Vampire Knight

Vampire Knight and its second season, Vampire Knight Guilty, are suspenseful, psychological anime set in a somewhat unnecessary high school setting of Cross Academy. Yuki Cross and Zero Kiryu are prefects at the academy, charged with the impossible task of separating the fangirls (and a few fanboys) of the day class from the charismatic and handsome students of the night class. Zero and Yuki also know that night class has a secret — all of the night class students are really vampires, and the academy is an experiment by Yuki’s adoptive father to improve relations between vampires and humans.

Zero’s parents were killed by a pureblood vampire, and he is slowly becoming one himself, which leads to a lot of emotional conflict. Yuki cannot remember anything before a snowy day in her childhood, when the leader of the night class saved her from a “type E” or mad vampire. Meanwhile, the pureblood vampire royalty, the vampire senate, and the vampire hunters’ association make complex political moves. Almost everyone seems to love Yuki, except for the vampires that would love her as a snack.

I enjoyed Vampire Knight, a lot. However, despite being a solid anime about vampires, the ending does seem to lack a bit of punch. And that educational backdrop? Very much forgotten by the final episode. Vampire Knight is disappointing in that it just barely fails to put together all of the elements required to be one of the must-see anime series.