Trinity Blood, Rage Against The Moons

Trinity Blood is a reprint of a 2001 collection of stories. This book is the first of 6 volumes and is comprised of four short stories about characters that are a part of the Vatican’s AX Agency to combat vampires. Each story is connected to each other but this is not just one single story in four parts. Each section is completely separated from the rest with the exception of the last in which some events that occurred in a previous section were mentioned. Otherwise, only the characters and their mission are connected. Of the characters we meet, Father Abel Nightroad seems to be the author’s favorite. This seemingly mild-mannered and clumsy priest is also a deadly vampire killer. Other characters are Gunslinger or Tres Iqus, who is exactly what his name says, a literal killing machine; Hugue de Watteau, codename Sword Dancer is the one I found most interesting. Not only did we get a bit of his background, it was an interesting story that made me want to investigate the hints further.

While the characters and stories are fun and interesting, they come off as very comic book-like. A great deal of this may be due to the translation of the dialog, much of it sounds wrong for the characters and setting. After finishing the book I did a bit of research and apparently this book was later turned into actual comic books. I can understand the draw for a comic book from these stories. They have that over-the-top heroic feel that many comic books favor.

I found the book to be easily readable, fairly entertaining and at the very least, very nicely illustrated. I found it a bit simplistic, especially most of the dialog – though again, this may be attributed to the translator and not the original author. It will most likely appeal to comic and manga fans as well as other young adult readers.