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Plot Synopsis

Few years after the Armageddon in the distant future, the war between the vampires and the humans continues. In order to protect the humans from the vampires, Vatican have been building allies with other institutions and allies to counter the situation. One of them is a priest called Peter Abel Nightroad, who travels through the countries as a representative for the Vaticans. However, he is also part of "Ax", a special operations group controlled by the Cardinal Catherina.

As the story continues, Priest Abel's past and true identity will slowly be discovered. His encounter with a young girl called Esther will determine the struggle and survival between the human race and the vampires.

Credits: niomea

Story & Characters

Mehhhh..... very few shreds of originality to be found here.

Okay, the Armageddon plot has been used in tons of other Horror and Mecha animes. The original bit is using the Vatican itself as one of the 'Sides' in the war. Yes, they are still at war, it's the old 'fake peace' thing going on here...

Sorry to slap it in your faces, but the story was basically bits ripped from various other anime and patched together, like the making of Frankenstein. It is not the first time that a religious group faced off against vampires. In fact, a good chunk of the vampiric anime today revolves around that theme. The only difference is to which degree they are involved.

More to come in the 'presentation' part.

Rating

5 (moderate)

Art

GONZO. Legendary for its excellent animation and also for RUINING STORYLINES.

Strike One: Abel Nightroad. While Esther was unique enough, Abel looks like a clone of Integra Wingates Hellsing from Hellsing, down to the face shape and glasses.

And get this- Integra is a woman. Hellsing also preceded TRB by three-four years.
Fortunately they remembered to change their color palette and give him a ponytail.
**by the way Hellsing is also a GONZO production.... hint hint.....***

Strike Two:
As for the rest of the characters, they have look-alikes from all over, like FMA (Lust; just look who she reminds you of!).
I also don't get why they have to make everyone look perfect. Hel-lo! The only people who can justify that amount of perfection are the three Vatican siblings.

On the plus side, the costume design and background are among the best I've ever seen. I especially love the scenes from episode two, when Abel was wandering around town. GONZO is known for its use of toned-down coloring of characters, and their style fits the genre pretty well. They also managed to integrate the religious concept into the mens' costumes as well as the womens'.

This would be a perfect 10 if not for those two big Strikes.

Rating

8 (good)

Sound

Well, the OP and ED didn't change throughout. the BGM blended into the background, which I guess is a good thing. Not everything has to draw attention to be good. The OP theme in particular seems like it was made especially for this anime.

The voicing is pretty good. not brilliant, not horrible- just ok. The reason for this is the seiyuu's voices are already familiar- they've worked in other (higher-ranking) animes. The sounds of bloodshed were pretty convincing though, points for that.

A safe, standard 7.

Rating

7 (above average)

Presentation

AGH- this is where it really fails. If you're a diehard fan of TRB, you might want to turn around now as this will sting.

First off, Characters.

All of them are the standard stereotypes in anime- the nice guy-suffering-internal-conflict, the girl who is rescued by the nice guy(and will inevitably fall for him), the bossy woman, and so on. It was bad enough to recycle character designs. But recycling personalities is just... lame. Did they even TRY to make them unique? And why is it that every single woman in this series except for Kate (Scott- the ghost) needed to be saved?

Some sugar *
* I admit having a vampire feeding on other vampires instead of humans was interesting. *

BUT they chose NOT to expand on it, and threw in a bunch of filler at the start which soaked up most of the budget and by the time the real story comes in, the anime's past the halfway number of episodes. Basically, they crammed all the information into the last quarter.

Rosenkreuz Orden also falls flat on the details. No explanation why they're there, HOW they got there, how the heck -------h is head of the Orden, nada, they just exist to mess around and cause trouble. In fact, by the last few episodes it's revealed they're being puppeteer-ed by someone else. What sort of evil organization dissolves that quickly? Same goes for the Vatican's group, with guys who exist to be bossed around.

Also, the ending was SO predictable. The feeble attempts at foreshadowing give away the ending without arousing serious interest like, 'ooh, how did this happen?'. Want effective foreshadowing? Check out Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni.
In TRB, nothing unexpected happens- just pay at least minor attention to details and the ending unravels itself. Even the bit about Esther.

It wasn't explained either how Cain ended up like *that* and what is Abel's sin. Religious reference, for what reason? Abel is clearly very much alive, so what was the point of that.... and though Abel's little sis was amusing as a tea-seller, the whole way they made their decisions and acted was just forced, like reading from a script.

Ion might have salvaged the last chapter of this anime, if the decision was not so glaringly obvious. It's happened countless times before- desperate situation wherein the lead female character has the chance to sacrifice herself and save humanity (okay maybe not the humanity bit; but you get the point). It's really too bad- Ion was my favorite.

Fine, I know the original author died.... the manga was better, since he was alive when he and Thores made it... and this had a lot of potential.

*****************************************

~EDIT: oh lol I seem to have upset several fans of the series. Let me state clearly: **I DO NOT HATE IT**, it was a lovely manga, enjoyed every page (very admirable detailing and such) but I am here reviewing the ANIME, NOT THE ENTIRE THING, and in my opinion the anime did not come on par with the manga. Partly because it was too short to explain. (Yes, sequel would probably help)

~apart from that little minirant~ my review scores remain the same.

Rating

4 (below average)

Final Verdict

5.50 (average)

Reviewed by shigemitsubaki, 1y 17wk ago