Title: Vampire Knight [Vampire knight Volumes 1-5]
Author: Matsuri Hino
Genre: Supernatural, Manga, Romance, Action
Length: 1000 (Aprox. total)
Rating: 5 Star
Manga Series Reviews: 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-
Anime Series Reviews: 1, 2
Description/Synopsis:
Yuki Cross has no memory of her past prior to the moment she was saved from a vampire attack ten years ago. She was adopted by the headmaster of Cross Academy, and now works alongside Zero to guard the Academy’s secret. Cross Adademy is attended by two groups of students: the Day Class and the Night Class. At twilight, when the students of the Day Class return to their dorm, they cross paths with the Night Class on their way to school. Yuki Cross and Zero Kiryu are the Guardians of the school, protecting the Day Class from the Academy’s dark secret: the Night Class is full of vampires!
Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Welcome to my first manga review! I’m going to be doing these a bit differently to book reviews. Since a manga series is pretty much just one long book most the time, and since they contain very few words most the time, I am going to do reviews in about clumps of five. I decided on this because it takes me about an hour to read one so five seemed like a book type length. Five also gives you a pretty good idea of what kind of series you are committing to.
- Our first volume repeats itself alot, and as someone who has read the manga many many times the repetitiveness got a little on my nerves. Though if you are a first time reader I don’t think you will mind so much. You get introduced to a lot of things at once so it probably helps you to keep up with what’s happening and who is who. We get just enough to start feeling things about our main characters. Yuki and Zero both have troubled pasts and Kaname’s doesn’t get mentioned at all so they are all instantly interesting to me. It also explains how the school works and everyone’s generally place and role there.
- In our second volume Zero gets developed properly as a character and you can see how he is going to be throughout the series. People from his past also show up. You also start to get that Kaname is jealous of how much time Zero spends with Yuki. You can smell the love triangle forming. The vampire world also gets explained quite a bit which lets you know just how important Kaname is to all the other vampires.
- Very little plot development happens in volume three which didnt bother me at all because it focuses on Kaname’s, Yuki’s, and Zeros pasts and its all just so good in the sense that its interesting. None of their pasts are all that happy. You get a very good understanding of why they all have the relationships that they have with each other.
- Though Yuki is the main protagonist in the story, Zero has firmly placed himself in the limelight and has main focus in volume four. Are we having to deal with Zero’s story first to get get somewhere with Yuki? When the story isn’t all about Zero you get a glimpse at what Kaname wants from all the events that are happening. Zero gets a very large shock that has him in despair.
- In volume five we finally get some (kind of) satisfactory Kaname’s story and role in the plot and some more of Zero’s story. Though I know Yuki is the main character, there is still no indication as to how she fits into the way the plot seems to be going. We start to see signs of a downfall in Kaname’s character…
Since I have already mentioned that I have read this series before its safe to say that I really enjoy it. I think that that’s a bit of an understatement. Its one of my favourite things ever. Has been every since I discovered a clip of an episode of the anime (which I will review at a later date) on youtube by random. I have followed it pretty religiously ever since.
Though it may not sound like it from my brief over views of each volume here, it is filled with action and the series get bloodier the further on you read. For example, Yuki’s first memory is blood and the colour red. If you like lots of blood, vampires with special powers that could be endless depending on which one you look at, and awesome looking weapons, I promise you will not be disappointed.Yes, you get a very big dose of love triangle which would normally annoy me but I love it because I can’t decide who Yuki should end up with. She has a very protective love for Zero since her relationship with him started with Zero coming to live with her and the Chairmen after a Vampire attack that killed his family and left him traumatised, and a worship kind of love for Kaname since her relationship with him started at the very beginning of Yuki’s memory when he saved her from a vampire that was about to kill her.
It actually kind of kills me a little bit that I can’t decided who I love more out of Zero and Kaname. They are just both so stunning and hunky. Omg. Zero clearly cares for Yuki but he is so torn up with who he is that he often acts meanly to her but you know he would always be there for her if he really felt she needed him. Kaname on the other hand does the outwardly affections and grand gestures, but he hurts Yuki by manipulating her and often lying to her. Who do I love more? I just don’t know!!!! -cries-
All the characters are awesome in their own way. Even the ones that are side characters like Yuki’s adoptive father the Chairmen. He is a pretty fun character. But you feel for all of them, and at this time in story you really feel the most for poor Zero. And Little bit for Kaname… Not to mention the artwork is stunning!
So I highly recommend this series. I am sorry that my review seems a bit bare in content for this one… Its just that lots of rather spoilery stuff happens quite soon on and I don’t want to ruin it all for you guys. Also, there is a lot of introductory stuff that happens. I will mention more of what happened in the next section of the reviews since people should be up to date then.
Till Next Time…
Jazmin Jade Reviews 