ADVERTISEMENT ▼

ReviewColumn's rating :

Vampire Knight (2008) is the 13-episode anime adaptation of the first six volumes of the Vampire Knight manga. It follows the life of Cross Yuuki, who has no memory of her life past the one of a snowy winter night, where she was saved by a kind vampire, Kuran Kaname, from one who wanted to drink her blood when she was all of five years old. Ten years on, Yuuki is now the adopted daughter of Cross Kaien, chairman of the privately-run Cross Academy and studies there along with her childhood friend, Kiryuu Zero. The students of the Academy are divided into the Day Class and the Night Class. However, the students of the Night Class all have a secret hidden from the Day Class – they are all vampires.

The anime starts off beautifully with a wonderful opening theme song, Futatsu no Kodou to Akai Tsumi (Two Heartbeats and Red Sins) by ON/OFF, which has a gothic-influenced melody that is fitting with the anime’s general feel. The ending theme song, still doll by Wakeshima Kanon has a slower, more haunting melody, but nonetheless befits the theme of vampires in the anime. The anime art, while not as detailed as the manga, is undeniably pretty, making Vampire Knight a visually-pleasing anime to watch. At the same time, the darker themes to the plot scores points with me despite the humorous moments in the anime. To top it all off, Vampire Knight has a stellar voice cast for the main characters.

Unfortunately, the anime did not live up to all of my expectations. Indisputably, the voice cast was brilliant in conveying the emotions of the characters and giving the characters their unique personalities. What let the anime down was the fact that the producers did not follow the storyline set by the manga closely. Certain events were reordered, some existing scenes were altered and there were new scenes added to the anime. Most of these changes disrupted the flow and pacing of the story at some points, rendering the impact of some events to be duller than it should be.

Despite this, I still held on in watching it, still having relatively good faith that the overall feel of the anime would not be altered too badly. However, the final episode of the season came around. Several major scenes were altered, along with the introduction of a new scene that would undoubtedly affect the impact on arguably one of the most significant and monumental manga scenes in the later half of the manga for anime-only fans of Vampire Knight. If the changes in the final episode had not been made, I would’ve given this anime a much higher rating.

That said, my reaction to the anime is likely to be influenced by the fact that I had read the manga already. For viewers who have no knowledge of manga events, Vampire Knight is engaging to watch with its various plot twists and multi-faceted characters. Also, even as secrets are revealed, more questions arise; especially since the last episode ends in what can be considered a cliffhanger.

However, the anime has yet to end. The second season, Vampire Knight Guilty, was being aired in Japan starting on October 7, 2008. Be sure to catch it too, as Vampire Knight becomes more action-packed and darker secrets come to light.

Click here to buy this DVD
Rate this anime, give us your rating:
(2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...

Buy related products from eBay:

VAMPIRE KNIGHT ANIME 242005CM MOUSE PAD FIGURE I265 US $2.99 Sale Ends In: 46m Bid This Item   | Buy This Item   | Watch This Item

KIRYU ZERO VAMPIRE KNIGHT ANIME MOUSE PAD FIGURE I227 US $2.99 Sale Ends In: 46m Bid This Item   | Buy This Item   | Watch This Item

Vampire Knight YUKI Weapon Key Chain Anime Cos S228 US $7.99 0 Bid Sale Ends In: 51m Bid This Item   | Buy This Item   | Watch This Item

ReviewColumn's rating :

Comeback or no comeback, Circus (2008) is to date one of Britney Spears’ most significant albums. It is the first album to be released by a Britney that has more or less settled down from the chaotic mess that her life has been since the infamous incident with a particular shaver and her hair. In all honesty, however, it is a commendable effort of an album; in many of the tracks – even the virtually omnipresent Womanizer – Britney’s voice has regained its existence independent of vocoders or synths. That is not to say that the album is free from them – indeed, many of the tracks continue to feature her vocals layered multiple times over underlying synth or duplicated voices. Still, it is a relief to hear Britney singing again, with some toning down of the electronica-style crafting that went into the production of the songs on Blackout.

I will point out, however, that in all honesty, her vocals on some of the tracks sound strangely unlike her. In comparison with In The Zone, her vocals on this album sometimes sound far too clean to be true. This issue becomes especially obvious in the two ballads on the album, Out from Under and My Baby. They are not downright terrible (Out of Under is in fact not too bad), but her vocals do seem rather unusual at times. They seem to have lost a bit of the darker, sultrier yet somewhat vulnerable sexiness that permeates many of the songs on In The Zone – for instance, Everytime or Toxic. But that in no way makes Circus a bad album; it simply means that we’re probably seeing Britney take an entirely different musical direction, and the defining dance and retro-ish sounds of this album seem to point to that.

The best songs on this album are the more upbeat dance tracks such as Womanizer and Kill the Lights. Worth a special mention is Mannequin, which was the song heard in the dance rehearsal video that was leaked onto YouTube before the album’s release. The best thing about this song is the beat and the fact that Britney’s voice takes digital manipulation so well – something about her voice quality distinguishes itself whenever it is given centre-stage, and the drier, cleaner percussion background in Mannequin certainly makes her voice stand out. The bridge and the chorus are especially catchy (“I don’t care / I don’t care / I don’t care …”) and the fact that they are sung in Britney’s distinctly breathy head voice (think Toxic again) makes you want to listen to it even more.

Circus (the title track) is also worth a mention. The production is darker and more sombre than most of the other songs on the album, but retains an essentially dance sound that prevents the song from sounding out-of-place. It also contains a section that consists of nothing but the background synths, the beat, and Britney’s spoken taunts (e.g. “Let me see what you can do”) that one knows will be the part in concerts during which Britney shows off her moves. Parts like these, of course, also remind one of other songs from her pre-crisis albums, e.g. Boys from the self-titled album Britney. Essentially, the song Circus, and indeed the whole album, is like a sonic encapsulation of the darkest times that Britney has ever experienced as a public figure and of the efforts by Britney to reassert her position not just as pop princess (or queen of pop), but also as an individual amidst her conservatorship and frequently unreasonable attacks by the paparazzi.

Click here to buy this album
Rate this music album, give us your rating:
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
 Loading ...

Buy related products from eBay:

APO】Britney Spears 2 Smash Albums Taiwan w Box 2CD US $149.99 Sale Ends In: 2d 1h 39m Bid This Item   | Buy This Item   | Watch This Item

NEW BRITNEY SPEARS THE REMIXES ALBUM COVER WATCH ptr US $12.99 Sale Ends In: 9d 14h 44m Bid This Item   | Buy This Item   | Watch This Item

BRITNEY SPEARS BRITNEY CD ALBUM NEW US $11.84 Sale Ends In: 13d 21h 42m Bid This Item   | Buy This Item   | Watch This Item