Will a shocking new twist inject life back into the story, or drain it of what it has left?
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Matsuri Hino
Translation: Tetsuichiro Miyaki
English Adaptation: Nancy Thistlethwaite
What They Say:
Yuki is attacked by another pureblood outside a graveyard for meddling in the ways of the vampire society. Injured, she returns home to Kaname, who shares with her his past memories and the truth behind the Kuran family.
Content:
At the start of the volume, we find Zero reflecting on his status as a vampire, complete with twisted images of his brother. Meanwhile, Yuki’s quest takes her into the isolation of a graveyard. It is there that the crude, childish head of the Towa family appears before her and suddenly attacks. Yuki is quickly defeated, but Zero suddenly appears and puts an end to the fight.
At this point, Zero decides to carry Yuki off to the safety of a hunter society hideout, with Aido following closely behind. When Yuki awakes, she finds herself about to suck Zero’s blood, but immediately pulls back and apologizes. Yuki then decides to flee, asking Kaname to save her. He complies, and stops to beat some obedience into Towa along the way.
After being rescued, Yuki goes into a long sulking session directed at Kaname, only for Kaname to reveal that he totally wasn’t her brother all along. It is then that Kaname chooses to reveal the further surprise that somehow he is also totally the very first of the Kuran bloodline, an ancient and powerful vampire. Following this revelation, Kaname shares his memories to Yuki, displaying a time ten thousand years ago when the “progenitors,” the original vampires, first began to realize they were not alone. In this ancient time, Kaname was shunned by human society, yet still tried to prevent himself from ever drinking blood. It was at this time that vampires began to convert humans to their cause, and a female vampire stood against them, with Kaname at her side. Kaname came to love her, but eventually she left him, giving her very heart to create weapons able to destroy vampires. It is this sacrifice and these weapons that we learn, as the volume ends, form the basis of the hunter society.
In Summary:
This volume is a little difficult to judge, as in many ways it feels like a return to form for the series, and yet at the same time it feels as though the plot may be getting out of hand. At the very least, the new character introduced here seems to have some real style about him, so hopefully he will end up being significant, as opposed to just a bit player. The real core issue of the volume is the latest in a stream of increasingly ridiculous plot twists. Certainly, when it is first declared it seems both baffling and almost insulting to the reader. However, when it starts to play out further, we are treated to a rather cleverly displayed flashback to explain things further. Shockingly, this finally manages to make Kaname at least a little bit likable, but it may convolute the series just a little too far in the process. Hopefully the author will be able to play well with the plot points presented here, as for the first time in a long time the series seems to be trying something risky and new.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A
Package Rating: B+
Text/Translation Rating: B
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Age Rating: 16+
Released by: Viz Media
Release Date: October 4th, 2011
MSRP: $9.99
omg i cant believe kaname is soo rude to yuki