Otakuism

Story:

Cause I’m lazy tonight, here’s the summary from Tokyopop: “A mysterious organization is hell-bent on orchestrating a war between the New Human Empire and the Vatican. Special Ops AX Agent Abel Nightroad teams up with a spunky young novice named Esther to try and stop Gyula, the bloodthirsty Marquis of Hungary, from unleashing the legendary Star of Sorrow”

Impressions:

Ok, for those confused about the differences between this Trinity Blood novel and the earlier one, here is how it works: In Japan this volume, Reborn on the Mars, was published first with a second book and series, Rage Against the Moons, being published afterwards. Rage Against the Moon was published here first, though. Storywise, all the events of Rage Against the Moons take place before the Reborn on the Mars storylines. Tokyopop switched the publications probably due to this.

The story this volume roughly corresponds to episodes three and four of the anime, the Star of Sorrow episodes. Except, obviously, the book greatly expands on everything to make it a much larger book, throwing in the malicious police officer Radcon, Tres Iqus as a major character, and even a full-scale Vatican invasion. Definitely more exciting than the actual episodes. The gorgeous artwork by THORES that occasionaly appears is a wonderful bonus to the story. I’m still disappointed that Tokyopop doesn’t present the opening spreads in full color, like Seven Seas did with Boogiepop. I wish they would just release an artbook already.

After reading this, my opinions haven’t really changed much on Trinity Blood. Yes, there are still a ton of cliche elements - weak yet secretly strong lead, powerful catholic church, heavy use of Clarke’s Third Law like Vampire Hunter D, etc. However, I think Trinity Blood uses these diverse elements in a unique enough way to be wholly entertaining while you’re reading it. Trinity Blood is basically a pulp adventure novel/cold war thriller, with the emphasis on the adventure. Trinity Blood isn’t deep at all, or even particularly rememberable when you think about, but it’s great for a light, fun read between all those heavy school books. Highly recommended by me, but I think it’s obvious by now where my tastes lean. Now, time for me to track down the Full Metal Panic Novel…