Japanese entertainment franchises have found a home in the U.S. market, and in February, Dark Horse will bring in a property that illustrates just how far a Japanese franchise can reach. The publisher has licensed a total of 14 books—both manga and prose—from the Blood+ line and will release them over the next year and a half.

Blood+ (pronounced “Blood plus”) is a simple vampire story spinoff of the feature-length animated film Blood: The Last Vampire and offers fans just what the title suggests. Comprising three manga series, plus a televised anime series (currently airing on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim), two prose novel series and two Sony Playstation videogames, the franchise keeps growing and still manages to expand the story.

In addition, the original animated film Blood: The Last Vampire has been adapted to a live-action feature length movie. Scheduled for release in Korea and Japan in March, the movie will come to the U.S. in July. The movie stars Ji-Hyun Jun of My Sassy Girl and is produced by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Bill Kong.

Dark Horse has licensed all of the manga as well as the prose novels, and will begin rolling out the first manga series, Blood+, in February. Dark Horse’s prose division, M Press, will launch the first novel series (also named Blood+) in March. Both of these adaptations are a retelling of the original anime series. Once these two series wrap up, Dark Horse plans to publish the second manga series, Blood+ Adagio, alongside the second novel series, Blood+ Russian Rose. Adagio and Russian Rose are both stories that look into the protagonist’s past as an immortal during the Russian Revolution. The final manga, Blood+ Yakou Joushi, is a single-volume stand-alone book with boys’ love elements.

Blood+ the novel

M Press senior books editor Rob Simpson said that he and his prose translation team have worked closely with Dark Horse’s manga editor, Philip Simon, so there is “internal consistency between publishing programs.” Simpson said that while they are not sharing translators, “We decided to have our translators talk to each other so they are constantly in touch about certain phrases that we want to be the same [in both the manga and the novel].” He also says that M Press is paying close attention to the anime and the phrases used in translation so that fans of the Blood+ anime series won’t run into any surprises. A preview of volume one of the manga will be included in Sony’s DVD anime package,which will collect the televised anime series and come out in March.

Blood+ is the story of Saya, a 16-year-old girl with amnesia, who makes a series of startling discoveries about her past, including learning that she’s immortal. According to Simpson, Production IG (the Japanese company responsible for Blood+) set out to create a concept rather than a story. The result is a strong and versatile character with the ability to live many lifetimes in different historical eras as well as in many different formats. Much like an American superhero, Saya’s character can have a clean slate with each story. “It’s allowed for so much freedom for the creators,” says Simpson.

The strength of Saya as a protagonist and her intricate background have drawn in many fans. But Simon also credits the vampires (referred to as Chiropterans in Blood+). “They’re not suave and tempting and sexy,” Simon explained. “They’re gross, bestial, monstrous critters. Much scarier than the pretty boy vampire cliché and quite unpredictable. The history of our heroine and the unique design and behaviors of the monsters make this a unique vampire ride.”

Unique or not, there will be a lot of Blood+ competing for shelf space come spring. But neither Simpson nor Simon are concerned that the manga series or the novel series will be competing against each other. “They each tread different ground, are set in different time periods and explore different aspects of Saya’s quest,” Simon said of the manga series. Simpson points at the opportunity to get the Blood+ novels into different areas of a bookstore. “It’s the same trim size as the manga, but because it’s an active and ongoing TV series, I think it will find placement in other sections of the store. We’re making sure all bookstores know about the TV series and the crossover of potential readership. They’re going to rack it where they think the fans will go.”

Both editors believe releasing both the manga and prose series simultaneously will only build interest and reward fans. “If you’re a fan of the series, you’re going to want to read all of the manga and all of the novel to get the whole story,” Simpson said.

“The franchise is quite interesting,” Simon added. “There are so many unexplored eras and possibilities.”