Manga Review: Vampire Knight（ヴァンパイア騎士 )

So I've decided to take a quick look at a comic that has recently taken the shoujo world by storm: Vampire Knight. As Maggie can tell you, vampire stories have seen a huge uprising recently in YA Lit (Twilight, Vampire Kisses, etc.), television (True Blood is the new one on HBO), and film (the recent film adaptation of Twilight), so it's no wonder that a manga with a title like Vampire Knight would be flying off the shelves. I should preface this post with a disclaimer: I don't like vampire stories. As a whole I find them rather contrived, as they all rest on that popular "she's a girl, he's a vampire" dilemma wherein he has to hold in his raging urge to rip her throat out  (read: man lust) to preserve her innocence (read: virginity) all in the midst of fierce sexual tension (read: high school brand hormones). However, I figured I would look into this one to see if it had any new play on the tired out gender cliches. And I'll go ahead and tell you, the short answer is no.

The main protagonist is Yuuki ("gentle princess"... ugh) Cross, the spunky and clumsy yet caring, innocent and unknowingly super hot adopted daughter of the Cross Academy's headmaster. The academy is made up of a Day Class for normal, human students and a Night Class for the vampire students, who are all really hot. The head of the vampire class is really really hot Kaname Kuran (seeing a pattern?), a "pure blood" vampire who happened to save Yuuki from a mean, ugly vampire when she was little. The other protagonist is Zero Kiryuu, Yuuki's angsty (hot) childhood friend who is totally in love with her who also happens to be a vampire, because he was bitten by one when a "pure blood" vampire killed his whole family...whew. I wish I were making this up, I really do. Zero is my least favorite type of character: the hot friend who secretly loves the girl, is super protective of her but a huge dick to her face. And of course, I am betting 5 bucks right now that this is the guy she will end up with.

For the first, oh, fourteen chapters, Yuuki is the only notable female character in the manga. I am serious. There is one other girl who has like seven lines, which are all about how she hates Yuuki and wants to bone Kaname. So the manga has already fantastically failed The Bechdel Test. What else? Yuuki has little to no agency in the entire manga. Typical of vampire stories, she is constantly in dangerous situations from which she needs to be saved by Zero or Kaname, only to have her savior slather all over her neck and then push her away so he can hate himself for giving in to his raging lust. She has a fighting stick but she never, ever uses it, or else it is knocked out of her hand in the first five seconds so that she can get slathered on by her attacker before getting slathered on by her saviour. Because of the sexual implications of vampirism, every dangerous encounter that Yuuki has is colored by the possibility of rape, and basically every safe encounter she has with Kaname or Zero is sexual. Sometimes there is some uncomfortable blurring between the two. So far, the manga is a complete fantasy for women who want to surrender to hot guys who are mean to them.

I'm only fourteen chapters in (and I'm impressed I got this far), but I think I will continue because apparently a new girl is about to enter the scene. If she is what I predict (an evil, beautiful but ultimately innocuous rival), I will certainly throw the thing down in disgust. If not, maybe I'll be back to report some more. For now, I'm giving myself a break from bad shoujo and reading some China Mieville. Goodnight everyone.