Vampire Knight (manga) volume 8 review

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve read Vampire Knight. Fortunately at this years anime expo, I got to run the manga library during the slower hours and got to do some catching up on the series since I last left off on volume 7. This volume is the book where the **** hits the fan, and everything gets revealed.

People who get grossed out very easily should probably not read the book. This one STARTS by Kaname revealing the big secret from Yuki’s past. First, we find out that Yuki is actually a pure blooded vampire who’s memories have been sealed away. The second secret being that he is in fact her brother, AND her fiancé. He snidely comments afterwards that while this is something that beasts do, vampires are in fact, not human. This, while a bit disgusting amuses me, because it draws a line demonstrating that vampires actual do have a society with vastly different and far more narcissistic standards than that of human society.

Oh yeah, that’s just chapter one. During all this, some Vampire hunters have noticed Zero’s recent boon in his ability to maintain his sanity, and a new villain has been taking to the field. One of the members of the Night class is currently being possessed by one of Kaname’s enemies that he killed who wants to take Kaname’s title as leader of the Kuran house.

This volume manages to get together everything I love about Vampire Knight. The plot twists, the drama, and vampires that actually act vampiric a lot of the time. It came out before Twilight, and doesn’t act like Twilight at all. Characters backstab each other, manipulate each other, and play politics like the conniving bastards they are. The people who don’t care about this (Aido, Zero) have been brushed by the wayside in this volume, as the political power players take center stage. I certainly hope in the next volume the book maintains it’s absolute deliciousness, because this world needs more vampires with teeth.

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Coming Sometime! Other volumes

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 <-See that wicked ass sword? Only comes out like twice

To start, I haven’t watched the anime. All I did was pick this one up in the local library (occasionally has nice stuff.) This book didn’t really grab me very much. I really think it was all over the place.

We start out with this being the story about a girl who has amnesia living with her adoptive parents. She has problems with the fact that she does not remember anything of her life for the past year, and serves as a central point to her character for the first part.

This leads to the main character, Sayu to having a great deal of emotional stress, particularly when dealing with people who have a larger set of memories. Her adoptive family, however, still loves her nonetheless…

Anyways, more interestingly, some Vampire who looks like he’s about thirteen is looking for Sayu. Also, some mysterious guy who plays a cello appear to have known her from before she came down with amnesia.

Anyway, about halfway in we learn about the main plot. Sayu is apparently the only person capable of killing Chiropterans, weird blood sucking thingies. Interestingly, this is because they take damage from coming into contact with her blood for some reason.

Anyway, I think the book suffers severe pacing issues. Based on people who’ve read the other books in the series, the author apparently has a story to tell, but it really isn’t moving very fast. Also, I think it spends too much time on the mundane details of Sayu’s life. I’m not sure about you, but I’d rather see giant monsters get slain and ancient evil conspiracies than the day to day life of a person when they AREN’T slaying monsters. Alas, a good portion of the book is dedicated to Saya’s school/family life, which frankly, isn’t as interesting as the monster plot.

I dunno, first volume went too slowly and was kind of watered down, so I’m not going to actively hunt the second. I’ll review it if my library gets it though.

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