TVPast Forums - Trinity Blood: Because You Like Trigun & Hellsing

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Trinity Blood Preview:

Now, a lot of people are going to tell me that headline is unfair, and others are going to say it's dead on, and you know what? Both sides are probably right. Trinity Blood is at times very Trigun-esque, especially with the lead character being a complete goof-ball a-la Vash when he's just living his day to day life. He even has that perpetual nice guy and mysterious background thing going on. However, when he snaps, the Alucard from Hellsing vibes come into play big time, and the Integra-esque advisor in the series certainly adds to that. By the way, those are just the similarities in the first episode. I've heard there is more. However, it brings plenty of fresh flavor and style to the table as well. So even though it's at points derivative (perhaps even cloyingly so,) it's ultimately very cool and very entertaining.

Set on a post-global war Earth where vampires have revealed themselves, Trinity Blood exists in an era when the nations of the Earth have reformed into various kingdoms and empires, one of which is the Holy Roman Empire, with the Vatican a seat of global power again. Inside of the Vatican's Foreign Affairs branch there is an organization, AX, whose job it is to take on these new vampires with aid of clairvoyants, weapons specialists and a few crusniks - vampires who feed on vampires - one of which goes by the name of Abel Nightroad.

From the technical side, Trinity Blood is quite good. Funimation's dub cast not only put forth a good, emotive performance, but a performance that's eerily close to the original work from the Japanese VAs, especially in the case of Abel. Visually, I'm impressed by the level of consistency Gonzo's been able to achieve as of late - they've been cranking out more series than ever, and far as stuff I've seen ready for US release, it's all been very good, and Trinity Blood is no exception: the boarding, the animation and the compositing are all very solid and watchable, and the design is elegant but cool. It's not perfect, but it's never awkward or jarring, and that to me is just as critical as the highlights - the over-all consistency of visual execution. Gonzo even manages to capture the extremely line-work intensive designs of the original manga, which was no small feat given its fusion of shonen action and shoujo character design flourishes. The music is great too - it's certainly at points what you would expect from a typical anime, if such a thing can exist, but it's very well done and it fits well somehow. Even the ED theme, which is sort of the classic sleepy ballad style of ED theme that at least a few dozen other series use, works well here and almost has a warm familiarity.