Title: Vampire Knight #1
Author: Matsuri Hino
Publisher: Viz
ISBN: 9781421508221
May Contain Spoilers
At Cross Academy, there are two groups of students: the Day class, and the Night class. Kept separate from each other, the only time they see each other is at twilight, when the Night class emerges from their dorm to attend their studies. Yuki Cross is a member of the disciplinary committee, and it’s her job to make sure that the Day class and the Night class never mix. There’s a dark secret at Cross Academy, one that would cause panic among the Day class if it was disclosed. The Night class, you see, is comprised entirely of vampires…
I was a little disappointed with the first volume of Vampire Knight. I remember feeling the same way about MuriPeru, but I eventually began to look forward to that title, despite it’s silly premise. This one is much the same; vampires exist, and have been battling humans since ancient times. Hoping to bring peace between the two species, the headmaster of Cross Academy secretly invited elite young vampires to study at the school.
Yuki was attacked by a vampire ten years previous, and was saved by Kaname, a handsome, young vampire. Kaname took her to Cross Academy because she lost her memories, and she was adopted by the headmaster. Now she’s a guardian of the school, along with Zero Kiryu. Zero’s parents, renowned vampire hunters, were slaughtered by a vampire, and he, too, was adopted by the headmaster. Now the two of them must patrol the school grounds at night and make sure that the humans and vampires never mingle.
While I like the setting of the story, I found some of the plot elements rather tedious. The girls from the Day class, dazzled by the uber attractive students from the Night class, worship them like they’re celebrities. Every night at twilight, they ignore the school rules and instead crowd around the gate by the Night dorm, squealing at the first sight of the dreamy vampires. I thought it hard to believe that the Day class is so stupid that they don’t realize the Night students, who only emerge after sundown and sleep the day away, are vampires. A minor quibble. Don’t even get me going about St Xocalate’s Day. I think I am beyond tired of Valentine’s chapters littering so many of the manga titles that I read, and it was particularly tiresome in this book!
Yuki is devoted to Kaname, the leader of the vampire students. She has no memory prior to the snowy day when he saved her life, and she thinks of him as her knight in shining armor. When she’s not making goo-goo eyes are Kaname, she’s bickering with Zero or napping in class because she’s so exhausted from her guardian duties the night before.
Zero, sullen and harboring an understandable dislike of vampires, patrols the campus with his "Bloody Rose" gun, a weapon that’s highly effective on night creatures. He gives Yuki constant grief over her obvious affection for Kaname and doesn’t understand how she could like a vampire after coming so close to being dinner for one. Zero is hiding a terrible secret, and when Yuki discovers it, she’s finds herself in terrible danger.
I think Kaname is rather menacing. Commanding the fear of the other vampires, his punishments when his orders are defied are cold and calculating. Being a pureblood, Kaname is an elite amongst others of his kind. While he comes across to Yuki as a nice guy, I can’t help but wonder what his true intentions toward her really are. The ominous whispers from Aido, a Night student, that Yuki’s blood belongs to Kaname, were kind of creepy.
The highlight of the book, for me, was the art. Matsuri Hino’s illustrations are so detailed and all of her characters are so good-looking that I can’t help but be drawn to them. Due to the darker nature of this title, there were plenty of blood drenched pretty boys posing throughout the pages. It would have been nice for Viz to throw in a color page or two, but I guess I’ll have to dig through my back issues of LaLa for that pleasure.
Grade: B-
Matsuri Hino’s art: A-
Rated for Older Teen
March 14, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Having read this volume of Vampire Knight, I thoguht that it was okay, and was a decent introductary volume. I to agree that there are more colour spreads of Vampire Knight, as I particular liked the outfit Yuki wears in ball scene in chapter 17 or 18.
March 15, 2007 at 9:26 am
[...] the stand-alone book The Day I Became a Butterfly. Down at the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie checks out vol. 1 of Vampire Knight. Connie reluctantly reads volumes 4 and 5 of Astro Boy at Slightly Biased Manga. And at Let’s [...]