Joseph Luster
July 31, 2008 
After what seems like an appropriate eternity, I finally find myself returning to the life-siphoning halls of Black Blood Brothers, the first two volumes of which were covered here and here. One of the most prominent points of the second volume was the fact that it contributed a calmer pace in comparison to the first volume, which was about half setup and half action. The third and final volume, however, brings everything to a fever rush as plotlines are closed out and various factions of the undead are forced to engage in the kind of bloody battle that promises conclusiveness at any cost.
Jiro and Kotaro would be happy to flee the Special Zone at this point, if only the latter weren’t lost somewhere within its dangerous confines. Finding him wouldn’t normally be a problem, but all Hell is breaking loose in the city, and the rise of a cataclysmic epidemic might just make destruction of the whole area the only safe recourse. The epidemic in question concerns the Kowloon Children who, thanks to infected blood packs, are managing to spread their army farther than ever before. One by one, the Kowloon are rising from the masses, reborn as black-eyed harbingers of doom that won’t stop the cycle unless someone does something. It’s up to Jiro to confront the evil Cassa and her underlings, lest this safe haven be lost to all.
As that quick synopsis implies, there’s a lot going on during these last four episodes, and there’s no shortage of action pushing the cast to the show’s final moments. Interspersed with this action are brief snippets of Jiro’s past, shedding some light on his initial turn to the vampire side, and building up to a revelation that actually manages to surprise. At times, the show seems like a boiling pot of different groups playing against one another, but the lines cease to be as blurry once all out war breaks out in the Special Zone and it becomes a case of simply suppressing the Kowloon uprising before it gets any worse.
The finality of episode 12 is even written all over the incredibly long title: “For the Eternal Pulse of Mine Bloodline I Would Offer This Blood in Totality.•bCrLf That’s a mouthful, sure, but very few fans of the series will be dissatisfied with how things wrap up. A few aspects of the story could stand to be fleshed out some more, but since the possibility of any type of follow-up seems pretty nil—unless Kohei Azano and illustrator Yuuya Kusaku have a lot more cooking in their light novel series upon which this is based—it’s best to take what’s there and run with it.
Looking back on the show, it reaffirms my belief that more anime should be tackled in a similar format. A tighter restriction on episode numbers could certainly help the rambling nature of some series, and there’s no harder sell than a neverending story that runs until the creator’s steam engine is nothing but a rickety skeleton fueled by fumes. Black Blood Brothers isn’t The Greatest Anime Vampire Story E’er Told, but it’s definitely one to look into for an abbreviated pump of action and dark-eyed dramatics.
Studio/Company: FUNimation Entertainment
Available: Now
Rating: TVMA
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