Vampire Knight: The Complete Series

This is going to be a review of the product itself, rather than the actual anime. I want to put one thing out their first though, and that is that I absolutely love Vampire Knight, though I can't say much for the English dub, even if it does have the almighty Vic Mignagna as one of the main characters.

Now onto the product.

I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I forked over over thirty dollars for this cheap, anorexic excuse for a box set. For starters, the discs don't even have images on them, they look like a blank disc that you'd buy at Staples. In fact, I was considering making my own labels and putting them on the discs myself.

The case leaves a lot to be desired as well, it's very flimsy and cheap feeling, with one of those 'eco-friendly' cutouts in the plastic with the revolving arrow symbol, and it doesn't even have any pamphlets or information booklets inside it, you just open up the case and it's like "well this sucks..."

It's a normal sized case, just like a movie you'd buy from the store, and it has a flimsy sleeve that goes over the case with some nice cover art on the front and info on the back, that part is OK I guess.

And when it say's 'complete series' it's not actually complete, this doesn't include the second season, 'Vampire Knight: Guilty.'

Just a few other facts, it's dubbed by Viz, has both English and Japanese dialogue, subtitles, is 13 episodes-325 minutes, and has pretty much squat as far as extras go, save for a 'relationship chart' which I have not yet looked at, so I don't know what it is.

So all in all if you like this series I suggest you try to find a better release of it than this one because when you get right down to it, it's a really lame quality box set. And I certainly wouldn't want to pay over thirty dollars for such a disappointment. But don't let that distract you from the series itself, which is actually very good.

Ok first off this is only the first part of the series it was split into two parts, Vampire Knight and Vampire Knight Guilty, its the way it was done when it was aired in Japan, and VKG starts up right after the VK end and I mean right after, it wont start at a new place in the story like some anime series do. That being said this anime ROCKS its some what dark and delves into the pain of not knowing, and the pain and self loathing of your own being and the pain of keeping something very important from the one you love.

Yuki Cross is a high school girl attending class with her best friend Yori and closest guy pal/brother figure Zero, who's being raised with her by the school's headmaster. But by night, Yuki and Zero maintain the peace as the school is turned over to young vampires, who with the help of a medical breakthrough do not need to drink human blood and are the members of a new generation of vampires being trained to peacefully coexist with humans.

Among them are their leader, Kaname Kuran, a mysterious figure who saved Yuki from a vampire when she was little and on whom she has had a crush ever since; Ruka Souen, the Kaname groupie pining away for him while he only has eyes for Yuki; Hanabusa Aido, the tempermental bisexual who's jealous of Kaname's attention towards Yuki but also finds himself drawn to her; Aido's easygoing, reliable cousin Akatsuki Kain, who alternates between trying to keep Aido out of trouble and patiently waiting for Ruka to get over Kaname and notice him; Kaname's friendly, sociable best friend Takuma Ichijo, and Ichijo's friends Senri Shiki and Rima Toya, two goths who do modeling work on the side. Yuki's growing acquaintance with Kaname's circle will coincide with her learning a terrible secret Zero has been keeping from her, and her life will change as she's torn between the two boys she loves deeply in different ways...

Like the series Dark Shadows, Vampire Knight has some horror elements but is essentially a soap opera dripping with melodrama focusing on the loves and friendships between the characters. As this is the "getting to know the characters" phase of the story (the equal length sequel Vampire Knight Guilty has been licensed and will follow, with potential for the whole story to be animated once the manga ends), this isn't the best part of the story. The characters do already start to grow on you now though, and if you're receptive you start to want Zero to be okay, Ichijo to escape the influence of his creepy grandfather, and Ruka to get a clue regarding Kain. As for Yuki herself, in spite of her being woefully unqualified for her position as peace enforcer, she is a sympathetic character who you come to like.

Nothing new under the sun, but an obvious purchase for those for whom this type of story appeals - with buildup to the more striking events of Guilty beginning in the last episodes. One final note: be aware that Disk 1 is in an unusual double-sided format, which means you need to flip it to watch episodes 5-8 - just so that no one panics thinking they're missing those episodes.