's actually royalty or something and that's why that's there. Which is exactly where the series goes with it. There's also a minor character death where everything leading up to it is stuff that would typically come before a character's death. There's a sudden focus on their relationship with the protagonist, they're having a bonding experience and then they get separated and go off into a dangerous situation and you know that character isn't coming back. The one thing that might have been surprising is spoiled in the ending theme tune & even then you know where they're going to eventually go with it. There's just nothing that happens narratively that actually surprises or engages you. Maybe they would if this was one of your first action anime but if you've seen a decent number, this is all old hat.
They also seem to have “borrowed” a lot of ideas from Trigun. Except that they were a lot better executed in that series. And this isn't like Hunter x Hunter where some things were clearly inspired by Dragonball but they were modified into something unique to that series. This is a lot more copy-pasted. Also, what kind of a surname is “Nightroad” for a vampire. That would be like having a witch with the surname Hexe.... I redact the name criticism immediately.
The biggest pity is that this series did have potential. The idea of vampires and humans openly living side by side but in a state of unease could have been really interesting. The execution is just tepid and ends up spoiling the concept.
Characters:
The cast suffers from the same issue as the story. They're just really archetypical and uninteresting as a consequence. Father Nightroad is that variety of shounen protagonist who's powerful but kind of goofy and hiding a tragic back story. Think of a super watered down version of Vash the Stampede without any of those elements that make Vash compelling. Then we have Sister Esther. She's the super pure, kind and supportive girl who isn't too good in a fight but tries her best. The prickly action girl with a kind side role is taken by Astharoshe.
Art:
The art varies. The cityscapes tend to be pretty good. Some of the futuristic technology looks cool. The character designs are a bit plain, but work. Except for Father Nightroad's transformed version. He looks like a Goth kid is trying to make themselves look “dark & brooding” but the youngster in question has no sense of subtlety so they way overdo it. He also has hair that sticks up in a way that makes the super saiyajins look subdued. To think, those five gallons of hair gel could've been used to spike the hair of a hundred idiot frat boys. Even his weapon looks absurd. The cg doesn't always mesh well with the rest of the artwork either. The wings look really out of place, there are times when you'll get a bit of technology that clashes with everything around it. Some of the more outlandish attacks look awkward. The action sequences as a whole aren't very good. They're kind of lazily done.
Sound:
The acting in this is pretty good. Which isn't surprising with a cast that includes such names as Noto Mamiko, Touchi Hiroki & Honda Takako. I don't think it really challenged any of them since the characters are just flat tropes, but it's still good. Eguchi Takahito's music is decent enough.
Ho-yay:
This doesn't really have any ho-yay. It has a good deal of het. I guess in this version of the future the Catholic church decided to lose the celibacy vows as a method of stopping the priests from touching children. Wouldn't it be great if the actual Catholic church did literally anything to try and stop that instead of just relocating the problem priests and pretending everything was fine?
Final Thoughts:
I won't say that Trinity Blood is a bad anime. That being said, it certainly isn't good. It's a series that has a premise with a lot of potential but wastes it with a serious over-reliance on clichés and, to make it a bit worse, it outright plagiarises content from Trigun. So, I'd suggest just watching Trigun instead. Because this series hasn't a single creative bone in its proverbial body. My final rating for Trinity Blood is going to be a 4/10. It's below average. Next week is Valentine's day, so let's look at something with a romantic bend. The review is going to be on Junjou Romantica. That seems like a good choice.
ratchet573
Trinity Blood fails in almost every respect. It doesn’t start like this though, it actually starts pretty good. The world is neat, the plot looks like it will go to cool places, and the two main characters, Esther Blanchett (a nun whose church has been destroyed by vampires) and Abel (a priest who works for the Vatican and fights vampires) are totally likeable. We’ll get to flaws in their characters as the show progresses later on, but all I can say here in the intro is that it starts off promising, so promising, but ends in failure. Story The story, as stated, starts with promise. The warbetween the Vatican and vampires seems pretty cool and the world the fights take place in is pretty damn awesome. But then about the point where little fairy children called Tinkerbells show up, the series degrades into stupidity, terrible pacing and plotting, and things pop up out of nowhere. For example, toward the end (this isn’t really a spoiler) Abel’s sister explains that their brother is still alive (news to me). This suddenly leads Abel to go after his brother who shows up for the next four or five episodes of the series, despite never being mentioned or showing up at any other time. Nothing is even insinuated before a major plot point happens, it just happens and is shoved in your face. While this may be trying to be surprising, it fails horribly because it is so groan worthy and the characters act so unrealistically toward the plot point.Just watch the last episode where the series tries hard to explain the terrible story arc, but falls apart due to terrible unrealistic actions of characters and no back story or anything to tell us what is going to happen or what has happened. We don’t even understand why Abel and his brother are fighting.
One of the stupidest parts of the plot is that Abel can’t kill anyone (despite killing someone in the first episode). It means really awesome fight scenes degrade into crying and idiocy. Not that there are very many fight scenes in the series, and none are memorable. Even the final fight is totally worthless.
And more plot holes appear throughout concerning Abel. He mentions he can’t swim in one episode after he fell off a cliff and swam to safety in a previous. It’s small things like this that make you wish for something more. It starts promising—so damn promising—but sucks so badly. It gets really bad when a little vampire noble is introduced. Suddenly a romance blossoms between Esther and him, and there is even a point where the story is interrupted by a music video-esque scene of the two looking out a window. It’s so out of place and stupid.
Animation
The animation is not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not good. Characters don’t look too great, while environments typically look fantastic.
Sound
The main theme is pretty good until the end when it sounds like two or three people are singing it out of synch. The end theme is okay. The music for the show itself is bad, not even likeable. It sounds like the music out of a bad JRPG, like when you are in a town in Final Fantasy or something. The voice actors are competent, though none are outstanding in the least.
Characters
Father Abel is Vash from Trigun. One moment a blubbering idiot who can’t stop eating, the next a total badass. Even the plot is like Trigun with brothers from space fighting each other on a post apocalyptic Earth. Not that Abel is a bad character, he could actually be likeable if it weren’t for the fact he’s a total wuss and won’t kill people. While Vash was like this and promoted the whole “Love and Peace!” thing Abel cries about violence and even in super awesome badass mode he becomes a huge crying wuss.
Sister Esther is likeable at first, but slowly over the course of the series you grow to dislike her more and more as the plot puts her more in focus as a typical anime girl who is trying to hard to help but always fails.
The vampire noble boy I mentioned before is the most annoying character in the series. He likes Esther when he must be five years younger than her. His voice is terrible and raspy. The series focus’s on him toward the end and that’s when the show degrades.
All the other characters are just there and are never anything more than two dimensional. One of the priests at one point before the final fight pulls a locket with his daughter’s face on it out and says something about protecting her, which is news to me. I guess they were trying to add depth to the character, but it doesn’t work and comes off as cheap and stupid.
Overall
Don’t waste your time with this series. I wish it were better because it had a lot of potential, but it degrades crazily over the course of it’s 24 episodes. Once the plot moves into the vampire people’s kingdom and their nobles and things like that, it becomes so boring and it’s a chore just to watch. This is when the characters become groan worthy and everything becomes totally unlikeable.
And after a terrible ending, not an ending like Big O that makes you think or something like that, just a plain old terrible/stupid ending, you feel like there is so much missing. Nothing has really been explained, characters motives are not explained, the backstory is hinted at, and I wish there would have been more of it because it actually sounds interesting, and there are still bad guys alive. While it feels incomplete, for me, I breathed a sigh of relief it was over. I enjoyed the first half immensely, but the last half was so bad and so awful that I can’t even suggest the overall series.
Pass this one up.
Raggadish
I definitely understand the mixed receivings of “Trinity Blood”. It has a lot of potential, but many times come out as very confusing and incoherent. It also has been accused of copying other work such as Hellsing, something which I must disagree with. Yes, Trinity Blood for shore contains a lot of the same elements as Hellsing, for example a powerful organization (the Vatican) fighting methuselah (vampires), the guns, and having their own trump card in the form of a more powerful being (a krusnik) that drinks the blood of other vampires. Which in my opinion is concepts that gladly can be used again andagain, due to that form of plot are exciting to me. And the execution of Trinity Blood´s story and the overall feeling is nothing Hellsing, both shows have their own specific touch to it. Worth knowing is that the novel/manga was still ongoing at the time the anime was made, so a satisfying conclusion will be absent in the end. Hence, I will make some comparisons between the manga and the anime in my review.
So, what was Trinity Blood good attributes and what was it lacking in my opinion? Let´s get down to that now shall we.
Story: 6/10
The story takes place in an alternative setting of Europe in a distant future. 1000 years ago, Armageddon accrued, and vampires came to exist on earth and the modern technology (called lost technology) was lost in the events. Ever sense, humans (Terrans) and vampires (Methuselah) has been at each other’s throats. Prejudices and fear won´t let the two races to coexist in peace. The Vatican´s department of foreign affairs task is to take care of any problem related to vampires, led by cardinal Caterina Sfroza. The division is called AX, and includes some of the elite fighters and agents within the Vatican.
During a mission, Father Abel Nightroad encounter the young sister Esther Blanchett, and after her adopted family is murdered by the city´s ruling vampire, she accompanies him to the Vatican to train and become a team member of the AX. But something is stirring in the shadows, an organization called the Rozencreuz has started to make their move for a world war between the Terrans and Methuselah, and let their leader to take the place as the worlds almighty ruler.
I actually really like the base plot a lot. Powerful organizations fighting each other for different goals, vampires and humans on the brink of war, a bit a revenge quests, and a super powerful being that drinks vampires blood. What´s not to like! So why a 6 you may ask? Because, as I mentioned before, Trinity Blood´s story many times comes out as confusing and incoherent. Sometimes I felt like I most have missed like 3 episodes or something, much do to with unexplained major time skips in the story, or missing explanations regarding terms, characters, and important plot devices. Also, what was to be believed important plot events and for shore would have a huge impact on the overall story, was left behind end never mentioned again. Or characters that are introduced are just dumped somewhere and are absent for most of the remaining plot, for them to just show up at convenient moments. That left me very confused at times, so the overall enjoyment was dragged down. The pacing could also be very uneven. A couple of action and information filled episodes could be followed by some very slow and very uninformative ones.
After reading about 70% of the manga, I can see the root to these problems. I don´t know yet if the manga follows true to the novel, but the manga definitely make so much more sense than the anime. The manga is also much more enjoyable, I rate that one a 9 so far. It seems that the anime version of Trinity Blood takes several different routes, and are making a couple of anime original arcs. The anime version is still keeping the main plot as a base, but does several things differently and leave somethings unexplained and unexplored, which makes the whole experience kind of confusing and incoherent.
The show also has a little Sci-Fi touch, which I after read the manga actually enjoying quite a bit. But in the anime, it was mostly confusing and just added more questions. Of course, as in many story´s, the mystery elements are one of the alluring aspects, but since the anime was so incoherent and in many aspects uninformative, and never got a sequel... Well, the mystery aspect became more of a confusion factor.
The overall story is kind of dark and tragic, but more light-hearted and comical scenes are also present – mostly in the form of Father Abel´s clumsy and specific persona. These moments are a lot funnier and fitting in the manga then in the anime, at least I think so. When some action occurs, it´s often pretty great. Then you hear “Krusnik, 40% release approved”, you now shit is about to get real.
With all that said, the story does have its good parts that really pulled me in, and let me become interested and intrigued. Hence why I started to read the manga, and boy I´m I glad I did that!
Art: 8/10
I actually really enjoyed the art. It differs slightly from the manga´s art, which I liked even more. I would not go so far as call it super unique, but it do has something that make it stand out. Studio Gonzo is the studio behind Trinity Blood, and for the time it was produced (2005) I must say that they did a good job. The characters have long lean bodies, and both men and women have beautiful features. The colour palette is not particularly anime vivid or depressingly dark either. More light and bright colours are used the more light-hearted scenes, and darker colours are used in the more serious scenes (Yay, me to state obvious things). It´s suites the mood of the show, and are adapted to the atmosphere of a specific scene. I most complement the light setting in the show, it’s almost always spot on, and letting the characters and the environment shin in the same light. I made it feel like the characters always belonged in the environment. The backgrounds are beautiful and detailed, for example a city silhouette or garden. Always a pleasure to look at.
For the animation, its good but nothing really outstanding either. Few weird and jerky movements, with an all over smooth feeling to it. The action scenes are nicely done, but are no masterpieces either. Not much CG has been used, and that which has been used are used in a nice manor.
Sound: 8/10
I personally aren´t a fan of both the OP and the ED. Both felt to slow and boring to me to really suite the show, which has a darker theme. I skipped both after heard them a couple of times. For the OST, it was much better. Dramatical orchestra music during for the action and more serious scenes, and some guitar pieces for the more calm or light-hearted scenes. Absolutely to my liking.
Background sounds and such, was always on par with what happened on the screen and did its job to highlight an event.
For the VA´s (dubbed), I think all did their job very well. The voices matched their characters and often managed to bring out their personality.
Character: 6/10
Once again, I feel like so much potential was lost. Like, I didn´t even realize that Esther was one of the main characters until I read the manga. She´s handled in such a way that she could have been the cute side character love interest to Abel, and not the main heroine. Again, here´s the problems with the different routes the anime chooses to take, Esther´s development and importance to the plot is completely overshadowed. Her warm, badass and quite funny personality never really came to life in this adaption. Same can be said about Tres (the machine who only serves Caterina). In the manga, he is an important character, and despite being an artificially made human, he has a lot of characterization and development.
But I must say that I like all the characters, it’s just that I feel that they weren´t used to their full potential. Trinity Blood for shore contains a lot of cool, likable and interesting characters. And to my delight many badass female characters is present. Such as the almighty cardinal Caterina, the powerful methuselah Asta-san, and the mysterious girl Seth. All great characters that are pretty fleshed out even in the show. Most of the characters, even the villains, are given specific and intriguing personalities, so at least I would not call them boring or waste of space. Some fill up their role in the show great, and other just feel like random inputs, which never happens in the manga.
As far as character development goes, it also limited by these alternative routes. Abel has in the manga together with Esther a wonderful development. And that development comes together with the plot of the manga, in the show he mostly stays the same. The sweet and heart-warming moments he and Esther shares are also very reduced in the show. Abel hides his fears and agony behind this goofy and clumsy persona. He has a dark past, which are slightly explored in the show. Bits and pieces of his past is given, but not at all to give the whole picture. He sees himself as “the enemy of all humans”, and lives only to repay for the sins he´s made. The part Esther is playing in Abel´s embrace of some parts of his past is undermined in the adaption as well, but here they do manage to portray some of Esther´s importance to Abel, and that she reminds him of someone important to him that he lost long ago.
The decision to take different routes and cut out some important parts, leave the feeling of somewhat incomplete characters. Not one- or two-dimensional, but just that - incomplete and lacking in something.
Enjoyment: 7/10
It may sound from all my whining in this review, that I didn´t enjoy myself watching this piece, which is wrong. I did enjoy it quite a bit, even if I many times was somewhat confused. I love vampire vs. human story´s and as a plot base Trinity Blood has a great one! Action, mysteries, a bit a blooming romance, super power and fantasy is some of my favourite genres, and even do the adaption was done in a poorly manor these bits still shined for me. It made me pick up the manga, and for that I´m always going to be grateful for.
Overall: 7/10
Absolutely, worth the watch for me. I love the genres and always crave more vampire story´s like this. The alternative routes, cut out of important information, limited character development, and a inconclusive ending dragged the score down for me. The thing is that I had soooo many questions during the show that never was answered. Like, how did Abel become a krusnik, and what is krusnik really? What was the Mars project? And what released the Armageddon and why? Hence, I picked up the manga. So, I would recommend the anime Trinity Blood to all of you that like vampire story´s and can put up with being confused and not getting all your question answered in the end. Because, the art and animation was quite good, so the watch will bring something new. I would recommend Trinity Blood the manga even more, the characters are awesome, the plot is intriguing and exciting, and the art is beautiful.
Hope you find this rant of a review somewhat helpful and informative! Skål!
