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Reviewed by David Rasmussen Vampire Knight (from VIZ's Shojo Beat line, one of my favorite lines from VIZ) is certainly a romance... that doesn't make it a title I'd recommend, but it's a romance. Behold! In a world of vampires and humans somebody has made a school that is split into two worlds of "light" (day) and "darkness" (night)... and no, there's no room for a Xavier or Dumbledore reference since while they had their viewpoints on humans and mutants/magicals, they never mixed and matched them in their schools (non-mutant humans never attended Xavier's while non-magical humans for the most part never schooled at Hogwarts). Anyway, in this school of excessively-pretty-boys/pretty-girls, the two classes go back and forth (the day class clueless to what's going on with their "night class" counterparts for the most part), only meeting during the twilight hours briefly as day turns to night and vice versa. Tragedy would certainly ensue if the living daylighters ever get too close to the vampiric night class... right? Well if you saw this coming, then you know this title all too well, don't you... Protecting the Days from the Nights over at this school, Cross Academy, are two students who double as the school's Disciplinary Committee... gee, think they hired enough people to police a school full of curious humans and mischievous vampires? The female of this duo, Yuki Cross, has no memory of her past prior to the moment she was saved from a vampire attack 10 years ago… yeah, that's Anime/Manga cliché #187 meets cliché #201... Anyway, she and her X-Files-esque total-opposite-personality-partner Zero (just like David Duchovny only without the personality [or recently reported sex addiction]) protect the day students from the night students. Things are not slated to go well. First off the one who saved Yuki turns out to be the President of the Moon Class (a vampire). Second it turns out (surprise surprise) Zero came to school with a buttload of excessive secretive baggage that could tear him and Yuki apart or worse... Halfway through the volume, it turns out Zero is a bloodsucker, and taps off a few pints from his partner Yuki during a bad incident... and things don't get any better from that point forward if you were hoping for any strong writing, gripping romance between light and dark, or something else with lots of emotion or what not... not here. The title is good and paced well enough, but for my part if there's something I don't like about this, it's that it's just not all that innovative. You'd think if you threw together a school of humans and vampires it'd just be something more than this... but instead of really working the topic for all it's worth the title just focuses on Yuki and Zero and the vampires that intersect their lives (as well as their tortured, messed-up, forgotten pasts, though not necessarily all of those at the same time). Sure, I like a good love triangle and all, but this just isn't all that good, when you add in the fact that there isn't a likable character in this bunch. Heck, at least I should be synching with the female lead Yuki, but I don't even like her all that much. Given the choice, I can name at least a half a dozen other vampire titles I'd rather read than this. This is just not my cup of Cherry Coke, but of course that doesn't mean it's not going to be yours. It's got a bit of a romantic triangle and all that tension when vampires and humans are involved together... but for me it just was familiar terrain I've seen before (and seen done better elsewhere too) and I lost interest in it before the volume was over. You may think differently, though, so make sure to pick up the first volume of this series and give it a test spin before you make up your own mind. However, for me, it's a downer, and downer starts with D (which is this title's score). Comment on this review of Vampire Knight v1 on the Manga Life Forums. |
14 October 2008
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