Watching 'Vampire Knight'

Vampire Knight is an adaptation of the Gothic, romance, mystery manga by Matsura Hino. The manga was serialized in LaLa, who also published Ouran High School Host Club. The serialization of Vampire Knight ran for 102 chapters and was collected over 19 volumes. The show aired in the spring season of 2008 and contained 13 episodes. The show was directed by Kiyoko Sayama, who also directed Brave 10, was an episode director on Blood +, and was one of the story-boarders of Death Note. The show was produced by studio Deen, the same studio behind Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, and the original Fruits Basket.

The narrative takes place in a high school and concerns a love triangle between two boys and a girl. Two very attractive boys and a girl. Two boys who happened to be vampires and a girl. If one thinks of The Vampire Diaries at this point, that is understandable. The school is separated into two different sectors, the day class and the night class, with both classes living on campus. The day class is comprised of human students, while the night class is made up of vampires.

The only means of protection that the human students have against the tendencies of hunger that vampires experience is a former human-vampire struggling with his own hunger for blood who is also a vampire hunter named Zero Kiryuu, the head of the vampires known as the pure-blood and named Kaname Kuran, and a human girl who displays the competency and strength of a cardboard cut out in Yuki Cross. If you are telling yourself that this is a disaster waiting to happen, you would be right; however, the characters and the narrative makes this a believable premise.

The core story in this season is quite simple, Zero is turning into a vampire and Yuki wants to protect him. Both Kaname and Zero want to protect Yuki, despite the fact that the two are not on friendly terms. As the show progresses, it introduces various other characters, and brings in an antagonist to help build a stronger narrative while also deepening the mythology of the world that this narrative takes place in. The mythology on its own is quite fascinating, seeing the politics of the hunters, the hierarchy of the vampires, and how both run their various organizations. The show also makes clear the different loyalties that are involved between the characters.

As far as the characters go, the central characters are serviceable. There are highlights in the show for each of them, and even more so when two of them are interacting with each other; however, the interactions when all three are on the frame at the same time are not quite as exciting as they could have been. These few interactions were more stilted than anything else. The most interesting characters are the supporting cast, whether it be the horde of vampires who follow Kaname, such as Hanabusa and Akatsuki, or the headmaster of the school and the guardian of Yuki and Zero, Cross Kaien.

Each character has their own unique personality that makes them stand out, too. Despite the uniforms they wear, each of the main characters has a unique design that makes them all stand out visually as well. One last thing that the show has that I have not really seen in many other animes is the amount of detail in the eyes. It is as if there is thick layer of eyeliner on each of the characters that make their eyes pop even more than the usual anime character, and it makes each of the characters oddly captivating to look at.

The animation is very much mid 2000s, with a total lack of any 3D modeling or 3D animation present. This makes the image look comparatively unpolished to modern shows; however, despite this, the backgrounds are highly detailed. The color palate of the show is quite muted, which helps to add to the Gothic feel of the show that is present throughout. The stellar soundtrack alongside the opening and ending to the episodes helped maintain this Gothic feeling throughout the show.

The movement of the characters are quite limited; however, the animators still managed to squeeze out a lot from this restriction. There were plenty of moments of silence when a message was beautifully communicated to the audience from the animation of the facial features of the characters alone, both from the way the character model is drawn and how these features shift frame by frame. The animators also used the animation to really push the humor in the show when it needs to by breaking the style of the animation that we have been used to in the show to elicit a laugh without breaking the tone of the show.

This was a show that I watched back when it had just come out in 2008, and having watched it again now, it is quite visible to see just how far animation has come in 10 years. Despite this, the narrative, characters, humor, the dialogue, and the mythology of the world allows the show to still hold up. That being said, I would love to one day see either a HD remaster of the show, or see it get the treatment that the likes of Dororo and Fruits Basket is getting. A full reboot of the show with modern animation. The reason why is because, when watching the show on a UHD screen, the picture was lacking in any sharpness where it felt as if there was a light blur filter throughout the screen. In addition to that, I watched the show on Netflix; and in streaming the show, each episode struggled as there were multiple drops in frame rate, making the video jitter.

This is a show that I loved 11 years ago, and having rewatched it after so long, it is one that I still love. This is a show that I recommend to anime viewers who are looking for something that is not from the last five years and are wanting to delve further back into the pre-2010s anime catalog. I do not think of this show as a gateway to anime, and it caters to some particular taste. Either way, this show is available to watch on Netflix.