Vampire Knight: Fleeting Dreams
This review contains spoilers for the Vampire Knight manga series.
Fleeting Dreams is a collection of short stories written by Ayuna Fujisaki based upon the shojo manga series, Vampire Knight. Aside from a few exclusive sketches from the creator and mangaka Matsuro Hino, it’s important to note that this collection is an actual book, not manga. Each story centres on different characters and takes place at various points peppered across the manga series, so it’s best enjoyed once you’ve turned the last page of Volume 19.
The first story ‘Deranged Love’ seems to be set towards the end of Volume 9 and from the point of view from the series’ first main antagonist Rido Kuran as he dies by Yuki’s hand, leading to flashbacks of his life and love for Juri. ‘Deranged Love’ is the shortest story of the lot with no art from Matsuro Hino to complement it. It’s also the most underwritten; it reads like an outline for a manga chapter that never happened as little is described to paint the scenery and the pacing is very fast, which is a shame as the story had the most potential. The blood-curdling voice of Rido could have been a fascinatingly dark read but sadly his voice is cut short.
The next story is written in a similar fashion, using the phrases ‘Next Night’ and ‘Meanwhile…’ to help move the scene forward quickly and abruptly, but since the story is simpler and told in the familiar voice of Yuki, that’s easily forgiven. ‘Gift for Yuki’ seems to take place during Volume 11 with Yuki studying under Aido. When she gets her first 100% on a test, Kaname starts to lavish her with endless gifts. Feeling grateful for Aido’s efforts to help her, Yuki then proceeds to think of a gift for her teacher. Kaname fans will be disappointed at his lack of presence in the story despite a nice art splash of him towards the end of the story, but Aido is still his loveable, helpless self with a funny little scene towards the conclusion. It’s short and sweet and the two art pages within it are nice as well.
Next is a short piece called ‘Hidden Love’, centred on another antagonist of the series Sara Shirabuki at a young age where she experiences love for the first time. This is the first tale that seems to be written from the start as a story rather than a manga outline and therefore flows much more smoothly. Sara’s voice is distinctive and it’s nice to have a few pages dedicated to adding layers to her character. The story also has two very beautiful sketches from Matsuro Hino, the most detailed and lovingly drawn in the collection.
One of the longest and most satisfying stories is ‘Queen of the Abyss’ which takes during Volume 12 where Zero and Kaito try to find information about Ouri’s apparent suicide. Whilst hunting down vampires, they come across a Level C vampire by the name of Shien who agrees to share knowledge she’s gathered if they help her out first. Shien is a vampire exclusive to this story and she’s an interesting addition to the series with a high thirst for blood and a seductive voice to boot. Her chemistry with Zero is enjoyable to read as the two bounce off each other nicely with flirty banter on her side and the usual grunts from Zero. It’s a shame that in the only sketch we get of her, she’s relegated to the bottom corner of the page and you barely see her face. Like ‘Hidden Love’, ‘Queen of the Abyss’ is written like an actual short story. It’s a mini detective tale with, admittedly, a too-easily resolved ending, but the atmosphere the story creates, and the seamless back and forth of flashbacks to build up tension really work and make the tale feel self-contained but very much part of the Vampire Knight universe.
Following on from that is a quirky, if not strange tale called ‘A Maiden’s Melancholy’ which is told from the point of view of a horse. No, I’m not joking; White Lily is a horse, a particular favourite of Zero’s at Cross Academy, so this story takes place early on in the manga, before Volume 8. It starts off innocently enough with White Lily taking offence to Headmaster Cross wanting to mate her with a pristine racing horse called Black Sword. It takes a turn for the weird in the last pages, but it’s a harmlessly fun little tale overall, with a cute sketch of Zero hugging the horse for good measure.
And finally we have ‘In a Thousand Years’ which takes place one year after the ending of Vampire Knight with the Day Class students uncovering a time capsule amongst the ruins of the academy and deciding to hold a treasure hunt in celebration. This is the longest story in the book and not without reason, as it spends a good amount of time with many different characters of Cross Academy from the teachers, to the Night Class and Day Class. Those who were left unsatisfied with how the side characters were left at the end of the manga should read this story. It’s not a perfect remedy to the swift ending we got but reading the various vampires and humans having fun together and looking forward to a brighter future is still satisfying. It’s also a treat that none of the main characters are the focus here; it gives the side characters a chance to shine on their own, rather than just tag-alongs of the protagonists.
The production of the book is handled well with a gorgeous cover and a few cheeky colour pages at the front too. Translation has been handled satisfactorilyl; there are only a few grammar errors towards the end but overall it’s well written and translated. There’s also a minor error on Pages 76 to midway Page 82 where the font style changes randomly; it’s a barely noticeable issue– I only picked it up myself whilst looking back over a sketch in the pages between.
The beginning of the book also includes a quick rundown of various characters from the Vampire Knight series; however, it’s odd that the majority of the characters in the two-page spread only appear in the very last story. A few characters are present or mentioned earler on in the book but do not appear at the front, so trying to remember faces/names of characters can be tricky if it’s been a while since you last picked up the manga.
Fleeting Dreams is a nice addition to the Vampire Knight series, a varied collection of stories mostly about the main and side characters, giving them a new depth and adventures that the main series could not. All fans of the series will appreciate this collection of tales; it’s a fun read and a nice farewell to the long running series.
