Vampire Knight Volume 14
Sara is still on the loose turning helpless female students into her vampire slaves, making Kaname’s lack of involvement to stop her suspicious to the Vampire Hunters Society. However the current ruler of vampires has other things on his mind; with his past memories fully revealed to Yuki, she decides to step forward and begin a new life with him regardless of what awaits them. However will Kaname’s mysterious new plans come between them? Or will the repercussions of his actions keep them apart forever?
Matsuri Hino has been quite bold with her story by taking it out of the comfortable school scenery and into the big wide world with a stronger focus on the political side of vampires and humans co-existing in the world together. She’s also been brave in having the female lead seemingly choose her man within the love triangle mid-way through the story instead of dragging it out until the very end. So far the first few volumes of this new arc have set up this bold new story direction with Yuki struggle with her vampire heritage, Zero continue to balance his lust for blood with his duties as head of the vampire hunters, and Kaname being as mysterious as ever as the vampire leader. As you can imagine, a lot of tension has been riding on these new story developments and it’s nice to finally see some of the weight of it start to crumble around our heroes.
With volume 14, Kaname’s back-story is fully revealed; Yuki makes her biggest step forward as a character by directly addressing Kaname with her feelings. Her speech on how she feels about the boy is actually rather touching, it’s nice to have the female lead actually be direct about how she feels instead of constantly hiding behind blushes or barely forming a sentence together. Her character development also makes her breaking down after Kaname’s dramatic action towards the end of the volume even more heart breaking. Speaking of the pureblood vampire, Kaname is still a bit of a dark fog when it comes to motivation and overall goal but to finally have his history revealed (even if it’s spread across volumes 13 & 14, a long wait to uncover the full story) is a relief. Just as we become comfortable with the male vampire and where he stands, Matsuri Hino takes it all away again with a new dark secret Kaname seems to be having ‘doubts’ over. Oh well, at least the history that leads into the vampire hunter’s origins is explained nicely and Kaname’s sorrow over the passing years is quite intricate and interesting to read. Zero fans will be feeling sad at the lack of him in this title, but the last chapter hints at more Zero & Yuki moments in the next book. Sara’s plan unfolding is a page turner as well; playing the Queen Bee with little to stop her makes her seem like a formidable foe that hopefully will pay off better than Rido’s abrupt ending in the long run, also you can’t help but feel sorry for Takuma Ichijo who’s just caught in the middle of it all.
Art is still as strong, if not stronger, as ever. The beautiful flowing hair of the vampires, the intricate details of the gothic surroundings and far superior detail when it comes to the action scenes make it a lot better to read and flows more naturally than the older books.
Still ongoing at 14 volumes, it’s understandable to be a little hesitant at the quality of Vampire Knight; luckily the change of pace seems to be paying off for the story so far with this exciting volume answering many questions that had been lingering since the beginning. As a long-term fan, I’m still enjoying this series, so I recommend if you’ve got money in the wallet to burn.
