Vampire Knight - Reviews

I don't think i could say anything negative about this anime even if i wanted to, Vampire Knight was the very first anime i watched ever! and because of it i am a full fledged anime watcher i fell in love with anime while watching this show. And i hope that if you watch this anime you'll love anime more that you do now. 

i think this anime is awesome and made me feel better when i was stresses. it could have done better if there was a threesome between Yuki, Kaname and Zero as i feel as if they were all destined to be together.

By the title and cover/preview pictures of this anime alone should make it very obvious that this is another vampire shoujo. You have your typical girl protagonist along with your average dark and brooding pretty boys. So by this standard alone, you're either going to love this like the usual I-Love-Vampires fan or hate it like the usual Why-Do-Shoujos-All-Look-The-Same people do.

This anime is set in modern times in a special school. What makes this school so special? By day, there are average kids, no more no less. By night, there are amazingly pale and attractive people attending night school. The day class wears the usual Japanese black uniform while the night class wears a beautiful white uniform. What the day class doesn't realize is that the night class people aren't human. In fact, they are vampires.

The anime introduces three main-focus characters. The girl protagonist Yuuki and then the two rival striving-for-love protagonists Zero and Kaname. There are other characters as well but this anime really didn't do a great job on introducing characters and giving them a presence.

I feel that it's important to mention that the story line really has good potential. I think a one paragraph summary of it would do the show justice in explaining what happened. It's a good story, but it just didn't get explained well. It felt like a lot of the branching stories that developed often went stale and thrown out. It made me believe that there were new writers for the anime for each episode. I'm particularly partial to stories that branch off the main plot. I feel that it gives that universe within the story some realism and dimension. This one started a bunch of side stories and just left them a few episodes later without any indication of it being resolved or even having existed. Senri and Rima had most likely the closest side story that came to near completion.

Speaking of storyline seemingly being authored by different people each episode, I'm sure I'm not the only one that noticed the odd but occasional changes in animation. This really turned me off the anime. In a few of the episodes, the animation was awkward, as if Studio Deen hired nearby flash animation students to animate some episodes. I'm the kind of person who sets a whole day out to watch anime seasons in one sitting. Watching the animation style change the way it did in this episode really irked me. Thank goodness that the next season didn't really have that.

I do have to give Studio Dean credit for choosing Kanon Wakeshima to do the ending sequence to the show. I also really loved On/Off doing the openings. I feel their songs really suited the atmosphere that the show was trying to keep saturated in. As for some of the background music they chose to put in, it's really variations of the same song. However, I'm sure it's hard to recognize they're variations if you were to listen while watching the show.

Overall, this anime was slightly disappointing. If its storyline was just a bit more dimensional/dynamic, it would have improved the anime a thousandfold. I'm glad that the next season really made up for the mistakes of the first. I do recommend people watch this as it's not horrifyingly bad. Especially if they're going to touch the second season, the first is a must.

The plot feels a little light, I think it relies on an attempt at a love story and fan girl elements (attempted sexiness everywhere! Biting, shirtless-ness, pushing against walls, etc.). If you're 13 years old or enjoyed Twilight, I think you will probably enjoy this. If you're looking for a more mature plot, I don't think you will find much enjoyment here. It had the potential to be a really dark, brooding plot and I watched on it a recommended assuming that it would be this way, instead it came off as a bit immature. 

I watched this in English dub with English subs (translated from Japanese). I would not recommend the English version. I reminded me of the Sailor Moon English dub I watched as a child, where the voices don't seem to fit and, at times, it can be a bit uncomfortable to listen to. When I sampled it in Japanese it seemed a lot  better.

I wouldn't watch this again and wouldn't recommend it above other vampire related anime, but it wasn't terrible.

I love the originality of this anime. At first I thought it'd disappoint me by falling into the cliche vampire storyline of human girl falls in love with vampire boy and all that crap, and to be honest I felt that impression throughout season 1. Season 2 though flipped everything on it's axis.

I have to say that I was plesantly surprised the creators steered away from creating a mundane storyline. Though to be honest all the licking skins and biting flesh and sucking blood felt very arousing... Like very arousing. Really an interesting series and I enjoyed it.