Vampire Knight

Vampire Knight (ヴァンパイア騎士, Vanpaia Naito) is a shojo manga and anime series written by Matsuri Hino. The series premiered in the January 2005 issue of Lala magazine and is still on-going. Chapters are collected and published in Collected Volume by Hakusensha, with eleven volumes currently released in Japan. The manga series is licensed in English by Viz Media, who has released ten volumes so far. The English adaptation premiered in the July 2006 issue of Viz's Shojo Beat magazine, with the collected volumes being published on a quarterly basis.

Two drama series were created for the series, as well as a twenty-six episode anime adaptation. Produced by Studio Deen, the anime series' first season aired in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 8, 2008 and July 1, 2008. The second season, titled Vampire Knight Guilty aired on the same station from October 7, 2008 and December 30, 2008. The anime uses many of the same voice actors as were used for the drama CDs. The anime adaptations have been licensed for release in North America by Viz Media, the DVD will be released sometime in 2010.

Plot
Yuuki Cross earliest memory is of being all alone on a snowy night in winter, when she was attacked by an evil "Level E" vampire and saved by a powerful but kind vampire named Kaname Kuran. Afterward, Yuuki is then brought to Kaien Cross, who adopts her. Kaien Cross is the Headmaster of Cross Academy and is also an ex-vampire hunter who now wishes for vampires and humans to live alongside peacefully. Yuuki grows up to become a prefect AKA: "guardian" for the school, which is running an experimental program that is trying to prove that vampires can coexist peacefully with humans. The human students of the "Day Class" are not aware that their counterparts in the "Night Class" are all actually vampires. Only the prefects know the truth.

The Night Class student body is made up of upper-class vampires, as there is a hierarchy among vampire society. "Purebloods" (Level A) are the rarest and most elite, having never mixed with humans in their ancestry. They are also the most powerful and their blood is the most desirable as it grants whoever drinks it greater powers. Purebloods are also the only class of vampire with the power to turn humans into other vampires. Kaname is the only pureblood within the night class, though a few others are introduced throughout the series. The other students are "nobles" AKA: "aristocrats" (Level B) whose bloodlines have only slightly mixed with humans. They are still very powerful however, but not as powerful as purebloods. Then there are 'normal' vampires (level C). And finally, there are the lower classes of vampires (level D in the anime, and E in the manga) that consist of humans who have been changed into vampires- not born as one. These types of vampires eventually go insane with bloodlust unless they are stabilized by drinking the blood of the one who originally bit them. Level E vampires are almost always beyond help, losing all their rationality and killing without remorse to get blood.

Yuuki's fellow guardian and childhood companion, Zero Kiryuu, whose parents were killed in front of him by a pureblood vampire four years earlier, is now determined to kill all purebloods and refuses to trust the other vampires at the school. Zero himself is now manifesting vampire traits however, having been bitten that day by the same vampire who attacked his family, Shizuka Hiou. Due to his horrific past and the fact that he came from a family of vampire hunters, he hates what he has become and fights his instincts the best he can.

Yuuki tries to help him fight his bloodlust while also seeking to recover the memories she lost as a young child. As the series progresses, Zero's thirst for blood leads to his drinking from Yuuki, by her consent, to avoid becoming a level E vampire and losing himself to his monstrous instincts. Kaname is very protective of Yuuki, and to stop her from having to do this, he gives Zero his own "pure" blood. Also, since he had consumed the blood of Shizuka Hio, his own helps keep Zero from going insane and from needing to feed from Yuuki.

Eventually, it is revealed that Yuuki is a pureblood vampire herself; the Pureblood Princess of the Kuran family, who had been transformed into a human before she lost her memories. It is also revealed that Kaname is Yuuki's older brother and that they spent their childhood together. They were also apparently meant to be married and were technically engaged as children, a practice common among purebloods to preserve bloodlines. Despite this, Kaname is not Yuuki's true blood brother, but an ancient and powerful ancestor of the royal Kuran family who was resurrected by Rido Kuran. He was raised by Yuuki's parents, Juuri and Haruka Kuran, after Rido had kidnapped and sacrificed their first child to bring him back to life. To save Yuuki from being killed by her evil uncle Rido, her mother sacrificed her life in order to perform a spell that would seal Yuuki's memories and allow her to live as a human in order to avoid being found. After Yuuki reawakens to her vampire nature, Rido again tries to kill her and consume her power. As Kaname kills the corrupt vampire senate who they had discovered were working together with their uncle, Yuuki fights Rido. During a fierce battle, Zero aids her in killing him, but later on tells her he will have to kill her when he sees her once again, since she is a pureblood. She tells him that she will keep running, so that he will have a reason to live. Although this is where the anime ends, the manga continues the story and is updated monthly in LaLa Magazine.

Characters

 * Yuuki Cross/Yuuki Kuran (黒主 優姫, Kurosu Yūki/ Kuran Yūki 玖蘭 優姫?) is the adoptive daughter of the headmaster of Cross Academy, and a Guardian, one of the members of the school's disciplinary committee. Ten years prior to the start of the series, Yuuki was rescued from a vampire attack by another vampire a pureblood, Kaname Kuran. She lost all memory of her life from before the attack, and was adopted by Headmaster Cross. After Zero's vampire nature is revealed, she begins giving him her blood to drink, hoping to halt the degradation of his human nature. However, Yuuki loves Kaname, who has always been protecting her and has been by her side during her childhood as a vampire. Yuuki's powers are unknown. When Rido Kuran and his Clan of followers resurfaces at Cross Academy, Yuuki's memories are unlocked, revealing that she is actually a pureblood vampire, both Kaname's sister and his fiancee.[2]
 * Zero Kiryuu (錐生 零, Kiryū Zero?), who is one year older than Yuuki Cross,[3] comes from a vampire hunter family. His parents and brother were killed by the pureblood vampire Shizuka Hio after they were ordered to assassinate her lover, a former human that had not yet fallen to level E. Zero was taken in by the headmaster of Cross Academy and became a Prefect (Guardian), alongside Yuuki Cross, the headmaster's adopted daughter.[4] He has a never ending hatred for vampires because of what happened to his parents, but it is later revealed that he himself is a vampire as a result of Shizuka's attack.[5] It is also later revealed that his twin brother, Ichiru, also survived the attack and willingly lived at Shizuka's side. After he consumes Shizuka, Kaname lets Zero drink some of his blood to keep Zero from losing control of himself in order to protect Yuuki.
 * Kaname Kuran (玖蘭 枢, Kuran Kaname?), A Pureblood Vampire and the current Head of the Kuran Clan, saved Yuuki from an attack by another vampire when she was five years old. He is the class president of the Night Class as well as the dorm leader, much feared and respected by the other Night Class students. While he is cold and authoritative towards his fellows in the Night Class, he is always kind and sweet to Yuuki. He has shown that he cares deeply for Yuuki and loves her in a romantic sense. He allows Zero to live because he knows his death would sadden Yuuki as well as because Zero is useful, both to Yuuki and himself. He is both jealous and angry of Zero for biting Yuuki and endangering her life. Kaname has been raised as Yuuki's older brother. At a young age they had pledged to marry each other when they grow up, just like Haruka and Juuri, who were siblings yet married to each other. It is common for pureblood siblings to marry and is essential to keep the bloodline pure. Kaname reveals to Ichijo that he is not Yuki's brother and is really the ancestor of Kuran and was resurrected by Rido Kuran to be his strongest slave, therefore making Rido his "master". Juri and Haruka Kuran raised Kaname as Yuki's brother, in place of the son that Rido took and used as a sacrifice to revive Kaname.
 * Shizuka Hio, The Pureblood Vampire Kuruizaki-hime, the one who killed Zero's parents for revenge after they were ordered to kill her lover, a level D vampire turned by her. After this act she left, taking with her Ichiru, Zero's twin brother, leaving Zero to believe his entire family were massacred.
 * Rido Kuran, A Pureblood Vampire, the elder brother of Juuri and Haruka Kuran, who had ordered Zero's parents to kill his fiancee's(Shizuka Hio)lover, a level D vampire(who was formerly a human). He also resurrected the Ancient Ancestor of the Kuran Clan into the infant Kaname Kuran. He had fallen in love with his younger sister Juri, Yuuki and Kaname's mother, and fell to madness when Juuri picked Haruka over himself, then years later tried to drink the blood of Yuuki who he believed to be Juuri resurrected. He was later defeated by the hand of Zero and Yuki, though he is shown to have survived the attack in Chapter 58 of the manga. He can never die as long as Kaname lives due to their connection.

Manga
Main article: List Of vampire Knight ChaptersThe first chapter of Matsuri Hino's Vampire Knight premiered in the January 2005 issue of Lala, where the series is still running. The individual chapters are being collected and published in tankobon volumes by Hakusensha, with ten volumes released in Japan as of June 2009[update]. The series is licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media. In addition to publishing the individual volumes, the series was serialized in Viz's Shojo Beat manga anthology from the July 2006 issue until the magazine was discontinued after the July 2009 issue. It is licensed for English release in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment, which has released ten volumes as of March 2010[update].

Drama CDs
Two drama cd's have been released for Vampire Knight. The first, LaLa Kirameki, was released as an extra with the September 2005 issue of LaLa. The second, Vampire Knight Midnight CD-Pack, was released only via mail order.

Anime
Main article: List Of Vampire Knight Episode[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Vampire_Knight_episodes ]Studio Deen produced a twenty-six episode anime adaptation of the Vampire Knight manga, using many of the same voice actors featured on the drama CDs and directed by Kiyoko Saiyama. The episodes started airing on TV Tokyo in Japan on April 8, 2008 and ran until the season conclusion on July 1, 2008. The episodes were also aired at later dates on TV Aichi, TV Hokkaido, TV Osaka, TV Setouchi, and TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting CO. The second season, named Vampire Knight Guilty, premiered on the same station October 7, 2008. The final episode aired on December 30, 2008. On July 24, 2009, Viz Media announced it had acquired the license for the Vampire Knight anime and would begin releasing it to DVD in 2010.

The series uses four pieces of theme music. The opening themes of both the first and second season are performed by the duo On/Off, with "Futatsu no Kodō to Akai Tsumi" (ふたつの鼓動と赤い罪) as the opening for the first season, and "Rinne: Rondo" (輪廻 -ロンド-) as the opening for the second. Kanon Wakeshima performs the first season ending theme, "Still Doll", and also the second season's ending theme "Suna no Oshiro" (砂のお城). The soundtrack is composed by Haketa Takefumi and consists of 30 tracks (including the opening theme and ending theme).

Light novels
Two light novels created by Matsuri Hino and Ayuna Fujisaki were published in Japan by Hakusensha in 2008. Both novels feature two individual side-stories that use the characters of the manga, but are not specifically based on chapters from the series. The first novel, Vampire Knight: Ice Blue's Sin (ヴァンパイア騎士 憂氷の罪, Vanpaia Naito: Aisu Burū no Tsumi), was published on April 5, 2008. The first story within the novel looks at events that occurred at Cross Academy in the year preceding Yuki's arrival, while the second story details an accident that occurred while Zero was still in training to be a vampire hunter.

The second novel, Vampire Knight: Noir's Trap (ヴァンパイア騎士 凝黒の罠, Vanpaia Naito: Nowāru no Wana), was published on October 3, 2008. It details some of the Cross Academy romances, as well as detailing the accident that happened when Kain and Ruka go to visit Shiki and Rima's modeling studio.

Video game
Vampire Knight DS (ヴァンパイア騎士 DS, Vanpaia Naito Dīesu) is dating simulation game using the characters from the series, but telling a unique story. It's in Japanese. It was released by D3 Publisher in Japan in January 2009.

Fanbook
In November 2008, the official Vampire Knight Fanbook, titled Vampire Knight Fanbook: Cross (ヴァンパイア騎士 ファンブックX, Vanpaia Naito Fanbukku Kurosu), was published in Japan. In addition to providing additional information about the series characters and story, it includes images and details from Hino's storyboard.The fanbook has been licensed by Viz Media and will be released in September 2010.