Anime: Trinity Blood

Trinity Blood has to do with vampires that emerge after a major disaster struck Earth. And no, I am confusing it with Seraph of the End even if they are both equally bad series. It is trying to imitate the style of Trigun, meaning to start in a very comedic and easy going way before becoming darker and depressing, but never manages to be as good for a number of reasons.

The prime reason is the animation, which is done by studio Gonzo, notorious for its crude CGI. Yes, cancer CGI is an issue even today (Berserk anyone?) but GONZO was the one abusing it the most at a time when studios were still staying away from it, or at least bothered to hide it better so it won’t look like PS1 cut scenes.

It’s very hard to be invested in a show that does scene transitions with a fade out and makes everything move in a mechanical way; characters included. It’s as if they slide instead of running and attacks don’t have impact because each moving object is a separate layer. There is no uniformity in battle choreography because every fighter exists in his own universe.

Anyways, the story is about an overpowered vampire eater working for the Vatican in fending off vampire threats in a semi-episodic fashion. It’s basically Hellsing with crappy animation and not much rule of cool. To its credit, the setting has a lot of details regarding technology and the different factions at war. They put a lot of work in fleshing out the world and it’s a real shame they didn’t do much with it. It’s one of those cases where you need to read the novels to get the terminology and history. They were also not serious about it; I mean, look how the nuns are dressed. That doesn’t seem very Christian, does it now?

This is still nothing compared to the dreaded infodumps. In the first half, every mission needed to be completed in a single episode, and most of it was spent on people talking about the evil masterplan of the week. This left very little duration for what the good guys can do about it. It was usually coming down to one of them finally deciding to fight the vampires instead of standing still, listening to them gloating about how strong they are, before he kills them in seconds. Meaning, the payoff is not worth it because most of the damage the villains are causing results from the good guys procrastinating for the sake of listening to a bunch of stuff we will never see again after the episode ends.

This becomes extra annoying when the protagonist decides to be one of those obnoxious Rurouni Kenshin pacifist type of heroes, who all of a sudden does not want to kill his enemies anymore. He prefers to let them go, even though they killed millions exactly because he was standing still listening to them talking instead of going to the offence right away.

Anyways, the show becomes a bit less crappy in the second half, when missions last way more than a single episode, and have suspense in the form of who is a traitor or what hidden weapon they are going to use. Even then, the writing is still pretty crappy since it’s always about the vampires trying to kill the pope, and every twist is always some lazy asspull of the sort “Haha, you thought you killed me but it was only a look-alike” or “Haha, he is not evil, I am just controlling him mind” or even “Haha, I was disguised to look like a different person, so he will get all the blame”. This is stuff for 8 year olds.

As a whole, Trinity Blood was just ideas taken from better titles that got mashed together with low budget, in an attempt to cash in on the fame of Hellsing and Trigun from the early 2000s. They didn’t even bother to adapt the whole story so you are not given any reason to at least seek closure. You won’t miss anything if you skip it besides confirming once again why GONZO is a terrible studio.

[Slight spoiler warning... nothing to worry]
This isn't a typical review, this is kind of a summary of the view expresed in previous reviews... If you haven´t read any of the other reviews you can find the main complaints here, and my answer to those...

Q: "the story leaves lots of questions unanswered!"
A: great! a perfect time to use your imagination!

Q: "but the story make not sense at all!"
A: Dude... we are talking bout vampires here!, next time you see one ask him if this make sense or not.

Q: "This is SO much like Hellsing..."
A: Read Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and then tell me which one is the un-original...

Q: "The characters do not appear as much I would like them to"
A: If you want to watch 150 episodes of the same characters doing exactly the same go watch Naruto...

Q: "If the vampires were so powerful why haven't they exterminated the human race"
A: for the same reason we haven't yet exterminated the cows... and because they are presented as racional beings... not like you bunch of haters

Q: "I still belive they could have explained further"
A: Somehow, I still belive you can use your brain...

Q: "the Pope is an idiot..."
A: It occurs to me that, maybe, i dont know... THEY ARE TRYING TO MAKE A POINT!... come on! women in the vatican, blood related religious hierarchy, murder intent within church leaders.. doesn't ring a bell yet!?

Q: "Dude, your english sucks!"
A: Deal with it...

Q: "Come on! a flying car!?"
A: all right I grant that one...


Overall I really enjoyed this anime, it has very good animation, great music, awesome battle seens, I loved the characters... and of course I would like to have a much longer story, but i belive that its great just as it is right now...
I own it and I watch it every now an then... its not bound to become a classic, but I really really recomend it...

I'm not really going to reiterate what everyone here has already said, so I'm just going to add this one observation that I'm sure most will agree to. I will note that if you haven't yet seen this one, my review may contain spoilerish remarks.

This series needed to be at least twice as long. I thought that the general premise of the story was good, and I did like the characters a lot, but gonzo didn't give it enough time to develop. The last few episodes are VERY rushed, which is one of my pet peeves for any production, not just anime. Why start off slow and develop likeable characters (a LOT of them too) and then wrap everything up in a hurry? Why not let us enjoy the ride for a while?

There's something to be said about ending things before they start to get old, but I felt there was at least another season's worth of potential there. I mean come on! Enemy of the world? You'd think there'd be a larger and more dramatic struggle against him and his organization. Assuming there's more to it than just those 3 guys....

I did want to see more development of Abel's past. I think that was one of the larger holes to be found here. Also, what's with the second moon? I got the impression that it was a ship from the last End sequence. What up with that? I also wanted to see the jaws hit the floor when everyone found out that he was almost a thousand years old, and is basically the Empress' older brother. Mostly I wanted to see Cain get his butt kicked and everyone live happily ever after. If only we had more time.

Animation
The animation was amazingly good, I really enjoyed the way everything was so detailed. The dark and cold colors that were used really fit the series, especially the night was drawn so collourfull yet so dark that I was just wondering how it was never drawn that way before. I also noticed that there was some CGI involved, it wasn't to much but it was there. In shot: truely amazing animation.

Sound
The soundtrack was pretty good, they knew when to amplify the scene and actions with the right music. I also like the really strong but dark intro. It really gave a weird sensation but it was definantly one of the better anime OP there was.

Character
The character development was rather deep, some characters were very detailed in their backgrounds and to me it's jsut a pity that all the time that was spent in this went to waste because of a story that was never finished.

Story
Despite what most of the other revieuws say I really liked the story. It is true that the story was left completly open and was far from over, but I'd like to ask people to simply watch the credits and read what the final frames say:"Dedicated to Sunao Yoshida" the story's writer who died before he could complete it. I think it's rather unfair if you critisize
someone over this fact.

Value/Enjoyment
I enjoyed watching this very much and I was actualy touched by the fact that the writer's best friend wrote a small but still an end to the story so that at least his work would not have been in vain.
Despite all the shortcomings I decided to judge the story on what it would have been, had it been completed.

Thnx for reading this and if you see some grammar or spelling errors keep in mind that english is not my first language.

Recreate the world and give it a new shape and military order. Take religious ideas and adapt them to SF crusade, not against magic and witches, but against the vampires that have appeared after the most part of the world has been destroyed and have established a new empire, one that opposes the Vatican and the rule of the Church. In this newly established Earth, offer us a story, the roots of which crawl back in time for centuries, carried out by characters that defy the entity of time and live throughout the ages, carrying their own burden of guilt for things that they wish not to face again. Add in the internal turmoil in the Vatican as divergences of opinion and view span between the two counselors of the world’s most important person, the Pope; divergences between two side that see the threat of the vampires in two very different lights: one sees peace among the different races whilst the other only sees monsters, abominations that must be destroyed. Coat all of these into stunning imagery and music most befitting for what the anime has to say…and send it into the arms of Gonzo to butcher anything and everything that can turn the anime into a work of genius.
It is truly wondrous how much a studio can influence the quality of the final product, and Gonzo are masters at taking high quality elements and somehow, through works of wonder beyond my comprehension, butcher them so badly until all that’s left is a decrepit husk of an anime, a giant on shaky legs as someone very well put it. I had the greatest amount of hope for Trinity Blood to somehow prove to me that Gonzo can create a good anime since the elements they had got me literally drooling with anticipation for the final product. For Pete’s sake, they even went as far as researching Romanian names for the characters and even a couple of Romanian words that made for some quite interesting moments.

But alas, all my hopes had sunk when the much awaited story only reared its head at episode 18 and even then, it proved to be too bland to redeem the wasted time; the characters were so very uninteresting for the most part of the anime and so cruelly shoveled aside, so that instead of their development we’re offered boring action scenes and dialogue that simply doesn’t go anywhere, doesn’t make me care one bit for the characters and their motifs and simply gets me dictating the next cheesy line that the character is going to produce.
I try to picture the little monkeys that made their nesting home in the producers’ intellect. What the Hell were they trying to accomplish with the anime? Clearly not a plot driven anime since it stutters in its story-telling like there’s no tomorrow.
Was it perhaps a character driven series as we’re lead to believe in the first episodes? Again, no; if it would’ve been so, the many characters wouldn’t have been so cruelly differentiated in terms of development and their personalities would’ve been given some depth.
So I’m lead to believe in one of two things:
1. Gonzo are indeed simply brilliant, so much that it’s impossible for one such as myself to see the inward workings of their anime.
2. Gonzo are genuine retards that wouldn’t know quality in an anime if it hit them in the head with a one tone mace.
Somehow, I’m leaning towards the second. This anime had ONLY potential, everything else was simply an element in a mixture that turned VERY sour, although it seemed sweet at the beginning.

Animation
Usually, I’d say that the animation for a Gonzo show would be stunning. The studio has indeed a team of great artists working on the look of their anime and that usually reflects in how their anime have indeed very high production values. But this time…
I’m reluctant of using the term “stunning” for anything in this anime since I never found anything that would leave me with my jaw cleaning the dust on the floor. Sure, there have been a set of such moments but for the most part, the animation has been ridiculously dull, as all the other elements of this anime.
What made it unbearable at times was the indiscriminate use of CGI where it was really not needed. Abel’s weapon and some armor plates are just two examples that remained with me. Besides the fact that they look completely out of place (the combination between a 2D character and a 3D weapon has never looked good) I simply could not find the use for such a thing. That and the awkward designs of some weapons has been a major turn off from the otherwise beautiful world that we’re presented with.

I mentioned a bit earlier that I’m reluctant in using the term “stunning”. I take it back for a bit as there are things that overshadow the clumsy use of computer imagery in inopportune moments: the backgrounds. Perhaps the character designs and the ship designs and the effects had no great effect on me, but the backgrounds surely did. It’s not a world beautifully covered in mist such as that in Last Exile but it is nonetheless a world where the old meets the new and this is reflected in the architecture of the cities. I would simply love a game in which I could roam those places. I’d be drooling perhaps at how wonderful they’d be made out to be.

All in all, I can’t rate the animation as perfect. It may just be my preference to classic cell animation over CGI use, but I’ve explained just why I couldn’t be impressed with this effort.

Sound
On the other hand, I was impressed with the sound quality. The majestic choral sequences and the classic sequences go hand in hand in adding a true feeling of gothic to the anime as the characters explore their world (I’ll be getting back on the world theme a bit later, there’s something here as well).
Allow me to say the essential: the music is fitting, the voice acting is good and the opening and ending themes are superb. I have to make a special note for the Romanian names and expressions and say that, besides the fact that the pronunciation was awkward and the word “dobitoc” wasn’t articulated when it should have been, I was impressed by this effort from the studio’s part.

Story
The producers manage to make the monumental mistake of placing us in a world that is unexplained to us, except for a few brief words on some Armageddon that happened and the vampires that have appeared afterwards. Ok, the next episodes are just spent on introducing characters and allowing us to get used to them. Too bad that the only thing they’re not doing is giving us insight on the world that they’ve put together. Typical of Gonzo.
“Ok!” I’ve said…”perhaps it’ll go slow at first and pick up some steam later, just like Trigun with which it shares so many similarities”. Know what? I was wrong.
TB has the most infernal pacing possible. When the story seems like it’s going to erupt in just the next episode and the whole thing start moving, it slows to a crawl once again, focusing on useless stuff for which I couldn’t give a lesser damn.
What’s so hard in setting the standard a bit higher? The word “Gonzo” kept on spinning through my head as I was plowing further into the anime, as I was predicting everything that would come to happen, every character that would fall on self-loathing for some meager reason, every turn of events that’s supposed to shock. The anime does nothing right in terms of story-telling…what the Hell am I saying?! It doesn’t have a story to tell, just complete babbling from the script-writers that had no idea what they wanted to do in the end. If it was a drama…they failed miserably; if it was a comedy…they’ve failed miserably; if it was utter crap…they’ve succeeded with flying colors.

I guess there’s a second season planned since nothing is given any kind of explanation. From Abel’s origins for his powers to the hate for Cain and his identity; from the Armageddon to the apparition of more and more characters that crawl from God knows where…TB does NOTHING right.
Should I go on with saying that the characters have no motivations for what they’re doing? Should I say that there is no back-story for a lot of things that the characters state?
Oh, and the beautiful end that the producers pulled out of their asses I believe. It’s like they’ve reached episode 24, realized there was no more money to continue so they bagged it, as rushed and tragically as possible. And I don’t mean that the ending is tragic…I mean that the way they ended it is tragic for the anime. Think of a beheaded chicken and you have the general idea of the ending here…

Trinity Blood has done the unthinkable. It managed to bring together a lot of impressing elements and it wasted them. Until I see a second season that would bring me some well deserved answers, I will consider this to be one of the worst disappointments in terms of anime quality. Although, I believe that 24 episode were more than enough so that we may receive all the answers there should have been.
Conclusion: Gonzo blows!

Character
I’ll keep it short as far as characters are concerned: there is no back-story, there is no development, characters are not treated equally in terms of screen-time and explanations, characters come and go with the viewer left in a complete sense of “Who the f**k was that?!”. The characters blow hard and deep.
The main character has a bit of depth to him but it’s so unexploited it’s painful to watch. Especially since nothing about him is explained, and some stuff that is offered at first is totally ignored later on.
The other characters had just as much depth as a puddle in the sun. Not to be mean or anything but most characters were utter retards. Those that weren’t retards were carefully scrapped aside for as much time as possible. We wouldn’t want the anime to be anything more than a crap-fest, now would we?

I couldn’t bring myself to care for any of them since they were just so damn retarded. The Pope was a complete idiot whom I can understand somehow but despise completely for his idiotic actions. The members of AX were little dolls that appeared from time to time to liven up the scenery because, in all due honesty, they’re the most interesting things this anime had to offer. Why wasn’t Dandelion more on screen? Why wasn’t The Professor given more screen time? Why was Tres used so little? Why wasn’t Huegue developed even one bit? I can sum up the answers to all of these questions in one simple, cute word: GONZO!

Second season, I wait for you. Perhaps you’ll be a more deserving waste of time that this was.

Value
Staying true to my form of reviewing, I did not deduct points for the malignant use of elements from other anime titles such as Trigun, Hellsing or Chrno Crusade. Had I done that, I don’t believe there would’ve been much left of the rating.
It is not the most original anime, it was not enjoyable for me and all I could feel in the end was anger because of such great element brainlessly wasted. It could’ve been a great anime but it proved just a waste of time, a waste of 10 hours of my life. Somehow, I wish for those hours back, more than I wish for the hours spent on DB that is almost 3 times as long and surely, just as bad.

Definitely, one of Gonzo’s most promising projects, Trinity Blood couldn’t live to even my lowest expectation. Perhaps Kyoto Animation will make the sequel and it’ll be better. Right now, all there is to cherish about this anime are the production values, and even those are not that great.

This reviewer’s conclusion: the worst disappointment of 2005.

This anime had tremendous potential. However, it is hard to score it well because of the fact that it didn't live up to its own potential.

The animation was amazing: the CG assisted battles and realistic looking character models were all very enjoyable to see. Abel's transformations into Crusnik form are especially enjoyable.

The soundtrack was good: I enjoyed the OP/EDs and the background music really got me into the flow of the story, so I liked it.

Now, onto the story. This is one area where the anime reaches for the stars, but seemingly forgets to grab them. The story has everything you could ask for: political intrigue, an interesting setting with multiple kingdoms ruled by different factions, a secret organization, a dash of romance, friends made, betrayals occur, and lots of conflict and mystery. However, the series seemed to forget something very important: a resolution.

Indeed, this series leaves you with more questions than answers; in fact it leaves you pretty much no answers at all. I wish I could give this anime a higher story rating, because I truly enjoyed the story elements in the series, but without a resolution it is hard to rate it highly. Not to mention the lack of background for much of the characters and organizations.

The characters in this story are all very interesting, especially characters like Seth and Abel. However, there is a true lack of background given for them, and we are left with many questions surrounding the motivations behind their actions. Why did Abel make a promise to not kill? How did Cain, Abel, and Seth have a falling-out? Who is the woman in the coffin at the end? Why is she in there? What were the vampires and crusniks created for? How did the vampires come to be in control of an Empire? Why do the Cardinals Medici and Sfonza feel the way they each do about vampire-human relations? This is only a small sampling of the questions we are left with regarding the characters and the plot. So, once again while I wish I could give a higher rating to the characers, who I really enjoyed, they just failed to live up to their potential.

This anime doesn't have much value as of yet: it is fun to rewatch it, but rewatching it just reminds you of the lack of resolution to this anime. It is just begging for a sequel.

If this anime did eventually continue, and the loose ends were tied up, I believe this could become a great anime. But, as it stands now, this series feels incomplete.

However, despite the incompleteness and lack of resolution of this series I really enjoyed it. I can only hope a sequel is eventually made.