Vampire Knight

When I was much, much younger I actually was a fan of this series, but as I grew older I started to dislike it and I'll try to explain why. First of all, the artwork is beautiful. The characters are well-drawn and the whole drawings are wonderful. But I think that's the best I can say about Vampire Knight. At first the story started quite mediocre. The idea of a Night Class seems as a kinda desperate attempt to integrate Vampires in the Story. I do not agree with the concept of Vampires going to school even though they don't have to. But that's just mypreference. Despite that it was easy to get in the story but however, as it went on a lot of themes appeared that are just similiar with this kind of genre. Long lost family, love-triangle, the family situations in general, the "fanservice" with all the pretty boys. A setting outside of a school would have been better in my opinion. I can't be the only one who just dislikes Yuki. She is a Mary Sue and most of the time useless and even a crybaby. Throughout the story Yuki loses her personality and what made her in the beginning. She can't choose between two characters and this it was really bothers me. Her background story wasn't surprising at all and even so her relation to a certain vampire. The only character I really liked was Hanabusa and I appreciate the fact, that the Manga-ka gave further consideration to other vampires besides Kaname later on in the manga. It may have just been me but I found this manga hard to enjoy when the character stories and characters were all so similar. This left me bored and also disappointed. The ending was really ... I actually don't know how to describe it. I hated it. It was kinda obvious in the first place but I really hoped that it wouldn't happen. I'm really wondering why Hino-sensei thought that this would be a good idea in the first place. But maybe that's just my opinion. I think that younger reader could actually enjoy Vampire Knight but I don't recommend it to anyone. If you are seeking for a dark vampire romance or a fluffy cute vampire romance - Vampire Knight is neither.

I could write lots of good and bad things about this manga. It had its own downhills and uphills, but have finally finished with a - in my opinion - beautiful ending. Let's face it, the story wasn't that original to start with and the characters were stereotypes or idealized men and women. Although Yuuki - our heroine - is like that too, she was my favourite character in the beggining, but that changed when an important incident occurred(don't want to spoiler it for you, although it's quite obvious). She is cheerful, hard-working, always trying to do her best. Kaname and Zero are typical male characters:the sexy, elegant, kind man and the sexy, stubborn, hard-working bad guy. They're not anything special, but you may start liking them if you're into massive shoujo stuff. :) If you want to read an awesome review about this manga, there are a lot of honest and true writings out there. The only reason why I wrote this, is because I've just finished reading VK, and I really liked the ending, which was IMHO far better than the last, like 30 chapters. It was a human ending, many people who loved this manga and its characters probably shed tears over it. Of course, when you get to the, for instance, 15th chapter, you can already guess the story will be a bit gloomy and without a true happy ending. That couldn't happen, who has read the first few chapters should be able to figure that out. Anyway, it leaves me with no sorrow, no grieving for another volume, not even a side story – although that is really likely to happen. Overall, I give it an 8. I’m really glad I didn’t stop reading it halfway through, its end lived up to my expectations – far more, it was much better than I first thought it would be. I recommend you to read it even after you’ve watched the anime. (sorry for my english, I’m not native)

Disclaimer: watched the first season of the anime back when it came out (season two was not out yet at the time).. A few years passes, and the final volume of the series dropped. And in my greatest error in judgement, I decided to blindly trust in the masterpiece that was the first season of the anime, and bought the first and second box set for the manga (aka all the volumes for the series) BEFORE finding out about all the mess that goes down in the second season... my disappointment was immense as I saw this beautifully written story... just.. slowly get worse andworse with each chapter.. I honestly reaally really enjoyed Vampire Knight, so I was extremely disappointed by what direction the author chose after season one. The first 10 volumes (which I'd like to dub it "season one" for the manga) was honestly the best shit I've ever read! The characters, the premise and mystery was super intriguing and on point. I was excited every chapter to find out what would happen next. I was immensely invested in the mystery surrounding Yuki, Zero and Kaname. I also really liked how well-written the three main characters were. They really felt unique and alive. I especially loved the relationship between Yuki and Zero, especially if you read about their past of how they met. Not to get into too much details, but basically something happens and Zero, in his past as a child, didn't care for his life at all, he didn't care about living. But Yuki, our adorable shoujo protagonist, was the one to bring back happiness into his life. And from then on, he decided keep on living because of Yuki. He basically lives for the sake of Yuki.. it was really beautifully written, and I was digging for what will happen next. Now.. everything is beautiful, up until you reach the end of volume 10... where the author drops a bomb. And from volume 11 onwards, all the way until the final volume (which I'll dub the "season two" of the manga), changes drastically. Everything that I absolutely loved about this series, the relationships, characters and the premise that was slowly built up throughout volume 10 felt like it was THROWN OUT THE WINDOW...! Now, something BIG happens in volume 10, which was super shocking, but that wasn't the problem. The issue was that I kept reading every chapter, and much to my dismay, the situation just gets worse and worse, and the story feels like it's being dragged on for the sake of things being dragged on. Everything felt like it was on halt, and I kept wishing chapter after chapter that SOMETHING will happen and bring this series back to how "season one" felt.. and then, I reached the final chapter, and realized.. "oh.. it's over." Honestly, for anyone hoping to check out Vampire Knight, I do HIGHLY recommend you read it.. but ONLY "season one" (i.e. vol. 1 until vol. 10).. because after "season one," it's far from the fun and enjoyable atmosphere it had. The artwork, funnily enough, gets better as the series progresses... and as gorgeous as vol. 11 - 19 were art-wise.. the story has left a gaping hole in my heart (it's been years.. and I still think about it). "Season two" took this story with the characters I absolutely loved, and butchered them until they were unrecognizable. After reading "season two," I badly questioned myself "why did I like these characters again????" In "season two," Yuki was consistently hesitant and indecisive and she no longer was the same cheerful girl from before. Zero who used to have a semblance of a heart, became entirely emotionless and was now edgy for the sake of being edgy. As for Kaname, he also has his own sort of edginess just for plot convenience, and everything that was alluring about him before is gone now. In some ways, I really felt like "season two" killed them off... which really hurts me to say :( "Season one," Vol. 1 - 10 was a 10/10 for me, super enjoyable, awesome story, lovable characters "Season two," Vol. 11 - 19 was a 3/10 for me.. honestly, I want to give it 1/10 cuz it was really hard to read through, but out of my sentimental attachments to the characters in "season one", I'm giving it a 3. For anyone hoping to check the series out, I highly recommend reading the first 10 volumes, it's super enjoyable. Just be warned that from vol. 11 until the final volume, the story deviates completely from the first 10 volumes and has a completely different feel. P.S. If you decided to read this far, I just want to quickly bring out my biggest gripe that I personally felt was the first sign that this series was killed off after "season one." Remember when I mentioned how Zero's ONLY reason for living was because of Yuki? Just to re-iterate, Zero didn't want to live prior to meeting Yuki. He only decided to continue living, BECAUSE of Yuki. However when something happens at the end of vol. 10, Zero UNCHARACTERISTCALLY abandons Yuki. This to me... was just the BIGGEST NONO because Zero can give up ANYTHING (including his own life), EXCEPT for Yuki. He was written as a character who would love and protect Yuki no matter... and YET the author (for plot convenience) has Zero abandon Yuki and basically regard her as his number one enemy (for basically the entirety of the series </3)... which just BREAKS MY HEART...!!!! CUZ THIS BOY WENT THROUGH A LOT...! HE HAD ZERO LIFE PURPOSES AND DIDN'T WANT TO LIVE FOR HIMSELF.. AND HE ONLY DECIDED TO KEEP LIVING BECAUSE HE WANTED TO BE BESIDE YUKI... AND YET HE JUST UP AND ABANDONS HER, MAKING HER HIS ENEMY NUMBER ONE. GREAT..!!! MAKES A LOTTA SENSE [HEAVY SARCASM]. For real though, at that moment in the manga, it was a true tragedy for the series. A beautifully written character was killed, and subsequently, everyone else was spiritually killed off as well, and thus the beginning of a very long dry story that keeps snowballing into a jumbled confusing mess to give us "angsts", only to be "nicely" tied off in the end. There is a new manga at work, "Vampire Knight: Memories", which is a sequel to the series, released a few years after the final volume for the original. However, personally I am done with this series. My heart has been broken enough by Vampire Knight. I don't think the new series will mend my heart any time soon, so I will just leave this heartfelt review here and say my peace to Vampire Knight. Absolutely loved it, and will try to pretend I only read "season one" and forget that I bought the second boxset for the atrocious "season two"

I gave it a 3/10 because I was feeling EXCEEDINGLY generous today. The art is very nice. However, what started out as massive potential ended as a pile of steaming, hot trash. I stuck around every month until the very end (Ch. 93) hoping it would get better but it literally gets worse every single chapter. (The only manga that had a worse ending was Attack on Titan, which is saying something.) I literally want to sue Matsuri Hino for emotional damages. The first 30 chapters had SO much potential. The problem was that all that set up was for nothing. The delivery was sopoorly executed that a 13-year-old fanfic writer could have done better. If it was trash to begin with, I wouldn't have bothered but I also would know what I was getting into. But this was a bait and switch. Hino baited us with such an intriguing premise and then she completely tanked her story. Where was her editor? Did she and everyone on her team genuinely think this was ACTUALLY a good idea?? I am gobsmacked by the high rating. Everyone keeps joking about this being like Twilight but heck, I've only read the first Twilight book and from what I remember, it was honestly, legitimately better than what this became. I loved VK prior to chapter 31, but leading right up to the big plot twist, there was a massive shift in tone and all prior characterization went out the window. The rest was a convoluted mess that didn't even know how to put itself out of its own misery. I cannot in good faith recommend this manga to people unless they want to torture themselves with anger and disappointment. If you must read it, just drop it at the end of chapter 30 and save yourself from the rest. I wish I could either go back in time or wipe my memory clean of it.