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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.

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