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Written by maehara
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Wednesday, 23 July 2008 16:00 |
 Gotta love vampires. The whole mythology of the bloodsucking ones is something that, used properly, can make for some really entertaining and gory stories, while the theme of romance between daywalkers and nightwalkers is one that never seems to get tired. Vampire Knight is here to take another drink from those waters, now, and makes a fairly good job of it...
1 - Cross Academy Night Class
Cross Academy is attended by two groups of students, the Day Class and the Night Class. At twilight, when the students of the Day Class return to their dorm, they cross paths with the Night Class on their way to school. Yuki Cross and Zero Kiryu are the Guardians of the school, protecting the Day Class from the academy's dark secret: the Night Class is full of vampires! Yuki has no memory of her past prior to the moment she was saved from a vampire attack ten years ago. She was subsequently adopted by the headmaster of Cross Academy and now works alongside Zero to guard the Academy's secret. Yuki believes that vampires and humans can coexist peacefully, but Zero has different ideas...
2 - Zero's Secret
It's St Xocolatl's Day, when the girls all give chocolate to the boys they like - and so they're in a rather excitable mood, much to Zero's disgust - he's been up most of the night again carrying out his Guardian duties, and could do without the commotion. Unfortunately, with the boys of the Night Class being so damned good-looking, they're top of the list for most of the Day Class girls, and that creates all sorts of problems for Yuki and Zero to deal with - especially come twilight, one of the few times when meetings between the Day and Night Classes are allowed. But come the event, Zero begins to feel unwell...
3 - The Vampire of Vampires
Zero's been acting more and more strangely lately. One clue to his behaviour could be the blood tablet that Yuki found in his quarters - used by the vampires to control their lust for human blood, there's no reason that a human should need one, so what was Zero doing with one? Kaname seems to know what the problem is, and has been asking the headmaster how much longer Zero will be allowed to stay in the Day Class. You see, Zero's parents were killed by a pureblood vampire - those who are bitten by a pureblood will either die, or slowly become vampires themselves - and guess what's happening to Zero...
4 - The Promise
Zero has drained enough of Yuki's blood to leave her seriously weakened, and as far as Kaname is concerned has acted uncceptably, even by the standards of a Vampire. As the chief vampire in the school, he's ready to deal out punishment - but even in her weakened state, Yuki doesn't want to see that happen. Still, it's clear now that there are things that have been hidden from her, and it's time for her adoptive father to start filling her in. Later, Zero is filled with remorse for his actions, and turns to Yuki for help...
5 - My Dear Girl
The vampires in the Night Class were able to smell Yuki's blood when Zero attacked her - they haven't been told the truth of what happened, but some of them are beginning to figure it out. The headmaster, meanwhile, has taken steps to make sure that Zero can't harm Yuki again, but using an ancient method to bind Zero to Yuki and give her a way to easily keep him under control. Given Zero's hatred of vampires, the plan is to keep him in the Day Class for as long as possible - and binding him to Yuki is one way of allowing that. Later, Yuki pays a visit to the Moon Dorm to see Kaname, and is confronted by Aido about her feelings for him, and who she's been letting at her neck...
Vampires, dark secrets, and the occasional gun - oh my! On paper, Vampire Knight certainly isn't lacking much. With classes by day and their Guardian duties by night, Yuki and Zero are certainly never lacking for things to do. Yuki's a bit of a ditz, to be honest - it's more circumstance than skill that has landed her with her Guardian role, although she's slowly becoming more proficient at holding her own. She's also a determined optimist, believing that vampires and humans can live together, despite having almost fallen victim to one so many years ago. Peaceful co-existence is also what the Cross Academy is trying to foster (despite keeping the vampire students firmly separate and the fact that they're vampires secret - best not to wonder about these things), so in a way she's in her element.
Zero is another matter, though. Like Yuki, he's had tangles with vampires in the past, but unlike Yuki he's not so forgiving. He also has A Secret™, revealed quite early in the series, that will probably force him to reconsider his despire to wipe vampires out. He's the dark and broody sort, with not much in his personality to make him stand out at the beginning, but as this volume goes on he slowly becomes more understandable - if not likeable.
Being a shoujo series, all the males in Vampire Knight (with the possible exception of the school principal) are unbelievably good-looking, with the girls swooning over them at every opportunity - especially the vampires, on the rare occasions when the Day and Night classes get to meet. Fortunately, Yuki (and what few other girls you get to see) are equally easy on the eyes - this is a nicely-drawn piece of work, with plenty of the detail and flair that you expect from a shoujo manga.
The story's intriguing, too - there's more to it than just Yuki and Zero trying to keep human and vampire apart. Most of the characters introduced have a real personality to them, some of them just ooze danger, while others carry the feel of hidden depth that you want to tease out of them. Sure, in reality the writer at this point was probably just figuring out what to do with her characters, but for so early in the series there's a real feeling that we're going somewhere and not just treading water.
If you hadn't guessed, I'm impressed, so far at least. The setting and characters of Vampire Knight have piqued my curiosity by more than enough to keep me interested, and I'm now looking forward to reading volume two. This is a good start - here's hoping for more of the same.
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