Vampire Knight Guilty Volume 4
As we draw the last few drops of blood from Vampire Knight Guilty, we start with episode 11 that wraps up several minor plot points and prepares the audience for the final battle. This includes Kaien fending off the Vampire Hunters from the Academy, but its main focus is concluding Zero and Ichiru’s Twin Curse, their reconciliation, and Zero gathering the strength he needs to face off with Rido in the next episode (although the Twin Curse was never one of Vampire Knight’s best delivered subplots, mostly relying on conversations full of exposition between the twins to keep the mystery going.) That said, the ending really hits the spot, filled with emotional flashbacks and tenderness between the two males who finally come together after many episodes of hostility between them. It gives Ichiru, the poor boy who never started life on the right foot, a fitting ending and allows Zero to finally come into his own and become the badass he needs to be for the final showdown.
Kaname narrates over most of episode 12, revealing the depths of his feelings for Yuki as she goes charging into the battle with Rido (and allowing his presence across the main events even though he’s somewhere completely different for most of it). The battle with Rido is actually laid out differently compared to the manga; the side vampire characters such as Ruka and Akatsuki play a bigger part in the fight, serving as protectors of Yuki by attempting to fight Rido themselves, even if to no avail. When Zero makes it into the fray his role is also altered slightly, allowing his big transformation into ‘Kaname’s secret weapon’ to be portrayed on a larger scale and working with Yuki briefly to achieve a common goal, unlike the book counterpart where the pair were not seeing eye to eye. This change is quite significant as it creates a more ‘us against them’ feel, a similar atmosphere to that which you’d likely find in Super Sentai or magical girl battles, where the power of friendship and love conquer evil. The change is not that extreme (no heart of the card speeches, I promise) but it’s enough to deviate from the source material and create a new view on a big battle that may or may not agree with audience. The rest of the episode, with Kaname taking down the Senate and Takuma coming to his side to achieve his goals, remains the same to the manga.
Any tension or dark atmosphere built up till episode 13 will undoubtedly be lost after the first five minutes of episode 13; Zero vanquishes Rido once and for all, Kaien and Yagari fend off the Level E vampires and hunters whilst preventing all the Day Class students from finding out the Night Class’ identity, Yuki and Zero talk on the rooftop for one last touching scene before she, Kaname, and several Night Class students head off into the sunset and they all live happily ever after.
That probably would be a fitting ending if all of this wasn’t taking place on top of having half of the school destroyed, the Senate reduced to a pile of ash, a long string of corpses left behind by Rido’s resurrection, several characters with significant amounts of screen time across the series left a complete mystery to how they are at the end of it, multiple plot points unresolved, and the central love triangle given the wishy-washy treatment with no definitive conclusion (not even a kiss with either male!) I know what they tried to do: the original manga had a much more politically entangled ending with Kaname’s actions reshaping the world of vampires forever, dealing with the consequences of it whilst on top of high levels of angst between Zero and Yuki. It was meant to be an ending to the first arc, creating threads for a new chapter in the series moving away from the high school environment, so the anime tries to avoid a lot of the heavy backdrop and mainly focuses on the emotional side by having characters talk about their feelings and resolve as much as they can before the final curtain falls. Zero and Yuki have a sort-of ‘put to rights’ conversation resulting in her realising the depths of his feelings by drinking his blood, and Kaname is lot more emotional open towards Yuki as she agrees to leave with him, making the ending more bittersweet and easy. As a fan of the manga, I personally didn’t agree with the anime’s alternative ending; the final moments seemed better suited to a slice-of-life story than one consisting of vampires. Considering the amount of work put towards Season 2 to drum up suspense on Rido as a villain, the war between the Senate and Hunters plus Yuki’s true identity being at the centre of it all, only to have all the main characters skipping happily as they walk towards a new future just didn’t seem fitting on any level.
The English dub has fluctuated in quality across the series but manages to bounce back for the last disc, mostly thanks in part to Vic Mignogna for providing a stunning performance as the twins in episode 11; he doesn’t drop the ball at all in making Ichiru vulnerable and relatable despite not exactly being easy to like in the episodes he’s been in. Another special mention goes to Patrick Seitz as Rido; yes, he does sound like a cheesy Bond villain, but also like he’s having so much fun playing a bad guy that you can’t have a go at him for it. The Japanese dub still gives more comfortable watch all-round but there’s a small glitch in episode 11 where one line near the beginning isn’t subtitled; nothing major is missed but it’s noticeable.
Eight discs of this series and not one extra has been provided, not even for the final volume; a big shame.
Season 2 of Vampire Knight was superior to the first 13 episodes for having a better story structure and pace, despite still having some of its problems of flashing back to two minutes ago and repeating information we don’t need for the nth time. Guilty provided much more memorable and stronger episodes in the long run, plus with it being drenched in gothic ambience, it gave long-term vampire fans a reason to tune in, but the ending sadly drops the ball at the last minute by giving a typical shojo conclusion that will likely taint any respectable thoughts on the series you had.
The build-up is worth the time invested but reactions to the ending will vary amongst fans, and whether you think it was worth the 26 episode-long ride or not will depend on what you preferred about Vampire Knight. If the earlier episodes of light-hearted content and exposition conversations was your type of blood then the ending will satisy your taste. However, if you wanted the finale to have a bit more teeth, prepare to be disappointed.
