TRINITY BLOOD

Hey everyone. So I am writtng this review because Trinity Blood has been my favourite manga for quite a while. It still amazes me everytime I read!

Before the review, please, bear in mind that I don't read this manga online - I buy the books:
I tend to go every year to France, so I purchase around 2 to 3 volumes per year;
They are not expensive - 6,85€ ($7,72) / (£5,37) / (￥804,33) per volume;
The mangas are exactly like the Japanese version - no hardback;
France has the best manga translations; (If you are able to read French I highly recommend you check out Kana Editions, and many other manga Editors like Pika, Delcour, Doki Doki, Kaze, Glenát and many others);
At this very moment I have 12 volumes, I just read the last chapter (ch.46 "Dans la Ville Blache" in English "In the White City");
As the manga is still ongoing (vol.19 is already out in Japan) I don't want to rush the purchase.

Now the real deal..

Story:
If you are searching for a new type of vampire story (something not centred on the romance type like Vampire Knight or Karin; nor even the type of Blood +); this is for you! It's not only about life as a vampire; it's about how the whole world lives and deals with the a new species among humans; more interesting is HOW vampires came to Earth and what happened in those 900/1000 years before our story.
The story is complex, you have a lot of characters that complement one another, fragments/flashbacks of the past... Also, you will see how the world is divided and what powers rule humans (Terrans) and vampires (Methuselah), but also an alternative organization apart form Terrans and Methuselah...
And the development of human like machines!
Sci-fi, Gothic, steam-punk, action, supernatural, some good comic relief, and a little spice of romance is what makes this story so good and wanting to read more and more.

Art:
BEAUTIFUL! MAGNIFICENT! The details, the delicacy of everything specially the eyes, omg those lashes! The floating hairs, the outfits - that makes the best of cosplays (SEARCH FOR TRINITY BLOOD COSPLAY, Good Lords, I have a fold dedicated to that!); facial expressions, backgrounds, everything is splendid - sometimes you'll have to look at the panels for a while to appreciate all details but also how an image can be so strong but delicate at the same time.
The characters design is amazing; at first I didn't quite like it, but when I started reading, I started to understand the art, and right now it is my dream to obtain the Artbook "Il Tappeto Rosso" by Shibamoto Thores and the Artbook "Trinity Blood ~rubor~" by Kyujyo Kiyo!!

Characters:
There are so many... and those many like I said before, each of their own story complements another character's story.
The main characters:
Abel Nightroad - so may things we are still waiting to discover about you... 900 years of your past. What made you, what you are at present. I love him so much, he always tries to protect what is dear to him, and hep who is in need - also, he goes from damn good comic relief to freaking scary and damn powerful.
Cardinal Caterina Sforza, Duchess of Milan - I. LOVE. HER! I still don't know much of her past, but just the way she deals with adversities, problems, her grace and beauty, makes me love her so much!
Tres Iquis - He is a machine! I nice one! Loyal dog to Caterina Sforza!
Esther Blanchett - If I have to pick up a character only of the present events, it will be her. From what I know until now she is the only one with no "great history of her past", her past story does not compliment any one's story. Still she is a great and strong young nun, who is still growing up and facing the problems of the world as a member of Caterina's AX organization - from the cosplays I've seen I already know she is the rightful heir to the throne of Albion...

Other characters (I liked very much until vol.12):
Seth Nightroad aka Augusta Vradica - Empress of the New Human Empire, younger sister to Abel.
Baybares - Duke of Khartoum, chief of the Yeniceri, the Empire's Palace Guard - so strong but soooo cute! :3
Brother Petros Orcini - Knight of Destruction and head of the Department of Inquisition - must love all his power and faith and cuteness towards the Pope! x3
Shéhérazade Al Rahman - Countess of Babylon, niece to Süleyman - Duke of Tigris - She is just the CUTEST EVER, and I cried so much on chapter 45 because of her, she was so kind and strong! T.T (I am going to cosplay her one day!)
Leon Garcia De Asturias - I want him as my father!

Enjoyment:
It's a mixture of everything - depending on the chapter, you might end up laughing or crying or incredulous or amazed... but in nutshell, you just want to read more and more because the story is so good, you want to know the past, you want to know what will happen you will be expecting for their future, maybe you will be cheering for the Methuselah and condemning the Terrans and their political system and how sometimes the Vatican deals with the Methuselah, maybe not, maybe you will be understanding both parties...; the battles will keep you looking at the panels searching for details and amazed at how characters are strong and what moves them to battle; and the the art will just mesmerize you. It's really great!

Overall: 10/10
Everything about this manga is really great. It's a pity that only a volume per year is out since 2009... or not.
One word to define this manga: Mesmerizing.

I hope those who read this manga enjoys it as much as I do, and who does, I highly recommend: Buy the books!
If you need any information on editors for this manga, (English, French, Italian, Spanish...), don't hesitate and send a message!

Thanks for reading!

This manga, Trinity Blood, has both cliche'd and interesting premise in the same way - it's portraying the bleak postapocalyptic future after a presumable WW3, from which every country on the world has suffered heavy loses and alterations, and also, on the world vampires had appeared. Therefore the humankind with it's various countries, now labeled Terrans, is in clear opposition to the large empire of the Vampires, calling themselves Methuselah. And with vampires, as a natural cause, the Vatican state had suddenly risen to be one of the top political and influential power of the humankind, a country whose representatives are our main cast of characters. And I will be honest, I really appreciated the idea of having a thrilling political drama about this fictional world and it's inhabitants, but apparently that wasn't the main goal of this manga it seems. Trinity Blood tries to be alot of things, to appeal to very large audience, but in my opinion, it's certainly lost it's touch to do just that.

Story wise, with this sophisticated premise, it had great potential to be very insightful and smart read, but it doesn't even try to be that, instead it just combines almost every single shonen and shoujo cliche you could have think of, making it, very unappealing. We got the "guys talking half an hour in epic fight" stuff you can see in the shounen genre, and the over the top, melodramatic dialogues in which the characters, sobbing, with sparkly eyes explain why they're sorry, which is a shoujo thing usually.

Also the manga is plagued with bland humor, especially at the start, which didn't help much in both exposition of the story or representing relateable character traits, we see the gluttonious apetite, using too much sweets, clumsy cuteness, the usual tropes.
As for the art, for me personally that the manga's biggest ashievement, it certainly can look very good, the clothes and garments were highly ornamented and personally-designed for every single character, alot of the mangaka's effort certainly went there. Although I don't really think it does too good job in trying to represent the steampunk gothic atmosphere of this world, with it's serious and dreadful setting of a war between the vampires and the humankind. For the fans of the cute designs, they'll be in heaven - every single male looks like a model from a shoujo manga, and all the females are volupturous and fanservice-y disgned, so you can oogle the pages alot.

As for the character's personality ... oh, we're hitting the bottom on this one. Every single person is very one-dimensional and can be portrayed by just one sentence, maybe the only exception will be Abel, since he's mashup from Vash the Stampede from Trigun and Alukard from Hellsing, which didn't mix quite appealing in my opinion. That was the worst part of the manga, and it totally destroys any thrill or interest in the plot or the setting. Also the characters are set to have just two moral views - they hate the other race in the guts and they want it killed, cuz why not, or the mindset that we're all the same and we should hold hands and sings songs while dancing over rainbows.

And with all these mashups of tropes, forgettable characters and obvious plot conclusions, I can say that overally I didn't enjoyed it at all, some arcs are better than others so I can't verify that everything in this manga is not worthy of your time, but it's incredibly flawed in a way. Probably if you are looking for shoujo manga with characters without much depth or substance, sprinkled with shounen fight sequences and pretty gothic outfits, you may enjoy it more than I did.

Can't believe there hasn't been a review for this manga yet.
Anyway, I'm enjoying the heck out of this. I basically hate any and all vampire-type series (Twilight, Vampire Knight, whatever) but this manga barely has any romance and focuses mainly on action and plot, which is a big A+ from me (and the little romance present isn't bad). There's some interesting twists on the typical vamp stuff (no sparkling!) and the action moves at a pace fast enough to keep me on my toes.

Characters are also pretty awesome. The protagonist (Abel) has a front of being clueless and clumsy (which makes for comedic relief), but it's shown pretty quickly on that he's not all who he seems to be. Supporting characters also get a bit of their own background and aren't as black-and-white as they sometimes tend to be in other mangas. My only gripe is that Esther can be a little idealistic and trusting at times, and some villains are too "evil" to be realistic.

Art is great, storyline is great. Lots of interesting themes and political undertones and corruption and all that jazz. There's a lot to do with the Church as well, and issues of morality and values. It's just a really great series (with kick-ass costumes too) so I definitely recommend it if you're into dark gothic settings and sci-fi and lots of bloody battle scenes.