Trinity Blood, #10

Trinity Blood #10

by Sunao Yoshida (story), Kiyo Kujō (illustrator), Thores Shibamoto (character design)

Esther palaa kotiseudulleen. Siellä valmistellaan ällistyttävää oopperaa Pyhän Estherin elämästä. Mitä oikein on tapahtunut? Ja ollaanko Estherille suunnittelemassa paljon suurempaakin roolia? Ensi-illassa tapahtumat riistäytyvät käsistä...

Suositellaan yli 13-vuotiaille.

Genres: Manga, Vampires, Fantasy, Horror, Action, Comics Manga, Comics

180 pages, Paperback

First published February 16, 2008

About the author

Sunao Yoshida (吉田直 Yoshida Sunao) is the pen name of late Japanese novelist Sunao Matsumoto. He was born in Fukuoka Prefecture and graduated from La Salle junior/senior high school in Kagoshima. He attended Waseda University and earned a Master's degree from Kyoto University. Yoshida died of a lung blockage in 2004.

In 1997, Yoshida was awarded the Sneaker Taisho literary prize for his debut novel, Genocide Angel. He was the author of the novel series Trinity Blood, which was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's The Sneaker magazine. The Trinity Blood series was published in North America by Tokyopop.

Reviews

[Mizuki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't been a huge fan of the Trinity Blood series, although this series has a lot of elements that I like, gothic art style, awesome artwork, vampires, and badass priests and nuns as vampire hunters (?), I enjoy reading this series but I do not love it. Plus I never watch the anime.

(1) So, when reading vol. 10 (because there is a free copy in the library, yeah) I dove in a read, I admire the awesome artwork and character design delivered by Kiyo Kyujyo, and the storyline is pretty asskicking too, not to mention all the badass ladies in the story! ^_^

(2) So it's basically a tale of 'humans are their own worst enemy' again.

(3) Since I have read the novels, so I am not exactly thrilled about the plot of a brown-skinned girl sacrificing herself to facilitate the white-skinned heroine's character development, don't get me wrong, I like this series, but this kind of thing is just annoying.

It is too bad that the author of this series, Sunao Yoshida, passed away very young and could not finish this series, though he did give us some ideas and illustrations to hint at how the plots will go eventually.

[marisa. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A saint is an idol...a statue...
It should stay as quiet as marble."

There will be spoilers below!

I stopped rereading Trinity Blood after the Empire arc ended because what comes next is the Lady Saint arc and my emotions couldn't handle rereading it at the time.

Esther and company return to Istvan, where she discovers that she's the subject of an opera written by Bishop D'Annunzio and produced by the Propaganda Fide. The opera was created in honor of the one-year anniversary of Star of Sorrows and to commemorate the slaying of Gyula Ka'Dar from the first volume. When Esther delivers a speech at the opera house, she's kidnapped by a Methuselah woman, who calls her a mass murderer.

Now the summaries of this manga never really do it justice and can be pretty confusing. The back summary for this volume calls Schera an "unexpected friend turned foe" implying that they'd met in the Empire when I don't think Schera was even shown during that arc. She is the niece of the Duke of Tigris, and had to flee from the Empire once she was implicated in his plot to usurp the throne.

Even though this is a hard one to read simply because I know how it ends, it's probably my favorite arc. A lot of people never really got into this manga because it has less of the action advertised, and more political intrigue, and this arc's plot exemplifies this. But I love all the scheming and the Propaganda Fide and especially love Schera, who's probably my favorite character in this series.

I definitely do have a few issues with this volume, though, mostly with how easily D'Annunzio is getting away with shit.

One of the things that gets me is that Bishop D'Annunzio is obviously suspicious. He dropped the ball at the opera when his police force was supposed to be protecting Esther, but everyone just moves on from that. I imagine that there would be an investigation into what happened, but there's never mention of it again. Yet no one stops to consider his motives? That maybe he's up to something?

And the timeline is also confusing in regards to Bishop D'Annunzio's plot. So the Propagande Fide announces to the media that Esther has been rescued and is recovering at the hospital, meaning the public assumes she's safe. But when the police catch Esther, who is still in custody of the Methuselah, they say they plan to martyr her so that they can begin a holy crusade against the vampires. D'Annunzio continues to talk about this, but how would that work out if everyone believes Esther has already been retrieved. The Vatican would have to admit that they lied in order for his plan to work, and I doubt that that's going to happen.

I guess it's a little detail, and the Vatican would likely be backed into a corner, but the fact that it's not explained just how D'Annunzio is going to work this out makes it feel like a plot hole.

Anyway, the best part of this volume was Schera and her friendship with Esther. The fact that Esther is the first person to give her a nickname is the cutest thing. Schera is probably the most caring and sweet character in this whole series, to the point that she'd go out of her way to help Esther when she could have just killed her in order to save her family.

Oh, and I also really liked how Esther said that Gyula was not evil, and that the battle they fought wasn't honorable, and no one was thinking about greater good. It just shows how much she's grown, when she despised him and all Methuselah in the first volume. And her speech in chapter 36 is the best in this series.

There's so much more I could say about this volume, and how it has some awesome commentary on propaganda and the manipulation of the public, and how we should always question our leaders, but I really want to read the next volume because I haven't in so many years.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since this is new material (as in, it's not shown in the anime), I didn't know where the story was going to go at all, which I think made me enjoy reading this volume even more (although the cliff-hanger is harder to wait since I still don't know where the story is going!). I find this series so much fun.

[Nameh dah · Rating 5 out of 5]

El estigma de la santa es el preludio a la tormenta, la definición del personaje de Esther.
Shera <3

[Forthright . · Rating 4 out of 5]

New plot arc!

[Daniy ♠ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was kinda bored tbh

[consumedshadow-mysticmc · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read; that felt a bit confusing near the end. I found myself confused by the jump of plot from chapter 37 to chapter 38.

[Miss Ryoko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I have a hard time following the politics of this series (much like politics in real life) so there were moments I was like "Huh?" during this volume. But I must say one thing - Esther is an awesome female lead. I think it's pretty rare to find female leads in mangas who are strong and independent. I like how at first, in the beginning of the series, she was more dependent on people, but now she's just full blown kicking some ass! All I have to say is: You go girl!

I also loved the fact the Pope looked like he was 14! Haha...cuz in real life, they always look like they're 400.

The new female character, Schera is GORGEOUS and I love her outfits! I can't wait to see more of her!

Well, I'm coming to a close with the available volumes with only two to go. Let's see what happens up until that point!

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having learned my lesson from writing short little reviews for the Vampire Hunter D manga, I'm just straight up going to say that the art for this is gorgeous. My only complaint is that it's sometimes a little too heavy on the fanservice, but it's otherwise really well put-together. I love the characters and the plot – which builds itself as the volumes progress, revealing the world to us gradually and making it seem very, very real. Overall, this is one of my favourite mangas and I'm really disappointed that the English release hasn't been continued.

[Viridian5 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so excited waiting for Trinity Blood volume X, but today's browse through it killed that. It's interminable boring talk talk talk and the presentation throughout of Esther as a very special star snowflake. Only Brother Petros brought things to life once in a while. Also, I wonder at Tres' reaction to something the pope does near the end.

[Philippe Lhoste · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suite de ma lecture de la série, du tome 6 au 10.
L'histoire se densifie, on sent l'origine littéraire, avec un arrière-plan politique complexe, et des révélations sur le passé des personnages (même le "robot", plutôt cyborg d'ailleurs).

Toujours un dessin très élégant, n'hésitant pas à sombrer dans le SD (humoristique), et un bon équilibre entre dramatisation et humour.
Une bonne série.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sunao Yoshida died in 2004.Before his death he had created almost all of them .Luckily his friend (Kentaro Yasui)felt the need to finish the series and completed the remaining ones.It's a really good series and I'm so glad he finished them.

[Khallandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story this time more focused on 'Saint Esther' and her new friend. Plus the reappearance of Petros makes me happy. Though Tres is very possessive in this saga.

[Logan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much Esther in distress/Esther being kidnapped/Esther being martyred. Here's hoping the plot will be more varied in the next volume.

[Rachel (Sfogs) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book!

[Mel]

So many good and memorable lines. Great for random quotes walls. Also loving this arch of the series.

[La Revistería Comics · Rating 4 out of 5]

¡¡Pacientemente, de a puchitos, la saga de vampiros futuristas fanáticos religiosos con sangre chupa sangre sigue avanzando en edición argentina!!

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edición argentina, tomo 10. Ejemplar extraviado de momento.

[Audre · Rating 4 out of 5]

omg I didn't remember that story at all. i thougt it was immediately the ablion arc after the empire arc

[Gustav Roccia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0/5.0