Trinity

A mixture of science fiction and supernatural elements, the 2005 broadcast series Trinity Blood is set in the far future, when humans and vampires vie for control of the Earth. Abel Nightroad is an itinerant priest who helps the friendless and cadges meals. But when a real threat appears, he transforms into an uber-beast who feeds on the blood of vampires. Trinity Blood plays like a mixture of Hellsing and Trigun, although the elongated designs recall Aeon Flux. Nightroad is a wanderer reminiscent of Vash the Stampede, but he lacks the offbeat charm of the Humanoid Typhoon. The plot is even more improbable--and more likely to offend Catholic viewers--than Hellsing. The Vatican is run not by the boy-pope Alessandro XVIII, but by Cardinal Catherine, who sports a monocle like Sir Integra Hellsing's. For all his wandering, neither Nightroad nor the plot seems to get much of anywhere. The elaborate CG palaces, cathedrals, and space ships never blend with the two-dimensional animation of the characters. Trinity Blood might be more entertaining if it didn't take itself quite so seriously. (Unrated, suitable for ages 16 and older: graphic violence, grotesque imagery, brief nudity, tobacco use, potentially offensive religious imagery.) --Charles Solomon