Book Review- Trinity Blood vol. 1 by Sunao Yoshida, Kiyo Kyujo and Thores Shibamoto

Title: Trinity Blood vol.1

 Author: Sunao Yoshida, Kiyo Kyujo and Thores Shibamoto

Series: Trinity Blood manga #1

 Published: November 2006 by Tokyopop

 Length: 192 pages

Warnings: gore, vampires, violence, guns, a bit more gore

 Other info: Read as part of Parajunkee’s Vampire Challenge. Reads R-L. Spawned anime and light novels. Currently x volumes in the series.

Summary :

 Review: Its set in a post apocalyptic world, with a war between vampires and humans. We meet Esther, a nun in a very catholic setting who doesn’t seem to do much. We meet Abel Nightroad, a priest from the Vatican who’s job it is to fight the vampires. They agree to fight the vampires together. Good.

The first chapter is character intros and a big action scene. This comes from one of Gyula(a high standing vampire) sending one of his vampires to dispose of Abel Nightroad. There’s a big, gory fight scene, in which we discover that Abel is a Crusnik- a kind of vampire that requires the blood of other vampires to survive.

The rest of the volume is part action, part flashback, part talk with nothing happening and part confusing. Another character we meet is Machine, who I don’t see the point of being there. There is also Dietrich, who doesn’t do much until halfway, then becomes a major part in events. The characters could be interesting, some of which have interesting habits (such as Abel’s requirement of thirteen sugars in tea), but the action and confusing plot didn’t really let us get very close to them.

About the plot, everything that happened seems to be quite random, until the very end of a particular chapter, where it all makes perfect sense, but you don’t know why you are still reading it.

The character designs are beautiful, as is the rest of the artwork. I think the style really suits this manga, but the action scenes should be broken into a few more panels- at times, it can be hard to know where to look first. Also, the chibis that come in from time to time sort of ruin it for me, as they don’t fit the dark, gothic manga that clearly wasn’t made with incorporating comedy relief.

I would recommend this to anyone who really likes manga vampires, a lot of action, gore, and slightly pointless plotlines. If you’re new to manga, you may not want to though-the confusing bits may put you off.

Overall: I give this strength two tea because it was a bit confusing and nothing happens that makes me want to read on. Good idea behind it though and the artwork is beautiful.