Vampire Knight

[Sapphire]

The redundancy of this series was really starting to piss me off. I mean, Yuuki finally "admitted" that she loved Kaname, but Kaname still did all he could do to keep her in ignorance and in some pseudo-happiness for as long as possible.

They are "lovers" after all. Then we had that whole angle of Kaname being deeply in love with Yuuki, unsuccessfully seducing her much as possible while keeping massively important secrets from her as long as possible, while Yuuki used all of her might to resist his charms and find out the truth about herself, the whole task not getting any easier since she is deeply in 'love' with him. While I am annoyed that I had to watch that for like 30 episodes, I have to give her props for resisting him as long as possible in order to find out the more important truth about herself.

I just thank the author that we don't have to listen to anyone else's internal struggles.

And OH GAWD at the whole 'Kaname is my older brother... sort of' ordeal. All I can hope is that Yuuki isn't such a weakling whiner anymore, and maybe she can start to actually matter when push comes to shove instead of standing there crying. I liked her near insane crazyness when she was straddling Zero and calling him a 'goody two shoes'. I still don't like the fact that her memories were wiped for the sake of her turning into a carelessly happy slushkabob.. because the whole entire time she was suffering ANYWAY. It's like they tried to make her Nel but failed miserably.

All in all, I really did like this episode. It was sort of a turning point. I suppose the entire series' setting will be in the school? So the school is some sort of neutral grounds for antagonist vampires to show up and duke it out with the main vampires while the humans are merely observers who can only pitifully admire the pretty "night class," ignorant of the danger that lies before them. I sort of like that, but I also think it would be cool if Yuuki left the school and started to go to different places. Her world just seems very small to me.

[Kraco]

O Onii-Sama, Where Art Thou?

Episode 8 - Yuurisan-Subs
Also, a definite archive version appears:
Episode 1 - A-Kraze-Diffusion



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This was kind of an annoying episode, because it seemed to move so slowly and with trivial matters, with something really monumental just around the corner. Still, I guess this partly explained one thing that has been bothering me for a while: Why Kaname seems to be doing nothing. Apparently he didn't want to do anything before Yuuki awakes, yet he didn't want Yuuki to do that, so he just waited for the inevitable.

Zero didn't seem too happy, though. But I doubt his feelings for Yuuki are so weak this would make them enemies.

[David75]

Well you can't blame them for trying to blend lost of things that fit shoujo stories... with siblings love all around too.

The only frustrating matter is that they all show great potential power, but only remain there. Probably because high levels of power eps are for shounen shows. Only having a glimpse should be sufficient I guess.

But we sure miss a great battle of some kind, be it emo/tragic is needed for the targeted audience, a bit of sad music, some tears could do the trick.

[Buffalobiian]

Yuurisan VKG - Ep 9 & 10 (mp4)

[Kraco]

Haha. I totally foresaw a long time ago why Kaname kept Zero around, even before it was made evident he can't willingly kill his ancestor by his own hand. Not that it would have taken any great deduction powers, but anyway. It's a pretty solid piece of writing in any case. However, being so accustomed to the vampires' treatment of purebloods, I think Kaname's master plan's greatest weakness is the fact Yuuki hardly changed since becoming a vampire again - certainly not acting like a pureblood naturally.

[Sapphire]

Hatsuyuki-fansub Ep 11

Everything has suddenly become a lot more interesting. Glad to see Yuuki's personality change, though her hooking up with her own brother is a bit... bleh.

[David75]

Hatsuyuki-fansub Ep 11

Everything has suddenly become a lot more interesting. Glad to see Yuuki's personality change, though her hooking up with her own brother is a bit... bleh.

Have you been able to understand that fansub?
Because last time I tried, I had to download from another group and watch again...

[Sapphire]

I watched someone's sub from CrunchyRoll, which was terrible qual, actually.

[Kraco]

Fate of the twins:

Episode 11 - Yuurisan




This was quite a nice episode despite the overabundance of brother love. I guess it was there to make Zero's deed more dramatic but nevertheless it was painful to watch. Also, the regular E-level vampires are stupidly weak. I suppose the fights of those other student vampires are of little importance to the plot and thus they are anything but exciting. Although since this a shoujo show, I reckon fights in general aren't any hot topic.

Yuuki remains funnily out of everything, running here and there like a headless chicken, with no idea what's going on and what she should be doing...

[Sapphire]

I was very sad for Ichiru. And Zero never even bothered saying he was innocent! But in a way that makes it more touching, because even then, Ichiru dearly loved his brother. ;_;

[Buffalobiian]

The Strongest Hunter:

[Yuurisan] - Episode 12

[Kraco]

This episode was quite a powerfest, with every character trying to outdo the previous in the scale of powers. However, I liked a few scenes like Ichijou turning against his old man, Zero saving Yuuki (for now), and Yuuki cutting Zero (to save him). Those scenes had quite nice vibes.

One bigger thing I find very intresting indeed is how I still have no idea what will happen to Zero in the end and what Yuuki will do. Obviously Yuuki isn't anymore any typical pureblood so it should be somewhat impossible even for Kaname to predict what is going on inside her head.

[Buffalobiian]

Yeah, it was quite the power battle. Despite that though, powers have always been predetermined in this show. Purebloods have absolute power...that's always been the case. Now they just used the same plot device to make Kaname useless, and throw in the wild card Zero in there.

As for weapons transforming......eh, that's too much of a "I will protect!" cliche to get my full support. I don't hate it though.

On the other hand, I do like how we're finally shown the meaning of "Vampire Knight".

[Buffalobiian]

Awaken the Vampire Knight.

Yuurisan - VKG-13[FINAL].mp4

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I think that was as much an ending as was the first season of Vampire knight, possibly just a little more conclusive. Rido was beaten too easily, but that's always been the case in this show. Not entirely to my liking, it's always been quite absolute as to who can defeat who.

Visually, I'm not impressed. The dodgy picture can be blamed on either the encoders or raw providers, but animation-wise wasn't top notch neither, particularly scenes where faces were obviously substituted with a simple shade of skin tone.

The anime itself felt rather slow, and any tension or sudden surprises that may have been evident in the manga didn't turn up well at all here. I can't remember the soundtracks of the first season to accurately compare, but I do think music was also a bit of a letdown here. I've heard some say this arc was one of the best in the manga, but it just didn't feel that way.

In the end, the second season's adaptation seemed decent at best. Having watched the second half in bulk means any slowness was less noticeable, but nevertheless there. The whole concept of Yuuki's vampire identity just wasn't as gripping or menacing as Zero's, but I do like how this second season explained a lot more of how the vampire (and human) world works outside the academy.

I'll still be looking out for a third season/series, if they do make one, but with no where near the enthusiasm I had after watching the previews for the original Vampire Knight last year.

[Kraco]

I had no problems with this episode. The fight was perhaps a bit of a letdown since Rido didn't actually fight back at all. That was a kind of fatalistic attitude from someone who has been doing nothing but sleep and wait for this moment for years. But like you said, the power scale is fixed and fatalism seems to be the rage among vampires at large.

I liked the episode otherwise. Keeping in mind this is a shoujo show, I think it was natural Yuuki would go with Kaname. I had no idea how they would deal with Zero, though, and I wouldn't have been overly surprised if he had died one way or another. The way it actually ended left Yuuki with strange kind of a shadow, although I don't think anybody imagines Zero could actually ever kill her. It was a funny way to say he will never forget her...

I have to say I especially liked the scene where Yuuki drank Zero's blood, thus "officially" confirming their situation. I have no doubt Zero's real motive was simply to get Yuuki to taste his blood. Considering they are both vampires, that has to have a special meaning.