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R2 DVD Reviews
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Tuesday, 21 June 2011 14:11 |
 Ah, deep, dark secrets. Their revelation can spark one of two reaction: pleasant surprise, especially when carefully-dropped hints have clued you in to what's going on; or a strong feeling of "what the...?!", when the surprise is pulled out of nowhere. Yuki's deep, dark secret is revealed in this volume of Vampire Knight Guilty, and unfortunately it's the latter sort...
5 - The Subordinate's Trap
Yuki continues to hallucinate that her surroundings are drenched in blood, and is determined to ask Kaname about her past - but during her night patrol, another hallucination leads her to inadvertently attack Kaname. Who takes the incident surprisingly well. Meanwhile, Zero allows Ichiru to join the Day Class, while Kaien hopes that the brothers can repair their relationship - although given the bad blood between them, that seems unlikely. Zero also has other issues to deal with, as his slide towards Level E continues...
6 - The Fake Lovers
Kaname orders several Night Class students to guard Yuki after she agrees to become his lover, as she's continuing to have nightmares and to see images of blood everywhere around her. When she collapses from the strain of what she's experiencing, she's taken to the infirmary, where Ichiru attempts to give her a vial of blood before being stopped by Hanabusa. Later, when Yuki meets with Kaname again, she finds herself unable to ask him any question about her past. Meanwhile, Kaien has invited Ichiru to dinner with Zero and Yuki, but the evening quickly takes a turn for the worse...
7 - The Kiss of Thorns
Shiki approaches Kaname, who realises that Shiki is possessed by Rido Kuran, his uncle. He tries to attack Shiki, but Takuma stops him, claiming that he won't allow Kaname to harm Shiki. Later, Yuki begs Kaname to return her memories, before collapsing in his arms after hallucinating again. Kaname takes her to Kaien, who reveals that it is time to awaken Yuki's true self. In an elaborate ritual, Kaname takes Yuki through the steps that reveal her to be a pureblood vampire herself - and also Kaname's sister...
There's so much that's illogical and inconsistent about the revelation of Yuki's true nature that it's hard to know where to start. Okay, she's a vampire - and a pureblood one at that. So, where's her bloodlust been hiding? What about her need to stay in the dark? Why has Zero not reacted to her blood in a more significant way? There are probably other questions I could rustle up, given a few minutes to think about it, but that's enough to get started with. Sure, the revelation comes towards the end of the disc, so there's a chance that my questions will be answered next volume - but somehow, I doubt it.
So that's one honking great black mark hanging over the volume already. Perhaps there's good stuff elsewhere that can save it? Meh, I'm not so sure. The other themes that the volume explores are Zero's continuing slide to Level E, and his relationship with Ichiru - something that Kaien is doing his best to help repair. He may be onto a loser there, given the bad blood between them - and the way that Ichiru seemed to take advantage of Yuki at times. He's generally not a nice man.
The volume isn't helped by the sheer amount of emotion and angst on display, either. Vampire Knight has never really been afraid to get all emotional with us, but this volume takes it to a level beyond what we've seen so far, and almost reaches the point where I really couldn't be bothered dealing with it. I loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer back in the day, but if I'd known that its teen romance take on the vampire genre was going to prove so influential, I'd have staked her myself to spare us all the pain of all that's tried to ride on its bandwagon since - of which Vampire Knight is but another example. Thanks, Mr Whedon.
If there's any good left to take from it, it's the ongoing political shenanigans amongst the vampire elite, and the sense that the competition for position between several sides is coming to a head. I do like some good intrigue, and that's one aspect of the series that they seem to be getting just about right. It's just a shame that there's not nearly enough of it to make up for the shortcomings elsewhere.
Vampire Knight Guilty is one of those shows that I really want to like more than I do, and at the beginning of the first season I was genuinely enjoying it. But it's really lost its way with this season, while turning into an poor attempt at a supernatural teen vamp romance. A real shame.
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