Story Summary
Yuki is adopted daughter of the dean of Cross Academy. She is a student by day, security guard by night. At night her and her adopted brother Zero keep the day class and Cross's night class students from colliding, all the while keeping the secret that the night class students are vampires. But the vampires aren't all bad. The night class president, Kaname, once rescued Yuki from a vicious vampire when she was a child, and still watches over her now. Yuki is a sweet girl, but forceful in upholding the rules between day and night class students, but Zero is fierce and hostile towards the night class, having come from a long line of vampire hunters and being orphaned by a vampire attack. All Yuki knows about Zero is that his family was killed by a vampire, but what Yuki soon finds is that Zero is dealing with a personal crisis, having to face the fact that the vampire attack he suffered 4 years ago is finally turning him into what he hates most, a vampire. Yuki refuses to let Zero be consumed by blood lust, but Kaname is weary of Yuki being around such an unpredictable vampire as Zero.

My Opinion
I avoided this title for a while, thinking it was going to be some cutesy high school drama involving crazy vampires. But when I finally read the first volume I loved it. Yuki is a bit naive, but serious about her job. She cares for Zero, who is somewhat of a loner, and the relationship she embarks on with now vampire Zero is intense and mildly erotic. The character relationships are interesting. Mild mannered Kaname's love for Yuki, night student Ruka's possessiveness of Kaname, night student Aido's lust for girl's blood, and most interesting is Zero's self loathing having become what he was raised to hunt and kill.

Notes
August 2007 - Vampire Knight is a title currently featured in the American monthly manga magazine, Shojo Beat. It seems this creates an undesired consequence in that the graphic novels are released about 5 months apart rather than the standard 2 months for most manga. Its frustrating for me because I want to know whats next in the story, but refuse to spend money on a manga magazine to read just a short piece of one title.

General Information
Author: Matsuri Hino
Volumes: 8
Genre: Vampire/High School Drama
Age Rating: 16+
Years Run in Japan: 2005-2007
Japanese Publisher: Hakusensha
US Distributor: Shojo Beat
US Release Year: 2005
Made into Anime?: no
More By the Author:
- Merupuri (Viz - Shojo Beat)