Trinity Blood - Chapter V
AsTrinity Bloodbuilds toward its climax, the story darkens and grows even more complicated. Episodes #17, 18, and 19 focus primarily on a plot to kill the eternal Empress because she might improve relations with the Vatican and the human world. While these machinations unfold, the affection between Ion and Esther deepens, although he's a vampire/Methuselah and she's a human and a nun.  Although Father Abel Nightroad is referred to as a nano-machine, he turns out to be a sort of vampire's vampire: A Methuselah who lives on the blood of other vampires--but who denies himself that nourishment. A new subplot begins in Episode #20, when Pope Alessandro XVIII and Esther travel to the Kingdom of Albion for the funeral of the Queen.  Albion preserves much of the sophisticated technology that vanished from the rest of the world during the "Armageddon," but it's also troubled by human-vampire conflicts. It will be interesting to see if and how the filmmakers tie all these frayed storylines into anything approaching a real conclusion. (Rated TV 14, suitable for ages 16 and older: graphic violence, grotesque imagery, tobacco and alcohol use, offensive religious imagery.)--Charles Solomon