Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Vampire Knight


Vampire Knight (ヴァンパイア騎士(ナイト) Vanpaia Naito?) is a shōjo 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 volumes by Hakusensha, with seven volumes currently released in Japan. The manga series is licensed in English by Viz Media. The English adaptation premiered in the July 2006 issue of Viz's Sh Beat magazine, with the collected volumes being published on a quarterly basis.

Two drama CDs were created for the series, as well as a thirteen episode anime adaptation. Produced by Studio DEEN, the anime series' first season aired in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 7, 2008 and June 30, 2008. The second season, titled Vampire Knight Guilty, will start airing on the same TV station on October 6, 2008. The anime uses many of the same voice actors as were used for the drama CDs.


Yuki's earliest memory is of a stormy night in winter, wherein she was attacked by a vampire... And then rescued by another. Now 10 years later, Yuki Cross, the adopted daughter of the headmaster of Cross Academy, has grown up and become a guardian of the vampire race, protecting her savior, Kaname, from discovery as he leads a group of vampires at the elite boarding school. But also at her side is Zero Kiryu, 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. Is Kaname's infatuation with Yuki the beginning of a forbidden romance, or is it something in her forgotten past that draws him to her. Because in this world of secrets, nothing is as it seems. And the price of misplaced trust may even be worse than death.