Trinity Blood started out as a series of light novels written by Sunao Yoshida and was illustrated by Thores Shibamoto. But in 2005 shortly after Yoshida announced that his work was going to be turned into an anime series he died aged 34. He also left some unfinished work that his friend Kentaro Yasui (the author of Ragnarok novels) stepped in to complete the remaining novels and the manga series. Now due to this there are continuity differences between the novels, manga, and the anime; but this can be forgiven. The anime runs for 24 episodes and was produced by Gonzo. Trinity Blood was directed by Tomohiro Hirata and featured character designs by Atsuko Nakajima and first aired on Japanese TV in 2005.
Because you don’t get a lot of background history in the anime I’m going to give it to you, this will help when watching the anime. Earths population increased to breaking point so humans colonized Mars. During this colonization two technologies were discovered: the Bacillus and the Crusnik nanomachines. The colonists put the Bacillus into them which turned them into Methuselahs or vampires. The Crusnik was installed into four test tube babies, which were then put on a space station above earth. Then the colonists returned to Earth and a war brakes out between then Methuselahs and the humans (that had remained on earth) this war leads to Armageddon.
The anime take place 900 years later. There are two major powers the Methuselahs with their capital in Byzantium (they have taken over the East) and the humans or Terrans (they have taken over the west). The human’s major military power is the Roman Catholic Church and is based in the Vatican. The humans rely on technology that was lost in the Great War but was found again such as airships, missiles, and computers to aid them in their fight against the Methuselah. The anime center on Father Able Nightroad and his friends in the AX branch of the Vatican, and they travel around killing vampires that kill humans. The anime also shows the points of view of the Methuselah through Ables encounters with them. This anime is basically in two parts the first half focuses on the humans and we see what goes on in the Vatican and their political views. The second part focuses on the Methuselah and is set in Byzantium. Throughout the anime there is also a third party working behind the scenes playing both sides off of each other.
I wanted to see Trinity Blood from the first time I read about it in and anime meg. And I loved it the animation is superb and on the most part the story line is good. The ending was left open this is fine if they plan on making another series but if not then the ending sort of sucks. The anime also jumps into the story and you only get little snippets of the past throughout the anime. This was a bit annoying as I like to be informed but I did not mind because the story line was so action packed. I would recommend this anime to anyone as it has something for everyone.
Here is a link to an interview with some of the voice actors