Creative Talent
Writer/Artist: Ryo Ikehata / Chizu Hashii
Translated by: John Thomas
Adapted by: John Thomas
What They Say
Following the traces of Diva, the leader of the Chiroptera, Saya and her group make their way to Russia. But awaiting their arrival is Diva's powerful protector Chiroptera, "The Chevalier." In the middle of the battle against this new threat, Saya is told a horrible truth - "It is because you are one of us." Is Saya a human, or something more sinister!?
The Review!
The second of four Blood+ novels, Chevalier brings the novel's storyline to right about the halfway point in the original anime series. Picking things back up after the conclusion of the Vietnam story arc in the first book, this new installment opens with Saya and Red Shield traveling the Trans-Siberia Railway in the hopes of tracking down Ted A. Adams, an American officer associated with the U.S. Army's Chiropteran program. Saya's role in this plan deteriorates when Chiropterans attack the train, and Saya and Hagi are consequently thrown from the train in the confusion of battle. They seek shelter in a nearby Russian village, inadvertently engaging a Chiropteran formerly known as Grigori Rasputin. After this second battle, the two are soon reunited with the train.
This lull in the action is short-lived, as a Chiropteran disguised as a Red Shield associate mounts an attack on the train. In the midst of the fight, several hooded Chiropterans show up waiting in the wings; they seem to have a different agenda from Liza, being more concerned about drinking Saya's blood than actually killing her. The whole thing ends, unsurprisingly, with Liza's defeat and the hooded ones fleeing. Nevertheless, what Liza tells Saya at the end of their battle upsets her enough that she and Hagi runs away from Red Shield, leaving behind only a note with the word "liars" written on it. While the two head toward the Zoo and an eventual reunion with Diva, Saya spends much of the rest of the novel being slowly fed bits of her back story while becoming increasingly upset that Red Shield has been less than forthcoming about her past.
Compared to the previous volume, the narrative feels a bit sluggish and the action a bit duller, especially as it heads into its revelatory second act. With Saya and Hagi basically splintered off into their own group for most of the novel, the stakes during the fights are a lot lower (yeah, in principle either Saya or Hagi could be killed off, but let's be realistic) and I'm just not generally sold on the chemistry between them quite yet; Saya's interactions with her adoptive family were much more interesting by comparison. There's also a lot more exposition and flashing back than in the last volume -- this is, after all, a volume almost entirely about Saya revisiting her past. It's a nice change to get some added depth to the story after what had basically been a pretty straightforward, action-oriented first volume, even if it does slow the pacing down somewhat towards the middle.
Now while there's this gradual refocusing of the story away from Saya's family and more toward the dynamic between Saya and her Chevalier, there hasn't been enough change in the style or quality of writing here to either scare off existing readers or entice new ones. Still, part of me wishes that Ikehata would take a little more creative license in his adaptation: the second Blood+ novel continues tracking the plot of the TV series very closely, which (while a good way to please die-hard fans of the anime series) makes the whole thing feel a little bit superfluous.
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