Black Blood Brothers



After a vampire apocalypse is narrowly averted in Hong Kong, humanity's greatest defenders, who are mostly vampires who joined the humans against the Kowloon (pronounced kuu-lahn) children, disappear. During the next few years, a safe area for vampires is set up in Japan; it is called the Special Zone.

The series starts 10 years later as Jiro Mochizuki, one of humanity's greatest defenders, and his young brother Kotaro approach the Special Zone looking to move in. Unbeknownst to them, not all of the Kowloon children were killed in the Hong Kong Crusade. Some are after Jiro's life in revenge for his role in their near-extinction.

And theirs is not the only plot in play.

The series originally started out as some Light Novels by Kōhei Azano and art by Yuuya Kusaka. In 2006 a 12 episode anime based on the book was created by Studio Live and Group TAC. It has been licensed and released in America by FUNimation

Not to be confused with Black Blood, a trope about censoring blood, or The Black Blood Alliance, a comic.

Black Blood Brothers provides examples of:

 * All There in the Manual: Most of the back stories of some of the characters is explained in the novel. Though since they're Japan exculsive, outside the country you are out of luck.
 * Ambiguously Gay: Rinsuke Akai
 * An Axe to Grind: Auguste, but later he switches to a saber.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: Almost all higher-ups in the Order Coffin Company (which manages the Special Zone) are heroes of the Hong Kong Cusade.
 * Badass Longcoat: Jiro wears a red one.
 * Battle Butler: Caine, though his master went...off.
 * Berserk Button: Kotaro, and later Mimiko, for Jiro.
 * Better Than Sex: Sex apparently pales in comparison to the sensation of getting bit by a vampire.
 * Big Ol' Eyebrows: Caine all the way.
 * Bishonen: They're everywhere! But Zelman in particular, Kotaro even calls him pretty. Stop it fangirls, Kotaro's ten.
 * Body Snatcher, People Puppets variety: The Kowloon vampire known as Man-Walker does this.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Those that end up bitten by Kowloons.
 * Broken Masquerade: Temporarily. See The Unmasqued World below.
 * Crowning Moment of Awesome: Oh so many. Most of the major characters get at least one. Yes, even Mimiko:
 * In the first episode, Jiro makes a suspension bridge shake like the infamous Tacoma Narrows bridge. Using just his mind. It just gets better from there.
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: Several, but the highlight would have to be Jiro's attempted compliment to Mimiko on.
 * Cue the Sun: Inverted; it's not the sun, but the rain.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Jiro has some pretty good ones, "Are you intoxicated or just insane?"
 * Determinator Jirou, in the final episode
 * Expy: Zelman Clock looks a LOT like Heat from Bust-a-Groove. Both characters have an affinity for fire as well. Whether or not this is intentional I don't know, but if it isn't, it's one hell of a coincidence.
 * Face Doodling: Cassa offers Mimiko the chance to do this to her brother. When Mimiko turns her down, she puts the marker in Victoria's Secret Compartment.
 * Failure Knight: Poor Jiro.
 * Foe Yay: Cassa and Mimiko, episode 10.
 * FUNimation: Did the English dub.
 * Gambit Pileup: Okay, more like five. Hey, there are only twelve episodes.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: The mind-controlling "Eye Raid" technique causes this for both the user and the victim. Zelman Clock's "Eye Ignite" also makes his eyes glow, though with all the fire it's hard to see.
 * Goggles Do Nothing: Although Jiro occasionally uses his as sunglasses, Kotaro's do nothing but hang around his neck.
 * Guns Are Worthless: Guns are pretty much useless against the sword-wielding Jiro. Not so much against other characters, though.
 * Impaled With Extreme Prejudice: Man-Walker's puppet body, by the Pile-Killer (and how he got his name: he impales vampires with piles, you know, gigantic wooden stakes).
 * Katanas Are Just Better: Partially justified, as the show is set in Japan, but that still doesn't explain why Jiro used one in the Hong Kong Crusade, much less what appears to be Victorian London. Only three swords show up in the series, and two are katana.
 * Watch the flashback sequences at the beginning of each episode again. In one it shows Jiro introducing himself to Alice as Sub-Lieutenant Jiro Mochizuki of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Now, I don't know, but, being trained almost from birth to use a weapon is a pretty good reason to be using it a century later, in Hong Kong and The Special Zone. Oh and it's not a Katana, by the lenght and curvature is seems to be more of a Tachi
 * The word "katana" does not refer to just one type of sword; it also functions as a generic term for all Japanese swords, including straight ones. If you want to be specific, though, technically, the main difference between tachi and katana is that tachi are worn edge-down, usually hanging from the belt, and katana are worn edge-up, stuck through the belt. The other differences are more a function of time and changes in sword design coupled with the changing popularity of each style. Since Jiro 'carries'' his instead of either sticking it through his belt or hanging it from a frog (sword/scabbard holder) on his belt, the generic term "katana" is appropriate.
 * Kiss of the Vampire: One of the minor characters claims that "sex pales in comparison" to being bitten.
 * Made of Iron: Jiro, by Vampire standards. One of his weaknesses is water, and in the first episode he ends up falling into the ocean and walking to shore. In broad daylight, even.
 * Magic Pants: Cain must wear some, because they're the only part of his outfit to survive
 * Now stop it. I know you fan girls want to see the man naked, but come on, he transformed only partially. He didn't shapeshift his legs, just his head and part of his upper body. The pants would have had to be pretty defective to malfunction when his legs didn't even change their volume.
 * Nice Hat: Jiro wears one, though it often falls off during fights.
 * He manages to hold onto to it pretty well in the first episode when he's diving into the ocean.
 * If you watch when he's diving in, you can see one hand is holding it on his head.
 * Let's not forget Zelman's hat, which never actually comes off.
 * Noble Demon: Zelman Clock, the Affably Evil lord of the House of Darkness and self-proclaimed "bad guy". Makes friends with Kotaro pretty much the first time they meet, and is one of the most powerful vampires alive helping to suppress the wave of Kowloon Child infection.
 * Noodle Incident: Jiro killed the Kowloon King. We're never told how, but it clearly wasn't a fair fight because Jiro admits that he wouldn't be able to do it again.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: Sort of. Different bloodlines have different strengths and weaknesses, but all have at least some of both. Also, only the Kowloon bloodline can turn humans by biting them; other lines only turn humans when the humans in question drink their blood. Furthermore, being bitten is depicted as extremely pleasurable.
 * The Kowloon are also dangerous to normal vampires, as being bitten brings them under their control, as we're unfortunately shown in the third episode.
 * Out of the Inferno: Zelman Clock, a pyrokinetic.
 * Playing With Fire: Ditto on Zelman Clock.
 * Plucky Girl: Thy name is Mimiko.
 * Pstandard Psychic Pstance: Played with; Jiro's "Hide Hand" telekinesis usually involves him pointing at whatever he wants to move...with his middle finger.
 * Rapunzel Hair: Cassa has this.
 * Red Baron: In spades. Almost every combatant has a nickname: Silver Blade, Red-Eyed Butcher, Blue Wolf, Pile-Killer, Man-Walker.
 * Although, this could be partially justified, as most of the individuals are vampires, and have doubtless been around for a long, long time. For all we know, they collect them like Discworld vampires.
 * They're also almost all survivors of the Hong Kong Crusade, so their nicknames may have started out as code names.
 * Cassa is called the Black Snake.
 * Red Eyes Take Warning: the only character with red eyes can control fire.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Caine and Jiro, Caine is normally rather irritable and loud, but he's calm and cold under pressure. Jiro is snarky and relaxed, but freaks the hell out when his brother is in danger.
 * Which means they switch roles when under stress. Does that make them each both parts?
 * Two Purple Oni?
 * Ring Ring CRUNCH: Jiro cuts Mimiko's alarm clock in half because he can't figure out how to turn it off. As Kotaro says, he's "not good with modern technology."
 * Single Stroke Battle:
 * Spanner in The Works: Zelman Clock. Right in the Gambit Pileup, too.
 * The Masquerade: See below.
 * The Unmasqued World: The Kowloon Shock and ensuing Hong Kong Crusade broke The Masquerade, but the government convinced the populace that the vampires were all exterminated in the Crusade.
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: It does when you have telekinesis and superhuman strength, although Jiro was shown taking very careful aim first, and he threw it like a spear, not a knife.
 * Twelve-Episode Anime
 * Victoria's Secret Compartment: Cassa seems to keep a marker there, for Face Doodling purposes.
 * Viewers Are Geniuses: Absolutely nothing important is explained directly, only a minor bit of backstory.
 * Mostly because the anime is based off some light novels in Japan, which probably hold more information on the characters.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting:
 * Weaksauce Weakness: Jiro has the usual vampire weaknesses but is especially averse to water (Not just Holy, any type of water), which drains him greatly )
 * Xanatos Gambit
 * Zombie Apocalypse: With vampires.
 * Xanatos Gambit
 * Zombie Apocalypse: With vampires.