Star Crossed Anime

What do you get when you cross Trigun with Hellsing? Right, Trinity Blood. It plays in a futuristic-like setting, in which both Humans and Vampires (or rather Terrans and Methuselahs) live, but in which social rankings still remain very important.

The story of Trinity Blood rapidly changes from extremely good to extremely bad. Some episodes are unbelievably well thought out. Everything fits, and the plots leave you guessing all the time. At other times, however, the show leans a bit too much on using random coincidences and copies too much from Trigun.

The first half of the episodes feature father Abel Nightroad engaging in a couple of missions, each time accompanied with different side-characters. Some of these episodes may be a bit too complicated to follow. Other, however, were very interesting to see, especially when you were barely able to completely follow the plot, it was great to see all the different surprises.

The second half of the show, the missions begin to connect a bit more to each other, but they also take much longer than before. This may indeed become a bit boring, but the endings of each of those missions are magnificent and they will blow you off your chair. Then we have the ending itself. It consists of the last half of the last episode. I hate to say it, but it felt a bit incomplete. There are so many questions left unanswered. So many things yet to be solved. There was also a bit too much unneccesary action in the ending, which really could have been done better.

The different characters that Trinity Blood features are great. I’m especially a big fan of all the different members of the Vatican, but also the new characters introduced around the later episodes work great. Each of them has some kind of unique thread, which makes them interesting to watch. Their part was also the reason that the ending didn’t resolve in a total disaster. The first half of the last episode featured the side-characters in action. I totally loved this. Not even a second was wasted on it and each of the characters showed their utter best. Then the goodness ended and predictability began, unfortunately.

Although most of the characters were wonderful in this anime. There’s one character that just does NOT fit in this show: Esther. Somehow the creators took a liking in her, so they decided to give most of the screentime to her, instead of the side-characters. This is such a pity, because now that I think back a bit, I realize that almost all of the lesser moments of this anime featured her in one way or another.

The graphics in this anime look amazing. Especially the CG is top notch. The background music is nice to hear, but it’s not really anything special, or something. It’s just decent.

Overall, it was a very nice series to watch. Unfortunately, one character had to ruin it.

Why you should watch this: If you liked Trigun and Hellsing, or you are a fan of complicated plots, then you will like this anime.

Welcome, and say hello to the anime with the most wicked battle choreography ever. I have no idea why I didn’t decide to blog this. It’s mostly because at the time I started watching this show I felt that I was blogging too many series already. Anyway, this is a series that’s recieving waaaay to little publicity than it deserves. So many awesome stuff happens, I don’t know where to start.

Apparently, this is the second season of a show called Jubei-chan: The Ninja-Girl. I also didn’t know this until they started making references to it in the third episode. Anyway, she is sort of a magical-ninja-sword-girl, who uses an eye-patch shaped like a heart in order to transform into the reïncarnation of a sword-master who lived 300 years ago. This season, another girl, wearing an eye-patch with the shape of spades, arrives, claiming that Jubei’s eye-patch is hers. Apart from that, there are some other guys who bear the grudge against the sword-master, and also have been waiting for 300 years, and also want to beat her.

I know, it sounds horribly cliché. This anime, however, manages to make something beautiful out of this.

The power of this anime lies in the fact that it manages to utilize contrasts perfectly. Each and every character has a minimum of two very distinct moods. Mostly a hyperactive one and a serious one. By first showing the hyperactive side of the characters, the impact of the serious sides of these characters (when they get shown) becomes huge. This is also one fo the few anime in which I really like the main character. She is an amazing person, but in the end, you’ll feel sympathy for each and every one of the different character. Even the ones who seemed to only have been inserted for comic relief.

The battles are also the most amazing ones I’ve ever seen. Finally there’s an anime which realizes that power doesn’t win battles, but skills. And that’s what the characters fighting have: skills. Everyone moves so fast, it’s almost impossible to keep track.

That doesn’t mean that this show is entirely consisted of battles. Most battle usually take just five minutes, in which the show accomplishes what most anime wouldn’t even dare to try. The rest of the time is filled with some of the most amazing aftermaths, with one aftermath even taking up as long as four episodes.

I haven’t even started talking about the comedy yet. Although it’s not the best comedy ever and some misses it’s place, when the comedy works, it really works. I can’t believe how utterly creative some of the jokes are (sometimes perfectly integrated with the battles, other times just the characters being extremely wacky).

Overal, this is an amazing series. The characters are amazing, the battles are amazing, the dialogue is amazing, and don’t forget the catchy soundtrack.

Why you should watch this: if you like wicked battles, heavy drama, or just a good show, then you should watch this.

Final Rating: 89/100