Trinity Blood

As an Anime Trinity Blood has received some criticism that it rips off other anime's and it's rather story is rather bland. I disagree with the first, to say that you would have to accuse hundreds of other anime's for the same thing,( e.g: Hoop Days from Slam Dunk.) There are always going to be similar scenes and themes and characters that share a similar personality, it's kind of unfair to mark an anime down for that. Plus it doesn't help if the anime is made from the same studios that brought other popular and stunning anime.

As for the second i somewhat partially agree to ... it, it's not bland, it is just not explored.

The Story is set the distant future after the destruction brought about by Armageddon. Set 900 years after an apocalyptic war between humans and vampires, the series focuses on the on-going cold war between the Vatican and the Empire. Fighting on the Vatican's side is Abel Nightroad, a Crusnik which feeds on vampires. some in the Vatican and the Empire strive for peace, other factions will do anything to stop it, Vatican has to rely on other allies to counter the situation.

so it's not your typical Vampire story of humans versus vampires in a struggle for survival or whatever, after the war some peoples of both sides desire peace others believe there should be war and the main antagonist and his faction of the series are trying to to star a war, the story focuses, on the main protagonist and other main characters in their attempt to stop a war for happening a work for a peaceful future. so it's not a complete rip off, of Hellsing or anything.

The only problems with the story is that it lacks some originality, the whole vampire theme and some of its story outlines have been done before, and that in the Anime it is not as explored as deeply or as thoroughly as it should have been. It mainly shows the characters and their interactions with others and their relationships, their own personal conflicts, their missions etc. in short it doesn't really show the bigger picture, and the anime assumes you have read the Manga and Novels, so it leaves a lot out.

however it does give a good blend of sci-fi, fantasy, political intrigue, drama and horror. So the it can't be written off completely. i rate the story at 8.

The artwork is animated by Gonzo and going by Gonzo's works it is done extremely well, very impressive looking with stylish and vibrant looks for the characters in their clothing, varied character designs, and also good detail on other minor characters, they are not left as bland as they are in other anime's they still look pretty sharp so it doesn't ruin the whole thing, the whole thing is very eye catching, excellent CG enhanced backgrounds, brilliant fight scenes. The quality does lessen a bit in some scenes though and though there is varied character designs, some can complain that a few of the female character's would look the same if you changed the hair and eye colour for this reason i rate it at 9.

The sound for the anime is done really good, excellent sound effects for various things, good theme musics to help with the drama of the scene, i'm not too keen on the opening song, but thats down to preference really, i enjoyed the ending theme though had great sound to it. Unlike many anime's Trinity Blood has a got a really good English dub, the voices fit with most of the characters well some of the voices i really didn't like and for the opening theme sound rated at 9.

The characters of the story are well done and also interesting, and show a lot of development, always a strong point in anime. The main protagonist in the anime, Abel Nightroad, is quite similar and often compared to Vash the Stampede from the Trigun series, and with good reason, they both have goofy and kind also somewhat pacifistic nature, they also have refused to kill unless in extreme situations that is beyond their control and they are always sad at the loss of a life, all of this is also hiding a rather highly intelligent and a powerful being, also hiding the fact that neither are human. They both have MASSIVE appetites, shown to eat great amounts of food, rather quickly. most consider this a rip off, but i think its more of a tribute or parody if not more of a coincidence, it is definitely not the first time i have seen a character that is similar to Vash.

Most major developments of characters come from the two main protagonists Abel and Esther Blanchett, Abel showing how he deals with his own conflicts and dilemma's etc, Esther is shown to mature quite a bit and does have quite a lot of plot relevance, almost as much as Abel does.

The other major developments come from the Methuselah(vampires) Asta and Ion, who are shown to let go of their prejudice's against humans.

Overall, all the character's play their part well and add their bit to the story, probably most of the Anime is taken up by showing the character developments, even some of the minor character's grow and develop, character development is a strong point in Anime however it probably spends a little too much time on them hence, it does not get into the story as deeply as it should. i rate character's at 9.

After watching the Anime i loved it, great characters and visuals with good quality all the way through and a good story into the bargain, Trinity Blood deserves a little more credit than it is generally given, I understand that some probably won't like it, but you really need to read the Manga to understand it better and certainly need to read the Novels to get the full background story of the series.
There are difference's between all three of them (Anime/Manga/Novels) each telling it slightly differently. As an Anime on it's own i would give the Anime an 8 overall, but after reading the novel's and Manga i would give it a 9 overall since i understood the background and story better, i would loved to have given this anime a 10 overall but the way the Anime tells the story kind of marks it down a bit, it also has similar and it ended quickly (24 episode season) if it had another season or a few OVA's that could fill in the gaps it would be better, so overall i rate the Trinity Blood Anime at 9.

still considering i stumbled across the anime completely by accident, that score is pretty good. Read the Manga's and Novels to get a better story, after reading them, i re-watched the series and enjoyed it a lot more. Even on it's own it's still well worth watching.

I had heard from many that this was a *very good* anime. After watching it I was disappointed. It had the potential to be good but failed to live up.

The story seemed disjointed, I didn't feel like there was an overriding arc, just several arcs pasted together. The best anime has both. There were several whiny characters who were annoying. And...melodramatic anyone?

The music was a bit overwhelming at times.

On the positive side, there were some good characters, Abel Nightroad in particular. I wish the anime had delved a little more into the Mars/space aspect as in the ... light novels.

I watched the torrent that included fansubs by Anime Empire, Conclave, mahou and Shinsen. The subs were fine, very good, no problems. Those are good groups anyway.

The color palette for Trinity Blood was also, in my opinion, ugly. There was nothing exceptional about the artwork overall. The war zeppelins, and other battle machinery did look good. Sometimes random objects or scenes stuck out as being pleasing, but they were the exception. Not bad art in this anime, just not impressive or unique.

I think this could have been a better story if they had drawn the light novels out beyond 24 episodes of anime. This could've really been good and I was interested in some of the backstory and canon that wasn't even touched upon in the anime.

Trinity Blood is at this moment of writing eleven years old, and a lot has changed in the world since the days this anime aired. In fact, this anime aired a year after Fullmetal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell aried on Adult Swim and in its own year saw series like Speed Grapher, Blood+, Shakugan no Shana, and Rozen Maiden to name a few series of the time. Watching Trinity Blood was truly like viewing a time machine, for I found myself constantly admiring little tropes in the writing and how characters acted or expressed themselves that modern anime either doesn't do or just ... do like anime did some ten years ago. That is not to say that Trinity Blood is superior to modern anime by any means, but even still, there are things to take note of and enjoy of a series from this time.

Let me get this out of the way though, yes, Trinity Blood in its writing rips off Hellsing and Trigun with the same shame that DOOM (the 1991 video game) has musical cues ripped from popular metal songs. But just because something rips off those two works doesn't mean that the series is inherently flawed or terrible. Off the top of my head, Trinity Blood would have been a far worse ripoff about a vampire who doesn't like killing traveling on a desert planet while getting occasional orders from his female superior as he tries to maybe find his brother and atone for his sins (or something). That's one example I can come off my head. Looking at Trinity Blood from its own perspective, it's a series set in a distant future where the Earth riddled itself with nuclear warfare in a war for new-found longevity. The series focuses on people who are trying to keep the peace between mankind and the Methuselah (what vampires refer to themselves as) who now inhabit the Earth.

With that out of the way, let us examine Trinity Blood a little further. Trinity Blood is originally adapted from a light novel by Sunao Yoshida, who died just a year before the very release of this anime. Due to Yoshida's death, Trinity Blood is fated to have some issues arise from this situation, mainly in being adapted from an incomplete story and partly from just being a light novel adaptation.

The story overall is nicely told, though there is an episode or two early on that feel sorely out of place and could have been handled differently than what we find ourselves with. There are also some issues I feel with the way the anime explains its setting. There simply isn't enough for the average viewer to get on the first or second watch, and would require some extensive research outside the anime as to what is even going on in the series in the first place. I wonder if this was a purposeful tactic though, just to spring interest in the novels for those who have questions of the anime. Or if the anime was made in such a rush that this was considered okay.

The animation and art honestly swaps between fantastic to highly noticeable issues. I didn't particularly see a lot of errors, but I did see some usage of CGI that was noticeable and just not at all appealing. Further, when the vampires moved at high speeds, they would be given this sort of after image effect that just looked cheap. Speaking of which, there are moments in many action scenes where character movement feels more like someone moved the character frame by frame across the scene, rather than individually draw their movements, leading to a floaty feeling from time to time. The worse offender though comes towards the end, where during the action, we zoom in on a character's hand. Only, they don't animate this, so you get a literal zoom into the pixels and a cut to a drawn close up. This is either just a lazy decision, the result of a troubled production, or just a flat out badly thought out idea. But even then, the art and animation is still particularly good, even when it makes a mistake here and there.

As for the music and general sound, it's alright stuff. The music either sets the tone well or really gets the blood pumping for an action scene. If I may take a moment, the opening song Dress from Buck-Tick was originally made in 1993 and is a particularly good choice of music for the series. However, the ending song is just dreadful, with some of the worst Engrish you will ever hear and possibly some of the worst singing I could ever allow myself to harm my ears with. I don't even know what anyone was thinking with this decision, but they use another such song during the anime as an insert song, and it was just torture. I don't know if this is just a case that the production staff didn't know enough English to know that this was grating to the ears or something, but someone should have spoken up at the first moment this was all suggested and just said no to it. The only thing as bad as this is when they got Mari Iijima to do the English voice work for the English dub of SDF Macross, and that was just embarrassing.

However, if I may take a moment towards the end here to be more general, the series strength is in its writing. It's action is quite lacking really and leaves you yearning for more than what it gives you. This is a shame then, because most times you feel like a grand spectacle of a fight is going to break out, but it doesn't. Abel Nightroad simply dispatches all of his problems without fail. A fight simply ends far too quickly or without satisfying resolution. But on the other hand, this series does a superb job in setting up the satisfying moment when Abel or the like just comes out and reveals the true nature of themselves and just absolutely wipes whatever smile was on their opponent's face, not too unlike how Alucard does so in two early fights where he just comes back at his opponent with a force they never imagined.

The series greater strength is in its writing. At all times I watch this series, I find myself immersed in this world and everything about it, yearning to learn more about it and watching characters interact with the world. It really is a shame that this series ended the way it does though, as it leaves me with a continued want for more and a dissatisfaction not to dissimilar to those coming from the ending of either Hellsing (the TV Anime) or Black Blood Brothers.

However, anyone who makes comparisons of this series to Hellsing, especially in this day and age, may need a history check. At the time this series was airing, the only Hellsing anime to exist was the thirteen episode TV series, the Ultimate series wouldn't come about until a year later. The original Hellsing anime was not at all a fantastic spectacle that the Ultimate series was. Sure, there are many cases where the anime was better than what we get in Trinity Blood, but not by much, honestly.

On the other hand, Abel Nightroad is such a one trick pony in his spectacle that it does get boring to see him do the same thing over and over again. Alucard though? Alucard was always finding a way to kill his opponent in some spectacular manner, constantly topping himself off with the violence he brought to you. It is such a shame then, because Abel could have possibly reached such heights, or even any other character, but the anime never took the liberties to allow for such fights to happen, and so we get a series of energy blasts and light shows.

In the end, we have Trinity Blood as a small relic of the past. While it isn't the most groundbreaking anime you will watch, I think it is worth some viewing value. It has aged remarkably well over the years, its art still holds a candle to a lot of modern anime, and it's story, while horribly flawed, is better than so many light novel adaptations created today.

I can't recommend this series as a vampire anime though, nor can I recommend it as an action series, nor can I recommend it alone on story. But I do recommend at least giving this series at least one watch. At least one, with an open mind and considering the series on its own merit.

To start off, I will try make this a short review. I don't have much to say about it, but enough to make my opinion known.

Story - 7
This is a good story, don't misjudge my 7. The reason I knock the score down is the poorly told story.
The story IS there, and its a good one! My issue is how it folds out. I understand making a confusing plot line and wrapping it all up by the end. However this is not the case. Yes, it wraps up the story, however very, very, very, slowly and still confusing.
I was completely lost on the ... story. Events happening early on in the series seem like "A New Adventure Every Episode!" kind of situation.
In reality they weren't, and to realize this, you need the important info revealed at the almost end of the series, but wait, we won't be specific enough, so it still raises some questions... Just to find out that the piece of missing info was revealed earlier on in the series.
I had to look up the general plot by the end of watching the show to clear up everything.
Broken up score
Plotline - 9
Unfolding the story - 4

Art - 10
This is some of the best artwork I have ever seen in an anime. Very pleasing to the eyes.

Sound - 7
The sound track is a hit or miss.
Sound effects are fine.
Voice acting is a hit or miss with some characters (Dubs).

Characters - 7
Decent back stories, but this also falls in the story telling part too. Character back histories are poorly revealed.

Overall its worth a watch or 2. While the story IS good. Its not revealed good. Pay close attention to the plot, perhaps you'll understand it better than I did.

An anime that is over 17 years old at this point, and yet its' art looks like it could've been made yesterday.
Apart from the character design ofc which was more akin to the character design most anime had back then, and has evolved and changed over time, the rest of the art itself looks absolutely stunning, and would put many anime today to shame.
Back then the story would've gotten slack for being "yet another vampire story", since most of the big ones like vampire knight, helsing, etc all originated roundabout that time period.
Looking at the state of anime today however and the amount of isekai ... with endlessly repeated tropes, an anime like this would've been a breath of fresh air.
Also, in hindsight the amount of vampire story anime's that ended up being released back then aren't as much as some reviews make it seem, and I still believe this anime is somewhat of a "hidden" gem today.
It's truly a shame that Trinity Blood only ended up lasting 1 season, because imo it deserved far more

I thought this was actually quite a magnificent anime, the non-stop action was what drew me in, but what I really like about it was the mystery behind each character, and not knowing what they are capable of, is the best part I think actually. But, as an atheist most of the religious stuff that has to do with this anime, actually made me laugh in some parts ha ha. But, through and through, I actually did think this anime was quite good, and what made me want to watch this in the first places is when I finished the anime "Hellsing". I wanted something ... similar to that, and this seemed to be a decent replacement for it I guess.

Okay, this anime gave me the impression of when you're like driving your car on a nice sunny day on a nice straight road then suddenly something came across your path and you go off road and it gets bumpy you dunno where you're going and then somehow manage to come back on the right track again. Yeah that kind of feeling.

The fact is, this anime was close to perfection, given the scenarios and the plot, the back story of some characters especially for father Abel is very strong and interesting, like wow, this character is BADASS! But... i don't really like how he turned ... out to be. So much for my expectations huh? I was hoping for another Van Hellsing or a Dante version kind of vibe. But oh well, it doesn't matter, i still like how he turned out to be, to be a priest and taken a vow not to kill anyone in order for him to atone for his sins is cool, there is nothing wrong with that right? But the problem is, he is sometimes useless or rather, the hero is not suited to be called a hero, why? Because he is off timing (this is the part where the hero should pop up and save the day!) if only "they" made use of him properly and timed his entry of execution and badass exit, even his clumsy attitude would be overlooked or rather add to his charm but what's happening is quite the opposite everywhere he goes for a mission i'm sure you noticed, yeah, more people die when he's around, is that what you call a vow to protect? For me it's pure BS. The only character that really caught my attention was the "SWORD DANCER" now that's what you call a HERO in disguise, yeah let the sword speak yeah.

I was expecting alot of action and more drama from this, but what a disappointment this is. I'm giving it a 7/10 i kinda like the humor that's all.

Without comparing it to other similar animes i'd like to say that Trinity Blood was a very enjoyable series.

And while i watched it the first time i was left satisfied, i found myself thinking about it later on and referring back to it so much that i realized it really was an enjoyable anime.

The tone is kind of calm and slow and you may have to pay attention closely to get some things but otherwise it has a deep story with a deep theme.

This is the perfect example of a fantasy theme marvelously adapted to science fiction, made with mastery and real gusto.

At first we may think it is one of those stories mixing fantasy and science, but no, this is true science fiction, and with a very well developed plot and drama. It has one of the most intense dramatic scenes in an anime, full of drama and beautifuly shooted.

It has politic schemes, treachery, spionage, terrorism, prejudice, love, drama and action, well woven into a gripping story.

There is a litlte continuity mistake with one of the Inquisition Officers, but I can overlook that in the light ... of the overall story.

I strongly recomend it

Back before Meyer's Twilight ruin the entire vampire scene and gay'd up the genre. Trinity Blood was the go-to vampire anime series that had it all, at least when it ran on adult swim during unforgettable nights. Nowadays, I avoid ever having anything to do with vampires, period.

But nonetheless, I found myself going through the series once more and found it to be pretty refreshing.

/* -= Art=- */
If you're a steam punk fan, you'll definitely love Trinity Blood's Victorian-style art. Much of the enjoyment of the show lies in the background artwork and it sets the theme for the rest of the episode, pretty much ... like the background of a street fighter stage.

There is, however, one draw back to the style that Trinity Blood uses. For maximum quality or effect of the style to take place, you need to view the show in a dim-lighted room. Watching it in board daylight is like walking through a haunted house fully lit.

The character's overall look is also design for cosplay. Pretty much anyone who has ever laid there hands on a fantasy MMORPG has played a priest, and anyone with a Priest clothing fetish, well you do the math.

/* -= Character=- */
Character development in Trinity Blood is more or less important. There is only one thing you need to know about the characters; either vampire or not a vampire. Once you can make the distinction, nothing matters. The human characters don't usually last long or live long enough to develop, mostly they died fairly quickly. On the other hand, vampires or noble characters generally fights Abel and ends up dying anyways.

If anything, the only characters that matter is the Abel, Cain, and Esther. Esther pretty much keeps the anime from being a sausage-fest, so other than that, she is just the cheerleader in the background or Abel's rebound girl.

Abel and Cain's character developed is slow and gradual, but usually developed the same way like a yin-yang roll. Nothing deep, nothing special, but the point is their fighting each other based on different beliefs.

/* -= Enjoyment=- */
For maximum enjoyment, don't watch this anime during daytime. Originally, I discover this series on Adult Swim and the overall art style is extremely fitting when viewing at night.

Particularly, I enjoyed the parts where Abel goes Crusniks mode and pretty much owns up the place. Blood pours, splashes, and even defy gravity. The music shoots up %100 in volume (and stays that way on average until the battle ends) and the choir of singing death angels follow by a overkill of pain and agony background music ensues.

Research has known that %90 of the Adult Swim viewers' bodies were not ready to watch Trinity Blood.

Overall, I give this anime a 9 out of 10.

This was introduced to me as a Catholic anime. Yes, a Catholic anime. I'm just as surprised as you are that that actually exists. Curious, I checked it out. Yes, I would actually call it a Catholic anime, but more than that it is a vampire anime. It's sort of like how Les Miserables is a musical first and a Catholic story second. But I actually prefer it this way. It's refreshing to see a show that is like many others except that it also happens to be Christian. I like that.
But anyway, the anime proper. Like Vampire Knight, this reminded me of the Vampire ... Chronicles, but whereas Vampire Knight was very small in scope, Trinity Blood is an epic, in the vein of Code Geass or Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and while it is not as good as those two, I still think it did a decent job. The main problem is that it is too short. Take the two other examples I listed: Code Geass and FMA: Brotherhood. Those have lengths of 50 and 64 episodes, respectively. Trinity Blood has a total of 24 episodes. It is not given enough time to properly flesh out the story, so the plot is dense at some points and rushed at some others.
While the plot isn't spectacular, the characters are pretty good. Our main character, Abel, is an endearing combination of a powerful warrior and total doofus. There are also plenty of good villains.
Overall, the best part of this story is its art. It is so romanticized that it goes past ridiculous and loops back to incredible again. Blacks, whites, and plenty of reds are used to stunning affect.
This anime isn't for everybody, but if you like vampire stuff, or Catholic stuff, you should at least check it out.

I have called Trinity Blood "Trigun with Vampires", and this is, not a bad approximation. Abel, the main character, is the crusnik version of Vash, Cain of Knives. Both series revolve around one brother trying to seek revenge on the other for killing someone precious to them. Trigun just does a better job of explaining the back story. That being said, it's not an overall bad thing. There are enough original elements that make up for it's similarities. The characters are strong, the artwork is gorgeous.

Most of Trinity Blood's issues are in it's story. The series seems rushed, and that's good for the lack ... of fillers, but bad for understanding what's going on. I have never read the manga, so I was left confused by a lot of the events. Very little of the back story is explained, even in the final episode. It takes away from what could have been an epic battle, because you don't really understand why they're fighting. However, the rest of the storyline is well done. It's another vampire vs human story, somewhat like Hellsing, but much more involved.

I still really enjoyed the series. The opening theme is great, as is the soundtrack. Overall, if you're into vampire stories, Trinity Blood is not one to miss!

Synopsis:

The background is in the distant future, a post-apocalyptic world after the destruction brought about by Armageddon. The war between humans (Terran) and vampires (Methuselah) continues, as a struggle between two factions: the Vatican and the New Human Empire.

Yet, amidst the bloodshed and violence, many desire a peaceful co-existence between the two species. However, standing between them and this goal is the Rosenkreuz Orden, a group of vampire extremists who manipulate the two sides and pit them against each other. To combat them, the Vatican special operations group "AX," led by Cardinal Caterina, must use everything they have - even a vampire who preys ... on the blood of other vampires.

My opinion:

Well to be honest I really loved this anime. After see Hellsing I really got curious about Trinity blood. The theme was similar, so it picked up my interest. The story line is great, the art and characters too. I really got seduced by how the characters are carefully and meticulously draw. It was more smooth than Hellsing in my opinion what made it easy watchable ( I saw the 24 episodes in one night more or less.) I guess the only thing that disappointed me a bit was Esther role, she could have entered more in the anime and acted more. I liked how Ion gowned up and matured, he was a really good surprise in this anime. He can be a minor character but I totally love them. Regarding the Pope, I was expecting something different but it was so sweet and funny see him, however I was waiting for more development in his character.

The plot itself is not that much original since there's many animes with similar story lines, however it stills interesting see Trinity blood and appreciate it completely because the story line itself is not too complex, so it's easy to understand the main story and the little sub-stories on it. Despite the fast pace that the story is told, it stills exciting and thrilling until the very end. I really recommend this anime for the ones who loves supernatural stories.

Set in the far future, in a universe where Vampires and humans are at constant war with one another, Trinity blood provides an interesting blend of drama, science fiction, and fantasy elements. On the one side, we have a race of superhuman mutants living with a nano-virus that provides them with incredible strength and speed, at the expense of being able to stay in sunlight and not being able to generate their own hemoglobin (thus they must drink normal human blood). At the other end we have regular humans, governed by the resources and technology of the mighty Roman Catholic Church.

The series' main ... character is Abel Nightroad, A priest with a long, bloody past of violence and destruction as a participant in the war with humans. Throughout the series we come to see just exactly how father Nightroad comes to "bear his sins" as a devilish looking vampire that drinks the blood of other vampires.

We find that the other major characters have their own troubled pasts as well. But for the sake of brevity, I will ask the reader to watch the series to find out, as opposed to explaining too much.

In addition to its colorful cast of characters, the series deals with dark and foreboding themes of death, sin, atonement, and moral paradoxes that arise within religion and politics. And while I cannot go into much further detail, I can at least say this: for those of you who like to think about big, grandiose issues, Trinity blood will certainly give you plenty of food ( or should i say...blood ?) for thought.

At the same time, for those of you looking for more mindless entertainment, Trinity blood is no pushover in terms of fighting and cool superpowers. Also note that this is 1000 years into the future, so the series certainly doesn't lack awesome weapons either. The Catholic church never looked more badass with its shear array of weapons, holograms, and even cyborgs.

To say the least, Trinity Blood is series with something for everyone, and should almost certainly, be seen more than once, with its powerful themes and undertones, colorful cast, and the awesome powers and technologies introduced.

This anime was almost totally awesome. Almost.... It was a great storyline about vampires and humans living in a post-apocalyptic earth in the distant future. What?! That is awesome! The main character Abel was a bad-ass with a dark past of bad behavior (apparently) and a quirky split personalilty who wouldn't kill humans... who was kind of basically Vash from Trigun. Yah, he isn't a human.

Almost totally awesome! But the ending and I had a bad break up, I mean basically there wasn't an ending at all, only a few disatissfying explanations.... This wasn't as bad as ... some anime, but as a warning for people that might want a real ending, this anime was the final straw for me and I was forced to come up with a fifth scoring element, it's called writers please make a plot with an ending, oh, I mean write a complete story, or, I mean I called it: "ending/wrap up". TB gets a 3/10 in that category. I know I know, the Manga explains it all, but I didn't read the Manga, so sorry for not knowing everything ahead of time. I thought that was the point of a show, to give you plot details and make a story! Not to make a show for the Manga reading audience and force everyone else to read wikipedia just to understand the storyline. The explanation for Abel's super-vamp-destroyer-awesomeness went something like this: "we were mars colonist". wtf? Well, actually nano-alien-technology turned us into these things (apparently). I guess that makes his hair stand straight up when he gets mean??

Character development could have been totally awesome too with some of the Vatican's AX vamp hunting peace keeping crew that Abel was on, but there wasn't much at all. There are some flashback's into Abel's story that kept it interesting. Also, the Esther character voiced by Colleen Clinkenbeard had a change of heart that counts as character development which was cool.

So what was good about this Anime? The story was almost awesome. If you like Vash with Vampires and some awesome action scenes and a few characters with cool powers thrown in with a disappointing ending, then watch it.

story = 8/10
ending/wrap up = 3/10
animation = 7/10
music = 7/10
characters = 7/10

Ah, yes. Trinity Blood. I have to say, I loved this anime. I found it after browsing through some cosplay photos and saw HIM. Cain Nightlord. That got me dying to see it. After I did, I can say I was very suprised.

Story 9/10: The story was very engaging, although slightly typical with the whole, 'vampires vs humans' angle, but after that it's all original. And, who would of thought that a story based around a RELIGION would be so addicting?! The big 'twists' in the series are great in the sense of the betrayals by certain characters do leave you thinking, ... 'Huh?! you mean...He's acually...._____?!' The Biblical referances I enjoy also. It just shows how out-of-the-norm the series is.


Art 8/10: The art's very pleasing to the eye. Lots of seperate colors, most of them either glowey or bright. The faces are for the most part pretty much the same looking. But, you get over it rather quick. Still, not as pretty as the manga or novels...but still very pretty. The blood and guts is also pretty for an anime, I personally am a diehard 'blood n guts' fanatic, and was somewhat satisfied; but I know of a few people who hate blood n guts, and was part-way grossed out but not enough to stop watching the series altogether. ( There is some decapitation, acual GUTS, and vampire-ism. But that's to be expected.)


Sound 10/10: The soundtrck for this anime is WONDERFUL!!! I love the soft piano peices during the soft moments in paticular. The sound does fit most if not all of the scenes they are in. The Requiem Inoli song had me in tears when I first heard it. Mix that with the scene it plays in...and I turn into emotional girl.

Now for the harder part, the acual voice-acting itself. The english cast does a wonderful job, potraying emotion, Colleen Clinkinbeard stood out the most to me in that department. The Japanese cast if just as wonderful if not more-so.

Character 9/10: Okay, I'll admit, some of the characters are 'typical', but the development and backgrounds sure do make up for it. My personal favorite for his development as a character is Pope Alessandro. Abel's love for sugar is very 'typical' but that is most of the comic relief of the series, and without it the series would be far too serious to be watched by most of the general public.

Enjoyment 10/10: I loved this series. After watching the first episode from the internet, I immediately bought the entire series as soon as I could. There's action, romance, politics, drama, vampires, and a order that's suspiously Nazi-like. It's a all around good series, that I've watched over and over, and I still enjoy it!

Overall 9/10: A wonderful series with great characters, a great story, great art, and it just sucks you in. The only backfire I could see is the obvious religious-terms. (If you are a Catholic sensitive to women being cardnials, murderers being preists, and a teenage Pope...then this series might not be for you. But otherwise, I recommend it fully! It is and remains, one of my all-time favorite animes.

Trinty Blood is an anime about a continuing war between terrans (humans) and methuselah (vampire like creatures) after the appocalypse. In this there are two main powers, the vatican governed by the terran pope and based around the catholic church and the Empire which is governed by methuselah, who control a mainly terran populace.

The anime centers around a vatican priest named Abel Nightroad, who is a member of the vatican AX special division and is a cruisnik - a vampire which feeds on vampire blood. The story shows the continuing battles between the terran and mathuselah populace and the political masernations of the vatican, ... where the young pope is advised by two opposite personalities each who try to impose their will on the pope.

On the surface and by the first episode I thought this show was destined to be a very high ranked show on my list, the story involving the two empires at war, a dose of political intrigue and a light hearted main character who can be compared closely to Vash the stampede (Trigun) (Also wondering if the vampire knight writer was getting tips on his headmaster whilst watching...) all of which I love. The further into the series that the anime gets however the more the plot seems not to fit, there are episodes which seemingly end showing the appearance of a character who doesn't make an entrance, sub plots which are never resolved, at best the story is a patchwork from the origional novels, which were very good, but completely ruined here.

The artwork is done by gonzo and looks like a lot of the gonzo productions (Full metal panic), it sometimes feels almost too cheery. A lot of this plot is dark, and the bright and round characters lighten the mood slightly where it should be darkened and bring the viewer in. The voice actors are top quality however, and make up for most of the cheery artwork to create the proper atmosphere. The characters suffer from the storyline and you never get any in depth explanations of any opf the characters, even with the main character Abel, at the end we are still left guessing on much of his past which is important to the storyline.

Still this is not a bad anime, it just irks me to see an anime which could and should have been better and been a true great. As it stands its a good anime to sit a watch, the politics is not too invlved, the fight scenes are mostly good fun to watch and the characters are watchable. Don't however raise your expectations on the first episode, you'll just have to mark it down again once your done.

This is my first review so please bare with me.

Trinity Blood seemed like a Hellsing rip-off to me at the beginning. The more I watched it the more it took on its own personality with only a small amount of similarities between the two anime. I started reading the manga a few years back but didn't get very far into it. But that being said, I can assume that this is one of those anime that is better left read rather than watched. I could tell there were gaps in the story that just left me wondering what had happened next. I recognized some of ... the music from final fantasy which was pretty cool. I found the ending to be very anti-climatic. I wish I could say more about what I thought about the final episode but I'd be going into details and probably spoil it for some of you. Let me just reiterate how much I thought the final episode was VERY anti-climatic. If the producers are planning to make a second season, I can understand why they took the direction they did. If not, it's just disappointing.

Story - 7
Ok well I love a good vampire anime as much as the next and Trinity Blood, well lets just say that it lives up to MOST expectations. Now I’m not going to reveal any of the plot so fear not, during the rather numerous introduction episodes we are introduce, slowly I might add, to who will be the main cast and all this is fine but in the latter episodes in the series I found the storyline rather confusing and at the end it left a lot to still be explained, like who was that woman? Or why did he become good if ... back then he was evil? I personally believe all these questions have arisen from the transition of Manga to Anime and due to the unanswered questions I will have to bring my rating for the story down to a 7.

Art - 9
The quality of the art here is what is to be expected for a recent(ish) anime and the blend of CGI and Animation works well, so much so that I’m sure most people watching would be unable to tell that there even was CGI (unlike Initial D *shudder*) and it is for that reason I give the art a 9.

Sound - 6
Ok now to explain why sound gets the lowest rating from me. Now don't get me wrong I’m not criticising the voices in fact quite the opposite I LOVED most of the cast they used in this such as Monica Rial, Vic Mignogna and Greg Ayres. but it was the sound effects that let it down in my opinion, and no I’m not saying they were bad either but there were parts while watching when you'll have to reach for the remote to hear what some people are saying and then you'll have to grab it again because your head is being blown off by the sudden change from REALLY quiet talking to eardrum poppingly loud explosions. So my only real comment is that the sound effects were too loud when compared to the actual voices of the characters, hence why I only gave the sound a 6.

Character - 8

Abel Nightroad: Now this guy is THE main character and also a bit of a klutz...or so he seems but be careful when you annoy him because this dog has a bite that’s worse than his bite.

Sister Esther Blanchette: Well there’s not really much to say about this person except that she tends to let her emotions get the best of her in more than one occasion and also tends to get in the way of the others also on more than one occasion

So yeah all the characters have quite unique personalities some of which are very unusual to say the least but the combined chemistry of all the characters gives the overall rating of an 8.

Enjoyment - 7
Now this was really good to watch in the early episodes but as the main storyline develops the amount of unanswered questions and the importance of them greatly increases which is why it only receives a 7. The reason it is no lower is because this really is a good show despite all its drawbacks.

Overall - 8
Overall I give Trinity Blood an 8 it has good art and interesting characters but the storyline is really the only major drawback. However having said that I still rate this an 8 and a MUST-SEE anime.

Compared to the actual manga, the show takes a slight U-turn. Some of the characters backstories are changed and the scenes are inaccurate. Abel is still a penny-pinching, secret weapon priest, but his transformation and reasoning for fighting the Vampires are varied compared to the manga. Esther's background and meeting of Abel and the official church is different. Some of the characters in the show didn't exist in the manga. I have no ill will against Anime List but I hope this review helps in some way. The show is very misleading and makes me wonder what the team was thinking when making the show. ... I might have to watch and re-read the anime before I can continue adding information.