List of Blood+ characters
The Blood+ anime, light novel, and manga series feature an extensive cast of characters designed by Chizu Hashii and co-created by Production I.G and Aniplex. The series is set within fictionalized versions of various real-life cities, including Okinawa, Japan; Hanoi, Vietnam; Yekaterinburg, Russia; Paris, France; London, England; Fayetteville, North Carolina; and New York City.
The main character of the series is Saya Otonashi, introduced as an ordinary teenage girl who is adopted into the family of [|Kai] and [|Riku] Miyagusuku years before the story of the series picks up. She cannot remember her past, and her life is dramatically changed when she learns that she is a chiropteran—a vampire-like creature—who was born in 1833. She survives by drinking the blood of others or receiving it through blood transfusions, and she is the only one who can destroy other chiropterans and her twin sister [|Diva]. Saya and Diva are the "queens", descendants of a line of supremely powerful chiropterans that are always born as twin females. Aiding Saya in this century-long quest is an organization called the [|Red Shield], with a man named [|David] assigned to be Saya's primary "handler." Saya, forced to return to her former life, is reunited with [|Hagi], her chevalier—a special form of chiropteran created by feeding a human the blood of a queen, which causes a powerful bond to form and compels the chevalier to serve and protect his queen at all costs.
As the series progresses, it is revealed that Diva has five cavaliers to aid her: [|Amshel Goldsmith], Solomon Goldsmith, [|Karl Fei-Ong], [|James Ironside], and [|Nathan Mahler]. They have formed their own organization, Cinq Flèches, which they use to create additional chiropterans from Diva's blood. Working against both sides are the [|Schiff], a group of escaped artificial chiropterans created by Diva's group who attack both sides in search of the blood of Saya, Diva, or one of their chevaliers in hopes that one will be the right blood to save them from a fatal and painful disease they call the Thorn.
Organizations
Red Shield
The Red Shield is an organization dedicated to eliminating Diva and chiropterans. The organization was started by the grandchildren of Joel Goldschmidt, who first found Saya and Diva in 1833 and raised them at the Zoo. He separated the sisters after birth, raising Saya like his own daughter while locking the unnamed up in a tower for scientific reasons. Joel took care of Saya, while his assistant Amshel provided for Diva's basic needs. Joel was killed by Diva in 1883 on his 72nd birthday after Saya released her from the tower to sing at his birthday party.The leadership of the Red Shield is passed down from father to son, with the current leader being Joel Goldschmidt VI. Many of its members have endured tragic encounters with chiropterans in the field, and all members of the Red Shield carry an item containing a piece of red crystal taken from the crystallized body of a destroyed Chiroptera.
According to the Blood+ light novels, the organization's name is taken from the idea that the members are Saya's shield of blood, incapable of killing chiropterans themselves but willing to die to protect her.
Cinq Flèches
The Goldsmiths are a branch of the Goldschmidt family. Cinq Flèches, a pharmaceutical company owned by the Goldsmiths, is also active in other industries, operating hundreds of companies, including food production, the high-tech industry, and military contracts. The group has influential contacts within the United States government. This company is what causes humans to turn into chiropterans when hearing Diva's Song, most likely because they put Delta 6-7 in the food they distribute.The Schiff
The Schiff are soldiers created by a group of scientists led by Boris using Diva's blood, under the sponsorship of Amshel Goldsmith. Slaves at first, the ten Schiff decided they wanted to be free and escaped from the lab where they were created, killing most of the humans there. Trained only for fighting, they mostly know no other way of living or getting what they want except by force. However, they are deeply attached to each other.Like chevaliers and chiroptera, the Schiff have enhanced speed and strength and must drink blood to survive. However, they are different in two key ways: sunlight will burn them to death, and they form a condition they call "Thorn" that causes them to slowly crystallize. It initially manifests itself as red cracks that usually appear on the neck, spreading along the body until the afflicted Schiff shatters completely.
Due to the parting words of one of the scientists from the lab, they believed that they were created from Saya's blood and that her blood would save them from their destined short lives. They attack Saya and Hagi, but when one of the Schiff, Ghee, drinks Hagi's blood, it kills him almost instantly. They later try again with Saya's blood, but it also causes the Schiff, Irène, who drinks it, to die instantly. They realize that the scientist lied and that it is Diva's blood they require to live, not Saya's, and devote themselves to hunting Diva down.
The Schiff do not appear in the manga at all.
Protagonists
Saya Otonashi
Saya Otonashi is the main protagonist of the series, who was "born" in 1833 from one of two cocoon-like objects taken from the belly of a chiropteran mummy, the other cocoon containing her sister Diva. Both are kept by Joel Goldschmidt at the "Zoo", where Saya is treated as his daughter and Diva, who is left nameless, is confined to a tower. Saya does not learn about Diva's existence until 1863, when she hears Diva singing and finds her locked in a room at the top of the tower. Saya then names her Diva. In 1870, Amshel purchases a twelve-year-old boy named Hagi from his parents to become Saya's companion and friend, though she later falls in love with him and vice versa. During a birthday party for Joel in 1883, Saya releases Diva so that she can sing for Joel; Diva, however, slaughters everyone in the Goldschmidt house while Saya and Hagi are out looking for Joel's favorite flower. Realizing that Diva is a monster, Saya spends her periods of activity hunting Diva to try to kill her, her chevaliers, and any chiropterans they have created.In a flashback dream, she is hunting Diva after the presumed death of her chevalier Grigori during the Russian Revolution. It turns out the girl, Sonia, is Grigori. Grigori is crystallized after Diva escapes with Amshel. After that, Saya goes into her deep sleep.
Saya is a skilled athlete and fights using a special katana with an edge she can touch with her thumb while gripping it so as to draw blood and grooves specially designed to spread her blood through its entire blade. Once loaded with her blood, it is a deadly weapon against Diva and any chiropteran created from Diva's blood. After Saya's first blade is broken, David gives her a new one that has a red crystal at the base of its blade, symbolizing her membership in the Red Shield organization. The crystal is a piece of her adoptive father's body, which crystallized when she killed him with her own blood in order to spare him the fate of turning into a chiropteran.
In 2005, when Blood+ begins, Saya is a high school girl living in Okinawa who was adopted a year ago by George Miyagusuku after waking from her hibernation cycle with no memory of her identity or past. Though she appears to be a normal teenager, any injuries she sustains heal almost instantly, and she must receive regular blood transfusions to remain healthy. When a chiropteran attacks her school, she finds her life turned upside down. She is reunited with her chevalier Haji, though she doesn't remember him, and learns that her blood can kill the chiropterans. She is approached by David, from the Red Shield, who tells her it is her duty to kill chiropterans because she is the only one who can. Neither David nor Haji will tell her the truth about her past, telling her she must remember on her own. Though at first Saya is reluctant to fight and afraid of who she might be, she slowly comes to accept her duty and regain her memories.
After Riku's death, Saya disappears for a year, along with Haji. When she returns, she has longer hair and a harder, darker appearance. Now accepting of her chiropteran biology, she accepts the necessity of feeding on Haji's blood to live and be strong enough to fight. However, she has a less cheerful personality and is more morose and less talkative than she used to be. Moses and Lulu both remark that she has lost hope. Believing the fight with Diva is hers alone and not wanting to have to grieve for any more lost comrades, she avoids cooperating with Kai or the Red Shield. Saya's friends repeatedly work to help her understand that this fight is not for her to bear by herself and that she is never alone. As the battle with Diva continues, Saya's next hibernation period draws nearer, she starts having sudden bouts of fainting spells, and her regeneration ability slows.
At the Metropolitan Opera House, Saya confronts Diva in a final duel, which ends as they simultaneously pierce each other with their blood-coated swords. Saya is unaffected by Diva's blood because it lost its potency when she became pregnant. Diva, however, begins to crystallize, and Saya cries for her and tries to hold her shattered pieces together. With Diva dead, Saya turns to killing the babies and herself, fearing that if they lived, they would be forced to become military weapons. Kai pleads with her to live, promising to protect her and the babies and make anyone afraid of her understand. Hagi disobeys Saya for the only time in his life, taking her sword and confessing he has loved her from the moment they met. Saya tearfully admits she wishes to live as she kisses Haji.
A month later, back in Okinawa, Saya finally goes into her next thirty-year hibernation period. At her request, Kai puts her back in the Miyagusuku family crypt to sleep, and he watches over her and Diva's children. Several years later, a pink rose with Haji's blue ribbon is left at the crypt. Hagi is alive, and he is watching from afar, waiting patiently for his love to awaken after her thirty-year sleep.
In the anime, Saya is the object of romantic interest for Kai, Hagi, and Solomon Goldsmith. Of the three, only Solomon shows his interest openly, effectively abandoning Diva and his brothers in order to spend his life with Saya. Although she appreciates his affections, Saya does not feel the same way and gently rejects his advances. Both Kai and Hagi spend most of the series suppressing their true feelings for Saya, stating that they only wish to protect and support her. Eventually, Kai suggests that when their war with Diva is finished, they both return to Okinawa to run their father's restaurant together, and he offers her a key to the restaurant. It is never explicitly stated whether Kai intended their relationship to become romantic, and he may only have meant that they could run the restaurant as siblings. In the series finale, Hagi admits that Saya is the one who taught him how to live and that she was the only person who ever made him happy. He regrets not being able to do the same by protecting her from the suffering caused by her conflict with Diva. He begs her to rethink her request for suicide and to live with him instead. The two kiss, and she admits that she wants to live with him and the others. Saya showed great distress when she thought he had died. After Saya enters her next 30-year hibernation period, Kai and the twins see a rose with a ribbon on it. Hinting that Hagi is alive and will wait for Saya until she awakes.
In the manga, Saya doesn't care much for Hagi at first, telling him to find her one of every type of rose. When he cannot find the blue rose she requests, she tells him to leave. She visits Diva often, telling her about what goes on in her life. When she tells Diva about Haji, Diva convinces her that Haji is just the same as her other companions. Saya intends to drive Haji away again, until she finds that all the roses he has picked for her now have no thorns. After this, Haji and Saya grow closer, and she teaches him how to play the cello. As he grows older, Saya is shown to be flustered after merely touching his hand. At one point, Saya gets a cut and runs away when Haji sees it healing so quickly, believing he will think her a monster. She stays locked in her room for days, unwilling to come out even to take her 'medicine'. Unexpectedly, Haji crashes through her window with her medicine, tells her she is beautiful, and gives her the hair comb he has been waiting so long to give her. They share their first kiss. Their romantic relationship results in Saya no longer visiting Diva very often. When Saya lets Diva out of the tower, Diva pierces Haji's chest with her hand, leaving him to die for "being a nuisance". Upon discovering him, Saya gives him her blood and turns him into a chevalier.