Subject: Manga Reviews: Trinity Blood, vol 1 | Author | Messages | Billy Aguiar
Posts: 84
 | Posted: 6/15/2007 6:36:17 PM | Trinity Blood, vol. 1
TokyoPop
$9.99, b/w, 192 pages, Available Now!
Story by Sunao Yoshida, Art by Kiyo Kyujo and character designs by Thores Shibamoto
Rated for Older Teens, 16+
Reviewed by Billy Aguiar
Two stars
Trinity Blood is set in the future, after some an Apocalypse that reduced mankind back to the dark ages, though they do still get to keep handguns and airships. The Catholic Church is a force to be reckoned with, and it is needed because vampires are real, though possibly not from this earth. Even though humans do not have all the facts about them, there is plenty to be afraid of. Fortunately the Catholic Church has special agents to handle these kinds of threats, of which our hero, Abel Nightroad, falls into the stereotype of "extremely happy go lucky guy who has a hidden past as a killing machine." Though not literally, since another member of the order is, in fact, a killing machine. No, Abel is a Crusnik, a vampire that feeds on other vampires much as vampires feed on humans. What that exactly means is not revealed in this volume.
Some fans may not want to read the manga, saying that there is an anime that they have already watched. According to sources, there are significant differences between the anime, manga and even the original novel series, so writing off the series as superfluous is a mistake. Is the art always the clearest, no. That is the trouble of the gothic style of art, there simply may be so much on the page, to give that look, that it obscures what is going on. Exactly what is going on story wise can also be a little bit murky, but that is often a downside of a multiple-product storys; it's expected that people come to the manga with some knowledge of the world that the characters inhabit. But Esther, the plucky female lead, has some interesting bits that are driving her, at the end of the volume, that will carry her further into the story, and the fight sequences have all of the doomed grandeur that one can expect from an gothic manga.
This is a weekly manga review here on the CBG site, but don’t forgot to check out my other review site, Prospero’s Manga for more manga reviews.
www.tokyopop.com
Vol 1. ISBN: 1-59816-674-3
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