Finishing up the last of my stashed manga, I saved the best for last. I read volume 11 of Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino. Now admittedly this is by far my favorite manga and it’s the manga I draw inspiration for cosplay/Halloween. But I loved how the volume just pushed the story along so much.
So it’s been a while since I read any “new” Vampire Knight. I so miss my Shojo Beat magazine that serialized Vampire Knight. It used to give me monthly installments of Vampire Knight. Then after the magazine stopped publishing, I had to wait for Volume 11 to come out for new stuff. But this was well worth the wait.
One of the things I love about vampire knight is the aesthetics to the manga. Everything is so beautifully drawn. It's that balance of beautiful and sad. I just love looking at every page. There is so much drawn in. That it's a feast for the eyes.
So the story picks up with roughly a year later from the destruction of Cross Academy’s moon dormitory and many of the vampires went into hiding. So Yuki and Kaname live in a forest where Yuki is learning what it means to be a vampire. Kaname has been busy trying to realign the vampires. Zero is still balancing out the vampirism, being a vampire hunter and being a day student at Cross Academy.
As I said, the story was pushed forward by a fair amount. The social dynamic is changing again between the vampire hunters and the vampires. But they are attempting to achieve some level of compromise. A lot of things hinge on the vampire soiree that was starting just as the book was ending… Need volume 12 ASAP.
But the biggest thing that pushed forward was Yuki’s feelings. She’s trying to figure out her feelings for Kaname, Zero and her friendship with Sayori. I totally get the guilt she has since her heart has two people in heart and it’s not fully given to one person. It’s hard to forget everything from an old life. Instead you try to balance it out and understand everything.
One of the characters that continue to stand out for me is Zero. I will admit in the anime (I fell in love with Vampire Knight first at Otakon in the cartoon form and then my awesome boyfriend (well ex-boyfriend) got me a bunch of the Vampire Knight manga for Christmas), I was always torn about Zero. He had spots in his character that I didn’t always connect to. But as I delve into the manga more and more, I love his character. His anger and his love are balanced out so well. Plus to have him so on the verge of everything, it’s astonishing how strong he is. It’s the type of strength I want in my own being.
I had to giggle some when I read the different sidebars from Matsuri Hino. She talks about a trip to Germany and how much she enjoyed it even if it was stressful to add into her schedule. I love how she listens to the Shinshoku Dolce album by Wakeshima Kanon in her travels and found the same qualities in it as I do while flying. Plus it's nice to see the cross support of Vampire Knight related projects (Wakeshima Kanon did the end songs to both Vampire Knight and Vampire Knight Guilty anime- which is how I became familiar with the JPop artist).
I’m glad I held onto the Vampire Knight for the last of the stashed manga. So for the next few months, it will be more traditional books that you will see in this blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment