Series: Vampire Knight Guilty: Part Two
UK Release date: 23rd May 2011
Distributor: Manga
Certificate: 12
Running time: 72 mins
Director: Kiyoko Sayama
Genre: Anime
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Japan
Language: Japanese
Review by: Chris Harris
Fans of gothic romance Vampire Knight Guilty have been made to wait for every morsel of Matsuri Hino’s anime series, but now they have another volume to get their teeth into. Kiyoko Sayama is back in the director’s chair as the story of Yuki Cross continues with three episodes that take us up to the halfway point in the show’s second series.
As ever, the action revolves around Cross Academy, an institution that houses Day classes of humans – and Night classes of vampires. Yuki and her friend Zero Kiryu are charged with keeping those unhappy bedfellows apart, but are constantly distracted by a love triangle that includes them both, as well as a true-blood vampire, Kaname Kuran.
Yuki knows that a vampire attacked her on a snowy night ten years previously and that Kaname rescued her - but she knows little else. In these three episodes, an increasingly haunted and tormented Yuki tries to piece together her past despite the reluctance of Kaname to reveal what really happened to her.
Kaname’s response to Yuki’s pleas is to take their relationship to a whole new level, while Zero, having finally succumbed to his own transformation into a vampire, tries to control his own bloodlust as he keeps Yuki out of harm’s way.
The return of Zero’s twin, Ichiru, and Senri Shiki heralds even more danger for Yuki and the story takes a violent turn before Sayama leaves the series on a cliff-hanger at the end of episode seven...
That eye-catching set-piece is very welcome, not least because it’s preceded by a good 45 minutes of treading water. These episodes turn the focus back on Yuki’s struggle to cope with her missing memories and the voices in her head. But the intensity of the relationships between Yuki, Kaname and Zero weigh down the story.
The three miserablists swap sighs, gasps and long pauses. And when they do talk…let’s just say a lot gets said before anything really gets said. There’s nothing wrong with a measure of brooding. but there’s only so much one can take of Zero and Kaname peering through their fringes at a world that misunderstands them.
When the emotional scenes make way for action, Vampire Knight Guilty goes up a gear. Whether it’s Kaname and Zero squaring up, or the menacing presence of Ichiru and Senri, volume two grabs your attention when the love triangle is put to one side. Sayama switches the tone in the latter stages, linking Yuki’s relationships to the wider vampire world and the power within that sphere – and it gives this volume a timely boost.
So what of the characters? Frankly, this is not a good time to be Yuki. She is beset on all sides by problems, none of which are of her own making. As ever, she is torn by her emotions for Zero and Kaname, and yet her true quest here is to uncover the secrets of her past. Yuki pushes hard, but is rebuffed at every turn, and sinks further into despair as visions of blood, internal voices and external threats gang up on her.
Zero can barely help - he has enough problems of his own. Those who have seen volume one of Vampire Knight Guilty will know that Zero is still piecing his own world together in the wake of the Shizuka Hio incident. In these episodes, he cuts a peripheral figure while others take centre stage.
Others like Kaname. He is as controlling, as ever, but the mask finally slips in his scenes with Yuki and that makes Kaname rather more likeable than before. All the same, he holds all the aces here. If knowledge is power, Kaname has stacks of it, and it’s left to Yuki to flail around, her eyes bulging, in a vain attempt to extract information.
Once you’ve watched that scene five or six times in the space of two episodes, you’ll understand what a welcome relief it is to see Ichiru and Senri. Both are out for revenge and both shake this series from its torpor.
The threat of violence is cranked up with those two on the scene – note how the moody, brooding piano replaces the power ballads in the soundtrack – but Sayama never lets Vampire Knight Guilty get too serious or too dour. His solution is to lob in moments of whimsy, even farce, as the gothic darkness of the plot is broken up by unexpected shrieks from the more ludicrous characters.
You can see what Sayama is trying to do – this series doesn’t want to take itself too seriously - but his execution is not quite right. In most cases, it’s off-putting, not soothing, to follow five minutes of anguish with a quick burst of stupidity.
The animation goes into overdrive when the farce kicks in, with contorted features to the fore. But the default setting for Vampire Knight Guilty’s animation is brilliantly drawn, often static, gothic visuals. Shades of grey with flashes and flourishes fill every episode, while the male characters are dashing with angular features.
The static nature of the animation works perfectly with the slow, brooding dialogue, but it sparks into life when violent ensues or when Yuki is imperilled – her petrified, bulging eyes are a sight to behold, and perfectly capture her claustrophobia as the world closes in.
The visuals and technical merits of Vampire Knight Guilty are a major plus, even if they are undermined to some degree by a rather formulaic script and that interminable love triangle. But those concerns are unlikely to bother this series’ target demographic. The fans know what to expect – angst, smouldering looks and gothic romance – and that’s exactly what they get.
Mid-season episodes are often drawn-out affairs with character development crowding out pyrotechnics. But Vampire Knight Guilty presses all the right buttons for the teenagers (and the older crowd) who have invested their own emotions in the story of Yuki and her two suitors, Zero and Kaname. They might have expected more than a paltry three episodes, but this volume’s melodrama will keep the fans on side and Sayama’s cliff-hanging climax will leave them thirsty for more. And that’s the whole point, isn’t it? CH
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