Vampire Knight Review - 70/100
Vampire Knight is probably the closest you can get to a gothic anime. It’s dark-themed, lots of black, there are vampires, et cetera, et cetera. If you like your main dish to consist of angst and bishies, then look no further, because Vampire Knight has lots of it. Unfortunately, that’s also where its problems lie…
Angst can be beautiful if used well, but it can be disastrous if abused. It works best as support, or a stepping stone towards something bigger. Vampire Knight doesn’t seem to realize this, and delivers its angst with buckets at a time. The result is that nearly every episode can easily be summarized by “angst, angst, angst, bishies, angst, angst, angst, angst, et cetera”. There’s hardly anything else!
Because of this, it was indeed only a matter of time before Vampire Knights would enter the realms of cheese. It started out solid enough, but eventually, once Ichiru arrived the sinking ship was beyond rescue. Cheese can also come in good (Suteki Tantei Labyrinth, for example) and bad (the latest episodes of Code Geass come to mind as well), and the cheese here unfortunately kept edging for that nasty bad side.
I wish that there was at least something I could praise this series for, but I can’t get much further than to say that it’s been a very consistent series. For each episode, you know that there’s going to be angst and bishies, and thankfully the plot is interesting enough to have some potential for that second season that’ll arrive in October, but if you’re looking for quality entertainment, you’d better look somewhere else.
| Storytelling: | 7/10 |
| Characters: | 6/10 |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 |
| Setting: | 7/10 |
I believe that the person who wrote this analysis is wrong. Vampire Knight is not all about angst and bishises. He/She only sees that because that is what he/she focuses on instead of the whole picture. The way that the anime was produced and shown was almost in sync with the magna. The anime has agnst, but agnst plays a factor that drives some if not all the charcters and when it comes to the plot line I feel that that is one of the great things that this anime has to offer.
Comment by Arisa — July 1, 2008 @ 21:04
To each their own. I also thought Vampire Knight was way too much angst. Some people like it, I do not.
Comment by Jerry — July 1, 2008 @ 21:21
everyone has their own dislieks and likes, well i too, thought there was way too much angst though i do feel this anime wouldnt be much without the angst but it feels like they’ve put to much of it in
Comment by miden — July 1, 2008 @ 21:51
Arisa, Yeah right ;)
The whole plot is about angst and pretty vampire boys that the academy girls go “GYAAAAAAA” over. It’s been like that since the start.
Let’s summarize the story shall we.
Hate vampires dude who is a vampire goes “I hate vampires, no i’m a vampire! UGH I need to die! I must kill myself! No I have to live, for her sake!” This has been repeated since the series started.
Vampire hunter goes “I need to kill some vampires! NOOO he’s a vampire but still a hunter! Don’t fall to level D boy!”
“Vampire wanna-bee brother goes “I’m so weak and frail, I want to be a vampire, but she rejected me, WHY IS IT ALWAYS YOU BROTHER WHYYYY! Q_Q”
Academy Vampires go “We want us some BLOOOOD but we need to co-exist with humans. We are always bored and have no real function, we are here to give hates vampire dude something to angst over. We can’t do anything because the pure-blood vampires are so great. Our main functions is the give the academy girls something to go “GYYAAAAAA” over, and we look ever so pretty”.
All in all, I think it’s a pretty pointless series that doesn’t do much, but somehow manages to stay away from being totally unwatchable and being merely nauseating. ;)
Comment by Ａｅｇｄ — July 1, 2008 @ 22:10
I agree. Vampire Knight has its good points, and also its bad points. I really didn’t have a problem with the bishies (cough), but yeah, the angst went way overboard.
Comment by Jess — July 2, 2008 @ 1:04
Hahaha !!!!!! if you have hope for the second season “do not”, it’s more of the same in double dosis and on top of that plot holes, poor charater development, obsurd plot twits, and bad story telling. in my humble opinion the sourse material is just bad,i read this bacause of this is and awesom shoujo and me thinking it could be a rare gem amoung lot of crap shoujo i went ahead boy i wish i could get back tos moments of my life, the are is pretty above averange for a shoujo, but it dosen’t have the conveing power let said, of amatsuki or other outsanding shoujos, AHHHHHH T_T.
Comment by lucky_huh? — July 2, 2008 @ 1:27
Sorry for misspelling some words late night work has compleatly kill me i just wanted to said i readed this because somebody told me it was good, and i ment to daid the art was above averange for a shoujo, hope it makes sence.
Comment by lucky_huh? — July 2, 2008 @ 1:33
Well…
It IS a show to attract fangirls, feed them with angsty bishies to excite them and leech their money.
Not much to say, here…
Amatsuki FTW. Now this is what I call Studio Deen’s real masterpiece of 2008…
Comment by Windspirit — July 2, 2008 @ 2:33
The only reason I still watch this anime is for the acting talent involved with it. I read the manga too but it’s mostly just a guilty pleasure of mine. It’s a slightly darker shojo story without much substance.
Just good, mindless fun.
Comment by animefan684 — July 2, 2008 @ 9:13
It’s over?! They can’t possibly have to the all important
MANGA SPOILERS
Yuuki is a vampire and Kaname’s sister bit yet then? And the whole resurrected vampire thing.
END MANGA SPOILERS
You know, the bit of Vampire Knight where it stops being about bishies and angsting and become bishies and angsting and plot development.
Comment by Autonomous Monster — July 2, 2008 @ 13:06
AM: it’s not over yet. There’s a second season coming in october. ;)
Comment by psgels — July 2, 2008 @ 13:28
The VAs are good, but aside from that… meh, I’ve got CLAMP and X for my angst.
Comment by Lika — July 2, 2008 @ 18:49
You should have expected this psgels. This series was made for girls in their early teens, and they eat up this kind of stuff like candy.
Comment by kaze — July 3, 2008 @ 4:12
hi,
i’d just like to report that the link to this post from the review index is broken.
Comment by ganon — July 19, 2008 @ 8:50
I really liked it though.
Comment by Ez — July 28, 2008 @ 17:17
The manga of vampire knight is good so I expected a lot from the anime but I was dissapointed…it was so boring that I stopped watching it after the third episode, too much angst.
Comment by nana — August 10, 2008 @ 1:50
Yeah this was poor. Liked the art, atmosphere and voice-acting but that’s just the icing. The cake is too runny. :P
Seriously, they could have done a much better job. For starters, giving each character TWO emotions instead of one. That’s always a good start.
Comment by Chupa — December 18, 2008 @ 22:39
Vampire Knight was a pile of SHIT. Those two vampires should get over themselves and drink the girl to death because “wangst” is torturing them. good god…
Comment by dude... — March 17, 2009 @ 7:00
normally when I finished a realy good anime, I would read the manga to know more.
but after I’m done with vk, I don’t get the urge to go read the manga. Over all the plot is kind of annoying.
Yuuki cross is kind of a mary-sue since two hot guys pretty much loves her and she turn out to be a vampire princess or something like that.
Then blah, blah, blah…Zero and his vampire problems…kaname wants to protect yuuki…and yuuki who keeps going, “kaname senpai! Zero!”
Comment by Gi Gi — July 24, 2009 @ 23:16
i hate it she should of stayed with zero not kaname.this manga/anime sucks sucks sucks and it can rot in my closet hopes the mothes get it.i’m getting ride of the manga`s one way or another.you can rot in hell yuki,kaname you selfish bastard
Comment by nelly — November 3, 2009 @ 16:24
First of all, I can never seem to find a positive reivew of vampire knight. Secondly, I loved the VK manga (the anime adaption is another story though…) and I understand that others might hate VK as well, its a matter of opinion.
However, I believe that Hino was right in making her vampires beautiful and smart. Because for one; all vampire info you can find states like 90% of the time that they are beautiful beings (Like in Stephnie Meyers Twilight for example) and secondly; their smart because they are tecnically timeless beings (though in Hino’s version they just live for a really, really, really long time).
I also believe that, yes, the over excessive use of angst is merely there to draw in girls who absolutely love vampires. But I completely enjoyed all the angst and I’m not screaming “GYAAAA!!!” at all.
Now, those of you fellow Twilighters out there, (do not yell at me or get the wrong idea), but to ME, I believe Vampire Knight can closely relate to Twilight. Both Hino’s manga and Meyer’s book are based around an over axcessive use of angst and it works. Even the whole love triangle of Yuki, Kaname, and Zero, matches the love triangle of Bella, Edward, and Jacob.
And finally I believe that if you don’t want your VK exprience to be ruined, I highly suggest you read the manga and forget about the anime.
Comment by Keely — December 16, 2009 @ 21:26