Cross Adademy is attended by two groups of students: the Day Class and the Night Class. At twilight, when the students of the Day Class return to their dorm, they cross paths with the Night Class on their way to school. Yuki Cross and Zero Kiryu are the Guardians of the school, protecting the Day Class from the Academy's dark secret: the Night Class is full of vampires!
Ichijo wakes up and finds himself in the care of Sara Shirabuki, who saved his life after he tried sacrificing himself to kill Ichio. She asks him to tell her all he knows about Kaname...
Yuki returns to the Kuran manor with Kaname, and he admits all of his past wrongdoings to her...
After that there is a one year time-skip, and the focus changes to Zero, who saves a little girl from being kidnapped by some ex-human vampires...(courtesy of Goodreads)
Review
*Warning: Potential spoilers. My manga reviews tend to be more of a summary than a review. I find it hard to review manga in the same way I do regular books.
Volume 11 is a transitional volume. Tons of things happen and at the same time, not a lot happens. It's establishing background for the rest of the series. While there are lots of little stories, political maneuvers, and relationship building, there's not a lot of action. Surprisingly, this wasn't a bad thing. The last few volumes have been so action oriented that I had to read them twice to understand what happened. Volume 11 is more straightforward.
The series has always been serious, but is becoming increasingly so. Even the lighthearted characters are often serious. Aido provides the only moments of levity in this volume, but even he adds to the soap opera like drama.
The Night Class has left the Cross Academy. Yuki and Kaname are holed up in the family castle. Kaname is bugging me. He treats Yuki like such a child and is far too controlling for my taste. At the same time, he is trying to build their relationship. He confesses to her that he killed Shizuka and the entire Senate, because he wants her to love him as he is. The passion between Yuki and Kaname is only growing and Matsuri Hino does a great job of drawing the combination of love and tension between them.
Meanwhile, Zero continues to hunt vampires. He is being groomed by Headmaster Cross to become to new president of the Vampire Hunter Society. He is haunted by Yuki's absence - having vowed to kill her but I think also loving her at the same time. Similarly, Yuki isn't whole without Zero. She loves Kaname, but can't be satisfied without Zero. I am becoming more of a Team Zero person. I can't wait to see him and Yuki together again.
The volume introduces the idea of the vampires and vampire hunter society cooperating. It's not an easy beginning between the two groups and I'm sure will lead to many conflicts in future volumes.
I'm SO in love with this Manga! <3 I can't wait to read the 12th volume!!!!
ReplyDeleteI've always been Team Zero despite his angst and occasional ass-hat moments -sigh- he's been through much so I can understand his actions and attitude even if at times I want to shake him and tell him to at least be a smidge nicer.
ReplyDeleteYuki and Kaname's relationship is a tad weird to me since he does treat her like a child when they really should be equals but I guess that's difficult to do since he has been looking out for her since she was a little girl.
Sandy
My Manga Monday Post isn't a manga at all ;).
I always have trouble with transitional books where you get a lot of things happening, but just like you said, when you're done reading nothing hugely significant has taken place to move the story forward. It sounds like this one was a nice break from all the action of the previous volumes though, so that's nice:)
ReplyDeletei've read a couple from the series and enjoyed them. but i haven't read enough to decide on which team i'm on.
ReplyDeleteYou review manga! I was searching for someone! I want to review too, but my friends say that i will not be a good manga reviewer since i don't read more than 5-6 different mangas XD Haha!
ReplyDeleteI used to read Vampire Knight (and i have watch the anime) but i stopped. I think i have read this volume though. Kaname was always annoy me.
(New Follower)
Go Team Zero! I've been Team Zero since the first volume of this manga. I can't wait to see what happens when he and Yuki meet again. Kaname is beginning to grow on me and I find him tolerable but still mysterious. I also think the new villain should definitely create some havoc.
ReplyDeleteIt's always a bit tricky when things go from action to buildup to the next sequence, but I'm glad to see it set the stage well. Great review, Alison! :)
ReplyDeleteAnother great manga review!
ReplyDeleteGlad you were able to understand this one better than the last few volumes.
Wait until you read Vol. 12!