This is how I like my love triangles.

Katt: If Steve is going to spam the blog with lolis while Minnie busy, then I am totally getting some vampires in! The problem with this is that I am currently not watching any vampire series. I have a few on my “gotta watch that” list, but I can’t get into them while I am catching up on a couple of other non-vampire series. I also have a few vampire novels sitting in my room, waiting to be read…I should get on that. Anyway! Point being that, because of this, I am going to address the rumoured possibility of a Twilight anime and the reasons I think it wouldn’t stand up against the current popular vampire romance series of the anime/manga world, Vampire Knight.

Among people who enjoy vampires in their romances, the question of which is better–Vampire Knight or Twilight? is asked pretty frequently. I just did a quick Google search on it and found quite a few comparisons of the two, some thinking Vampire Knight better while others preferring Twilight, and then of course those who just don’t like either one at all. While the nay-sayers are certainly justified, I am a fan of Vampire Knight because I like a romance series once in a while as long as it has some substance to it. Twilight’s substance? Kind of lacking. And, my friends, let me tell you exactly why it is that I think Vampire Knight is more appealing than Twilight. Oh, and you’d better be expecting spoilers for both series ahead!!

Love triangles: VK does it right

This. is. key. You don’t have to read far into Twilight to know damn well that Bella is going to end up with Edward; four books are totally not necessary to get the point of their love across. The Vampire Knight manga is now 49 chapters in and you still don’t know who Yuuki will end up with at the end. The odds that the two main boys have are ever-changing, each getting kisses and bites from Yuuki at different points. We are also only given limited access to Yuuki’s thoughts, which leaves us wondering what she thinks of the boys at various points. In Twilight, all we hear are Bella’s thoughts–kind of takes the suspense away, doesn’t it? I don’t mind a first-person narrative but when said narrator has a one-track mind like Bella, it gets redundant. You know that she loves Edward and that Jacob just doesn’t compare. Even when she realizes that she “loves him too”, there’s no question of whether or not she’ll actually act on that. It’s all about Edward. Yuuki, however, genuinely struggles between the boys. She loves them both in different ways and actually has to struggle to realize which of those ways is the ‘romantic’ that she wants.

There’s “pacifist” and there’s “pansy”

In both Vampire Knight and Twilight the main group of vampires seen are ‘pacifists’. In other words, these vampires do not drink the blood of other humans (or vampires), instead opting for animals in Twilight and blood tablets in Vampire Knight. This is one of the reasons that both of these groups of vampires have been criticized (that and being impervious to sunlight, but that’s another story for another day), but let me tell you something…the VK vampires trip up. A lot. In chapter one Aidou drinks from Yuuki, then soon after Zero regularly sucks Yuuki’s blood, and we learn that even the king of the pacifists Kaname has drank from Ruka when the temptation was too great. The animalistic side of these vampires is not always resisted and that makes them all the more interesting. Come on: everyone prefers an “I can’t resist any longer” to a “no no, I can’t, I mustn’t!”, right? And honestly, when the Vampire Knight vampires give into their vampiric nature–those are some of the best scenes in terms of plot development and romance. Everytime Zero bit Yuuki, his attachment to her grew and their sin worsened; when Kaname bit Yuuki, the course of the story completely altered. Sometimes vampires just have to drink blood and those in Vampire Knight do just that.

Plot exists here

Surprising, right? Plot can exist in series primarily revoling around romance! And by plot I mean that Vampire Knight shows a series of new characters and villains throughout its course while the Twilight series essentially has the same cast that’s introduced in the first book. Okay, first two books, but that’s it. Some of the most interesting elements of Vampire Knight show up later on. For instance, my favourite plot element of Vampire Knight: Guilty was the significance of Ichiru, Zero’s brother, and the pureblood Shizuka. Their interaction with each other and with other characters (Ichiru with Zero, Shizuka with Zero and Kaname…) helped to redeem this show’s second season for me. Shizuka as a villain was given a backstory and had a redeeming portion of herself shown through her bond with Ichiru. You were made to pity the villain while, in Twilight, you are just left wondering why Victoria is still alive three books in. More than just in the villains, the plotline of Vampire Knight weaves the main characters in as well. Zero has history with Shizuka and Ichiru, Kaname has fought Rido in the past, which is also connected to Yuuki…it all gets really complicated. This is a good part of what I mean by Vampire Knight having more substance to it than Twilight.

Significant secondary characters?!

They aren’t just sitting around waiting for those couple of pages when they get to tell their history; the secondary characters in Vampire Knight really matter in the story. Their development didn’t only occur in th past. Chairman Cross, for one, is a really complex character because of his background as a vampire hunter combined with his current reputation as a pacifist and the chairman of Cross Academy. He even got a whole chapter all to himself! The same goes for various members of the Night Class–Kain gets a chapter devoted to how his feelings for Ruka have developed through his life up until the present, Ruka undergoes a lot of development through her obsession with Kaname, Aidou gets a lot of screen- and page-time, Shiki is weaved into the Rido plotline via his family, Rima’s bond with Shiki is open for development in the future I hope, Ichijou has an important conflict with his grandfather… See? There is a lot going on in each of them and there is plenty of room for development in the story’s future, too, which makes them a very engaging group of secondary characters. And there are still plenty more important great secondaries like Yagari and Yori and the aforementioned villains and Ichiru. I hope my point is clear.

It’s called a ‘tragedy’

This is a personal preference but I would choose bittersweet over ridiculously romantic anyday. For this reason, I enjoy that Hino Matsuri has said that Vampire Knight will be ‘tragic’. We all know that Twilight ends with a happily ever after, but Vampire Knight has the potential to completely twist our expectations by the end. Already, the genre of tragedy has been seen in the unfortunate falling out of Yuuki and Zero, yet there is still potential for it to become even more tragic. One of the main boys could die, leaving us with the bittersweet ending that I have always somewhat been hoping for in which Yuuki gets together with the remaining boy even though he wasn’t her first choice. My point is that because Hino Matsuri has called VK a tragedy, I am anticipating seeing a heroine who is more conflicted, more torn by love, and more devastated than Bella ever was. And I don’t count Bella’s “there’s a hole in my chest” stage as devastated–that was just annoying. I want Yuuki to show emotions other than lovelorn and heartboken, and she has already done this, the perfect example being her parting with Zero. She loves Zero in one way or another, is totally broken after having to part ways with him, and yet shows some semblance of strength when she moves on with her life while continuing to have a part of herself that is miserable. That’s tragedy and I want to see more of it.

All of that being said, that’s why I think Vampire Knight is better than Twilight. I am sure that I can think of more reasons but I have already spent my morning writing this, so…I think that’s enough. I will always be anxiously awaiting a new chapter of Vampire Knight to be released while I still haven’t read Breaking Dawn and don’t particularly care to. It’s all about the suspense in regard to Vampire Knight; people can call shoujo series predictable all they want, but people’s thoughts on VK’s final pairing are always changing, which makes it a fabulous romance in my eyes. Until chapter 50, Vampire Knight fans!

The finale wastes no time showing us what Zero has become...

Katt: It took a couple of days of waiting, a search around the ‘net, and my computer crashing in the midst of watching the episode for me to finally witness the ending of Vampire Knight Guity. I’ll save my final opinion for later and start thing off where the last episode left off: what the hell is up with Zero? The episode wastes no time in showing us Zero’s transformed state, which pretty much consists of plain ol’ Zero with vines consuming his arm/the Bloody Rose. This state makes him more powerful than before–as is shown by how easily he destroys the level Es and wounds Rido–and also less in control, it seems, by the fact that the night class students have to dodge to avoid being injured themselves. But wait… wounds Rido? Is the final battle over already…?

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The final battle has begun. Who will come out the hero? (I hope we're all clear on the villain.)

Katt: Excellent! A sub of Vampire Knight Guilty 12 came out before Christmas! This means that I won’t have to work on blogging while family is being noisy around me, hahaha. Plus, we get to see how the anime is progressing sooner. And word on the street is that the anime will end differently than the most recent manga chapter has–truth, rumour? We might only find out next week, but let’s see what’s going on now…

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Public service announcement: everyone, please make sure your siblings know that you love them.

Katt: Ah, I cannot think of a better way to spend the morning after my final exam of the semester than sitting and catching up on anime. And I have to say that I’m excited for this one! As we recall from the previous episode, things a great battle is approaching at Cross Academy—so is this where we get to the action? The opening shows Yuuki staring at a gun and recalling the promise she made to Zero to kill him when he went beyond help. Then, the scene flashes to Kaname; does this say something about who Yuuki is prioritizing? I wonder. This episode is called “A Couple’s Fate”.

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A visitor Zero would rather not see, with a message he'd rather not hear.

Katt: Hi everyone! For the first time, I am taking over Minnie’s review of Vampire Knight Guity; I hope that I can do it justice. As we recall, the last couple of episodes have shown a busy night for vampires! Returned memories, revivals, and angst, oh my! Now it’s morning, and Yuuki is getting her first taste of a couple of vampire traits: the pain of sunlight and her ability to identify people by their blood’s scent. She also has a feeling that something ominous is coming, and it looks like Chairman Cross is feeling the same way… Evacuate the day students, something bad is about to go down!

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I am pretty sure this is why Rido doesn't get invited to family reunions...

Minnie: Hello everybody! It is Minnie once again with your weekly dose of Vampire Knight Guilty. As much as I love last episode, I did not think it will be subbed so quickly this week! As always, we need some vampires in our life right? Especially after watching that delicious Twilight movie and its hunk Edward Cullen! Oh my! Please ignore my fangirl like always and read on to see what our lovely vampire bishies are up to…

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Even though Yuuki is pretty now, she is the perfect example of a female character that I prefer to keep her hair short for one reason or another...

Minnie: Welcome all to the anime world of vampires! This week, thanks to Thanksgiving Break (in America) I figure, Vampire Knight Guilty sub is out sooner than usual. Saime is being awfully busy as always and leaving me to do all the work with VK Guilty. I don’t mind though since I enjoy solos. After such a dramatic cliffy last week with Kaname and Yuuki versus Zero, we are back with a new episode to see how everything unfolds between the three. The episode doesn’t disappoint as it continues exactly where we left off last episode… Yuuki and Kaname are siblings?!

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The poisonous kiss everyone has been waiting for...

Minnie: Hello everyone! It is Minnie once again with your review! Maybe Saime as well but I’m not a hundred percent sure on him. For all of you have read the manga, this is the episode everyone’s been waiting for. It’s the episode that changes everything. It’s the climax of the series. The manga pulls it off fabulously. I’m hoping that the anime will do as well…

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A sexy Shiki is always sexy no matter what eye color ^^

Minnie: Is this a punishment for me for taking two days off? As many of you guys might notice, Tuesday and Wednesday I did not have anything to review for because no updates on my anime. I knew I should have reviewed the newest ~ef~ a tale of melodies episode yesterday. Why me? Now, I am stuck with so many reviews and a couple of video games to play that I really want to just leave the reviews off until the last minute. However, we already have too many animes that are being delayed for the sake of video games and if I leave it off, it will stack up and overwhelm me later. I rather go at this pace I guess and be smart about it. Anyways, for Vampire Knight Guilty, it’s going to be another angsty episode… take my word for it… (more…)

I am beginning to see where the Zero/Kaname fans are coming from...

Minnie: Hello guys! Once again, I bring you Vampire Knight Guilty. Like I mention last episode, the following episodes will pick up the pace and the action. I am getting sick of build-up episodes no matter how fabulous they are (Zero/Yuuki/Kaname goodness). I am looking forward to more blood, suspense, action, etc. Hopefully, the anime pulls it off as well as the manga. I have high hopes for the following episodes in comparison to the earlier ones. Vampire Knight Guilty… please don’t fail me now!

I am just done with the episode and I must say it is pretty exciting. Everything is coming together. However, I must warn everybody- this episode is just angst and more angst. But this anime wouldn’t be Vampire Knight without the angst right? In the beginning of the episode, Yuuki ponders on if Kaname is the reason for her lost memory. She decides that she must ask him about this because it’s bugging her a lot. I understand how she feels. It’s almost too coincidential that Kaname happens to save her in the right time at the right place. Also, throughout the episode, Yuuki continues to see blood hallucinations everywhere. This started with the bathtub scene last episode remember? I have a bad feeling about this. And what is with the eerie voice she hears in her head? I don’t know if it’s just me but the voice sounds like Kanon Wakeshima, the singer of the ED. Maybe I am going crazy?

The scene with the Chairman and Zero is interesting. Not only does it show that Chairman and Yuuki think alike in the whole blood thing, it demonstrates that the Chairman is a lot smarter than he lets on. He knows that Zero has been drinking Yuuki’s blood. He also knows that Zero doesn’t like Kaname very much and a couple of other things that he has kept to himself. What I respect about the Chairman (besides being the comedy of the show) is that he keeps his cool in these situations. He tells that he will do what it takes to make sure both his children- Yuuki and Zero are safe from harm. The Chairman is a good man and a good father. I hope he plays his role in this series. In any case, someone wants to transfer to the Day Class but of course, Zero needs to approve it. Everyone should know what that means…

Now, it is back to Yuuki. She has more blood hallucinations and she is so overwhelmed by it that she accidentally attacks Kaname who happens to be standing behind her then and there. But Kaname is unaffected by this and hugs her close him. Yuuki is overwhelmed with emotions and starts apologizing multiple times. This is when Kaname confesses his feelings for Yuuki. It doesn’t make much impact on me because it’s very obvious from the beginning. What is astonishing is that he says he will get rid of all her worries for her, which the audience will see affect the episode later on. Zero is the one who finds Yuuki on the ground with Artemis beside her. Again, I can understand Yuuki because I mean how can she ask such questions now when the person she loves the most tells her that he loves her? What a shocker for Yuuki. And a plus for Kaname for dodging her questions without even hearing them! Haha.

Because Yuuki fails to ask Kaname herself, Zero does it for her at his own risk. Here it is: Kaname attacks Zero because Zero is one of Yuuki’s worries so he should erase Zero’s existence for her sake. I don’t really don’t think Kaname actually wants to kill Zero. He’s just in a bad mood and Zero came in at the wrong time. In any case, this scene is pretty angsty and bloody. And did I mention that it has a lot of homo undertones? Or is it just me? Anyways, Kaname has his hand around Zero’s neck and Zero has his gun pointed at Kaname. There is one important thing I learn from this scene- Kaname is strong. Kaname also hates Zero but keeps Zero around for the sake of Yuuki because Zero will never betray Yuuki. Very self-serving indeed Kaname. In the end, after this boy on boy fight, Zero gives in to his vampire instincts and bites Kaname. The last scene has Zero jumping out of the window and escaping, only to meet Aidou who mentions Kaname’s fake apathy.

Zero’s twin brother Ichiru is back! As a student of the Day Class! Isn’t that something? During his introduction, Yuuki sneaks in but of course she gets caught and Ichiru sees her. Ichiru tells her that she’s not the type of girl he thought his brother would have feelings for since he has good tastes and all. Aw. Ichiru has a crush on Yuuki. I’m just teasing. We learn soon after from the Chairman that Zero indeed allows his brother to transfer in and that he’s becoming more like an adult. The Chairman speaks the truth though. Those two will meet eventually so why not let them come closer?

Back in class, Ichiru is now popular among the girls because he’s easier to talk to. He’s the hope of the Day Class now because all the other males suck. Hahaha. He even wins the President over. This is when Zero walks in with his usual face on. Everyone’s afraid of him but his own twin brother of course. The two brother have an odd conversation about revenge, Cursed Twins, and such. Pretty much, Zero suspects that Ichiru is here for revenge like everyone else but Ichiru insists he just wants a normal schoo life. What a lie. But we’ll overlook that for now since he’s not doing anything yet. That night, Yuuki admits to Zero that she overheard their conversation and praises Zero for being incredible in front of his twin brother. Because of this, Yuuki feels motivated to talk to Kaname once more and figure out the truth. She loves him so she can understand why he must hide things. Right before she leaves to see him, Zero grabs her wrist out of impulse to stop her. At the last minute, he changes his mind and says it’s nothing. Yuuki is off to see Kaname.

The conversation between Kaname and Yuuki is very strange. That is the best word I can describe it at the moment. Kaname has a way to manipulate words. At the very start when Yuuki mentions that Kaname should stop trying to change topics, Kaname sadly asks Yuuki if she doesn’t like the fact that he loves her. Of course, this sets Yuuki off on a rant that she indeed loves him back, now and back then. But still, she is not hesitating in figuring out the truth about her past. I like Yuuki right here. Very resolute and firm. At last, Kaname comes out and tells her that her past is stained with blood and that he doesn’t want to tell her the truth so soon- to take her out of her world of fake happiness. Then, he goes on about how he is alone in this world and the only person who can bring warmth into his life is her. Once he tells her the truth, she will hate him. Yuuki responds by saying she will definitely not.

“Prove it then. Become my lover.” Kaname is very complicated character indeed. His words really strike hard. How should Yuuki take this? Zero finally realizes that he makes a mistake in letting her go. He doesn’t want her to go! Now, it’s his chance to bring her back. Is it too late? Yuuki struggles to break Kaname’s control over her. She fights back with words about how he’s doing this to avoid questions. In the end, she loses to him. She submits to him. While Zero stares at Yuuki with worried eyes, Kaname announces that Yuuki is officially his lover now and that he will be the one protecting her. There. It ends.

Overall, a very important episode because it forces the plot to head toward a Kaname/Yuuki direction. There are a lot of foreshadowing and a lot of crucial scenes that will all wrap together into one plot. I especially like the few Chairman moments in this episode. The Kaname/Yuuki scenes give me a bitter taste in my mouth. The Zero/Yuuki scenes aren’t much better because Yuuki is so set on Kaname that she fails to see Zero at all. This saddens me but I think the writers are doing this on purpose. Every episode, it switches between the two sides to satisfy both. But how will they end it? That is the real question. So in any case, another buildup episode but a very well-written and crucial one. I can’t wait for next episode then!

Minnie’s Overall Rating for Episode: 8/10

Minnie’s Anticipation for Next Episode: 8/10