Black Blood Brothers

Story:
Even though I'm not a great vampire genre fan I liked the story of this anime. It has a nice build-up without leaving you guessing too much. The smooth development of the story and the nice cliffhangers keep you interested and because of there are only 12 episodes it's an easy to watch show. 9/10

Animation:
The animation style of Black Blood Brothers is a kind of cartoonish, but that really fits the story. This only goes for the shape of the characters, because there movements are fluent and mature. Especially the fights are done very nicely and makes you wanting more. In contrast to most vampire ... series, the animation of this show is pretty bright, which gives it a less serious look.
I give the animation 9/10.

Sound:
The OP is "Ashita no Kioku" by Naozumi Takahashi. It's a nice J-rock song which just rocks.
The ED is "Shinkirou" by LOVEHOLIC and is a typical J-pop ED.
I liked the way the special FX were done in this series. The sounds were very realistic, like the clashing of the swords and the gunfire. Also does the background music fit the action. Because of that you almost don't notice it. 8/10

Character:
The development of the characters is done very well in only 12 episodes. They also have many different sides. The series is pretty serious, but they managed to put in some funny remarks which makes the show not too heavy. Especially the main character Jirou has some funny one liners every now and then. 9/10

Enjoyment:
This is a short, action-packed, funny vampire series. I really loved watching this show and I hope there will be a second season. This all depends on the DVD sales, so when they are released, please buy them. Since this show only has 12 episodes you don't need to spend a fortune on just these few DVD's.
If you like an easy to follow story, action and vampires, this is definitely a show for you! I give Black Blood Brothers an overall score of 9/10.

Story:
It's a story that does indeed focus on a vampire, however the story makes it so that it doesn't revolve around the vampireness, because it really focuses on Jirou, the main character, going up against the Kowloon Children. The background story is revealed in small tidbits at the beginning of each episode, and is rather enigmatic at the start, however unveils as you progress over the episodes and is completely revealed on the final episode. The story itself really is kinda crappy, however the fact that they managed to fully pack the story and it's background story into just 12 episodes is somewhat notable I ... suppose.

Art:
The artwork is pretty well executed. The fight scenes are fluently animated. Contrary to most vampire genre series, the overall color to the art isn't very dark and shady, providing it with a little more lighthearted feel and mood, however still becoming serious when necessary.

Sound:
The OP is a pretty cool JRock song that definitely suits the series. Good choice for this one. The ED then switches to a light and more melodic tune, giving it a nice contrast. The sound effects work well, and the background music also fits the scenes nicely.

Character:
Well, lemme just start off saying that the main character and vampire, Jirou, has really just a cliche vampire look. Long black hair and red garb, particularly consisting of a long trench coat (hmm...sound like Alucard.) But then there's his brother, Kotarou, who has an appearance that is pretty much the farthest thing from vampire looking.
I'd really like to note though how much I dislike the fact that Jirou seems basically invincible and can defeat anyone with little to no effort, with the exception of the final battle. I don't really like seeing that in a show, despite how much I like action and shounen series.

Enjoyment:
The story is bearable, the art and sound's fine, the characters are fair, but for some reason, I really didn't find it very enjoyable. It lacked the elements to continuously draw me in and make me want to keep watching. Why? Well, the fights were mostly pretty curt, and as I've said, they weren't that entertaining because Jirou basically kicked too much ass in several short seconds, with the exception of the final match. I believe it was also devoid of the suspenseful attributes that most vampire series usually succeed in. Honestly, if it continued past 12 episodes, it probably would have become incredibly boring. Overall, I do feel it is a decent show for a quick 12 episode short series.

At the beginning of this anime I didn't really get the story due some events that weren't explained properly. It took out a bit of the joy and even made me consider the drop out on this one. However.. after a couple of episodes I finally started to understand the story. I was able to connect the relations between the characters and DAMN I have to say, this was one well out thought anime!

After having seen all the episodes it made me realize 1 thing, I want more!

The art of this anime reminds me kinda of some "classic" animes. In my opinion it told me ... that it had a great story hidden inside. Just looking at the art alone can make one tell that there has been a lots of thought and devotion to it.

The sound is pretty good, however I don't judge much to the sound. Overall conversations were very clear, special effects weren't to loud or exaggerated. It suited the scene in my opinion.

The characters may see a bit vague in the begin, because there isn't an introduction about them. Rather you willl get to know those characters through flash backs/memories in each episode for about 3-5 minutes. I found it a bit annoying in the begin to be honest, however after finishing it I really have nothing to complain about. The flash backs and the current time get together perfectly. With this the characters, from which some have a noticable background, will be properly explain.

I overall enjoyed this anime a lot! I am eager for more from this series! This is one of the few with a great story that isn't boring. In my opinion they had enough stuff left for a season 2, however looking at the date of its last released episode it sadly won't happen. Still this anime is worth watching! Maybe more than once ;).

This anime is as mediocre as it looks, the plot summary I read on Wikipedia was more interesting than the actual series.

Story: 5/10

The story was okay. It's not as interesting as the description of the series would make it to be. It had alot of history mentioned in the plot but who cares when it was basically about a vampire who is an old war hero moving his brother to a new place so he could experience friendship. They could have put the history in the scenes if it was really all that important, therefore the 12 episodes would have been worth it. This could ... have easily been an ova/ona series. It wasn't really any need to drag it out to 12 episodes. I wouldn't say the pace was slow (for me anyways) but it was dragged out. It reminded me of the series 2005's Guyver they could have easily been less than 26 episodes. There were no fillers or side stories in Black Blood Brothers. It did have flashbacks to Kotarou and Jirou spending time to get when Kotaruo was a female. The conclusion was good mostly because I was happy it was ending. It hinted at continuation of the story but it didn't end badly to where there were big questions unanswered.

What I liked about this series:

What I liked about this series is the comedy and not in the way you think. On the anime data news base sites that I have seen they have this series in the genre of comedy. Which I find it was dry on comedy. What I did find funny is that if he wanted to protect his brother wouldn't it have been smart if he DIDN'T wear a rich red suit with a funny looking wizard hat to match? Wouldn't that make him...STICK OUT?!! lol (Interesting note about Jirou's costume is that it looks like a Hellsing ripoff.)

Something else I found hilarious was in episode 5. When Jirou mentions that he could tell Mimiko was a virgin she becomes embarrassed and pushes Jirou on the street with little Kotarou on his back. Trying to dodge Mimiko's kicks, Jirou then rolls on the floor laughing squishing Kotarou who is still on his back. IThe person who was watching this series with me and I started laughing frantically. I had to pause the episode to get all my laughing out.While Jirou was laughing trying to dodge Mimiko's kicks didn't he realize he was steam rolling his little brother that was on his back? (lol) So in short, I liked the series because it was so lame that I could get a good laugh off of it.

Art: 5/10

The art in the series was weak. It had nice see through curtains in the first episode. Contained the goodies like hair shine, eye freckles, nice water detail (in one scene though the rest of the water detail was okay) and light/sun beams but it was still lacking over all. Although I'm a big fan of red the color scheme was average at best.

Sound: 5/10

I watched the english dubbed version on netflix so the sound review is for english dubbed. The voices were lifeless and borderline boring which is one of the biggest reasons why I don't like to watch dubbed anime because they usually fail to bring any personality to the table.

The beginning song is a big pass. It was attempt of rock that I didn't appreciate. The background music could have been better but it wasn't annoying. The end song, I actually liked. I wouldn't run out and buy it, but it is a highlight of the series but that may be because it's an end of me wasting my time....lol.


Character: 5/10

The characters introduced played their part but none of them made me interested in learning more about them.

Enjoyment: 5/10

It wasn't unbearable but if they would have dragged it longer than 12 episodes I would be writing a suicide note....lol

Overall: 5/10

It all averages out to 5/10 and I would add it's mediocre at best.

Would I recommend to someone else? I would have to think about that. If someone thought the animes I think are lame were cool and they were into vampire stories than I would recommend this to them other than that I wouldn't recommend it. The story summaries on the anime news databases is about as deep as it goes.

Ok, I'm going to make this very brief.

I didn't watch the whole show. I got up to like episode 7. And I was scimming down, looking at toher reviews and I noticed something. People are saying this is better then Trinity Blood!!!! No way is this better! Trinity Blood had characters with more life, the art work was a billion times better. This was like the flu compared to Trinity Blood.

I don;t even remember the story, who were the main characters? uhg this was boring.....

Take care everyone.

Black Blood Brothers is as mid and rehashed as anime can get, practically a collection of tested elements that have worked out many times in the past, presented in a subpar way. It took as few risks as possible and went for the formula others already established earlier and in better ways, thus it failed to be memorable. Here is the breakdown.

1) Incomplete story

The story is about a vampire super soldier fighting evil organizations of vampires, who want to … we are never told. What we are told is that this world is willing to have coexistence between humans and vampires and that many people ... are offering their blood willingly in order to keep the other kind peaceful. Plus, chances of turning into a vampire are not that high. So yeah, this coexistence is quite the interesting theme, but we never see what the villains plan to do and the whole brainwashing fuss I mention later kind of ruins it.

2) Annoying main character

At first, the lead reminded me of a much calmer Alucard (from Hellsing), as he too is a vampire dressed in red, fighting other vampires to protect the humans. But in reality he is a lot closer to Vash (from Trigun). He is the typical noble warrior, acting too goody with everyone and doesn’t want to hurt innocents; the result of which comes off as stupid. He clearly has no qualms about killing hundreds of vampire soldiers in the beginning of the show but he is more than willing to stop his attack and let the villains escape or heavily injure him if they are holding hostages. As noble as that sounds, it is nothing but lame in practice. The villains will escape and kill far more innocents, or he will almost lose his life for a nobody.

What is even more stupid is how he has no problem when killing vampires who are brainwashed to attack him. They basically count as innocents, so why is it okay to kill them so casually? Because of the berserk state they are in? Killing their controller would switch them back to how they were, so what the heck is his problem?

Also, he keeps around him two very annoying and problematic side characters. They are there just to cause trouble, so it’s stupid to drag them along everywhere he goes, just to act stupid and incompetent while he is next to them.

3) Annoying side characters

One is his brother, a very young cheerful vampire boy. People around him are cut to pieces and he will just ask for ice cream. He is completely out of touch with reality, and thus he ruins the atmosphere of the show. He will always trust people, always want to play, always say only the sweetest things. I WANT TO STRANGLE HIM. He is supposed to offer a bright side to the story and even act as a comic relief mascot animal with all that optimism of his. But for all we see he is nothing but a delusional idiot who always gets kidnapped or ends up in the middle of a battle, just to force his brother to side-track in order to help him out. He is not as uber-awful as Raki (from Claymore) but he shares the same ridiculous archetype.

The other sidekick is this neurotic office girl, who is the typical damsel in distress. As soon as she stands next to the MC she keeps hitting him and insulting him like he is a lowlife. Typical tsundere nonsense to make women come off as a bother and not funny at all.

4) The villains’ motives
We don’t get to see them. We see how stereotypically evil and megalomaniacs they all are, and that is pretty much all of it.

5) Brainwashing
Powerful vampires can mindcontrol lesser ones into doing anything they want, thus turning them to drones and cannon fodder in battles. They are mostly just innocents trying to have a normal life, yet with this cheap plot device the villains can have as many foot soldiers as they want. As cool as it sounds, it is just trashing the personalities of everyone if they can be stripped of free will in a heartbeat. It also ruins the coexistence theme of the two species and makes the MC to come off as a hypocrite when he won’t do a thing when the villains use HUMAN hostages, but he will have no problem when killing VAMPIRE innocents.

6) The hero’s hat
Just because it looked cool on Alucard or D, doesn’t mean that a big hat will look good on anyone. In this case, it was drawn in a way to make the hero look stupid.

7) Average production values
Animation and sound are just average; there are neither heavy artistic overtones nor great voice acting and smart dialogues. The main intro song was nice to listen to for a few times but that’s it.

Piece all the above together and you can see why it’s a simplistic adventure with annoying characters and wasted potential. But to be honest the fight scenes had decent choreography which was not mostly magic attacks doing any shit the scriptwriter wants. Besides stopping bullets and mind control, the action was cool hand-to-hand or sword-based. Not that anyone will care anymore, since the colors are not Demon Slayer level.

Black Blood Brothers is by-far one of the best animes I've seen yet. Parts of it may have people confused, but by the end, it all makes sense and may have you going "wow"! The plot line is great, and it doesn't take too much away from the traditional vampire story which was kind off nice for once. I still have yet to figure out why this series is not very popular, it has something for everyone: fight scenes, romance, action and a few comedy scenes.

I only have a few things to say about this poor excuse for a anime.
its unbelievably awful and im disappointed with the amount of people giving it a good rating, when quite clearly its one of the worst anime ever created.
my only advice would be to not watch this, otherwise you will be bored senseless for the full 12 episodes. That is all the reviewing that mess deserves.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. .

It would be ill adviced if I did not warn you ahead that the sound area is going to get pretty ugly, but you've been warned.

I didn't really want to try Black Blood Brothers after the horrid rech of a series Twilight had come out and was ruining the name of vampires, so I was a little untrusting of this series. But after seeing an amv for Within Temptation on this series I decided why not when I find the time. I found that time yesterday.

The plot was descent enough, had some flaws, but it was descent. It sort of reminded me a little ... of Shinzo at first, the journey to paradise, then it jumped ship to a reminder of Saiyuki. Hm.. Well I will say this that the prologue at the beginning of the series wasn't really necessary. And many scenes had made me sidetrack to my own mind but quickly snap me back to the series at hand. I will not lie, it was pretty un-impressive at the start but got better along the way. For a short series it did have a slight fast pace plot, and quickly ran to the their destination by the end of the first dvd. I wish it were longer but in all honesty not so much. 'sighs' As I said the plot was descent enough, just as the summary discribs, but also it has its... what do you call them.. boring features to it.

The art work was pretty fair game here. But I could not ignore the long faces, the two scrawny stomachs, and oh yes.. a plump looking Kontorou (he may be little but I doubt he is that plump). Some of the hair styles could have also been better, but it was pretty good and I enjoyed it somewhat. The background wasn't too dull nor was it to bright like some anime like to give it a cheery sort of feel, so yes. It was pretty fair with some faults to it.

The sound now.. (This is me cursing the dub out.. you have been warned twice).

I hated it.. The moment I heard Kontorous voice I knew offically that FUNimation once again messed up the voice cast. Urgh.. I had to stop the disk the first few minutes after it really started just to gain my nerve to watch it. And I must say I almost regret it. Tantum J. Michael... Jiro voice.. How many times am I going to have to say that this idiot was just too dull.. I swear they chose him because some fangirls commented his voice sounds sexy.. Sex appeal for a character isn't enough. 'sighs' It was gruff, it was a little off, and even when he did a suppose to be hilarious face, I could not laught because I could hear the dullness behind the panic. Really.. he did not match with the character, and I once again am reminded that this was to be the voice of Sebastian Michaelis. Disappointing. Kontorou, was just horrid. So wincy and scratchy and overly loud.. ouch my ears. Mimiko.. wasn't to bad but the voice didn't match the character well. 'sighs' I feel bad for the anime.. and any other anime that FUNimation got a hold of.. they may get a large amount of anime but I must say their voice casting skills suck to the bone. (In other words the english dub was just horrible.)

Characters now... Well as I said the sound messed with this opinion here. I barely could pay attention to busy with trying not to strangle whoever was in charge of picking the voice cast. Jiro, threw the dullness and the hint of gruffness I found that he was a pretty stubborn and strict character with a gentel side to him, the voice really really could have been better for him to show this but unfortunately you need to watch what he does to get him. Saddening but true. He was a pretty descent character and I liked him, but his reasons for protecting Kontorou so strongly are rather see threw.

Kontorou now.. I just had to ignore him.. I could bring myself to pay attention to him because of how bad the voice was. I can give you what I know though.. he is hyper and gets into trouble alot. Yeah.. no different from a normal child, but I just couldn't pay any attention him other than that.

Mimiko was.. innoscent with a short temper. Her voice as I said wasn't too bad, but I found when she yelled I had to tune her out. She felt a bit sueish if you know what I mean, for two shows now it consentrated a little too much on her, so I have a small fear that she might end up like Bella from Twilight. Not good, not good at all.

Most of the characters I forget now reason why they weren't really strong enough to gain my attention. 'sighs' I am not really looking forward to the next episodes, don't get me wrong the plot was descent, art was fair as was the characters, but the sound I am not. 'sighs' I will make sure to put it on subs next time though.

My enjoyment of this was a five. The voice cast just continued to lower my enjoyment so I really couldn't get into it, but I did enjoy watching Jiro beat up his little brother and Mimiko yell at Jiro. The humor was funny (with the exception of Jiro's moments.) but my enjoyment was pretty low.

Overall I give this a six. I can't give it a 5.3 like I want to but if you try to round five off you'll get a five so I will leave it with a mediocre rating. I didn't enjoy it is so much, the plot was descent, and art was fair, but be warned those who attempt the dub.. it was bad. Characters were all right to but not completely. There are more better vampire series than this to be honest.

Black Blood Brothers was the best vampire animed show I have ever watch in my entire life!!! If you haven't seen this show and you love vampires like I do you really really really need to see this its got love, hate, violence, comedy, and most of all action!!! Take it from me once you see this amazing show you will want it to never end 'cause there are only 12 episodes in the making and I've seen all of them!!!

Well to begin with, this is just another vampire based anime, although not the best it does well with catchy music and a good story line. however with the story line it is simple to guess what will happen next which was dissapointing and the characters were not all that imaginative but they all portrayed their roles quite well. it has a fair share of humorous scenes and a few good short battle scenes, even the commentary was enjoyable if you listen to it on DVD. Overall if you like vampire animes and have run out of ideas of which ones to watch consider this ... anime a go it was worth my while.

I really did like the show, though I found it a bit hard to pick out what was happening now and happening back during the attack on Hong Kong because of some of the flash backs. Kotaro is a really cute and funny character, always getting into trouble and is a good contrast to his very old sounding brother, Jiro. It’s nice that they had kept a version of the real vampire myths. They kept the *cough* feelings that happen when a vampire bites another, and some of the stuff about their weaknesses and such. The play between a couple of people is rather fun ... including the strange Rinsuke Akai who seems to be rather flamboyant. He had no reason being there except for to be a yaoi fan girls dream.

The animation is rather nice and fluid though we have one of the same problems as other shoes where we get the stupid motion lines. It’s supposed to make it seem rather fast but it just feels cheesy most of the time. There are a lot of times that it does look cheaply made and characters look out of proportion, but I still like the show when it doesn’t. I like how they change to a sort of grayer tone for when they show a flashback though I don’t understand why they don’t do it to the flashbacks of the Kowloon War.

The voices in the English dub are actually pretty fitting to the characters and not to off-putting. One of the problems I had was when some of the other characters were brought in. Their voices would ether be to low for me to hear and when I turned it up, the loud voices and music hurt my ears. The music has a pretty nice pop art sound to it and then it was balanced with a little bit of the piano music, and I never had trouble with it overpowering the scenes. Most fit pretty well though they did have some of side-walk walking music that made some characters fun.

I hate that Twilight is mentioned every time vampires come up but if ur a Twilight hater please don't be discouraged.

I found Black Blood Brothers truly wonderful, with a meaningful ED theme, and intricate characters.

The ending could've been better

as for me it left something to be desired but it was truly a good series.

This is one of those shows which just had potential for more.
Unfortunately, it failed in almost everything it tried to do.
What a wasted opportunity.


STORY[6]:
-> So generic it hurts. Story follows ex-vampire killer(vampire himself), a hero of a war which is shown in first episode and his attempts to protect his little brother, all that while dealing with various bits from his past. While it had a lot of potential because it was presented somewhat in a new way, it failed miserably due to the fact many things are just not explained. I dunno if there's manga which is supposed to be read before/after watching the ... show, but from anime only point of view, too many things are not explained during this 12 episodes.


ART[6]:
-> I wouldn't call art bad. Some effects are flashy and fights sometimes look good. However, most of the fights are just soldiers shooting at empty space with like thousands of bullets while vampires cut them down. The, how I like to call it, "atmosphere art" (trees, sky, etc.), is done really bad. And this is a big shame. Show has a lot of scenes in nature or on the river, and the scenery is just...bland. It just isn't "alive".


SOUND[7]:
-> OP song is really good. Unlike soundtrack, which is rather bad for a show with many emotional scenes, voice acting is done superbly. It's really easy to recognize characters by their voice, and emotions exist when they are talking. Too bad soundtrack doesn't follow.


CHARACTER[6]:
-> I feel bad for giving this one a 6. But the fact is, this show maybe doesn't even deserve that much. Characters start off strong. Main character, Jirou, is presented as super-strong, but caring and gentle person. And while he's explained a lot in the beginning, any character development is nonexistent later on. Many characters just aren't developed at all. Cassa, probably main villain, but the way she acted, more of a nuisance than a villain, is completely forgotten when it comes to character development. This is category which could have been pure 10, but since the show is only 12 episodes and it rushed through many dialogs, it simply failed to deliver any real development, not only for secondary, but for main characters as well.


ENJOYMENT[6]:
-> As always, this category won't be explained too much. I did enjoy it, especially first few episodes, but it just has too many flaws to really love it.


OVERALL[6]:
->Just a 6 for a really good show. It really, really, really should have been 24 episodes long. Too many things unanswered, too many characters un(der)developed/unexplained, too many things rushed. A real shame.
I'll be honest, I did hope to find out there is season 2, but there isn't.
It may be great manga(if there's one), but as anime, it failed.
Pitty.

I don’t know if you notice lately or before but there was been a numerous amount of anime with vampires in the main element. Much like movies in the past, present and the future, the vampire boom has been around anime ever since the ‘80s (as far as I know) and there were many hits such as Hellsing, Blood: The Last Vampire, Karin, Vampire Hunter D and many others to be named. But I wonder what can be different about this series or different from any vampire media……well, let’s hope it won’t be like that other vampire franchise but let’s focus on this now.

During ... a war called the Hong Kong Crusade, an Old Blood Black Blood Brothers, Jiro Mochizuki, a.k.a. the Silver Blade (Gintō), fought and defeated the Kowloon king and also most of the Kowloon Children. Ten years later, Jiro heads to Hong Kong with his little brother, Kotaro Mochizuki, in hopes of reaching The Special Zone, a thriving secret city where Vampires live. They soon realize that a plan to infiltrate the Special Zone is being hatched by the Kowloon Children survivors. As they travel to The Special Zone, Jiro encounters enemies from the past and new threats that may endanger the safety of the Special Zone. The abduction of Kotaro, by one of the Kowloon Children, thrusts him even further into the battle.



Most of the time in the series, they place the story of Jiro and his late lover in the beginning segments before the main plot surfaces onto the screen. It can be confusing for the first few times if that story doesn’t intersect too much with the original focus but it didn’t seem to bother me in the that track time. The pace for the show wasn’t really quick but for an 12-episode series, it didn’t drag out too long and it got to where it needed to be at that time but at the series’ end, it should added at least one more episode to explain some further details but then again it was one of those “you have to read the manga to find out more” type of show but it’s mostly saying, “Read for once in your life, you lazy fuck!!”.



The characters in this series are not as flattering or even noteworthy of being memorable. Jiro plays the archetype of the vampire who still mourns for his lost love and somewhat an unstoppable force to reckon with……well, not really. Water is his weakness. Yes, we can survive bullets and sometimes the sun since he does be in the daylight but water can really mess him up. Kotaro…….should I feel bad that the first I see him in the show and he was banging on the coffin and Jiro beat him around, I laughed at that? But, yeah, Kotaro is basically the cheery comic relief of the show and he’s not really helpful in this and the fact he does get kidnapped and put in danger a lot. He just seems more to get in the way of things then actually helping out. Mimiko wasn’t too bad of a character to deal with, although she does chastise Jiro many times in the story. The only other character that actually does contribute to the story is Cassa, once friends with Jiro and his lover, Alice Eve (not the actress) but betrayed him by killing her. Every other character (like Kelly Wong) gets tossed aside from show altogether, practically not caring whether their story matters at all.



The animation is rather bland and uninteresting. It looks well done with 50% of the fight scenes but there’s nothing more to that. Group TAC & Studio Live, the companies that provided the animation, really don’t have anything else noticeable in their resume, aside assisting other animation studios on their projects but I don’t know if they’re going to have any future projects after this. The music is also surprisingly dull, albeit has a switch of melodic tone from the OP song to the ED song. The BG music was nothing to expect anything new but average at best.

FINAL VERDICT: It would be cliché to say Black Blood Brothers brought nothing interesting or exciting to the table but it holds up to be pretty average in my book. Some parts you’ll find to be remotely watchable and consistent but aside from that, it can be a mess to go through with. I would say BBB is only good for a one-time watch and that’s it.

Personaly i expected WAY more of this anime, story is quite ok but got rushed, en i wanted to see more background history and further development of some char. I could follow the storyline easy, at some points it was distracting from the real line, some fights were good but toned down to much, like many anime after 2001 i had a bit trouble with this one, an had hoped for more epis. somewhat dissapointing that it was only 12 episodes

Solidly entertaining but ultimately quite average.

PLOT: There’s a decent enough storyline but sometimes I was left feeling that I wasn’t getting the full picture. There is an awful lot going on – a myriad of side stories and back stories that are just not given enough time, it seems there would have easily been enough material to cover 26 episodes rather than the 12 on offer. As such we’re left with a short show with a lot of characters and not enough time is allowed for character development. The end result is a lot of generic-ness. Its a pity because there some really interesting characters ... here, notably the Old Blood vampires, and I would have loved to know a bit more about them – especially their roles during the Holy War. The primary antagonist Casa is never given a clear motive or back story either! So many hints and so little plot resolution = disappointment, but on the upside each episode is very entertaining in its own right. There’s plenty of action and I was never bored, its only on reflection when writing a review that I realised how unfinished the show was. Still a good vampire show to pass the time with. There is an ending but you get the feeling there should be more – it’s more like the end of an arc rather than the end of a series.

ANIMATION: Its fine, does the job. Nice enough character designs (although I hated Jirou’s hat with a passion – its a crime against fashion!) all rather simple and clean. Vampire powers and fight scenes were well done too – overall its a fairly average looking show, not bad not brilliant.

MUSIC & VOICE ACTING: Music was passable – didn’t like the OP, quite liked the ED. Voice acting was good though. Takahiro Sakurai (Suzaku – Code Geass, Kanda - D.Gray-Man) in the main role was great – Jirou’s personality is quite hot and cold and Sakurai displayed a good range in his voice work. Jun Fukuyama is in there too providing his ‘Lelouch’ voice as Zelman - who I really liked.

So all in all a good entertaining series, even if it feels a bit incomplete.

i love love love love love love love love love vampire animes lol... love lol.. umm any way this anime was great it was almost better than vampire knight . if your a big fan of vampire animes then get ready to add this to your top five animes . it had adventure, drama,action, romance,suspense all compact in one anime . its been awhile since i seen anime that i watched with out stoping. this anime is starts off about silver balde , he is tryint to kill the remaining Kowloon Children that are descended from the Kowloon King of the Hong Kong Crusade ... that took place in Japan. The Silver Blade killed the Kowloon King and became known for his skill around the world. After the war ended, about ten years, Jiro leaves the safe, secluded home of the Dark Princess and her older brother Crow to the snowy north to Japan with his younger brother, Kotaro, to live in The Special Zone, a home made for vampires after the Hong Kong Crusade for them to live in peace. But they soon find out that The Special Zone isn't all what its cracked up to be. But before that, Jiro is greeted by a Compromiser, a person who is the "peace-maker," between the vampires and humans and helps vampires get into the Special Zone as well as finding them a place to stay there.
Behind all this is the main plot, the friend that betrayed Jiro and Alice is planning on getting into the Special Zone as well. And when she arrives she will do whatever she can to get what she wants. The series makes the most of time-hopping through the different phases of the story, a particular artform the Japanese storytellers do well most of the time, but the cuts back and forth in these episodes can lose an unwary watcher along the way every so often.but all in all great anime

Black Blood Brothers or BBB for short..is my FAVORITE vampire anime other than Hellsing,the art and animation is wonderful,and the plot is as well.And,FUNimation has once again impresses me on the English dubbed voice actors.

Although,I like the Japanese dub...equally...^^

Overall 10(Masterpiece)

-Delaney

Story: I found the story to be just the perfect blend of complex and simplistic. It's not the typical vampire themed Anime. There's plenty of great action, without the typical gore of vampire themes. I found the story to be less predictable, but it has tons of information in just 12 episodes.

Art: I found the art to be rather simplistic. It reminded me of watching those older cartoons. Surprisingly, it works for this Anime. It didn't bother me, but I can see how it may bother some viewers.

Sound: The sound in this Anime sadly didn't capture me much. That may be a good ... thing, because it means it didn't lack much. I do think this Anime has one of the best opening themes though.

Characters: I found the characters in this Anime to be rather complex, yet some are extremely funny. The serious nature of some characters gives way to a moment of comedy, though keep in mind I have an odd sense of humor. Each character has a true purpose, and they're easy to keep track of.

Enjoyment: This Anime is the kind someone will really enjoy. Whether you're sick of vampire themes or not. It's got actions, serious plot, humor, and more. The only way it couldn't be enjoyable is if it seems far too cartoonish to some.

Overall: In the end, I'd say most people would enjoy this Anime. It's only 12 episodes, so it goes by rather quickly. It's got a rather unique feel to it, for it being a vampire theme. I guess I'd call it more of a family friendly type Anime. It's worth checking out a couple episodes, if not the whole thing.