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Story and Characters:
At first Vampire Knight looks like an average shojo anime with a soap opera vibe and other elements that repel guys. But it seems that it goes beyond that and explores a little bit of other things seen in shonen comics, such as betrayal, loyalty, friendship and trust. Vampire Knight was the first shojo anime I saw and, to be completely honest, I had no idea it was intended as a show for girls.
I found it helpful that the anime slowly sinks you into its universe and takes the time to let you familiarize with the characters. Unlike the manga, the show seems to try and explain everything more detailed and keep most of the confusing parts at bay.
The events unravel themselves at a steady pace and, although it’s sometimes slow, the story doesn’t get boring. There is also a nice dose of mystery inserted at the end of each episode in order to keep the viewer interested. What I enjoyed the most is that the story doesn’t rush to reveal the cheesy love story, but takes a nice detour in order to show off other elements such as the loyalty between two friends or the decent rivalry between others. The story isn’t based on a silly crush where the girl embarrasses herself, but tries to develop the female protagonist into a strong person with responsibilities.
The characters’ important past events are also unraveled a little bit at a time, so finding out about Yuki’s life as a child may answer a lot of questions about the way she behaves around certain people. But the frequent flashbacks can be dull if you’re only interested in one character and dislike the others.
The anime focuses on the main plot, but also leaves room for a few side-stories. I personally found them boring, but I suppose they are necessary in order to keep the main story fresh and interesting. Though I enjoyed the first season, the second one seemed to rush the ending and lost a little bit of its shine. I got the impression that the story got derailed somehow and hurried to the finish line.
Graphics:
The visuals represent a more stylized version of the mangaka’s original art. The characters look a little more real and not as ridiculously skinny as in the Japanese comic, but the overall style is basically the same. I really enjoyed seeing the characters’ deep and dead-looking eyes - it’s a very unique and creative element that had me staring in wonder at first.
What I found interesting was the color pallet that always seems to revolve around the colors red and black. This element sets the mood and it ties up nicely with the overall vampire theme of the anime. The artists have chosen to emphasize what requires attention (e.g roses, a character’s outfit), but still keep the rest of the environment a little colorful so it wouldn’t feel dull.
The male character’s girlish features seem bizarre and I had a hard time getting used to them, but it’s not surprising seeing as this is a shojo anime.
Sound:
The voice acting is decent and captures each characters’ emotions. Yuki’s voice particularly was chosen really well as it fits her strong yet indecisive personality traits. No character voice is out of place, so the result is brilliant.
The music is wonderfully picked for this anime - most of the pieces contain organ, flute and violin sounds which go really well with the overall sad tone of the show. You feel a certain sense of greatness when you hear the main character themes that are brilliantly accompanied by choirs. For example, Kaname’s theme contains a male choir in the beginning that emphasizes the feel of uncertainty and mystery that Yuki may have for this character.
The soundtrack is more than worth the buy even if you dislike the anime, the songs are simply brilliant, incredibly atmospheric and can soften up anyone, even if only for a few minutes.
Overall:
-Humor-
Though it is meant to be a serious and sad anime, the show does have a few humorous scenes. These mostly revolve around Chairman Kaien’s over-motherly attitude towards Yuki or Zero’s hate of almost anything on campus. The humor is inserted cleverly between less-serious scenes so the process doesn’t seem brutal.
The most memorable humorous scenes that come to mind are the ones present in the first episodes where Yuki and the other school prefects attempt to hold back a sea of overly-hyper girls from the Night Class boys.
-Enjoyability-
Even if the events can seem a bit over the top sometimes, Vampire Knight is an enjoyable anime with an interesting story. It certainly brings a new idea to the table, that being a vampire isn’t really that easy or glamorous. I often try to stay neutral, but this is the only show that made me give in and actually start rooting for a pairing, so some of the characters are easy to get attached to.
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