NANABI

Manga Review

Vampire Knight by Hino Matsuri

Wow! How long has it been since my last blog entry? Really sorry for the long break everyone! Not to worry, as I've promised I have returned and is now ready to release new blog entries for all of you! 

Now I begin my comeback with a review of the popular manga "Vampire Knight" by Hino Matsuri! 

*Do note that I do not make reviews of on-going mangas.

Manga Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Psychological, Romance, School Life, Shoujo, Supernatural

Recently the popular manga Vampire Knight has come to an end as Hino Matsuri releases the final volume of her manga. Today, I'll be having a long discussion of this manga-turned-anime as it finally comes to a close!

Actually I've been a big fan of this manga ever since I got the chance to read it around 2008? The manga was released in 2005, but during that time I wasn't that oriented with mangas yet hahaha! Alright, this is going to be a long review, so before anything else; here is the summary of the story taken from Manga Fox.

"Yuuki's earliest memory is of a stormy night in winter, where she was attacked by a vampire... And then rescued by another. Now 10 years later, Cross Yuuki, the adopted daughter of the headmaster of Cross Academy, has grown up and become a guardian of the vampire race, protecting her childhood crush, Kaname, from discovery as he leads a group of vampires at the elite boarding school. But also at her side is Kiryuu Zero, a childhood friend who’s hatred for the creatures that destroyed everything he held dear, is now determined never to trust them. This coexisting arrangement seems all well and good, but have the vampires truly renounced their murderous ways, or is there a darker truth behind their actions. Because in this world of secrets, nothing is as it seems and the price of misplaced trust may even be worse than death."

First of all, this story has always been my favorite since I was younger and I have never regretted loving it. But well, after following the story for all these years here's what I have to say.

The good points

There are a lot of good points. I'll start with the story, Vampire Knight has one of the most unique plots I've seen in both a manga and anime that uses vampires as their medium. Truth to be told not many vampire animes lure me in, but I am very happy on how Hino Matsuri developed her plot for this series. The story has a mix of thrill, mystery, comedy, action and romance that can probably give you so many feels you think you're going mad. (No joke LOL) What I probably like about it is because it isn't boring. At first I thought it was going to be some manga that would focus on Yuuki's love for Kaname, but I was proven wrong when I continued to follow along the story. Believe me, there was so many revelations and twists I had a hard time processing each of them haha!

Now let's talk about the characters. I love how unique each character is. The way Hino Matsuri developed each character is really interesting. When you look at each of the characters, you can immediately differentiate them from one another. Each of them has a unique past that links them to one another, which I think is a nice touch as it brings more mystery to the character. 

In a long run, Vampire Knight has beautiful characters (both male and female) I mean... Hino's art style is just  to die for. It's a manga that holds a lot of secrets but has a great story to tell! A like how everything seems to be connected somehow and as each chapter goes by, you get to discover more secrets along the way. The bonus, what I love about this story is the relationship between vampire hunters and the vampires. I'd rather not spoil you all, so you better read so you'll know what I mean. ♥

The bad points

This is where I vent out my frage. I DO NOT LIKE THE ENDING OF THIS SERIES. BLOODY HELL, WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?!?! After all the drama, sorrow, fighting and other plot twists they had to choose the WORST ending you could possibly imagine. I am a proud YUME (Kaname x Yuuki) fan and as I read the last chapter. The only thing that kept on entering my mind was: WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DID YOU DO HINO MATSURI. All my feels! My heart was shattered into a million pieces when I saw what happened to Kaname. I mean... IF YUUKI REVIVED KANAME JUST TO HAVE HIM END UP ALONE, SHE SHOULDN'T HAVE REVIVE HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE. Mother of. I don't care if she wanted Kaname to experience a life of a human, the fact is; after EVERYTHING that had happened she revives him only to bring him back to the state of loneliness. I was so happy that my shipping was the OTP of the manga, BUT I CANNOT ACCEPT THE ENDING HINO MATSURI DID FOR THE OTP.

It's like... WTF. Everything was going well. I mean, all the plot twists, new characters and others. BUT THE ENDING. THE BLOODY ENDING KILLED IT FOR ME. 

Overall Thoughts

A HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MANGA

Okay so just because the ending really brought my frage level at maxima, it doesn't mean you guys should not read this amazing story. I believe it will depend on you on how you will take this manga's story and how you will deal with the ending. As I look back, you will learn to love the characters in this story just as much as I have. It's story that will show you another side of the "vampire society" and probably show you a whole new perspective about the race as a whole. I honestly experienced a lot of mixed feelings for this manga, and I was a bit disappointed at the ending. But nonetheless, this is a manga that I'm sure will make you want to finish reading it in one sitting. It's a very thrilling journey to read this manga, and I can assure all of you that you will enjoy your love/hate feels as you go along haha! I highly recommended you to watch the anime adaptation as well, it actually brought more intensity and brought my fandom to a even more higher level haha! Biased as this sounds, I love Kaname Kuran and will never change. Sad to say I'm not on team Zero :P