Vampire Knight Mini Review (manga/anime)
July 24th, 2008 by Lianne
PG-16 for violence and loads of sexiness; official series website (manga)
(Note: I have to spoil the first volume or two of the manga with this review, but don’t worry - this manga is nothing but reveals. There’s a spoiler every other chapter.)
Every girl and her dog - and in some cases, her brother as well - loves Vampire Knight. The manga’s sold a billion copies, a second season of anime will be making its appearance in the fall, and the number of Yuuki cosplayers who nearly killed NotHayama at Anime North in order to get copies of Volume #4 was both telling and disturbing.
That’s because Vampire Knight is Melodrama Porn. Just like those old martial arts films from the 70’s are King Fu Porn and those “how-to” dessert magazines at the grocery check-out are Food Porn.
The premise of Vampire Knight and the first few opening pages are so painfully, mind-numbingly stupid that I had to physically put the book down the first time I read it; all the blood in my body was diverted to slapping my hand against my forehead as hard and as quickly as possibly. Cross Academy is a boarding high school with normal students during the day, and ONLY SEXY VAMPIRES at night. The SEXY VAMPIRES are part of a program that gives vampires medicine to replace their need for sucking blood, and that, combined with their ethics teacher being an ex-vampire hunter with an eye patch, is supposed to help them become an active part of human society at some point. The only two human students who know about the night class are Yuuki, our heroine who’s in love with night class vampire leader Kaname, and Zero, a perpetually tortured bishounen who hates vampires and keeps taking his shirt off in front of Yuuki.
There are a bunch of other SEXY VAMPIRES and a few other humans in the series, but they’re not important - the point of Vampire Knight is for Yuuki, Kaname, and Zero to be involved in the most gasp-worthy, gut-wrenching love triangle EVAR. Kaname saved Yuuki from a much more evil vampire when she was a child, so she’s in love with him, but he’s a gentleman vampire who won’t bite her no matter how much he wants to. Zero comes from a family of vampire hunters, and since a vampire killed his family, he hates vampires more than anything - and thus hates Kaname. But Zero was also bitten by a pureblood vampire, so he’s turning into a mindless vampire himself, meaning he’s physically and emotionally tortured 24-7. Yuuki’s his friend, and they have sexual tension, but she also has sexual tension with Kaname, who has mutual hatred (and sexual tension!) with Zero. Oh, and biting someone is the social equivalent of having sex with him/her, so of course there’s SEXY BITING going on all over the place against bathroom walls to cries of, “I can’t put my teeth in you.” “Do it - I want you to.”
I will admit that the way mangaka Matsuri Hino keeps the melodrama ball rolling is nothing short of brilliant. This manga is basically a dramatic, sexy shoujo series with all the non-awesome parts cut out. The stupid premise building and bad opening only last about a chapter - then it’s headfirst into Kaname’s smoldering gazes and Zero hugging his naked body and screaming about how he’s a monster, what has he done, damn you, vampires. Even though the series is just about the Triangle of Sexy, the horde of side characters aren’t incongruous like in many shoujo - they step in when more characters are needed, filling in exposition, taking care of the boring off-screen stuff, and even slowly taking place in the plot in a fluid and comfortable way. That was the first thing that surprised me.
The second thing that surprised me is how successful the sexiness is. It is perfectly attuned to the teenage girl sex drive. Don’t believe everything the media tells you - some teenage girls have sex, but lots are just interested in sex in theory. They want boys, and they want sex, but not actually. That’s exactly what Vampire Knight gives them - boys, and sex, but not actually. Characters get into states of undress without ever showing anything important, there are lingering touches and little licks, and forbidden SEXY BITING with all its emotional and social repercussions stands in for fooling around. Even those viewers who are interested in actual sex can appreciate the sexual tension, because we all know that things are sexiest when you don’t show/include everything.
And the third surprise? The potential for the melodrama is endless. After the million plot twists and reveals in season 1 of the anime, I asked NotHayama, “What could they possibly do next season?” And off the top of her head she listed about 15 SUPER DRAMATIC plot points that could start the very next episode. For a show that has almost no downtime between the drama, it rarely feels contrived. Matsuri Hino has put together a premise that can keep the Melodrama Porn quotient high enough for long enough to melt its captive audience into a collective pile of goo. And the goo will beg for more.
So yes, the school of normal students/SEXY VAMPIRES broke my brain with stupid. And yes, most everything in the series is varying levels of silly. But for what it’s trying to do, Vampire Knight does it better than anything else I’ve ever seen.
Educated impression: You’ll probably die for more of this series if you a.) have the sentimentality of a teenage girl, b.) are addicted to melodrama, c.) have even a vague interest in vampires, d.) find sexual tension an art, e.) want to see boys angst while wielding phallic guns at cute girls and other boys, f.) find any of the above hilarious. But if you want something serious and intelligent to read/watch, stay far, far away from the ridiculousness that is Vampire Knight. (Lianne)
finaly, some one answered my question why people like VK. I’ve read it, and I guess Im not in to melodrama porn ^^
A brilliant summary and well-said, not to mention enjoyably entertaining. Teenage girl love for VK exposed! I got bored with this series at volume 4 so I guess I only have so much of the mentioned attributes.
Ha ha you hit the nail on the head! yeah, I kept reading it up to 4 out of MORBID curiousity, any teenage girl who likes vamps and shojo’s MUST own this. Everyone else should pick it up to look at the nice art and snicker at the attempt at a serious dark toned ‘plot’. Meru Puri was the first thing I read from her, and I seriously think the woman should stick to magical comedy. But still all in all, very VERY good review.
Wow, that really sums things up. Great review!
You’ll probably die for more of this series if you a.) have the sentimentality of a teenage girl, b.) are addicted to melodrama, c.) have even a vague interest in vampires, d.) find sexual tension an art, e.) want to see boys angst while wielding phallic guns at cute girls and other boys, f.) find any of the above hilarious
I love a, b, c, d, and f, and I still find Moto Hagio’s The Poe Clan is much more worth reading than VK.
Great review btw, now I know why other girls love VK.
Of course Moto Hagio’s works are more worth reading than Vampire Knight. Pretty much everything is more worth reading than Vampire Knight. The one and only purpose of Vampire Knight is to get a “squee” out of its audience. Whether or not someone likes it is entirely dependent on how much ridiculous they’re willing to buy from a series.
My own experience with Vampire Knight went something like this:
“Oh, poor Zero. That really suc– wait a minute! I’m being manipulated! Screw you, Vampire Knight!”
Then I messed around on my computer instead of watching, and had Lianne fill me in on all the melodrama. How much you enjoy this show is really dependent on how much you’re willing to let yourself get sucked in by it. I couldn’t do it. A lot of the other people who’ve posted here couldn’t do it. But people who write about manga on the internet tend to go into it looking for meaning or things to critique, and those things don’t really work here.
And yet despite how NotHayama feels about Vampire Knight, she still watched it with me when I was having a bad day. That’s a best friend right there.
And it’s funny, but I recently caught up to the manga’s serialization in Japan, and all my references to Vampire Knight being melodramatic are no longer strong enough. If the first few volumes of the manga and first season of the anime are Melodrama Porn, then the rest of the series is…I can’t make a better metaphor without officially breaking our PG-13 policy on this site. Let’s just say the melodrama levels officially break into INSANE. And not in a bad way, either…things STILL feel completely believable within the universe; Matsuri Hino just knows how to think outside the box and make every reader scream with every chapter. No downtime, only SQUEE, and yet there’s a definitive plot moving forward. How can you do that? How can you possibly write a manga this insanely melodramatic without making it feel at all contrived? One of the chapters actually made me tear up? What the hell? I’m 26 years old and bitter!
I don’t think this manga is brilliant by any means, but I certainly think Matsuri Hino is. Wait for the reveal about Kaname…it will blow your mind.
I think I might be daft because I don’t feel a vampiric bite is anything near sexual. Maybe it’s because I bite my significant other too much.
I really want to get into it some more but I find my pauses in between episodes getting longer and longer. Only at episode 7 now! I will mush on! MUSH!
Oy… I totally agree and I fell for all of it. I read the first two volumes, found myself waiting in anticipation for the third, and then… Well, then VK started paying attention to the random non-Kaname vampires and since I didn’t really care enough to re-read the melodramatic but contentless volumes beforehand, I just got confused. I pay attention to the SQUEE moments and read the volumes as they come out in English, but I don’t feel good about it.
And you could never get me to admit that I read VK in person.
I still don’t get why people love it. I like you read the first volume and gave up. It was worse than Hot Gimmick, which at least made SENSE despite the stupid heroine. Maybe it is cuz’ I’m not a sexy vampire person? I love melodramatic shoujo manga with love triangles(Parfait Tic, anything by Miyuki Kitagawa) but c’mon. Vampire Knight is too silly.
You all are losers for thinking this anime is sexy!!!! It’s an anime in 2D and they all look like girls. Also, they have a scrawny bodies. I like a real man with a some meat on him. The bites are not sexy at all. I would not be surprised if most of you are virgins that watch this kind of BS anime instead of going out in real world and have fun and getting a real man. Get a life. Anyone can be sexy if they try, and can get a man.
Not to respond to a troll, but: