What do you think?
Rate this book
Trinity Blood #12
トリニティ・ブラッド（12）
「聖女の烙印」編クライマックス！ 陰謀が暴かれたダヌンツィオ大司教はエステルとシェラに銃を向ける。激闘の末倒れたシェラとの約束を守るため、エステルは「聖女」になる決意を…。
Kindle Edition
First published August 24, 2009
2 people are currently reading
175 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 31, 2016
Waaaaaah!!!
Okay, okay... first, I really hope Esther keeps growing in this aspect! The only problem is every time she's in a "Will Esther be strong or need to be saved?" moment, you KNOW Abel is just going to show up and save the day, like he always does (like he did in this volume and pretty much all of them) and then she's always like "Father?" like she's SO surprised he's suddenly there. Well, I'm not, and I know none of the other readers are either.
Besides that, Abel had a few kick ass moments in this volume that made me go "Woot!" and one super Vash the Stampede moment that made me go "Aww!" and "GOD DAMN IT!" at the same time.
I've also discovered just how much I love Brother Petros, even though I think he's a raving lunatic with his devotion. But I find myself always getting excited when he shows up.
So what now.... the volumes are now done for being published in English (unless another company picks it up)... and I can't decide if I want to bother looking up a translation online or not. Decisions, decisions. Maybe I'll just watch the anime and be satisfied with that ending as the ending to the series. I cannot say for now. We'll see how I feel in the future.
**Edit 8-7-12** I just finished watching the anime and ugh... UGH!!! Its completely different than the manga. They couldn't even keep the basics the same - like why Gyula's wife was killed, and Esther's reaction when she see's Nightroad's Crusnik for the first time... are you kidding me? UGH!!! I don't mind if storylines are different in animes because they usually are because the mangas are still coming out...but if you can't keep character basics the same... and Tres... what the hell did they do to him in transitioning him from the manga to the anime? He looks AWFUL! And fail on the English translators/director for having Ion's name mispronounced. And Esther! Ugh, don't even get me started on how horrible she is in the anime! I was not happy one bit... and yet I watched the entire 24 episode series because I am an idiot. Lol. I do not recommend the anime!
Also, the anime really made me think this story is just a rip off of Trigun. I don't want to think that...but there is just so much similarities and characters that are practically the same. And it bothers me.
And my last thought: :-( Schera!!! :-(
Okay, okay... first, I really hope Esther keeps growing in this aspect! The only problem is every time she's in a "Will Esther be strong or need to be saved?" moment, you KNOW Abel is just going to show up and save the day, like he always does (like he did in this volume and pretty much all of them) and then she's always like "Father?" like she's SO surprised he's suddenly there. Well, I'm not, and I know none of the other readers are either.
Besides that, Abel had a few kick ass moments in this volume that made me go "Woot!" and one super Vash the Stampede moment that made me go "Aww!" and "GOD DAMN IT!" at the same time.
I've also discovered just how much I love Brother Petros, even though I think he's a raving lunatic with his devotion. But I find myself always getting excited when he shows up.
So what now.... the volumes are now done for being published in English (unless another company picks it up)... and I can't decide if I want to bother looking up a translation online or not. Decisions, decisions. Maybe I'll just watch the anime and be satisfied with that ending as the ending to the series. I cannot say for now. We'll see how I feel in the future.
**Edit 8-7-12** I just finished watching the anime and ugh... UGH!!! Its completely different than the manga. They couldn't even keep the basics the same - like why Gyula's wife was killed, and Esther's reaction when she see's Nightroad's Crusnik for the first time... are you kidding me? UGH!!! I don't mind if storylines are different in animes because they usually are because the mangas are still coming out...but if you can't keep character basics the same... and Tres... what the hell did they do to him in transitioning him from the manga to the anime? He looks AWFUL! And fail on the English translators/director for having Ion's name mispronounced. And Esther! Ugh, don't even get me started on how horrible she is in the anime! I was not happy one bit... and yet I watched the entire 24 episode series because I am an idiot. Lol. I do not recommend the anime!
Also, the anime really made me think this story is just a rip off of Trigun. I don't want to think that...but there is just so much similarities and characters that are practically the same. And it bothers me.
And my last thought: :-( Schera!!! :-(
March 1, 2018
...and since this is the last volume published in my part of the world, I'm utterly stranded.
July 14, 2015
El final del estigma y la entrada a la María Sangrienta.
August 10, 2022
I cried. and the drawing is better than in the first books.
March 13, 2018
12/03
So my first rating for this volume was 3 stars, mostly because I was and always will be bitter over Schera's death. But I still really, really like this volume so looking at it through a personal lens, it's 5 stars.
I usually don't do in-depth summaries, but I wanted to lay out what happened in the first half of the volume.
This volume opens up with Caterina Sforza and Pope Alessandro meeting the Bishop D'Annunzio where he - in true Bond villain fashion - reveals his evil plans to kill them both and martyr Esther. Schera and Esther arrive not long after, but when Schera discovers the bodies of her family she's been trying to rescue, she goes berserk. Her rampage against the military police is my favorite scene in any manga ever - it's interspersed with Esther's memories of their conversations about how much Schera actually cared about Terrans, and it's just incredibly tragic.
However, before Schera can kill D'Annunzio, he opens a window (I think?) and she starts burning to death. Then the police shoot her with silver until Abel, Petros, and Tres come in for a Big Damn Heroes moment. Once the fighting breaks out between the military police and the AX (plus Petros), D'Annunzio tries to make an escape only to be confronted by Esther. He then pretends like he wasn't trying to murder her, as if his lackies didn't tell her what their plans were each time they attempted to assassinate her.
Anyway, Matthias comes in with his big mech (and the Department of the Inquisition) to tell D'Annunzio that they pretty much knew his plan every step of the way. (But, apparently, just let this all happen for some reason.) They detain the Bishop, and Esther tells Schera that he's been arrested and that they can run away. She knows that even though D'Annunzio was caught in his schemes, the Vatican would still try to kill Schera.
Instead, Schera stands up and threatens the pope. She tells Esther to kill her so that Esther can be idolized as a saint or she'll kill Alessandro. When Esther refuses, Schera pulls the trigger of Esther's gun and kills herself.
History will remember this as Esther vanquishing the vampire threat against the pope and Cardinal Sforza.
Now, in my other review I pointed out that Schera is the third major character of color to die in this series (out of four in total). Her uncle, Suleyman, and Lilith being the other two. And she died pretty fucking brutally. Just to forward Esther's story.
Did she really have to die? At the very least, she didn't have to sacrifice herself the way she did.
From the beginning of this arc, Esther was called a saint for saving Istvan from Gyula. She had already earned this reputation, which is why D'Annunzio formed his plan in the first place. At the end, Schera was likely going to die. Abel pointed out that she wasn't going through the Thirst because she'd been poisoned too badly. So Schera figured that if she was going to die, she would threaten the pope and have everyone believe that Esther saved him from her.
Here's the thing - D'Annunzio had already been arrested. And even though the public would be told differently, the Vatican forces know that Schera was blackmailed into following his orders and was not acting on her own. Esther and Abel could have gotten Schera out of there, or hid her, and the Vatican would have been just as likely to go with the story that Esther killed her and saved the pope and Cardinal Sforza.
I just don't think Schera had to go out like that. She was such a kind, beautiful character and while I know that she was written that way to make everyone like her, and therefore feel worse when she died, her death was so brutal and so upsetting.
I'm conflicted because on one hand, I get it. It works for the story. On the other hand, this is a prime example of fridging. From a storytelling perspective, it was unnecessary because everyone already considered Esther a saint. And this arc dealt heavily with the feeling of powerlessness, and being a puppet to greater powers, so resolving this arc by confirming yes, Esther and everyone else are just puppets, and nothing they do matters, is a real downer.
Considering that the volumes stopped being translated to English and was dropped from Tokyopop in the middle of the arc introduced in this volume, I'll just pretend that Schera lived and maybe returned to the Empire, or at least is in hiding. Her story just has so much suffering and she deserved happiness.
Anyway, moving on from my emotions over Schera...the Albion arc has been introduced and one of my favorite characters from this series is Jane so I'm really excited to read her again. I'm not sure which volumes have been translated; actually I'm unsure if volume 13 has ever been officially translated and I can't find it on kindle.
So we'll see how far I'll be able to read on! I'm definitely going to read the light novels, which I think are more complete than the manga. And even though I have a lot of complicated emotions about this arc, I really do love this series and recommend it to people who like political fantasy, gothic art style, nuns with guns, post-apocalypse steampunk, and vampires.
-
spoilers ahead!
first off: i love this manga. it's my all-time favorite. however, this volume....ugh. it's just. ugh.
listen, i adored schera and esther's relationship, and shipped them from the moment schera saved esther from being martyred.
and then, schera's fridged.
she died to further esther's story, and i get it, the People needed to view her as a saint (even tho......i'm kind of iffy on that).
this is what, the third brown character death? out of....four. i think. zoinks!
yeah, it was emotional and yeah, i cried. but honestly, it was unnecessary. all i wanted was for schera and esther to run back to the empire, receive pardons from the empress (i can't believe augusta wouldn't understand that schera's complicity in the rebellion was accidental), and live together happily ever after.
but, of course, gay ol me can't have good things.
"Back when we first met...up there on that opera stage...what did you say? Do you remember?"
"You know...I've completely forgotten."
So my first rating for this volume was 3 stars, mostly because I was and always will be bitter over Schera's death. But I still really, really like this volume so looking at it through a personal lens, it's 5 stars.
I usually don't do in-depth summaries, but I wanted to lay out what happened in the first half of the volume.
This volume opens up with Caterina Sforza and Pope Alessandro meeting the Bishop D'Annunzio where he - in true Bond villain fashion - reveals his evil plans to kill them both and martyr Esther. Schera and Esther arrive not long after, but when Schera discovers the bodies of her family she's been trying to rescue, she goes berserk. Her rampage against the military police is my favorite scene in any manga ever - it's interspersed with Esther's memories of their conversations about how much Schera actually cared about Terrans, and it's just incredibly tragic.
However, before Schera can kill D'Annunzio, he opens a window (I think?) and she starts burning to death. Then the police shoot her with silver until Abel, Petros, and Tres come in for a Big Damn Heroes moment. Once the fighting breaks out between the military police and the AX (plus Petros), D'Annunzio tries to make an escape only to be confronted by Esther. He then pretends like he wasn't trying to murder her, as if his lackies didn't tell her what their plans were each time they attempted to assassinate her.
Anyway, Matthias comes in with his big mech (and the Department of the Inquisition) to tell D'Annunzio that they pretty much knew his plan every step of the way. (But, apparently, just let this all happen for some reason.) They detain the Bishop, and Esther tells Schera that he's been arrested and that they can run away. She knows that even though D'Annunzio was caught in his schemes, the Vatican would still try to kill Schera.
Instead, Schera stands up and threatens the pope. She tells Esther to kill her so that Esther can be idolized as a saint or she'll kill Alessandro. When Esther refuses, Schera pulls the trigger of Esther's gun and kills herself.
History will remember this as Esther vanquishing the vampire threat against the pope and Cardinal Sforza.
Now, in my other review I pointed out that Schera is the third major character of color to die in this series (out of four in total). Her uncle, Suleyman, and Lilith being the other two. And she died pretty fucking brutally. Just to forward Esther's story.
Did she really have to die? At the very least, she didn't have to sacrifice herself the way she did.
From the beginning of this arc, Esther was called a saint for saving Istvan from Gyula. She had already earned this reputation, which is why D'Annunzio formed his plan in the first place. At the end, Schera was likely going to die. Abel pointed out that she wasn't going through the Thirst because she'd been poisoned too badly. So Schera figured that if she was going to die, she would threaten the pope and have everyone believe that Esther saved him from her.
Here's the thing - D'Annunzio had already been arrested. And even though the public would be told differently, the Vatican forces know that Schera was blackmailed into following his orders and was not acting on her own. Esther and Abel could have gotten Schera out of there, or hid her, and the Vatican would have been just as likely to go with the story that Esther killed her and saved the pope and Cardinal Sforza.
I just don't think Schera had to go out like that. She was such a kind, beautiful character and while I know that she was written that way to make everyone like her, and therefore feel worse when she died, her death was so brutal and so upsetting.
I'm conflicted because on one hand, I get it. It works for the story. On the other hand, this is a prime example of fridging. From a storytelling perspective, it was unnecessary because everyone already considered Esther a saint. And this arc dealt heavily with the feeling of powerlessness, and being a puppet to greater powers, so resolving this arc by confirming yes, Esther and everyone else are just puppets, and nothing they do matters, is a real downer.
Considering that the volumes stopped being translated to English and was dropped from Tokyopop in the middle of the arc introduced in this volume, I'll just pretend that Schera lived and maybe returned to the Empire, or at least is in hiding. Her story just has so much suffering and she deserved happiness.
Anyway, moving on from my emotions over Schera...the Albion arc has been introduced and one of my favorite characters from this series is Jane so I'm really excited to read her again. I'm not sure which volumes have been translated; actually I'm unsure if volume 13 has ever been officially translated and I can't find it on kindle.
So we'll see how far I'll be able to read on! I'm definitely going to read the light novels, which I think are more complete than the manga. And even though I have a lot of complicated emotions about this arc, I really do love this series and recommend it to people who like political fantasy, gothic art style, nuns with guns, post-apocalypse steampunk, and vampires.
"I don't want to have to kill you. So please...be on my side..."
-
spoilers ahead!
first off: i love this manga. it's my all-time favorite. however, this volume....ugh. it's just. ugh.
listen, i adored schera and esther's relationship, and shipped them from the moment schera saved esther from being martyred.
and then, schera's fridged.
she died to further esther's story, and i get it, the People needed to view her as a saint (even tho......i'm kind of iffy on that).
this is what, the third brown character death? out of....four. i think. zoinks!
yeah, it was emotional and yeah, i cried. but honestly, it was unnecessary. all i wanted was for schera and esther to run back to the empire, receive pardons from the empress (i can't believe augusta wouldn't understand that schera's complicity in the rebellion was accidental), and live together happily ever after.
but, of course, gay ol me can't have good things.
April 12, 2020
I love this series so much. I am so heartbroken that I will never be able to find out what happens after this volume because of Tokyopop.
December 11, 2024
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
January 30, 2025
This volume hurt.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 25, 2010
I have mixed feelings about Trinity Blood volume XII, and a lot of them come from Esther, Esther, Esther. I know that her initial role in the series was to be the newbie viewpoint character, the person the world and its rules needs to be explained to so the audience gets it too, and that her journey to whatever is going to be a big part of the series, but I don't find her a compelling protagonist and making her a saint just makes it worse. (If not for the facts that we're already talking about a far-future Vatican that sends armed priests and nuns out to kill monsters and is thus LOL!Catholicism, I would so be chanting, "Canonization doesn't work like this, and it can take decades to centuries! She'd have to at least be dead, you fools!")
Her talent just seems to be that she gets really attached to people. She's really passive, almost eternally just reacting to things going on around her. When she is proactive it rarely turns out well because she jumps to conclusions. (I also wonder if manga Esther will eventually get [spoiler:] killed the way she did in the anime.) At best, she manages to take advantage of a lucky break, like in the incident near the fountain in volume III. Her record is so bad that when she's proactive and it saves the day, like in volumes V-VI, it comes off as OOC. And, really, she only went to help because [spoilers for volumes V-VI:] she didn't want Abel to go to his death thinking she thought he was a monster and was terrified of him after the way she'd reacted to him as Crusnik 02. It's not like she knew a human was needed to stop the Iblis, either. [/spoilers for volumes V-VI:]
Aside from the focus on Esther, I found a lot of XII's plot rather "huh?"-inducing. [spoilers for volume XII:] How is being a saint supposed to help her do squat in a Vatican that lets lots of people be mutilated and die horribly and lets the pope be put in dire danger seemingly just for giggles since they already had evidence from paperwork two days ago and more recently the coerced confession of one of his underlings that D'Annunzio was up to no good? D'Annunzio didn't even go to trial. The Inquisition didn't even let their own director, Petros, know what they were doing. So, becoming a saint gets around all this how? In Albion Esther's just being used as a public relations puppet. So Schera's last act makes no sense to me at all aside from the mercy-killing part. It's not like everybody involved couldn't have just made up something anyway, since that's what they did otherwise.
Speaking of the Inquisition letting all this unfurl seemingly just for giggles, what the hell did they have to gain by letting all this happen? It really seems to have been done just to underline the Vatican being Evil.
I'll miss Schera. She was really making a man out of Esther.
Tres, of course, lies about Caterina's senseless kill order on Esther from volume XI and takes the heat for whatever blame the lying didn't cover. That's so him. Alas, we still don't have an explanation for what the hell Caterina was doing giving said order, which made little sense and was certain to be discovered by Abel, who would Not React Well. Are we supposed to blame her brain not working on her being so ill? She was really quite useless through the whole volume, even before her collapse, and it's not like her. I wonder what Tres would do if she died.
I really wish Abel didn't have so many moments of utter incompetence. Jeez. It's not cute.
Next issue: "Esther is on her own again..." Damn it, I follow this series in spite of Esther, not for her! With all the interesting freaks and weirdos in the AX, why do we have to waste so much time on its least compelling member?
Her talent just seems to be that she gets really attached to people. She's really passive, almost eternally just reacting to things going on around her. When she is proactive it rarely turns out well because she jumps to conclusions. (I also wonder if manga Esther will eventually get [spoiler:] killed the way she did in the anime.) At best, she manages to take advantage of a lucky break, like in the incident near the fountain in volume III. Her record is so bad that when she's proactive and it saves the day, like in volumes V-VI, it comes off as OOC. And, really, she only went to help because [spoilers for volumes V-VI:] she didn't want Abel to go to his death thinking she thought he was a monster and was terrified of him after the way she'd reacted to him as Crusnik 02. It's not like she knew a human was needed to stop the Iblis, either. [/spoilers for volumes V-VI:]
Aside from the focus on Esther, I found a lot of XII's plot rather "huh?"-inducing. [spoilers for volume XII:] How is being a saint supposed to help her do squat in a Vatican that lets lots of people be mutilated and die horribly and lets the pope be put in dire danger seemingly just for giggles since they already had evidence from paperwork two days ago and more recently the coerced confession of one of his underlings that D'Annunzio was up to no good? D'Annunzio didn't even go to trial. The Inquisition didn't even let their own director, Petros, know what they were doing. So, becoming a saint gets around all this how? In Albion Esther's just being used as a public relations puppet. So Schera's last act makes no sense to me at all aside from the mercy-killing part. It's not like everybody involved couldn't have just made up something anyway, since that's what they did otherwise.
Speaking of the Inquisition letting all this unfurl seemingly just for giggles, what the hell did they have to gain by letting all this happen? It really seems to have been done just to underline the Vatican being Evil.
I'll miss Schera. She was really making a man out of Esther.
Tres, of course, lies about Caterina's senseless kill order on Esther from volume XI and takes the heat for whatever blame the lying didn't cover. That's so him. Alas, we still don't have an explanation for what the hell Caterina was doing giving said order, which made little sense and was certain to be discovered by Abel, who would Not React Well. Are we supposed to blame her brain not working on her being so ill? She was really quite useless through the whole volume, even before her collapse, and it's not like her. I wonder what Tres would do if she died.
I really wish Abel didn't have so many moments of utter incompetence. Jeez. It's not cute.
Next issue: "Esther is on her own again..." Damn it, I follow this series in spite of Esther, not for her! With all the interesting freaks and weirdos in the AX, why do we have to waste so much time on its least compelling member?
April 19, 2016
Having learned my lesson from writing short little reviews for the Vampire Hunter D manga, I'm just straight up going to say that the art for this is gorgeous. My only complaint is that it's sometimes a little too heavy on the fanservice, but it's otherwise really well put-together. I love the characters and the plot – which builds itself as the volumes progress, revealing the world to us gradually and making it seem very, very real. Overall, this is one of my favourite mangas and I'm really disappointed that the English release hasn't been continued.
November 23, 2012
Father Abel always pops out of nowhere to save Esther, how romantic *_*
January 7, 2017
Good volume.
March 30, 2017
4.0/5.0
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews