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First Look at Vampire Knight V. 1

I have fallen a wee bit behind on my reviews of VIZ titles.
As much as I wish VIZ was one of those companies that supplied me with review material copies from time to time (like Broccoli Books, Dark Horse or Icarus Publishing on the hentai side of the reviewing coin) I do still have a thing for their Shojo Beat line of books and titles (even if they are not giving me any to review).

Still, even if I am not presently picking up new graphic novels I am not behind on my Shojo Beat manga magazine reading, which I pick up monthly without fail (it’s one of my few monthly rituals that I have).
So, while I am abit behind on the books (need to get Aishiteruze Baby V. 3, Crimson Hero V. 3 and upcoming Nana V. 4) I can tell you about two upcoming titles for the VIZ line, Beauty Pop & Vampire Knight (this is the first look at Vampire Knight, which premiered back in Shojo Beat V. 2, Issue #7)

Remember how unimpressed I was with Godchild from my old Shojo Beat reviews (which I have curtailed for reviews of the manga graphic novels)? Thank you VIZ for finally yanking that one off the front line and pumping in a little fresh blood (pun intended) into my favorite mainstrean manga anthology with Vampire Knight, premiering back in Volume 2 Issue #7 sometime ago.
Yeah, first look at the notification of the title in V. 2, Issue #6 did nothing for me at first. I mean look, it’s a swap out of one shojo horror title with another, right? So… big whoop. Then I read it aaannnnnddddddd…. Long pause… here’s my review.

Contrary to popular belief, vampires do require a decent education by government schooling standards!
Thanks to programs such as “No Nocturnal Left Behind” and “The Vlad Teppes Act”, ordinary (as long as they look unbelievably hot in a school uniform) nightwalkers all over can have access to a quality education as well as their living non blood sucking humans (psychotic crazed cult worshipping madmen not included), as long as they go during the night (and pass that whole hot criteria mentioned above).
Thus the troublesome situation of Cross Academy, a “private school” for the living and not so living.
(What I want to know is that if this is so private then why don’t they just limit the damn school to just the non living or living, not BOTH… but that gets explained below so keep reading.)

The school is split into two “classes”, as it is in turn split into two separate and unequal “worlds”.
The worlds of the Day and the Night Class. Aka the worlds of the Living (Day) and the Undead (Night).
However the fact that this school is a home of the living/undead is a thing only the undead and their “keepers” know, which means keeping the secret of the Night class is top priority, one that is put into the hands of two unlikely “odd couple” partners who’ve known each other for quite a long time.
One is First Year Day Class student slash Disciplinary Committee member (aka the few who stand between the Day and Night Class) Yuki Cross (the series starts with her first confrontation with a vampire as a young girl, only to be saved from the dirty old vamp by another vampire which sets the stage for her presence here). The second is a mysterious youth named Zero Kiryu, who seems to be the tall brooding character of the title with a little secret that may come back to bite him (pun intended) before it’s all over in Volume 1.

But as for the school? Apparently the Headmaster (who is the adopted father of Yuki Cross and Zero… even if he doesn’t see it the same way as the Headmaster or Yuki) has this whole Professor Charles Xavier hangup going on with him (major X-Men fan I’m betting), since he made this whole Cross Academy just to be the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters of the vampiric set. Here, in this school, he wants the world of the living and the world of the undead (which has been at a silent, black ops war hidden in darkness forever and ever) to learn to coexist and live together in a brave new world… good luck.

Some students are not afraid of going against the rules (on both sides of the coin) which leads to nothing but trouble when the members of the Day (living) mingle too closely with those of the Night (undead), and the temptation to “dip” into the living gene pool is too great. That is why the Committee (of two) is needed, for they stand between the Day and Night Class separate, as well as keep the Night Class’s secret (which is not a choice job since at least ONE of these two requires the standard amount of sleep for a normal human being.

What’s so hard about keeping the two group separate? Well… we’re not talking butt ugly gore horror movie undead vampires here, folks! We’re talking oh dear god the undead look so damn beefcakey slash Victoria’s Secrets model hot undead here! And, as you can guess, that is a major turn on to the Day Class students (especially the girls) who are itching to get close to the Night Class, just as the duo of Day Discipline are hot to keep them far far away from the Night Class (as you’ll see in this volume).

One thing that might help (or hinder) the situation is the fact that the present President of the Night Class, the one who saved Yuki in that flashback at the start of the series (and who Yuki seems to still have a hook on… which might be something he might have in turn, or does he…)

Anyway the first story gives you the 4-1-1 on the situation, and how things are in the school as Yuki has her hands full nightly keeping the two classes seperated, which might go thermonuclear critical when two Day Class girls sneak out to take pics of the Night Class, only for one of them to start bleeding which acts like chum in the waters for the Jaws out there… which lures in trouble (duh).

After that it’s that special time of the year, that day of such importance which seemingly was… created by Japanese chocolate companies to improve their bank accounts and get chocolates off the shelves (allegedly). (And no, it’s not just a gimmick made for Harvest Moon games to move your romance with the village characters along during gameplay).
It’s the time of year when girls give chocolates to guys, and since there’s a ton of infatuated Day Class girls and a lot of interested (in blood) Night Class guys that is a sure formula for disaster (again). Good luck Yuki, you’ll need it. Oh, and Night’s secret is given a big peek at, but making sense of it won’t happen for awhile (maybe in this volume).

And that is that. The rest can wait for an actual review in the future. When that’ll be I don’t know, the title is (after all) just out of the starting gate as a new read for Shojo Beat so I have no idea when you’ll see Volume 1 of the manga come out in Graphic Novel format.
However, when it does, I’ll have that review for you ASAP.
Yes, I did actually like this better than Godchild, so I will review it.

And is it just me, or is Shojo Beat shilling Yaoi titles abit more prominently than they used to? An entire page ad for a line of Yaoi titles? Is that… well, sure, I can see why and all but it’s 16+ titles here… oh, right, 16+ people are reading Shojo Beat, I got it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, but I got it.
Stay tuned for my review of Vampire Knight V. 1 in the near future.

Vampire Knight

Vampire Knight Reviews

First Look at Vampire Knight V. 1