Trinity Blood takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where mankind (particularly the opulent, politically conflicted Vatican) is at war with "Methuselahs," otherwise known as plain, simple vampires. Most of the time, Abel is just a mild-mannered priest, genially friendly and eternally starving because the Vatican denies him traveling expenses even for food. In the first episode, while traveling on an airship to his next assignment, he cadges a cup of tea "with 13 spoonfuls of sugar" out of a barmaid in hopes of keeping himself going until landing. His bug-eyed delight when she actually prepares the thing is almost as disturbing as the showers of blood and exploding viscera in the more violent scenes.

Unfortunately for him and his sugar fix, a vampire is about to hijack the plane and terrorize the Vatican with it, demanding the release of vampire captives from his extremist organization, Fleurs Du Mal. Anime conventions being what they are, it shouldn't come as any huge surprise when Father Abel suddenly reveals himself as a "Crusnik," a seriously badass nanotech-enhanced vampire-hunting specialist of a very particular kind.

Other episodes on the initial disc of Trinity Blood reveal a bit more about the new world of the future, but mostly just by observation: The Vatican's boy pope is young and weak-willed, with the formidable, sensible Cardinal Caterina and her violent brother Cardinal Francesco di Medici alternately pulling his strings. In this future, a simple missile is considered "lost technology from the old age," but nanotech and androids indistinguishable from humans flourish. And Abel isn't the only one with magic-like abilities: He spends much of one episode trying to befriend and protect a telepathic child, described alternately as a witch, a mutant and a product of genetic tinkering from pre-armageddon times.

Familiarity breeds bad blood

Hellsing fans may get a been-there, seen-that feeling from Trinity Blood, which also has recognizable flavors of Trigun, Witch Hunter Robin and, above all, Vampire Hunter D. But Trinity Blood is still a promising series, if only for the elegant designs and lovely animation. In particular, the Vatican is visually impressive (though it does look strangely like a Mormon church as designed by the Zerg from Starcraft), and its dressed-to-impress inhabitants, especially Caterina, are a study in vivid colors and graceful movement. It's an enjoyable show to watch no matter what's going on.

Still, the show could stand more of Hellsing's dark originality; it's most like that series when Abel dons his vampire-hunting face, but those intervals are brief, and never reach Hellsing's heights of weird intensity. And most of the characters seem way too familiar. The tension largely comes from the Vatican rivalry rather than from the more physical conflicts. Still, it's an agreeably multidimensional series that operates on both a personal and a cosmic level: The world may well be coming to an end again, but at least as far as Abel is concerned, that's no reason to keep people from caring for each other. Unsurprisingly—given that he's simultaneously a bumbling pussycat and a death-dealer—Abel embodies a lot of contradictions, which the series hasn't yet begun to explore.

Of course, no anime drama would be complete without a little bit of foreshadowing and a little bit of flashback, and both imply that Abel has a much darker secret in his past, one that no doubt goes a long way toward explaining how he became what he is. In spite of its lush images, Trinity Blood sometimes feels fairly generic, excellent for anime newbies experiencing their first solid horror/future series. But longtime anime fans can hold out for the point when the backstory surfaces and Trinity Blood really struts its stuff.