Vampire Knight Volume 1
Since their debut into fiction in Bram Broker’s 1897 novel, Dracula; vampires have been envisioned and redesigned by multiple different writers, film makers, artists and imaginations across the globe. Some vampires have fangs, various have sharp claws. Most are weaved as soulless demonic entities of the night, several are just simply misunderstood creatures in dire need of a hug. Numerous burn in the sunlight, others sparkle like diamonds. Regardless of their form or the medium they’re portrayed in, they’re currently now in the mainstream market and dominating the WHSmiths’ teen fiction book shelf. While Matsuri Hino’s interpretation of ‘the vampire’ is by no means original, she does offer a delicious dose of blood lust for the right viewer looking for it in Vampire Knight.
Yuki Cross’ earliest memory is of herself at 5 years old about to be eaten by a vicious hungry vampire before she’s saved by the kind vampire, Kaname Kuran. Now 16, she’s a student at Cross Academy, a boarding school divided into 2 classes, the Day Class – attending by normal humans, and the Night Class – filled with vampires. However the Day class are unaware of the Night Class’ true identity, so Yuki and her friend Zero are assigned the task as guardians to keep the Day Class students from finding out. However this isn’t always easy; the Day Class are fascinated by the beautiful Night Class students, and Zero’s sanity seems to be slipping as his dark past is slowly unravelled.
If you’re looking for the full on vampire experience including big action sequences, gory violence and darkest creatures of the night out for the kill, the likes of Hellsing and Blade will be the better point of call. But that doesn’t mean to disregard Vampire Knight altogether as the vampires in this series aren’t timid; they drink blood, sink their teeth into human flesh, have supernatural powers and eyes that glow red when the lust for blood overcomes them…yes, these are real vampires but in a teen melodramatic setting. With the school backdrop and early seeds of a love triangle growing, this series would be ideal for those who want more meat than Twilight but aren’t ready for the Anne Rice novel. Yes the plot can be considered ridiculous in places but you don’t come to vampire fiction for logic, you come for the dangerous beasts in human form and the sexiness that trails behind them, which comes aplenty in this DVD. From the seductive description Aido gives to Yuki of Kaname biting into her neck, to the purposely shot camera angles of Zero lusting after her, expect to feel a slight tingle up the spine, and in other areas as well. Characters aren’t exactly to write home about either as most of them you’ve seen before in other series (good girl Yuki, angsty hero Zero, and mysterious dark handsome vampire Kaname) but their brief moments of comic relief and early signs of bigger plot developments in the future make them intriguing rather than annoying for now.
However, as we’re giving the plot and characters the benefit of a doubt, we cannot condone the storytelling itself which needs work in some areas. Plot points are brought up early on and reminded of in flashbacks but aren’t dwelled upon in depth in the short term, preferring to introduce even more plot points or expand on the vampire mythology. In addition; from episode 1 we’re given glimpses of a huge school, including many screaming fangirls from the Day Class and gorgeous vampires from the Night Class, but most aren’t established. The majority of them are given plenty of one liners, some relevant to the episode or overall plot, without given much of a personality or even a name, or in some cases we get too much personality pressed onto one character where it could’ve been spread across another to give it balance. For example Aido is given the role of Kaname’s number 1 fan and comic relief character for the series, with exaggerated mannerisms and slapstick sound effects attached to his actions. But within the same episode he’ll suddenly threaten Yuki with his menacing ice powers. I’m by no means saying a character can’t have dynamic but going from one scene of him literally falling flat on his face in a humorous way to threatening someone’s life is disorientating to say the least.
The visual side of the Vampire Knight package is very attractive; sticking very close to Matsuri Hino’s art style with a higher than usual budget, very few scenes are static. Action scenes are nicely choreographed, special effects (such as the magical powers) come off as impressive and there’s plenty of depth to the backgrounds to create the high school setting with the gothic tint.
The audio side is a hit and miss depending on the language choice of preference. It’s interesting to note that the Japanese voiceovers have very experienced artists with diverse palettes for the main leads including Yui Horie (Fruits Basket, Love Hina) as Yuki and Mamoru Miyano (Death Note, Kingdom Hearts) in Zero’s role. On the other hand the English dub has the likes of Spike Spencer and Laura Bailey, voice actors with arguably equal amount of respect and experience, cast as the side characters. I mean no disrespect to the chosen English voices of Mela Lee, Vic Mignogna and Ethan Murray as Yuki, Zero and Kaname respectively, but the debut episode is not a joyful experience with it being a hit and miss with the comical scenes and wooden performances in the more serious scenes. I do see signs of improvement by the 4th episode, so I’m looking forward to later episodes, but for the first disc the Japanese audio track is recommended overall.
The music is typical for this type of show; strings, pianos, Gregorian chants, harpsichords and as many bass notes as possible. Nevertheless it works to create the mood, plus the opening theme (On/Off’s ‘Futatsu no Kodō to Akai Tsumi’) and ending vocal (‘Still Doll’ by Kanon Wakeshima) are of high quality and very fitting with the rest of the soundtrack.
The disc covers the first 4 episodes of the 26 episode series (split into 2 seasons, 13 eps each) and despite the stylish menu animations there are no DVD extras provided. Subtitles, only provided when watching in Japanese, are white text with a black border outline, arguably it fits with the darker colour platette of the series but it also makes it a tad hard to see in some scenes.
Vampire Knight is a guilty pleasure, but a well delivered one at that. It’s by no means going to convert non-vampire fans or satisfy the mature viewer, but for the younger crowd or those who can handle teen drama in small doses will see more good than bad in this disc.
