Vampire Knight, Vol. 01

As a child Yuki was attacked by a violent vampire only to be saved by another. Now in her first year as a Guardian at Cross Academy Yuki is still drawn to her vampire savior and is dedicated to the headmaster, her adopted father's, philosophy that vampires and humans can live together. Joined by her adopted sibling and fellow guardian, Zero, it is their job to keep the humans of the day class and the vampires of the night class separate despite the humans' natural attraction to the vamps and the vamps natural hunger for human blood.

I've been waiting on this manga to come in from the library for the last six months. Happily I can say it was worth the wait. I really enjoyed the story and the characters were not only well drawn show more aesthetically but the characterization was very well done. I was very drawn (no pun intended) to Yuki for her care and protective instincts when it came to Zero, even though Zero seems he would be a tough character to love. This first volume of the series set in motion a very interesting storyline that I am really looking forward to reading more about. show less

Yuki Cross is a member of the Disciplinary Committee at Cross Academy and a Day Class student. She and the other member of the Disciplinary Committe, Zero Kiryu, have been given the task of keeping the Day Class away from the Night Class as much as possible, not an easy task considering the beauty of the members of the Night Class. What most of the Day Class students don't know is that the Night Class is composed of vampires - the headmaster of Cross Academy hopes that this school can foster peace between humans and vampires. This volume introduces the main characters and sets up a lot of the relationships between the characters.

Kaname Kuran, a pureblood vampire, found and rescued a bloody and amnesiac 5-year-old Yuki from a vicious show more vampire. Since that day, Yuki has had something of a crush on Kaname. Yuki was adopted by the headmaster of Cross Academy, and their "family" grew a bit when the headmaster took in Zero, whose entire family was killed by vampires. Although Yuki has a crush on Kaname, she also cares for Zero, which complicates things. In addition, Zero is hiding a terrible secret.

I first started reading this series in the magazine Shojo Beat, so I know a bit more about where the plot is going to go than is revealed in this volume. As far as the artwork goes, this is a lovely manga. Hino does a wonderful job at capturing the beauty of her vampires. Even when Kaname and Zero do things that I don't like (I believe one of the editors for Shojo Beat mentioned that Zero's nickname among some of the staff is "Neck Rapist" - he earns that nickname in this volume, by the way), I can still appreciate their character designs. I recently found out that this series has been made into an anime that I think has only just started airing in Japan [back when I originally wrote this review] - I hope that it eventually makes its way to the US, because I think this would be an enjoyable series to see in action and in color.

As far as the story goes, it's sometimes hard to tell what Hino is trying to do. I've never seen any of Hino's other works, but her freetalks in the sidebars of this volume indicate that she's mostly done romantic comedies. It's still possible to see that influence in Vampire Knight, which is part of the reason why this volume is so odd. It's clear that Hino is trying to write a serious story, with dark character pasts and lots of blood. However, there are lots of panels in this first volume where Yuki and Zero are like some kind of comedy team. The headmaster is also a big source of comedy, as he teases Zero, gushes over Yuki, and sparkles with the force of his apparently naive dream to promote peace between humans and vampires. The difference between the more light-hearted scenes and the darker scenes is so great that the more infrequent light-hearted scenes become jarring.

Readers who are looking for a lot of action may be disappointed by this series. Although there are occasional action scenes throughout this first volume (and later in the series), the focus is on character development and the relationships between the characters, making this a slower-paced story than some might expect.

I'm sure every reader will have their own preferences for how things should turn out with Yuki and her guys (at this point, Zero and Kaname - no idea if the number will grow). Despite my love of tragic characters like Zero, I, personally, am rooting for Kaname - he's just so cool and elegant. I do worry, though, since there are indications, even this early in the series, that Kaname might not be the nice, trustworthy vampire Yuki thinks he is. I sometimes wonder if he wasn't responsible for whatever it was the wiped 5-year-old Yuki's memory - if, in some later volume, I find out that he was, I imagine I'll end up siding with Zero. Until then, yay for the long-haired vampire aristocrat!

As far as the extras go, there's author freetalks in the sidebars focusing on how Hino developed this series and its characters, notes on the Day Class uniform, a 3-page humorous continuation of the volume focusing on the Night Class, a few humorous 4-panel comics, notes explaining the kanji used in several characters' names (Aido Hanabusa, Kain Akatsuki, Souen Ruka, Kiryu Zero, and Kuran Kaname), plus notes on a couple terms (-sama, Xocolatl).

I kind of wish that the notes for the names had gone into a little more depth - as far as I can tell, the order of the names in the notes reflects the original Japanese order (Kuran Kaname), while the order used in the manga reflects Shojo Beat's decision to use a Western order (Kaname Kuran). This sort of thing is really confusing, especially when Shojo Beat decides not to even mention anything about their decision to go with a Western name order everywhere but in the explanations in the back. Another thing I would've liked is a few cultural notes - I believe that the magazine had several useful notes that weren't included in this volume (like a little bit about Kaname's comment to Yuki: "You always speak so formally to me. It makes me feel a little lonely...").

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

It was a pretty good book. Zero's little twist ending was interesting along with Aido's punishment hahaha. I'm looking forward to reading the next one! The only thing I didn't like was that the author stated everything again and again! By now everyone should know that zero and yuki are the guardians and the night class is full of vampires, you don't need to keep saying it twice a chapter...

I saw this popping up on several lists of "must read manga" so I decided to give it a try.

At first I thought it would be a typical teenage vampire story. In brief, this is the story of an exclusive private school. Normal students attend the day classes, vampires attend the night classes. The day class does not know vampires exist so they don't know the night class (full of gorgeous, hot guys) is all vampires. They only get a glimpse of them at sundown.

Two students from the day class know the secret and they are the guardians of the school, keeping the day and night students separated.

Even though I was thinking this theme has been done to death by fangs numerous times, I ended up really liking this book. I'm not a teenage girl but it show more didn't matter. I really got into the story and I plan to continue on. Zero, Kaname, Yuki - they are good characters. I'm interested, I care. show less

I liked this, as it's light and silly (tho in a funny way), but it has its darkness, as well. I'm always surprised that manga can say so much in so little - we see little of these characters (as contrasted with a novel), yet they are still nuanced and interesting. And though I did get lost at times - it is sooooo difficult for me to read in the opposite direction - I will definitely be checking out the next in the series.

The first volume of this compelling manga series introduces Yuki who is a member of the Disciplinary Committee at Cross Academy, where she and Zero and the headmaster are the only ones who know that the Night Class is made up of vampires. Yuki narrates this wonderful story that deals with the issues of can anyone truly be reformed and what makes someone dangerous, the blood of a vampire or their choices. Yuki truly stands between the Day Classes of mortal girls who adore the Night Class with their elegance and the two men in her life Kaname, the vampire who saved her when she was six and brought her to Cross Academy and Zero, her fellow Disciplinary Committee member who lost his family to vampires. One of the nice things about this show more series is that even though there are many erotic moments with the open collared shirts of the girls and the moments of blood sucking, none of the violence or suggestions would be too much for a middle school student.

Also Yuki is truly the main character and makes her own choices and decisions so a young woman could admire her while also enjoying the love triangle that she's in. Overall, this is a good manga to give a young female reader who wants to read about vampires and has some knowledge of manga since there is adventure and romance but the female lead holds her own amongst the men. show less

I picked these up because the local used bookshop has stacks of them and I could get them free because of my credit. I'm glad I did. While I find the drawing sometime a bit confusing, I don't know if that is because of my limited experience with manga or just how Hino draws. The story is Gothic (as most things with vampires are) and has a dark, sexy, tone. I'm enjoying the characters, although they are a bit maudlin for my taste.
I'll keep reading as I can get the next few easily, although I'm not sure I would actively seek out stories like this. It's not because the story or art is bad it’s good, actually - but I don't tend to go for the super dramatic Goth stuff. If you do, then you will very much enjoy this story