Blood+



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 cause 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 Plus is a 50 episode long anime which is loosely based on the OAV 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 Plus), and the Chiropterans, but otherwise have little in common. With a beautiful soundtrack, a dark and smoothly flowing storyline, and empathetic characters, Blood Plus is a memorable and wonderful series.

Blood Plus has examples of:

 * Abnormal Ammo: The ignition rounds Kai uses latter in the series. Shoot the explosive rounds into a Chiropteran followed by the primer shot and suddenly guns 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  who sports extremely powerful.
 * Achilles Heel: Chiropterans will be petrified if exposed to the blood of the rival Queen.
 * Action Dress Rip: Saya and Diva during their final confrontation.
 * Action Girl: Saya, although reluctantly at first. Lulu on the other hand finds fighting fun.
 * Actor Allusion: Crispin Freeman playing a loyal servant to a female master in a show about hunting vampires.
 * 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.
 * Alternate Continuity: The series' relationship to Blood: The Last Vampire. Also, the manga's relationship to the series.
 * Amnesiac Dissonance: Saya
 * An Axe to Grind: Lulu
 * Animals Hate Her: Poor Saya
 * Anime First
 * Anti-Villain: Solomon is the most obvious example. Nathan also can be seen this way, though really his true motivations and goals are so murky that he's pretty hard to pin down.
 * Anyone Can Die
 * Armies Are Evil: Especially the Americans...
 * 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  would get Schiff limbs attached to replace limbs they had amputated.
 * Art Shift: The third opening sequence.
 * Audible Sharpness: When Saya primes her katana with blood
 * Awesome Yet Practical: Solomon's Blade Below the Shoulder. Simple, refined, and capable of cutting through practically anything. Also, Kai's explosive gun ammunition which can make parts of Chiropterans explode.
 * Babies Ever After: Julia in the finale
 * 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.
 * Badass Longcoat: Hagi in "City of Nightwalkers"
 * Badass Normal: Kai, David, Lewis
 * Bavarian Fire Drill: How Okamura planned on infiltrating the Cinq Fleche dance, by abusing his press pass and looking like he was supposed to be there. It didn't work.
 * Battle Couple: Hagi and Saya. They also share at least one Back-to-Back Badasses pose.
 * Bee People: The Chiropteran 'Queen' reigns over her drone-esque Chevaliers.
 * Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Rasputin and Martin Bormann were Diva's Chevaliers
 * Berserk Mode: Saya during the Vietnam War.
 * Big Applesauce: Saya and Diva's final showdown occurs in New York City.
 * Big Brother Instinct: Kai for Saya and Riku. Well, with some confusion related to his feelings for Saya.
 * Solomon for Karl as well.
 * Big Eater: Both Lewis and--believe it or not--Saya
 * Big Screwed-Up Family: Diva and her Chevalier, in contrast Saya's family and the Schiff.
 * Bishonen: Hagi and Solomon
 * Bittersweet Ending
 * Blade Below the Shoulder: Solomon's signature weapon; played with in that the blade is his arm.
 * Blood Is the New Black: Occurs to Saya when she's in her Berserk Mode
 * Bloody Murder: Chiropteran Queens and Chevaliers
 * Bloody Warrior: Saya, as well as various other instances and characters
 * Body Horror: Humans transforming into Chiroptera and/or Chevaliers, and the effects of the Thorn. Also, the Vietnamese test subjects.
 * Bodyguard Crush: Hagi's love for Saya
 * Boisterous Bruiser: George. He even punched a Chiropteran in the face!
 * Bratty Half-Pint:  when he first met Saya. Granted those circumstances would make anybody grumpy.
 * Bring My Red Jacket: Saya's red dress after the Time Skip.
 * Broken Pedestal: Collins for Julia.
 * 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.
 * Also, technically speaking,
 * Break the Cutie: Saya gets broken twice thanks to her amnesia
 * And how about ? Sucks to be him.
 * Also, Hagi. Through a flashback,
 * Breather Episode: The return to Okinawa after Vietnam and the shopping trip in New York.
 * Brown Note: Diva's singing can get deadly under the right circumstances
 * Bury Your Gays: Subverted in that No explanation given as to how.
 * Nathan makes a passing statement that implies . Saya's blood might not have ever been a threat to him. If this is true,.
 * He's killed in the manga.
 * Cain and Abel: A gender and age inverted example.
 * Camp: Karl's Phantom costume.
 * 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
 * Character Development: Kai evolves from an Emo Teen to a mature, confident hero. Saya and Hagi get a bit as well
 * Children Are Innocent: Riku. Face it, if Kai was the one who, it wouldn't be quite as traumatic for the cast or the audience.
 * Clean Cut
 * Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Inverted, red is Saya's color and blue is Diva's
 * Concert Kiss: Happens between Hagi and Saya.
 * Cool Boat: Red Shield's headquarters
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Amshel Goldsmith and Van Argeno
 * Creepy Child: Err, well creepy Vietnamese children who were exposed to Delta 67. The end result was mini chiropterans.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Nathan
 * Cry for the Devil: Diva. As Nathan puts it when she dies: "Poor girl...she just wanted to have a family..." Also Karl, possibly.
 * Cute and Psycho: Oh God, Diva.
 * Cute Little Fangs: Saya and Riku, especially in the manga.
 * Dark-Skinned Blond: Monique
 * David Versus Goliath: Diva's Chevaliers are more powerful than Saya's as the former receive more blood.
 * Deadly Dodging: Standard fare whenever two Chevaliers fight. Hagi and Karl's first fight in particular.
 * Death Seeker:
 * Delinquents: Kai and Mao before they got caught up with Red Shield.
 * Deliberate Injury Gambit: Saya's final defeat of Karl.
 * Deliver Us From Evil: Thoroughly averted.
 * Deus Ex Machina: The final battle with
 * Diagonal Cut: How Saya dispatched a lot of Chiropterans over the course of the series.
 * Did Not Do the Research: There're some mistakes in the part where the gang goes to Vietnam and infiltrate the all-female school. First, the students and teachers are mostly foreigners around the Eastern Asia region so this is obvisously an international school. But why would an international school's uniform be Ao Dai (Vietnamese traditional dress?
 * Min and Mui are hardly popular names over there. They could be referring to Minh or My for all we know.
 * Drama-Preserving Handicap: For her final confrontation with Diva Saya was being gradually weakened since she . If not for that her superior fighting skills would have ended the fight in seconds.
 * Dress Hits Floor: The pivotal scene between  in the episode 'Boy Meets Girl'.
 * Drowning My Sorrows: David, after the Moral Event Horizon tragedy listed below
 * Dueling Shows: Was aired in the US back to back with Trinity Blood.
 * Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: A gender averted example. Julia kisses David this way while he's injured at a hospital.
 * Dying as Yourself:
 * Eagle Land Flavor 2: The American government is just downright EEEEVIL in this one
 * Which is funny, considering how many of the good guys are American.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending
 * Emergency Transformation: Happens to
 * Even the Girls Want Her: Saya. Poor Saya.
 * 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.
 * Evil Knockoff: The Corps Corpse are mass produced clones of Moses.
 * Evil Twin: Diva
 * Exotic Weapon Supremacy: The Schiff
 * Extreme Doormat: Hagi, until late in the series
 * Subverted. 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.
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * 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.
 * Fantastic Racism: James' hatred of the Schiff. Particularly ironic, given that he is a black American. Of course, this makes it worse;
 * Faux Affably Evil: Diva
 * Feed the Mole:
 * Five-Bad Band
 * Big Bad: Diva
 * The Dragon / Evil Genius: Amshel Goldsmith
 * The Brute: James Ironside and Karl Fei-Ong
 * Dark Chick: Nathan Mahler
 * Sixth Ranger Traitor: Solomon Goldsmith
 * Flamboyant Gay: Nathan Mahler, but boy is he dangerous
 * Flash Back: Many scattered throughout the series, with a few episodes flashing back to Saya and hagi's past
 * Flash Step: Chevaliers, Queens, the Schiff and Corpse Corps.
 * Flechette Storm: Karl's  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.
 * For Want of a Nail:
 * Freudian Excuse: Diva's so fucked up because
 * Genki Girl: Lulu
 * Genius' Sweet Tooth: Van Argeno regularly eats hard candies.
 * Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Kai tries to snap David out of his Heroic BSOD after  by pouring out his booze and punching him in the gut.
 * 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.
 * Good Old Ways: Hagi, and, if only in clothing styles.
 * Good Thing You Can Heal: Sapient Chiropterans in general. Saya takes advantage of it in a battle against Karl . 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.
 * 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.
 * Happily Adopted: Saya, Kai and Riku when living with George.
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Heroic BSOD: Saya and David, after Diva's mid-series Moral Event Horizon moment
 * Heroic Willpower: Saya managed to hold back her approaching hibernation cycle long enough to  and.
 * He's Back: David, after he's finished drowning his sorrows
 * Hero Secret Service: Red Shield for Saya.
 * High-Pressure Blood
 * Hold Me:
 * 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.
 * Hot Scientist: Julia
 * I Am Not Left-Handed:  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.
 * I Cannot Self-Terminate:, resulting in her promise with.
 * 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.
 * If I Can't Have You
 * Implausible Fencing Powers: Karman has blocked a bullet from David in a fight.
 * Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Happens to Hagi repeatedly. Also  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.
 * In Love with Your Carnage: Karl to Saya in the anime; Solomon to Saya in the manga
 * Instant Armor: James' most prominent ability, in the form of nigh indestructible skin.
 * In the Hood: The Schiff when first introduced.
 * 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.
 * Intrepid Reporter: Okamura
 * Katanas Are Just Better: For Saya anyways, since it has a groove etched into it to keep her blood applied longer.
 * Kill the Cutie:
 * Averted in the manga.
 * in the manga.
 * 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
 * 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.
 * Kiss of the Vampire: Several of the reactions, Nathan's in particular, suggest that a queen's bite can be quite... pleasurable.
 * Knife Nut: In addition to his cello case, Hagi has a seemingly unlimited supply of throwing knives.
 * Laser-Guided Karma: Played straight for both sides. In their final showdown,.
 * Last of Her Kind:, the last survivor of the Schiff
 * Leave Your Quest Test: In 1900's Russia, with the chevalier girl tempting Saya.
 * 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 (, however, even that has nothing to do with any sense that.
 * Diva as well. Pale pretty girl with blue eyes, wears white Victorian clothing, is a opera singer and often described as a angel. Bad side?
 * Lighter and Softer: The manga - pretty much nobody dies, in stark comparison to the anime.
 * 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, Kai trains and becomes an important part of the team, being able to fight as well as counsel those in distress.
 * Locked Out of the Loop: Saya until the Zoo arc.
 * 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.
 * Mad Scientist: Amshel is a combination of this and Corrupt Corporate Executive.
 * Cinq Fleche employs a few of others such as Boris (creator of the Schiff) and Van (who worked to perfect Delta 67)
 * Major Injury Underreaction: Avoided. Several Chevaliers avoid any major reactions when they undergo injuries. These injuries include  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.
 * Men Of Wealth And Taste: Diva's Chevaliers.
 * May Contain Evil: Cinq Fleche distributed a bunch of food products laced with Delta 67.
 * Master Swordsman: Early in the series, Van and other Cinq Fleches referred to Saya as the "Samurai-man" because of her remarkable skill with swordplay and the fact her blood petrifies Chiropterans.
 * 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'.
 * Mistress and Servant Boy: relationship began this way.
 * Mortal Wound Reveal: Following a lengthy fight,  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.
 * Motorcycle on the Coast Road
 * Murder the Hypotenuse: What Solomon would love to do to Hagi.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Van towards the end of the series after witnessing Delta 67 turn into Chiropterans.
 * Mysterious Protector: Hagi, early in the series. Less so once The Worf Effect kicks in.
 * Naked on Arrival: How the Chiropteran queens emerge from their hibernation cocoons.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:  is responsible for unleashing Diva on the world.
 * 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 One Could Survive That:  and the bombing of the opera house.
 * 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.
 * Not Blood Related: Kai has a definite thing for Saya.
 * Nuke'Em: though actual nukes aren't used, the US military's primary method of dealing with Chiropterans is "Option D", aka "turn the place into a smoking crater".
 * 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
 * Obfuscating Stupidity
 * One-Winged Angel: Amshel and other Chevaliers. Strangely, Diva does not go through with this.
 * 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 ), 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:
 * Overdrawn At the Blood Bank
 * People Jars: How they make the Corpse Corps.
 * 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.
 * Playing with Syringes: The experiments with Delta-series drugs.
 * Power Degeneration: The Thorn for the Schiff, which slowly crystallizes their bodies. Saya goes through this when she
 * Power Perversion Potential:  used his shapeshifting abilities to get some naked gropes in on Saya while he looked like a girl.
 * Prehensile Hair:  primary method of attack in his Chiropteran form.
 * The Promise: Hagi's promise to Saya that
 * Psychopathic Manchild: Diva
 * 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.
 * The Quiet One: Hagi.
 * Rape Discretion Shot: When.
 * R-Rated Opening: The first episode begins with a Flash Back of Saya temporarily becoming Ax Crazy and going on a killing spree through a Vietnamese village.
 * Mood Dissonance: This 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.
 * Rape Is Ok When It Is Female On Male: Completely
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Saya, Diva and their Chevaliers.
 * Charles is noteworthy, since he is physically 12 years old.
 * Revolvers Are Just Better: David's Weapon of Choice
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Diva's first action when Saya let her out was to kill . Things probably wouldn't have been so bad if she didn't extend it to all of humanity.
 * Saya after  death.
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship Saya and Kaori act more like lovers than friends.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Saya and Diva, highlighted by their Color Coded eyes, as mentioned above
 * George and David's Odd Friendship
 * There's also Kai to Riku and Saya. Really, the whole series is rife with this trope.
 * Red Right Hand: Subverted; Hagi's right hand does give 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.
 * Reluctant Warrior: Saya in the first half of the show, big time.
 * The Renfield: Diva's Chevaliers, although they are a bit of a subversion.
 * Roof Hopping
 * Salt and Pepper: David and Lewis
 * Scarf of Asskicking: Saya sports one of these during her final confrontation with Diva
 * Secret Project Refugee Family: The Schiff
 * 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.
 * Shapeshifter Weapon: Solomon's hand/blade
 * Shock and Awe: One of Amshel's Chiropteran powers.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: Saya and Hagi's response to Amshel trying to give her a Hannibal Lecture and Tomato Surprise. They weren't successful.
 * Sinister Scythe: Moses
 * The Sleepless: Chevalier don't need to sleep. Saya has occasionally wondered how Hagi spends his sleepless nights.
 * Slipknot Ponytail: Hagi whenever he's taking a beating.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Is it Haji or Hagi? No one seems to know for sure. Same goes for the Schiff/Sif.
 * And Karl or Carl.
 * Spoiled Brat: Saya (initially) thanks to Joel's superficial attempts at parenting. Meeting Hagi got her to mellow out into Spoiled Sweet.
 * 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.
 * Stalker with a Crush: Solomon and Karl both have this for Saya, although to different degrees. Solomon wants Saya to love him, while Karl wants to kill her while she kills him. Diva had also developed this kind of obsession with Riku after she met him.
 * This was also Mao's initial reason for following Kai across the world.
 * Stationary Wings: Occurs every now and then
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Given by Kai to David after his BSOD as a part of snapping him out of it
 * The Stoic: Hagi and David, but especially Hagi.
 * Suicide by Sunlight
 * Sunglasses At Night: Lewis
 * Sword Drag: Saya
 * Sword Plant: Saya, again.
 * Tagalong Kid: David sees Kai and Riku as this. Riku . Post-timeskip, Kai takes a level in badass, becomes more mature and becomes an important asset to the team.
 * Taken for Granite: Any Chiropteran killed by the blood of the opposing queen, as well as Schiff who die of the Thorn.
 * Talking To Herself: In the dub Kari Wahlgren does the voices of both Saya and Diva.
 * Even odder in the original, in which Akiko Yajima voices both Diva and Riku.
 * Team Chef: Lewis does love to cook.
 * 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  after discovering   and live with them. Instead, she decides to stay and fight as she feels the former are more important to her.
 * Through His Stomach: David has a fondness for the horribly bitter coffee Julia brews.
 * Time Skip: After the destruction of
 * Tomato in the Mirror: Thanks to her Laser-Guided Amnesia, Saya is initially unaware that she.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Kai after
 * Riku in the manga after the time skip, especially after learning of, and Saya's plans for Diva.
 * Tragic Keepsake: Kai wielding George's handgun, Joel's dysfunctional watch, Saya's sword, and Kai's necklace
 * True Companions: The members of Red Shield, especially later in the series.
 * Tsundere: Mao.
 * Variable Terminal Velocity
 * The Vietnam War: Part of the Backstory.
 * 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 of Choice: Each of the Schiff uses a different kind of weapon, many of them fairly oversized. Saya wields a specially designed katana, 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:
 * Wing Pull:
 * What Have I Become?: Saya's reaction to discovering she's a Chiropteran.
 * The Worf Effect: Poor Hagi.
 * Wrecked Weapon: Amshel broke Saya's sword in their initial confrontation. When she got it reforged, David had a crystal that came from  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.
 * 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.