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 in 2004 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. In 2007 the light-novel was adapted into a manga. The anime was licensed in 2008 and released in America by Funimation. In July 2015, the English dub started airing on U.S. cable network Chiller TV, a horror themed sister channel to Syfy, as part of their late night Anime Wednesdays block.
Not to be confused with Black Blood, a trope about censoring blood, or The Blackblood 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 exclusive,
outside the country you are out of luck. - Ambiguously Gay: Rinsuke Akai
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Almost all higher-ups in the Order Coffin Company (which manages the Special Zone) are heroes of the Hong Kong Crusade.
- 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.
- Body Snatcher, People Puppets variety: The Kowloon vampire known as Man-Walker does this.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Those that end up bitten by Kowloons. And there no way to bring them back once it happens. The only course is death.
- Broken Masquerade: Temporarily. See The Unmasqued World below.
- Cannot Cross Running Water: Some vampires, including Jiro, have this weakness.
- The Comically Serious: Jiro rarely shows much in the way of emotions and lack an almost complete sense of tact (such as congratulating a woman for still being a virgin.) Needless to say, it often leads to quite hilarious situations.
- Cue the Sun: Inverted; it's not the sun, but the rain.
- Curse That Cures: Chan was made a vampire using Kelly Wong's blood to save her life at her mother's request.
- Daywalking Vampire: Kotaru is able to walk around in sunlight with no ill effects at all, while his brother Jiro smoulders if he doesn't have an umbrella and sunglasses.
- Deadpan Snarker: Jiro has some pretty good ones: "Are you intoxicated or just insane?"
- Death Seeker: Jiro
- Determinator: Jiro in the final episode. When all hope seems lost, as it begins to rain down water like the flood, and the bad guys look like they might get away with a hitch, what does he do? he jumps off the top of the boat, takes two silver bullets to the chest, impales the driver of the boat and manages to crash the boat into a giant pillar.
- 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.
- Jiro is clearly based on Alucard.
- 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 Romance Subtext: Cassa and Mimiko, episode 10.
- 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.
- The Immodest Orgasm: The typical result of being bitten by a vampire.
- 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. Jiro used is trained in using one, even doing so in the Hong Kong Crusade (technically a tachi, if we're not using katana as a generic term for Japanese terms instead of the specific term). Only three swords show up in the series, and two are katana.
- 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 his transformation into a wolf-man.
- He manages to hold onto to it pretty well in the first episode when he's diving into the ocean. If you watch you can see he has one hand on his head, holding it on, before he jumps.
- 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.
- Pretty Boy: They're everywhere! But Zelman in particular, Kotaro even calls him pretty. Stop it fangirls, Kotaro's ten.
- Actually he is a very old female vampire, he just forgot, he needs some lecithin for his memory troubles.
- A reincarnated very old female vampire. I don't think medication will help.
- Pstandard Psychic Pstance: Played with; Jiro's "Hide Hand" telekinesis usually involves him pointing at whatever he wants to move...with his middle finger.
- 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: A strange case with 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. If they switch roles when under stress, that just might make the 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."
- Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: Vampires that get staked usually leave behind a small pile of dust and a pile of clothing.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Jiro vs. Auguste, take two.
- 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.
- 12-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. They might be expecting viewers to have already read the light novels.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Cassandra Jill Warlock.
- 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 Doesn't help him in the final battle, as not only is it on a speeding motorboat but it starts to rain too. He manages to pull through.)
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Jiro, The first villain he faces in the anime uses it to his advantage.
- Worf Had the Flu: The reason why a few soldiers and Kowloon children gave Jiro so much trouble in the second/third episode? He was greatly weakened from the long swim he had undertaken earlier.
