There’s nothing like a bit of self-indulgent, reverse harem shoujo every now and then – but, believe it or not, there’s enough storyline going on to make this a decent anime!
Yuki Cross is the adopted daughter of Cross Academy chairman Kaien Cross, brought to him by Pure Blood Vampire Kaname Kuran after a vampire tried to attack her. Together with fellow orphan Zero Kiryuu, who lost his parents and twin brother to vampires, the two are prefects at the academy, preventing the day class of normal students interacting with the night class of Vampires.
Yuki Cross was saved from being killed by a vampire by Pure Blood Vampire Kaname Kuran. From this she has learnt that, like people, there are good and bad Vampires, and the Vampires attending Cross Academy’s Night Class are pioneering “Blood Tablets” as an alternative to sucking the blood of people. However, fellow Prefect Zero Kiryuu does not follow Yuki and the Chairman’s peaceful approach to vampires, coming from a line of vampire hunters, and also due to his family being murdered four years ago by Pure Blood Shizuka Hio. Despite his resentment, he and Yuki patrol the school grounds every night making sure students from the day class don’t try and get into the Night Class, as they are unaware that their peers are Vampires.
Meanwhile, the Night Class are held in order by Kaname (who has come to cherish Yuki over the years) as his pure blood status is almost the equivalent of royalty and has the power to turn normal humans into Vampires. However, humans who are turned into Vampires lack the control that normal Vampires do, and slowly degenerate into blood thirst beings known as “Level E“. Members of the Night Class purposely seek out Level E vampires and kill them – as human-turned-vampires have the lowest social order in Vampire class rankings.
Zero is keeping a secret from Yuki though - he was bitten by the Pure Blood Shizuka Hio, who killed his family and is slowly turning into a Vampire. Hating himself and worrying that he’ll turn into a Level E, Zero pushes Yuki away as his body rejects the blood tablets which the other vampires take. Yuki provides Zero with a temporary fix to his lust for blood, by offering him her bloodto drink to calm his animalistic instincts.
When a strange new girl, Maria, starts at the Night Class of Cross Academy, Zero feels his past being dug up, and when Maria offers Yuki to prevent Zero from reaching Level E in return for Kaname’s body or Yuki’s slavery. Yuki is torn over whether to betray her crush or to give herself up to save her friend.
The Verdict
I don’t usually like shows where the main characters have to spend the majority of their time “emoing” about things, while a gormless female lead does nothing much to help them out – but Vampire Knight is a little more interesting than it looks from the outset. I wont say that it breaks away from the reverse harem stereotype, and there is very little personality to Yuki compare to the mysterious Kaname and the troubled Zero, but she does hold her own and doesn’t become so passive that she’s unimportant to the story.
Homogeneous reverse harem heroines aside, there was something that kept me addicted to Vampire Knight – and if anything, it was too short as a 13 episode series. It doesn’t bring anything overly original to itself, but it’s entertainment, which is the main thing. I was slightly surprised at how well the violence as done, and despite the amount of blood and vampires getting their shot, it was not cringe-worthy, look away horror, but more artistic and necessary.
The art was a little unusual for a horror anime – the characters looked sleek, with the except of Yuki who was more “cute“. It wasn’t the most spectacular thing I saw, but then again the version I was watching was a bit suspect with it’s subtitles anyway, so before I can get it on DVD on wont pass judgement in that area.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable and self-indulgentanime. However, I also understand that it has a marmite effect on people, you’ll either love it or hate it. It’s not as universal as other types of reverse harem shoujo out there because it lacks any kind of comic relief, but the drama isn’t so heavy it weighs you down like a tonne of bricks. Personally I thought it was too short to really develop any characters other than Zero and Yuki – and despite making another series, when you have to confine the show to two 13 episode blocks rather than spread it across 26 there are always going to be half-baked ideas coming up which may never be resolved. After is said and done, I’ll give the series a 6.5/10. It was good, addictive, but would I watch it again? I don’t know – I think I’ll need some time to let this one mature a little and maybe when I watch the next series, Vampire Knight Guilty, I may change my mind a little.
