**Due to certain plot twists in Episode 24, spoilers prior to that point will be left unmarked. If you want to watch Blood+ without being spoiled, stop reading NOW. You Have Been Warned**.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Blood_Plus_6885.jpg

Hagi and Saya, with a Chiropteran in the background.

Saya Otonashi is seemingly an Ordinary High-School Student in Okinawa, aside from her amnesia and anemia. All she wants is to compete in track and spend time with her American adopted father George and her (also adopted) brothers, moody Kai and innocent Riku. However, Saya's world changes forever when she's attacked by a Chiropteran, a hulking, bat-like humanoid monster. This prompts a rescue by Hagi, a mysterious, handsome stoic who seems devoted to protecting Saya. Hagi kisses Saya, forces her to drink his blood, then gives Saya a sword coated with her own blood. This event causes a strange transformation in Saya; her eyes glow red and she becomes a fighting machine, quickly killing the Chiropteran. Afterwards, answers are refused while even more strange accidents occur all around Saya; eventually, she is forced into leaving her home to help a secret organization called Red Shield stop a mysterious entity only known as Diva. However, not everything is black and white, and Saya soon begins to doubt her reasons to fight, her allies, and her own humanity.

Blood+ is a 50 episode long anime which is loosely based on the OVA Blood: The Last Vampire; the film and the series share the basic premise, the characters of Saya, David and Lewis (all of whom are re-imagined in Blood+), and the Chiropterans, but otherwise have little in common.

A Gaiden Game developed by the legendary Suda51 and his team at Grasshopper Manufacture, titled BLOOD+ One Night Kiss, was released in 2006. Taking place after the 7th episode, the game never saw an international release. Another game, Blood+ Souyoku no Battle Rondo was also released in 2006, published by Sony and developed by Japan Studio. It is an Action-Adventure game inspired by Fahrenheit with multiple branching paths, quick time events and battle sequences. Story-wise, it is set before Saya's departure from Okinawa. A third and final game, Blood+ Final Piece was released on the same year for the Playstation Portable. Unlike the previous two games, this one is a Visual Novel set between Episode 32 and Episode 33.

In 2017, a sequel was released in the form of a Light Novel titled Blood# (Blood Sharp) by Production I.G. and Junichi Fujisaku. It takes place several years after the end of the anime.

Tropes:

Abnormal Ammo: The ignition rounds Kai uses latter in the series. Shooting explosive rounds into a Chiropteran followed by a primer shot made the guns suddenly become slightly less useless.
Absurdly Sharp Blade: Solomon Goldsmith has a Blade Below the Shoulder capable of cutting through cliffs and the limbs of Chevaliers. This includes the arm of James who sports extremely powerful Instant Armor.
Achilles' Heel: Chiropterans will be petrified if exposed to the blood of the rival Queen.
Action Girl: Saya, although reluctantly at first. Lulu, on the other hand finds fighting fun.
Adaptational Alternate Ending: In the manga, since Riku and George don't die. In addition, since Diva is nicer in the manga, Diva never rapes and kills Riku, and her dying words are reconciling with Saya, though her daughters don't exist.
Adapted Out: The Schiff and their plotline is removed in the manga.
Affably Evil: Solomon may be one of Diva's henchmen, but he's a pretty decent guy overall. He's a peace loving person, and actually cares for his chiropteran "brothers." Nathan as well; in fact, he's more affable than evil.
All Love Is Unrequited: Solomon for Saya, Karl for Diva and then Saya, possibly Kai for Saya, Mao for Kai (at first). The list goes on.
Always Identical Twins: Chiropteran queens are always born in pairs, one sporting red eyes and the other blue. Aside from that, they're completely identical.
Ambition Is Evil:
- Collins' entire reason for betraying the Red Shield for Diva's group was because he wanted to make his findings about chiropterans public, which the Red Shield refused to let him do.
- Everything Amshel does is because of his desire to find out everything he possibly can about chiropterans, and if that means overstepping all kinds of moral bounds and nearly causing The End of the World as We Know It, it's a small price to pay.
America Saves the Day: Subverted; though many of the central characters are Americans, the American military and government as a whole is not depicted as benevolent or well intentioned.
An Asskicking Christmas: A darker example than most; Saya's Vietnam War massacre happened on Christmas Day.
Arm Cannon: A biological variant. The Schiff and people with Schiff limbs grafted on can launch crystal spikes.
Artificial Limbs: Karl got a mechanical replacement for his injured right arm after The Vietnam War. Later on he and James would get Schiff limbs attached to replace limbs they had amputated.
Asshole Victim: After learning what Joel I did to Diva - locking her up without human contact and treating her like an animal for decades - it's hard to feel sorry for him when Diva kills him in revenge.
Badass Adorable: Lulu wields an oversized axe and fights monsters with ease, but is still a young girl who likes watching children's cartoons.
Badass in a Nice Suit: Chevaliers in general and David. Considering how often these clothes get destroyed, one wonders how much of their budget Red Shield and Cinq Fleche earmark for new suits.
Bait-and-Switch Credits: The fourth Title Sequence features a battle of Saya, Moses and Haji against James inside what seems to be an abandoned building. The a$ctual fight actually happens in the streets of New York City, and Solomon is the one who aids Saya and Haji, since Moses died two episodes before such fight happened. James also noticeably presents his true arms (which by that time he already lost during the Christina Island fight) instead of the Schiff ones he had during the battle.
Bavarian Fire Drill: How Okamura planned on infiltrating the Cinq Fleches dance, by abusing his press pass and looking like he was supposed to be there. It didn't work.
Bee People: The Chiropteran 'Queen' reigns over her drone-esque Chevaliers.
Been There, Shaped History: Though they didn't directly influence it, both the Red Shield and Diva's group were involved in the Vietnam War.
Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Grigori Rasputin and Martin Bormann were Diva's Chevaliers. And Diva herself pulled a Kill and Replace on both the Grand Duchess Anastasia and Eva Braun.
Big Apple Sauce: The final ten or so episodes, as well as Saya and Diva's final showdown, are set in New York City.
Big Fun: Lewis again: a big Jamaican guy with a lighthearted attitude who always seems to bring up the mood, even in the most depressing of situations. He's easily one of the most likeable characters in the show.
Bittersweet Ending:
- True, Diva is defeated and the Chiropteran threat is ended; Saya's nieces will receive a healthy and loving human upbringing courtesy of Kai rather than being brought up to be monsters like Diva was, and Saya can finally live her life without fighting and killing. It's even implied that Hagi also survived the bombing of the Met and will rejoin her. Unfortunately, she'll have to go through thirty years of hibernation first, and will miss out on a lot of the lives of her family and friends in the process.
- The manga adaptation goes through this, too. Diva dies but not before sharing a brief tender moment with Saya to reconcile with her. The Chiropteran threat has ended. Riku accepts the fact the he'll no longer be a normal person again and decides to live with the Red Shield. And just like in the anime, Saya has to hibernate for thirty years.
Blade Below the Shoulder: Solomon's signature weapon; played with in that the blade is his arm.
Blade Enthusiast: In addition to his cello case, Hagi has a seemingly unlimited supply of throwing knives.
Blood Is the New Black/Blood-Splattered Warrior: Saya. Seriously, you could count the number of times she hasn't been drenched in her foes' blood or her own on one hand.
Bloody Hallucinations of Guilt: During the Vietnamese boarding school arc, Saya is washing her hands when she hallucinates that they are covered in blood, symbolizing her subconscious guilt over all the innocent blood she spilled in Vietnam the last time she was there.
Bodyguard Crush: Hagi's love for Saya even when he wasn't technically her bodyguard.
Boomerang Bigot: Saya has little more than disdain for most other Chiropterans despite being one herself. Shown more prominently in the manga; she even explicitly tells Riku, her own little brother, that she's going to eventually kill him just for being a Chiropteran.
Book Ends: The first and last episodes have Saya talking to Julia while getting blood transfusions, Kai and Saya on a motorcycle, and Kai seeing Haji and Saya kiss
Break the Cutie:
- Saya gets broken twice thanks to her amnesia.
- Hagi. Through a flashback, it is shown that the reason he went from being somewhat stoic to made of stone was because his blood turned his One True Love and reason for living into a murdering psychopath who forgot who he was and cut his arm off during her rampage.
Bring My Red Jacket: Saya constantly wears a dark red leather coat after the Time Skip.
Brother–Sister Incest: Kai has a definite thing for Saya, though nothing ever comes of it. And granted, they're Not Blood Related, but still.
Brown Note: Diva's singing can get deadly under the right circumstances
But Not Too Foreign: A non-human example. Saya was born and raised in France, but can easily pass herself off as a native Okinawan.
Call-Back: In the beginning, David ruthlessly beats up Kai, who attacks him out of mere instinct, to show the Crapsack World Chiropteran survivors and their fighters live in. During David's Heroic BSoD, Kai returns the favor and says the exact same words.
Cain and Abel: Diva and Saya are twins that become this as a result of Joel I's experiments. Shortly after their birth, Joel separates the twins, choosing to raise Saya as his own daughter and lock Diva in a tower. Whereas Saya is raised in a wealthy household and sees humans as equals, Diva grows up neglected and sees humans as torturers. When Saya meets Diva and lets her out, Diva brutally kills Joel and his household, triggering a conflict between the two sisters that lasts for over a century.
Camp Gay: Nathan is the gayest thing since gay came to Gaytown: voice, wardrobe, hair, he is a fashion designer, he works in musical theater. And yet it's revealed that he's one of the most powerful Chiropterans in the series; even Amshel doesn't dare push him too far.
Casting Gag:
- Crispin Freeman playing a loyal vampiric servant to the main female character as well as being part of an organization that hunts vampires. Why does that sound so familiar?
- Kari Wahlgren previously played a troubled supernatural hunter of her own kind allied with a secret organization with her male counterpart (also voiced by Crispin Freeman) being her lover and protector in Witch Hunter Robin.
Central Theme: Family is made up of people who love each other in spite of their faults, not blood relations.
Character Development: Kai evolves from an Emo Teen to a mature, confident hero. Saya and Hagi get a bit as well.
Child by Rape: Diva becomes pregnant after raping Riku.
Children Are Innocent: Riku. Face it, if Kai was the one who had his blood drained by Diva and became Saya's Chevalier only to get raped and killed by Diva, it wouldn't be quite as traumatic for the cast or the audience.
Clone Army: The Corpse Corps are clones of the Schiff Moses.
Corporate Conspiracy: Cinq Flèches is ostensibly a mere pharmaceutical corporation, but also deals in food production and genetic engineering — both of which they use to turn humans into chiropterans via GM food.
Crapsack World: Wherever you are, a nearly Nigh-Invulnerable Chiropteran could appear and attack you. Whether hiding as a person you know or out in the open at night. If you're lucky, one of them could be a Chevailer of an Evil Diva who runs rampant when she's awake. Furthermore, you yourself could turn into a Chiropteran just by taking an everyday food produced by a massive MegaCorp run by these things. Worse yet, they have the full backing from the U.S. military who will do their best to eliminate you if you get too close. If you're lucky to survive, your only way of fighting them is Saya, who will only side with you normally every thirty years. The other option is Red Shield, which is reluctant to accept those who slow their fight against the Chiropterans. If you want a simpler description of this world, try fighting David with mere instinct, then have him mercilessly beat you up for it.
Creepy Child: Err, well creepy Vietnamese children who were exposed to Delta 67. The end result was mini chiropterans.
David Versus Goliath: Diva's Chevaliers are more powerful than Saya's as the former receive more blood.
Death Seeker: Karl, and Saya. Indeed, until the very end, Saya intends to kill Diva and then herself, but Hagi and Kai manage to convince her not to.
Deus ex Machina: The final battle with James. Sure, it makes sense that he would be afflicted by Thorn with his Schiff grafts, but the timing was just a little too convenient for our heroes...
Drama-Preserving Handicap: For her final confrontation with Diva, Saya was being gradually weakened since she was starting to enter her hibernation cycle. If not for that her superior fighting skills would have ended the fight in seconds.
Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In the original, at the Zoo, when Kai is persuading Saya to save Riku, he says that, without Riku, he would be all alone. Saya repeats this back to him, with the implication clearly being "What am I, chopped liver?" Later in the series, Kai apologizes to Saya for what he said to her at the Zoo; this apology is preserved in the dub. Except he said nothing of the kind in the dub, instead stating that it would be better for Riku to be alive than dead, so English-speaking viewers are understandably confused as to why he is apologizing.
Dying as Yourself: George asks Saya to finish him off before the Delta 67 in his system completely turns him into a Chiropteran.
Eagleland Flavor 2: The American government is just downright EEEEVIL in this one. Which is funny, considering how many of the good guys are American.
Even the Guys Want Him: In the novels Kai muses to himself that even guys like him wouldn't be able to deny how attractive Hagi is.
Extreme Doormat: Hagi, until late in the series. All of the Chevaliers appear to be Extreme Doormats, but they actually aren't. Ultimately, Hagi wants to fulfill Saya's wish, but he doesn't coddle to her every whim and is perfectly capable of disagreeing with her in order to protect her. The other Chevaliers are almost the opposite. They spoil Diva by giving her every little thing she wants, but they are primarily motivated by selfishness and continually manipulate her for their own benefit.
Eye Scream: Hagi stabs a Chiropteran in the eye in the first episode.
Face–Heel Turn: Dr. Collins betrays Red Shield to work for Cinq Fléches, taking Julia with him. Julia eventually rejoins Red Shield, with some prodding from David.
Face Stealer: Chevaliers and Queens have the ability to take the form of somebody whose blood they have drunk. Diva uses it for extra Squick when she goes around looking like Riku.
Fantastic Racism: James' hatred of the Schiff. Particularly ironic, given that he is a black American. Becomes even more ironic when James is saved from certain death...by replacing most of his body with Schiff parts. Of course, this makes it worse; self-hatred makes him lash out, and he blames the Schiff for the fact that Diva is disgusted with James's own Schiff transplants.
Feed the Mole: Amshel tells Solomon Diva will be at Christina Island to shoot a video in a week. The latter told Red Shield, who arrived on the island. By that time, Diva left the island. James was waiting for them.
Flash Back: Many scattered throughout the series, with a few episodes flashing back to Saya and Hagi's past.
Flechette Storm: Karl's Schiff arm allows him to rapidly fire huge spikes from his hand.
Fluffy the Terrible: The Delta-67 strain Chiropterans are referred to as "mice".
For Science!: Amshel's ultimate motivation behind being Diva's Chevalier and the Delta-67 project is because he wants to better study Chiropterans.
Freudian Excuse: Diva's so fucked up because she spent her life as a test subject locked in a tower. And only received anything like human contact from a person that saw her as a specimen. Her feud with Saya stems from the fact that she seeks revenge for how their adoptive father, the first Joel Goldschmidt, callously neglected her at the same time he raised Saya in freedom and luxury.
Gender-Blender Name: One of the girls at the orphanage is named Javier, which is actually a Spanish masculine name (a variation of Xavier).
Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Kai tries to snap David out of his Heroic BSOD after Red Shield's HQ sunk by pouring out his booze and punching him in the gut.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: Chiropterans in general gain glowing eyes when they get serious.
Go-Go Enslavement: After losing consciousness because of a fight, Saya is abducted by Solomon and stripped of her clothes in her sleep. He claims it was because they were ruined. However, he gives her a nice gown after she does wake up.
Go Out with a Smile: Diva's dying act is to smile at and caress her cocoons of her unborn daughters.
Good Colors, Evil Colors: Inverted, red is Saya's color and blue is Diva's
Good is Not Nice: David certainly counts, at least early on. He beats Kai senseless to teach him a lesson on what kind of world they live in and forces Saya to fight despite full knowledge that it's tearing her apart.
Good Thing You Can Heal: Sapient Chiropterans in general. Saya takes advantage of it in a battle against Karl running herself through to stab Karl and poison him with her blood. Diva once got shot on purpose just so Amshel would buy her a new dress. And Hagi seems to get Impaled with Extreme Prejudice at least every other fight.
Gut Punch: In Episode 32, benignly titled "Boy Meets Girl", Diva and Karl attack the Red Shield HQ, Diva rapes and kills Riku, traumatizing both the cast and the audience, and Red Shield is destroyed. As we see in subsequent episodes, Joel is rendered a paraplegic, David turns to drinking, Saya runs off with Hagi and becomes emotionally distant, and Kai is forced to really grow up. This is made even worse, not only by the Hope Spot in the opening of the episode, but the fact that Riku was saved from the brink of death only a few episodes previously. The series was by no means fluffy, light-hearted fare beforehand, but it took a distinctly darker tone at this point.
Gun Porn: For their worthlesness against chyropterans, the amount of very well drawn and animated guns in the setting is staggering. Special mention to David's Custom Smith & Wesson .500.
Guns Are Worthless:
- Bullets might slow a Chiropteran down, but to kill them you need Saya — or at least her blood. Beheading and incineration also work, but these aren't exactly things that can be accomplished with firearms, and are generally nigh-impossible for ordinary humans to pull off anyway. Encasing them in concrete and sinking them to the bottom of the ocean seems to be the preferred method of dealing with them semi-permanently. Of course, this only works if you can manage to trap them into a strong cage before pouring in the concrete.
- With the ignition rounds that Kai uses after the Time Skip, they become slightly less useless in a fight.
Happiness in Slavery: For at least the first 2/3 of the show, Haji embodies this trope perfectly: a servant that is completely and utterly loyal to his master, because as a chevalier he's biologically hardwired that way. Then it turns out that chevaliers can betray their queens and abandon them without remorse; Haji is simply that devoted to Saya.
Healing Factor: Saya's wounds are known to heal exceedingly fast, along with Hagi- though their rapid healing rate is only based on the amount of blood they consume. i.e. Saya's wounds will heal more rapidly after drinking human or Hagi's blood, and Hagi's wounds will heal after drinking human blood.
Heroic BSoD: Saya and David, after Diva's mid-series Moral Event Horizon moment. David spends the Time Skip and several episodes after it as a drunken mess, and Saya attempts to distance herself from her friends and family to avoid the pain of losing any more loved ones. Both eventually snap out of it.
Heroic Willpower: Saya managed to hold back her approaching hibernation cycle long enough to kill Diva and return to Okinawa.
Hope Spot: Saya, Kai, and Riku play a game of catch as the sun sets. They talk about going home to Okinawa together, when all is said and done. Moments later, Diva shows up and... oh God...
I Am Not Left-Handed: Hagi deliberately keeps the full extent of his Chevalier abilities in check because of Saya's horror when she first saw him use them, but will go all-out when the situation demands it.
Idiot Ball: Early in the series, Kai follows Saya to Hanoi after getting his ass handed to him by a simple Red Shield operative, and being shown that he would be worse than useless in a fight against the supernatural fiends Saya fights on a day-to-day basis. Even worse, he drags their younger brother along with him. He then proceeds to barge in during the middle of a dangerous fight and purposefully snaps her out of berserker mode ~~for no apparent reason~~ because he can't stand to see his adoptive imouto Saya as a bloodthirsty killing machine.
Immortality Begins at Twenty: Saya and Diva stopped aging when they turned sixteen.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Happens to Hagi repeatedly. Also Amshel, who got impaled by the spire on top of the Chrysler Building. He got better, at least for enough time to get himself Killed Off for Real.
Improbable Weapon User: Hagi goes around hitting people with a cello case. With a cello in it.
Instant Armor: James' most prominent ability, in the form of nigh indestructible skin.
Instant Expert: Saya is initially confused by her sudden aptitude for sword fighting and languages. Subverted in the fact that she isn't learning new skills, just remembering ones she already had.
Instrument of Murder: Hagi borders on this trope. He regularly uses his cello case as a weapon/shield. The cello itself is only used to perform music. One does have to wonder how it hasn't been smashed to pieces inside his case though.
Intimate Healing: To heal, queens recieve blood from their Chevaliers. This is typically a fairly intimate process. See also Kiss of Life, below.
Ironic Episode Title: In most shows, with a title like "Boy Meets Girl", you might expect the plot to involve a poignant tale of First Love. Of course, if you expect that from this series, you've forgotten what show you're watching, as this is the episode where all hell breaks loose: Red Shield's headquarters is destroyed, and Joel is paralyzed. Oh, and the eponymous boy meeting the girl? That's where Diva rapes and kills Riku.
It's the Only Way to Be Sure: The US military's primary method of dealing with Chiropterans is "Option D", aka "turn the place into a smoking crater".
I Work Alone: Saya develops this attitude after the Time Skip as part of her Heroic BSoD, refusing to work with her pals in the Red Shield because she doesn't want to endure the pain of losing any more friends and loved ones. She snaps out of it eventually.
Just Train Wrong: The Siberia Express episode(s). The train interior is absurdly spacious, the bogeys are hollow/see-through. A fight sequence takes place on the roof right under electric catenary which is positioned "a bit higher" than it is in reality. Not only nobody up there recieves an instant jolt - they don't even meet a single pylon to slam them off the train. The express is apparently being hauled by an electric railcar but those aren't powerful enough to haul such long heavy trains. Its front crudely resembles the Czech-made ChS2 locomotive.
Kill and Replace: Amshel kills and takes the form of a Red Shield operative during the Train-Siberian express to get closer to Saya.
Kill the Cutie:
- Riku. First subverted, given that one does not expect Riku to survive his first encounter with Diva, then tragically untwisted, given that one does expect him to survive his second encounter with her. Averted in the manga where he lives.
Kiss of Life: Played with; to awaken Saya's Chiropteran powers to save her from the first Delta-series Chiropteran she encounters, Hagi gives her some of his blood by putting it into his mouth and kissing her. This is later revealed to be a sort of Meaningful Echo of how she turned him into a Chevalier in the first place, giving him some of her blood to save his life after he fell off a cliff- which ironically was her fault, since she tried to grab a flower over the edge just to give it as a birthday present to the first Joel.
Kiss of the Vampire: Several of the reactions, Nathan's in particular, suggest that a queen's bite can be quite... pleasurable.
Laser-Guided Karma:
- Played straight for both sides. In their final showdown, Diva and Saya stab each other with their blood, which normally would have killed both of them, but Saya survives because Diva's pregnancy- via raping and killing Riku- made her blood lose its potency.
- Also, the first Joel locked Diva up for decades and treated her like a lab rat, while treating Saya like a daughter. Retribution comes when Saya releases Diva, who kills him in revenge.
Last of Her Kind: Lulu, the last survivor of the Schiff.
Life-or-Limb Decision: Karl realized he could stop the petrification from Saya's blood by cutting off his limb before it spread.
Light Is Not Good:
- Solomon, who wears white and has an angelic appearance. (that is, until he leaves Diva's side, however, even that has nothing to do with any sense that trying to kill off all or most of humanity is wrong. He just decided that he liked Saya more.
- Diva as well. Pale pretty girl with blue eyes, wears white Victorian clothing, is an opera singer and often described as an angel. Bad side? She is a century and a half old Chiropteran Queen who has killed thousands of people, participated in an experiment to create a virus to turn others into chiropterans, had figures such as Grigori Rasputin and Martin Bormann as her chevaliers, meaning she was involved in, if not being the mastermind of, the Romanov Massacre (as she also impersonated Anastasia in a manga sidestory) and WWII. She also raped a 14-year old boy to get pregnant and then killed him, all for the sake of pissing off her sister. Also, when she sings, people turn into monsters.
Lighter and Softer: The manga- pretty much nobody dies, in stark comparison to the anime.
- Also Darker and Edgier in the sense that it is more perverted (inappropriate panty shots abound) and there is plenty of nasty gore.
The Load: Played straight and averted with Kai and Riku. At the beginning of the series, neither have much fighting skill and mostly hindered Red Shield. On many occasions, though, they gave Saya some required emotional support in order to fulfill her tasks. After the destruction of Red Shield, Kai trains and becomes an important part of the team, being able to fight as well as counsel those in distress.
Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: James taunts Saya about how her blood can't poison him if she can't pierce his armored skin.
Made of Indestructium: What fanon believes Hagi's cello is made of. Otherwise it should have been smashed to pieces hundreds of times over while he is using his cello case as a weapon.
Major Injury Underreaction: Avoided. Several Chevaliers avoid any major reactions when they undergo injuries. These injuries include Solomon and Hagi having arms sliced off and Solomon having a giant hole ripped through his stomach. However, many of these aren't major injuries in the first place as they heal extremely quickly.
May Contain Evil: Cinq Fleche distributed a bunch of food products laced with Delta 67.
Meaningful Name:
- The Schiff who led the others out of captivity is named ''Moses''.
- James Ironside, a Mighty Glacier with Nigh-Invulnerability.
- Possible example with the name Hagi. In Japanese 'Haji' can mean 'shame' or 'guilt'. This is meaningful as it is a possible explanation for why he becomes such a Stoic after the Vietnam incident. Indeed, Word of God states that feeling responsible for what happened is the reason he is a more subdued character by the time Saya meets him again in the first episode.
- Cinq Flèches translates to "Five Arrows" from French, but the way it's pronounced gives a different connotation when heard by a native English speaker.
MegaCorp: Though Cinq Flèches is largely described as a pharmaceutical enterprise, it has enough resources to be active in other industries, such as technology, food production, military contracting, and, of course, Chiropteran-based genetic manipulation. They even own and run an all-girls high school in Vietnam.
Modest Orgasm: Nathan is implied to have one when he's bitten by Diva, with him gasping, clenching and unclenching his fist and then slumping into the ground in a daze after she's done.
Mood Dissonance: Saya temporarily becoming Ax-Crazy and going on a killing spree through a Vietnamese village is immediately followed by the first Title Sequence with its bouncy J-pop theme music, then a present day scene with an unaged, perfectly sane Saya as an Ordinary High-School Student.
Mortal Wound Reveal: Following a lengthy fight, Solomon rips open a small cut on his clothing. Turns out a small wound with Saya's blood was enough to make his body slowly crystallize and crumble.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Both Saya and Diva are tiny, but still able to hold their own. Saya can chop Chiropterans in half with ease, and Diva was able to actually throw Saya clean through a brick wall without even trying.
My God, What Have I Done?: Van towards the end of the series after witnessing Delta 67 turn many members of the public into Chiropterans.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Saya is responsible for unleashing Diva on the world. In her defense, however, she had no way of knowing what would happen, and it was more the original Joel and Amshel's fault that Diva became that way anyway.
Nigh-Invulnerability: Queens and their Chevaliers are capable of quickly healing almost any wound. This includes being impaled through the stomach with a tree trunk, stabbed with many large sharp implements and having arms cut off. If bad turns to worse and they are poisoned by Saya's blood, Chevaliers have the option to amputate themselves and obtain replacement limbs.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Two American politicians are based on Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleeza Rice; also note the hidden references to the Rothschild family in the names of the Chevalier. And "David" looks just a bit familiar, especially to fans of another David.
No Social Skills: The Schiff due to being created to be used as living weapons. The very concept of asking somebody for something instead of taking it by force was completely alien to them.
Novelization: The Light Novel series by Ryo Ikehata, also acts as an Adaptation Expansion.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Saya considers it her personal duty to kill Diva, not merely because she's the best suited for the job, but also because she was the one who released Diva in the first place.
The Ophelia: Diva really has the whole package going for her. Long hair, prone to sing songy babbling, broken princess.
Our Vampires Are Different:
- Definitely one of the better uses of this trope and one that shows some real creativity. It's really a complete reinvention of the vampire archetype; they are a completely different species (rather than merely former humans^note), with a hive-like social hierarchy and reproductive method.
- It's worth noting that the Schiff, artificial chiropterans developed in a laboratory, are about as close as this series gets to traditional vampires. They look human, have superhuman strength and speed, need blood to survive, and burst into flames if they're exposed to direct sunlight for more than a few seconds.
Out with a Bang: Riku dies after Diva rapes him.
Painful Transformation: As seen when Saya turns Riku to save his life, the conversion from human to chevalier is not a pleasant experience.
Parrying Bullets: Karman blocked a revolver bullet with his spear.
Perpetual-Motion Monster: Chirpoterans. One specifically had been sealed in a vault for decades with no blood and remained alive, yet emaciated.
Pinned Down: Red Shield agents will provide support fire to keep enemy Chiropterans in one place distracting them from Saya.
Post-Rape Taunt: Diva taunts Saya about how she took "something precious" from Riku.
Power Degeneration: The Thorn for the Schiff, which slowly crystallizes their bodies. Saya goes through this when she approaches her hibernation cycle, suffering fainting spells and a weakened healing factor. And Nathan reveals that Diva also suffered this as a result of her pregnancy, hence why her blood didn't petrify Saya when the two stabbed each other at the end of their Final Battle.
Power Perversion Potential: Rasputin used his shapeshifting abilities to get some naked gropes in on Saya while he looked like a girl.
Preserve Your Gays:
- Nathan survives 'til the very end, outliving his boss, associates, underlings and several main characters. After Saya cuts him in half. He makes a passing statement that implies that he is not actually Diva's chevalier, but the chevalier of Saya and Diva's mother. Saya's blood might not have ever been a threat to him. If this is true, Nathan would be completely impossible to kill, unless Saya and Diva's aunt (who must have existed since Chiropteran queens are always twins) is still out there somewhere.
- He's killed in the manga after he murders Diva due to pent up rage from Diva's indifference over James' death.
The Promise: Hagi's promise to Saya that he will kill her after she defeats Diva.
Psycho Rangers: The Corpse Corps are this for the Schiff. Despite undergoing similar treatment and brutal training, those of the Corpse Corps are emotionless, thoughtless, cold-blooded killers who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals as given by their masters. It's no wonder Moses freaks out when he sees who are really behind the masks.
Psycho Serum: The Delta-series drugs originated as an attempt to create artificial Chevaliers to serve as super soldiers.
Pulling Themselves Together: Chevaliers border on this trope. Solomon and Hagi have been able to reattach their severed arms and use them just fine.
Rape Discretion Shot: When Diva rapes Riku, we only see her undress and advance on him, with the scene cutting away as she kisses him. The next time we see them, Diva is fully dressed and Riku is naked on the floor with a Thousand-Yard Stare.
R-Rated Opening: The first episode begins with a flashback of Saya temporarily becoming Ax-Crazy and going on a killing spree through a Vietnamese village.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Saya's eyes are a dull shade of red, but turn bright, glowing red when she uses her vampiric abilities. Diva, the main antagonist, has blue eyes which also glow brightly when she's serious.
Red Right Hand:
- Subverted; Hagi's right hand gives away his true nature as a Chevalier, and freaks Saya out when she first sees it, but he is still a heroic character.
- Played straight with Karl's hand, which was injured when he fought Saya in the Vietnam war.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Diva's first action when Saya let her out was to kill Joel and his staff. Things probably wouldn't have been so bad if she didn't extend it to all of humanity.
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections! / Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Joel crashes Cinq Fleches' party with David and it is perfectly clear that he was not invited; however, because of who he is, no one, including security and the Goldsmiths, dares kick him out.
Senseless Violins: Averted; Hagi keeps Saya's sword in his cello case, along with an actual cello, and plays it more than once. He's very good, too.
Sexy Silhouette: The third opening has a scene Saya and Diva sharing a bathtub, with both seen as silhouettes as rain pours down on them.
Shower Scene:
- During the train ride, Saya showers while talking to Liza about her dreams, not knowing the Liza she's talking to Amshel posing as her.
- She has a Shower of Angst in episode 40. We see her naked from the shoulders up standing dejected under the water spray.
The Sleepless: Chevalier don't need to sleep. Saya has occasionally wondered how Hagi spends his sleepless nights.
Spoiler Opening: If you pay attention to the background before the chorus starts in the first opening, you'll see a significant plot point for the last 13 episodes of the series.
Stealth Pun: A feature found on some swords is commonly known as a "blood groove", but rarely so literally as in this series.
Stuff Blowing Up: The preferred method of dealing with accidents is 'Option D', which means dropping missiles on the affected area. On a smaller scale, Kai uses special bullets which ultimately cause parts of Chiropterans to explode.
Super-Empowering: Drinking a Queen's blood will turn somebody into a Chevalier.
Super-Soldier: The Delta-series and the Schiff were failed experiments in creating artificial Chevaliers to serve as super soldiers. Ultimately, they succeeded with the Corpse Corps.
Tagalong Kid: David sees Kai and Riku as this. Riku very nearly outgrows it. Post-timeskip, Kai takes a level in badass, becomes more mature and becomes an important asset to the team.
Taking You with Me: In their final battle, Karl attempts to completely drain Saya of her blood, which would kill him as well, in the hopes that they would die together. Saya doesn't go for it. Ditto with James and later Amshel.
Team Chef: Lewis does love to cook.
Technically-Living Vampire: Most Chiropterans are former humans infected with a "d-base" in the blood of a queen. Queens, however, are born Chiropteran.
Those Two Guys: Kakimoto and Kato, Kai and Mao's friends back in Okinawa. Their relevancy to the overall plot is about the same as air.
Thicker Than Water: Subverted. One may expect Saya to abandon her adopted brothers after discovering she's a Chiropteran and live with them. Instead, she decides to stay and fight as she feels the former are more important to her.
Three-Month-Old Newborn: The newborn Saya and Diva are described in Joel's diary as looking like two-month-old human babies. Diva's daughters are a better example; from the minute they emerge from the cocoons, they have full heads of hair, and are cooing, smiling, and even giggling. Justified, since in both examples, the babies aren't human.
Through His Stomach: David has a fondness for the horribly bitter coffee Julia brews.
Time Skip: An entire year passes between episode 32 and 33.
Tomato in the Mirror: Thanks to her Laser-Guided Amnesia, Saya is initially unaware that she is herself a Chiropteran.
Toplessness from the Back: After Liza is murdered by Amshel during the ride to Ekaterinburg, we see her naked body being throw out of the train, with her back bare to the camera, showing a fatal bite mark on her neck.
Tragic Keepsake: Kai wielding George's handgun, Joel's dysfunctional watch, Saya's sword when it becomes reforged with a crystal from her adopted father, and Kai's necklace which contains a crystal from Riku.
Undressing the Unconscious: After Amshel chokes out Saya and is about to kill her, she's rescued by Solomon who picks her up and flies away. The next episode opens with Saya awakening naked in a strange apartment, with all her wounds bandaged. She wraps herself in a Modesty Bedsheet and walks around the window until Solomon comes in and says he prepared a change of clothes for her in the closet... which turns out to be a dress, which greatly displeases Saya who Hates Wearing Dresses and she changes into it simply because she doesn't want to be naked.
Unskilled, but Strong: Diva is nowhere near as skilled as Saya, but she's so strong and fast that she doesn't really need them.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Joel I locked Diva away in a tower with Amshel as her only companion, and at the same time treated Saya like his daughter. Had he not done that, Diva would've probably not become the Ax-Crazy Big Bad of the story.
Vampires Are Sex Gods: The bite of Chiropteran are shown to be extremely pleasurable, especially Diva's with Nathan slumping down into the floor in a orgasmic daze after a particularly long one she gives him. In the light novel adaptation, it's explained that something in Diva's eyes causes the Chevalier bloods to react with a "maddening desire" which is played for Fan Disservice when Diva uses it to rape Riku, making him incapable of physically resisting her and explains how she managed to get pregnant with him.
Vegetarian Vampire: Saya is one of a sort. She largely refrains from drinking any kind of blood, instead getting it through regular transfusions.
Vertical Kidnapping: In the first episode, Saya goes back to school to get the track shoes she accidentally left there. When Hagi shows up and freaks her out, she gets a teacher who teases her about "seeing the serial killer" before a giant claw comes down from the darkness and yanks him up.
Violence is the Only Option: Subverted. When Kai brings Irene back with him to just ask Saya if the Schiff can have some of her blood, Saya's response is to attack Irene. Kai and David talk her out of it and she agrees to give her blood to help Irene. And then the rest of the Schiff show up and think Irene has been captured and they start fighting again. This time it is Irene who talks them down.
Walking the Earth: All the major characters do a lot of traveling.
Weak, but Skilled: Since Saya and Hagi get their blood from transfusions instead of eating humans like Diva and her Chevaliers, they aren't as physically powerful. They can still go toe to toe with them thanks to martial skills and teamwork.
Weapon Specialization: Each of the Schiff uses a different kind of weapon, many of them fairly oversized. Saya wields a specially designed katana later reforged with a crystal from George, David uses a revolver, Kai wields his father's handgun with explosive ammo, Solomon chooses to transform his hand into a simple and functional blade... the list goes on. The weapons represent either their personalities or their history and emotions. Or both.
We Are "Team Cannon Fodder": Red Shield agents. The name is even a nod to this, their blood and flesh will become a shield for Saya so she can slay the Chiropterans.
Willfully Weak: Hagi chooses not to use his higher end Chevalier powers because his initial usage terrified Saya. His right hand being stuck in claw form is a source of shame for him.
Wham Episode: Episode 32, "Boy Meets Girl. Diva rapes and kills Riku and Red Shield is destroyed.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The Red Shield has little qualms about killing any and all chiropterans who aren't working with or for them (i.e. Saya and Haji), and neither do Saya and Haji. It's shown on multiple occasions that many chiropterans are capable of human emotions and have some form of conscience, but they don't seem to care: if they're out harming humans, they have to die. In the manga, Saya even explicitly tells Riku, her own brother, after his conversion that she's going to kill him simply for being a chiropteran.
Wrecked Weapon: Amshel broke Saya's sword i!n their initial confrontation. When she got it reforged, David had a crystal that came from George added to the hilt.
Yakuza: Mao steals from her gangster father so she can follow the heroes around the world.
You Are Worth Hell: Expressed by Solomon and Hagi towards Saya. Solomon threw away everything to try to be with her and Hagi doesn't regret his long life as a human pincushion either.
You Shall Not Pass!: Hagi does his damnedest to perform one of these in episode 21, "Sour Grapes," against the Schiff. And again, more successfully, in the finale.