Trinity Blood, Vol. 1
© Tokyopop

Mania Grade: B
Written By: Sunao Yoshida
Illustrations By: Thores Shibamoto
Publisher: Tokyopop
Rating: Teen
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"Trinity Blood: Volume 1"

Writers favour two animals roaming on the surface of post-apocalyptic Earth: Mutants and Vampires.  It's easy to invent mutants--all you need are some human genes made into soup by fallout.  Explaining the beginnings of radiation-drenched vampires is a little more difficult.  Trinity Blood doesn't work to deeply into the origin puzzle, nor does it offer much new to the worked-over vampire genre.  But Yoshida's blend of characters, action and vivid settings makes for a pop fiction that's still fun to read. 

Years after Armageddon rips the Earth apart, human civilisation rebuilds under the protection of the Vatican.  The Vatican keeps an uneasy peace with the New Human Empire, a nation of vampires.  The wobbly ceasefire is threatened by a band of chaotic, exiled vampires (the preferred term is "Methuselahs") who strive to drum up a violent battle between the two species and create their own society from the ashes.  But the Vatican and New Human Empire have assembled a Special Ops team between them, including a Crusnik, a vampire who feeds on other vampires. 

Most of Trinity Blood follows the exploits of the Crusnik, who works undercover by disguising himself as a bumbling traveling Priest named Abel.  While he's fearsome in battle, Abel is otherwise benign and brings to mind another loveable wanderer who uses violence only as a last resort--Vash the Stampede from Trigun.  They even share the same glasses and frocklike great-coat.  Regardless, Abel is hard to dislike; in a genre where most protagonists are tortured souls with dark pasts, a happy hero is a fun hero.           

Trinity Blood still offers up plenty of doom and gloom, as well as gallons of blood and descriptions of flayed bodies and squelching guts.  There's also the European underworld as shepherded by vampire aristocrats and dark deeds done beside the cold canals of Venice.  Trinity Blood is a fun ride, but the novel exhibits the same flaws as similar light Japanese fiction; the narration is very telling and straightforward, leaving no room for the reader to wonder about the characters' motivations or feelings.  Abel, for example, is partnered with a haughty vampire, Asthe.  Asthe's arrogance and mistrust towards her new partner is smoothed over with a few paragraphs dictating her feelings after a narrow escape.  Being "talked to" greatly lessens the impact of the scene.     

Fortunately, while Trinity Blood bleeds from a few wounds, there are still good times to be had.  The thought of the Vatican being the primary military power in the world might be unsettling to anyone who didn't get along well in their Sunday School class, but the mental image of the Pope piloting a giant battleship called "The Iron Maiden" is admittedly badass.