Vampire Knight

If you think that shojo series are all flowery, romantic (comedies) and cheerful, you're quite wrong, and Vampire Knight will prove that more than anything else. Keywords for VK are drama, emotional struggles and tragic pasts. Throw in a dash of vampire, and there you have Vampire Knight in all its glory. The story revolves around the students of the Cross Academy, which is divided into the Day Class for humans, and the Night Class for Vampires. The main characters, Zero and Yuki, both have very sad pasts; Zero had his family killed by a vampire, and Yuki's first memory was a vampire attacking her. Thesepasts, which are revealed fairly early in the series, make a good base for their relationship and their emotional struggles. During the course of the story, the characters face one event/experience after another, which makes room for emotional struggles, lots of character development and, of course, some romance (hey, this is a shojo series after all), though the latter is overshadowed by the other stuff. The artwork is both standard shojo and something else at the same time. We have the pretty bishonen boys in place, complete with all the fallen-head-over-heels girls, and there's also the standard shojo eyes; large, with pupils that are almost larger than the actual eyes. But since the series has a darker, sadder tone to it, there's no lack on that end either. The coloring is often very dark, and the occasional lighting effect helps on this aspect of the series. The soundtrack is good, with sad pieces helping the sad mood, and overall good quality. There's nothing spectacular about the soundtrack though, and while the OP theme is very good, the ED theme isn't very cool, though it fits with the dark mood of the series. Voice acting is perfect; the moods are portrayed very well and there's an overall good quality. One of the things I love about this series is the characters. I mean, I really love them. They're very deep, with their pasts and emotional struggles. Off course, there's superficial characters as well, but they're mostly supporting characters; the main characters are mostly deep and they have a lot of character development for such a short series. Their relationships with eachother are very deep too, and a pleasure to watch. Overall, I enjoyed the series very much; this is a candidate for the best Spring 2008 anime. It's a bit open at the end, but I just read that there's a second season coming in October, so I'll accept that, and look forward to it. To 'Not Helpful' voters (and you 'Helpful' voters too): Feedback greatly appreciated =)

WARNING-- before reading this review, please take into account the fact that I disliked Vampire Knight. If that one statement offends you, please do not read onward. I do not assume any responsibilities for broken monitors, laptops, or mobile devices. Also, if you like dark romance or any romance dealing with vampires, I recommend this to you. See if you like it. Though, if you prefer adventures or are not a fan of things dark, or of soap operas, this is not recommended. ..:::..:::.. No matter what anime it is, the very first question that ever comes to my mind when writing review is this--"Where do I start? What do I say?" With Vampire Knight, that question never occurred. I know instantly where to start. Since I'm such a freak about certain things, when I write reviews I have to write them in this order-- Story, Art, Sound, Character, All in all. but with this anime-- JUST this one-- I'm going to start with Character, because that is where I know to start and where I feel I need to. Character~ Yes. Here we go. /deep breath/ Vampire Knight's characters are... awful. Hate me if you wish, but honestly, they're just annoying. This show isn't *insanely* popular, but it is well known, and I have a large share of romance anime-loving friends, and each one of them referred me to this. I don't see why. The characters all have their own tortured pasts and this makes it pretty much uninteresting. It's ok if people have a hard enough past to make them interesting-- and not to mention STRONGER-- but Vampire Knight does not do this. They just get weaker because of how hard their past is. I'll... show you. Yuki~ The supposed heroine, an amnesiac with the only memory of when she was being attacked by a vampire when she was littler. Anything before that, she does not know. She carries around a weapon and is a night guard of sorts, keeping the Night Class and Day Class separate. Does she do a good job at this? ...No. Yuki must always be saved, and whenever she cries someone's name they will come. The plot and characters were all so predictable that, when Yuki fell over and dropped her weapon, the next thing she'd do would be call someone's name. That person would then come and completely kick the butt of her attackers. Yay. I predicted this every time, and every time it happened just as it happened in my mind. Yuki was not a heroine, but was nothing more than a weak girl who supposedly wanted to help Zero by sacrificing some of her blood to him. People regenerate blood, vampire (...probably) or human, so it's not too much of a sacrifice. They'll just get it back later. Nothing special there. And in return for giving her red liquid to him, Zero would come save her. Her weapon's only purpose was to be flung around or dropped when she was surprised or something. She irritated me so much that-- ...No, I won't say. Zero~ ...Oh heck. He's just a suicidal guy who has a "secret". He's a vampire. Wooooo. Who knew that was coming? /sarcasm/ All he does is regret his past and be all pathetic over it, and instead of developing he just sits and sighs sadly. Oh, and when Yuki calls out, he rescues her. I think he's rather torn between liking Yuki or not, or maybe it's just his oh-so-pathetic-feel-bad-for-me past, but he just bugged the crap out of me. Perhaps I am being much too critical for anyone's taste, but I feel I need to agree with some of those that gave this a bad review, and point out why. There's really no character development here, and when the characters are supposed to develop, it actually just makes them more annoying. There are so many things to dislike about this overused type of personality that I won't even point them out, or nobody would read my review because I could make a book out of it. But I'll share a few-- as I've stated earlier, he's suicidal, yes, but he's also a bit cold and unsociable and fights with his own emotions. Doesn't he have another side to him? He never really reveals one. At least not in this series. So far, I don't think even Vampire Knight: Guilty could bring to life this pathetic show, but I have high hopes for it... Kaname~ Do I HAVE to talk about him? Auuugh... He's just your average super strong, top of the class, well-liked guy with a "soft side" for the protagonist, Yuki. It seems that Kaname and Zero's roles are equal-- to "provide drama" (yeah, great job at that.) and save Yuki all. the. freaking. time. Yes, he's a vampire, and all this other purely annoying stuff, so why does he like Yuki so much? She's cute? She's helpless? She's "kind"? I don't know, I'm hoping it will be revealed in Vampire Knight: Guilty, but I really don't know. Though, I'm sure it will, because how could an anime go on like this? He seems so obsessed with Yuki (and Yuki so obsessed with him) that it's just stupid. Why? I want answers, and I want them in the next season. If I don't get them, this show will be in my list of "Worst 5 anime I have ever seen". So, yes, if they reveal some of their secrets, I'll be... uh, happy. I guess. But for the most part, Kaname is a guy who doesn't make sense, and he's too much of a mystery. Mysteries, yes. But I can only take so much of "I'm keeping everything to myself and acting cool yet obsessed with this girl for no reason". Auuuugh. I just... no. Never mind. If I go further, I'll be ranting for the entire day, which I don't have time to do, so let's move on. Other characters~ Wait, there were other characters? Wow! I hadn't even noticed! Oh, now that you say it, I do remember some of them. they were Kaname's followers, right? And they had such cliche personalities that I could die? Yeah, them! Right... If your brain is working properly, you should already know my opinion of the supporting cast by now. Story~ It seemed to be just slightly unique, and it had many places it could have gone, but it decided to stay as a stupid soap opera. It never really got deeper or darker than that, and the bad guy was sort of non existent until the very end. Weird. I like to be introduced to my antagonist at the very beginning, if possible. This was just one of the thousands of things that disappointed me in this show. Why everyone loves this is just something my brain can't grasp. I dunno, maybe your brain can't grasp why the heck I love Higurashi or Death Note, so let's leave it at this-- it's an opinion. The end. Art~ All in all, it was typical, yet with a darker sense of feeling. It really made me wonder how the heck the creator(s) did this. I mean, how do you take cliche art and give it a darker feeling to it? all in all, it was nice and enjoyable... but then the fight scenes came on. I mean, really? Just because it's a supposed romance doesn't mean the movement of the battles has to be completely awful. And trust me, ohhhh-- when mistakes in a frame are made, it was dang obvious. Most of the time in anime, I can tell when a mistake is made yet I can't always place it, but I know it's there. With Vampire Knight, that never happened once. I always knew where the mistakes were-- Yuki's face was too long. Her mouth was in the incorrect place. Zero's eye shape is wrong (and no, not because he's making a different expression, his eye shape is literally wrong). So many other things. So, when it is bad, it is very bad. Sound~ I enjoyed the opening, and... I actually have the ending on my iPod. I loved it. I have no idea why. There was something creepy yet mysterious and beautiful about it. It's not super special, but I liked it, and that's my opinion. The overall soundtrack for the movie was actually very nice, and I noticed *most* of it. It kind of helped enhance the mood, but most of the time it made it cheesier and more annoying. On its own, though, it's a fairly good soundtrack. The voice acting for the Japanese isn't necessarily anything super special-- each voice actor fits their role. And you know my opinion on the characters, so sometimes the voice acting was really annoying too. They sulk in the darkness of their rooms, softly calling out the name of the other character, their heart aching-- yeah, yeah. It gets annoying. If there's an English version, I didn't watch it, so... All in all, Vampire Knight to me was very annoying and cliche in some of its parts. I hoped that it would go in a different direction since the overall setup of the plot was enthralling, but it went absolutely nowhere-- and I could only groan at the screen and slap my forehead. Depending on your taste in anime, you might or might not like this. I'd say, just to be safe, read the other reviews and build an opinion of your own before you watch this anime. Mostly, read as many reviews that give it a bad score, then read a few that give it an 8 or above. Decide what you want to do, and watch or don't watch this. If you've already seen it, then... good for you. Write your own review. If my review upset you in any way, please read the statement at the very top of this review. :P Overall, I just disliked this anime, and I'll stick with what I usually like. There were so many ways it could have gone, and so many twists it could have taken-- but it stayed annoying, predictable, and just... Ugh.

If you like pretty anime vampire boys, this might be right up your street. However, if you like something with a decent plot as well as the associated carnage and animalistic nature that vampires usually have, this will likely leave you somewhat disappointed (and that's me being rather kind..) and wishing it had delivered more for the time you put in. I began watching this on a friend's giddy recommendation and was intrigued somewhat by the first few episodes; although, all the way through near enough, it stayed at the same steady pace of mild intrigue and a general niggling wonder as to when the hellthe plot was going to kick in so that the story had some sort of point to it aside from a glorified love triangle. The plot itself, somewhere beneath the anime itself, has a lot of potential. The on-screen variation just doesn't seem to deliver. The characters, despite my 'fangirl-esque' fondness of a fair few of them, aren't particularly well mapped out and a lot of the character basis is shrouded in mystery, although not really in the right way - there are far too many vague bits and not enough explanation when it comes to motive and persona as well as situation. In fact, most of the characters seem not only 2D, but slight variations of the same 2D character. Also, most of the vampires you encounter in this series are rather fluffy aside from the pointy fangs, and the supporting cast are, to a fair extent, pretty forgettable. Visually, it was somewhat pleasing, although a lot of time seems to have been wasted on trivial matters while the potentially good bits have been glossed over or given a moment or two of screen time when they should have had a scene, or at the very least, *more* screen time. Overall, I'd say this series is probably worth a watch if you're just looking for an easy vampire related anime fix, but after spending a good few hours ploughing through this series, I am left wondering if I want to bother at all with its counterpart; leaning heavily towards the 'No' vote. Bear in mind that I've not read the manga, nor am I in the 'anime connoisseur' league, but I am a writer (of sorts) and would know a good story when it hit me in the face: sadly, this failed to deliver such a pleasant blow.

10 years ago, Cross Yuki was rescued from an attack by a rogue vampire that got her whole family killed by Kuran Kaname, a noble vampire. Now, under the watchful eye of Chairman Cross, Yuki's foster father, both are students at the Cross Acedemy, where there's a Day Class for humans, and Night Class for vampires. There, Yuki, along with Kiryuu Zero, a childhood friend with a deep hatred for vampires, they attempt to prevent the secret of the vampires' identities from the student mass. STORY I was sorely disappointed with the anime. Hino Matsuri's manga version had a great story going for it, only for theanime version to warp it really badly. I give the writers credit for trying, but one shouldn't change the story so drastically it affects the flow the mangaka created. It isn't bad for those that haven't read the manga, but for those that have, I highly doubt you'll like it. ART Again, to be fair to the producers, the art ain't that bad, but comparing to the manga, Zero doesn't really have a dark, sad look that he does in the manga, and Yuki looks far too cute that she almost has a Kanon style look. SOUND I love the opening song. I really do. The sound thoughout the show really does give a good feeling too, and helps bring up the mood. But sound really doesn't help improve a storyline. CHARACTER Yuki is the best character in the anime version, and the only reason I gave this a 7, because I actually liked her with comedy, which she lacks in the manga. However, the rest of the characters are either the same, or thrown out of character. Aidou, for example, wasn't really explored deeply, and he just does things that weren't explained in the anime, but was in the manga. ENJOYMENT I wasn't bored out of my wits, but I wasn't exactly jumping with joy at every episode of new release like I would with some anime. I had hoped it would be as enchanting as the manga was, but by the end of episode 2, I found it lacking. OVERALL I cannot say it is a bad anime in anyway possible, nor is it a good one either. I expected better of the company that did legends like Higurashi no Naku Koroni and Rurouni Kenshin, and good anime like Kyo Kara Maou and Marimite, but this was just a disappointment. If you liked the anime, I recommend the manga. Art's better, character's better, story's better, and of course, enjoyment's better.