Vampire Knight ep.02

April 14, 2008 | 40 Comments

This episode takes a slight nosedive in the animation department. There are moments where the face of the characters looks a bit off. I guess that's to be expected since thet anime design is still quite complex that a minor difference can be easily spotted. One thing that this series continues to impress me, however, is the soundtrack. This episode features a gregorian-chant-like soundtrack halfway through the episode and I thought it really fits the mood of the story. Story-wise, things seem to move faster than I thought it will. But this is probably a good thing since they have a lot to cover and at the most, the animators probably only have 24 episodes to go. This, however, makes me wonder as to how they'll end the series. Will they leave it hanging until the manga is completed? Or will they create a 'life goes on' ending like Fruits Basket?

Zero is coughing heavily in the bathroom and gets a brief splash of a woman in blood-splattered kimono. In the basin, there's a tablet that dissolves into blood particles as it gets drenched in water. At the same time, Kaname is seen dissolving his own blood tablet into a glass of water while saying that the time is imminent. The next day, the girls in Yuuki's class are excited because it's close to Valentine's day. The only one who pretends to not be interested in the day is the class' Iinchou, who claims that girls giving chocolate to boys is worthless. That is until Yuuki's friend, Yori, tells him that he might get one too. His imagination suddenly goes overdrive and imagines Luca giving him a big Chocolate in the shape of a heart. Since Yori claims that she's not giving anyone any chocolate, Yuuki pretends that she's not going to give anyone chocolate either. Yori doesn't believe this and asks Yuuki about the magazine featuring how to make chocolate cake. Yuuki pretends that's got nothing to do with Valentine's day but Yori sarcastically tells Yuuki that it doesn't look like she's going to give it to the guy who's been giving them death glares from behind.

That guy is Zero, who reminds Yuuki that she's a prefect so he can't believe she's going to give chocolate to Kaname. Yuuki quickly claims that this is just to thank someone who's been helping her a lot. Besides, she hasn't decided to give it to him. After hearing the girls giggling about giving chocolate to Zero, the guys in the class think that Zero would be their aspiration (against night class guys). Unfortunately, Zero is not in the mood to be anyone's aspiration and just glares daggers at everyone in the class. Later on, the chairman asks the two to be extra careful so that no one can reveal the identity of the night class students. Zero suggests that they should just ban the entire activities but the chairman thinks that will just make the student revolt against them. Besides, he doesn't want to keep the night class from their fans. He, however, quickly shut his pie hole when Zero has a look that suggests that he stops talking about the vampires. The chairman tells Zero that he knows humans and vampires have been enemies for centuries but there are vampires who wish to co-exist peacefully with them. Therefore, it's important to teach them to bridge the gap between two races.

Although Zero probably thinks that this is impossible, someday he'd like Zero to understand that. Zero, however, refuses to say anything, causing the situation to be uncomfortable. In order to diffuse the situation, Yuuki pulls out her presents for the chairman and Zero. It turns out the chairman gets coupons for Yuuki's personal shoulder massage while Zero gets to send her around for an errand once. Zero can't help but commenting about how her variation in giving present is still the same since middle high school. Before the chairman can say anything else, Yuuki drags Zero out, pretending that the school is about to start again. However, she simply wants to get him away from the chairman because she feels he keeps bringing up things that hurts Zero's heart. A flashback then shows how when he was a kid, Zero was taken by the chairman back to where he and Yuuki lives. Back then he explained to Yuuki that Zero's family were killed by bad vampires. Because Zero wasn't responsive, Yuuki had to actually take his jacket off. It was then that she noticed the blood around Zero's neck. Even though he wasn't injured, she thought the boy standing in front of him looked like he was broken.

That evening, the fangirls become even more wild even though it's not valentine's day just yet. Yuuki immediately scolds a girl who tries to climb the wall to get into the nigh students' dormitory. Because the girl is in shock, she and her friends fell over. Thankfully for her, Zero manages to catch her so she didn't hurt herself. The night staff then comes out of their dormitory, sending the fangirls into frenzy mass. While the group of vampires are walking to the school, however, they sense something familiar nearby. Because of this, Kaname goes back and asks Zero about his physical condition. He then leaves after leaving a mocked "take care of yourself". In response, Zero tells him to see and give it a try if he wants to know, asking the guy to fight him. Aidou is unhappy to hear this but Cain manages to stop the guy from picking a fight. That night, Yuuki is busy chopping chocolate to make the chocolate cake. She gets excited when wondering whether Kaname will like it. She, however, quickly reminds herself that this is just to thank Kaname. Unknown to her, Zero has been watching from outside the kitchen before retreating away from looking like he's in pain.

The chairman then appears and tells him that even if he fight or ignore it, nothing will change. Therefore, he wonders why Zero is doing this to himself. Despite Zero's attempt to ignore him, the chairman gives him a glass of water and a tablet. He asks Zero to drink it if he wants the pain to go away. Zero, however, is persistent and throws away the glass. The chairman reminds him that the pain will occur more frequently now and will get worse he doesn't understand why Zero refuses to understand this. The change in Zero's personality is quickly observed by Yuuki. She at first wonders if Zero plans on doing something sneaky to Kaname but after a while realizes that Zero has no reason to do something like that. The two then get out to arrange the Valentine's day chocolate giving session. She orders the girls to just give the chocolate and the vampires to just take them. As it turns out, each night class students have a booth where girls line up to give them chocolate. Luca is clearly jealous of seeing so many girls wanting to give their chocolate to Kaname. Cain reminds her that her face is scary and Luca responds by saying that his face is unhappy as well even though he gets chocolate.

Meanwhile, Aidou is busy charming a girl by asking him about her blood type. ^^;; Yuuki immediately gives Aidou the red card, warning him to only take chocolate and not anything else. Elsewhere, girls are keep giving chocolates to Kaname that he can no longer take anymore in his hand. Because of this, he proceeds to leave the area after thanking Yuuki for organizing this. Yuuki realizes that she lost her chance to give her chocolate to Kaname but when a horde of fangirls push her around, she accidentally dropped her chocolate. Zero immediately picks it up and throws the chocolate to Kaname, telling him that he dropped it. Kaname understands that the chocolate is from Yuuki and thanks Yuuki for it. Yuuki is embarrassed about this and scolds Zero for doing this but Zero defends himself by saying that she was going to chicken out. Yuuki responds that she thinks she's just going to bother Kaname since the two of them are different. Unknown to Yuuki, Kaname gives the rest of his chocolate to another vampire because he's quite content with the one that he gets from Yuuki. Yuuki is also surprised because when she's about to talk to Zero again, the guy already disappears.

Meanwhile, Ichijou is in the middle of enjoying his chocolate when Kaname asks him where are Aidou and the others. Aidou and the others are actually in the forest, confronting Zero. Luca wants to know why Kaname has a lot of interest in Zero. Despite the rather threatening message, Zero welcomes the vampires to challenge him. Because of this, Aidou and Cain releases their elemental power (ice and fire, respectively). Before they can get into a brawl, however, Yuuki arrives and reminds them that they are not allowed to fight. After the vampires left, Yuuki tries to talk to Zero but he ignores her. She, however, continues to look for him and eventually finds him in the bathroom. She tells him it'd be nice if he can talk a bit more and proceeds to give him a chocolate that she made. When Yuuki turns around, Zero is tempted to bite her but he manages sto control himself and leave the room. Meanwhile, Kaname explains to the other vampires that 4 years ago, Zero's life was changed for good. Cut to a shot of Zero in another bathroom, contemplating of drinking the blood tablet. At the last minute, however, he changes his mind and drops the glass.

Impression

It's hard not to feel sorry for Zero in this episode despite his grouchy attitude. He probably lost any desire to socialize that night after his family was murdered by vampires. Judging from his behaviour as of late, I don't think it'd take a genius to figure out that Zero has been turned into a vampire while his family was killed. Interestingly enough, Kaname and the other vampires are clearly able to recognize the presence of another vampire. I suppose it's handy to recognize which ones are your prey and which ones are one of your own. Moving along, I still have no idea why Cross wants to keep this pseudo-peace between vampires and humans. There doesn't seem to be any point to this so far except that it helps Yuuki and Zero to get used to living amongst vampires. Although Zero hates the idea, sooner or later he'll have to face the facts that he is no longer a normal human being. Therefore, if he can have a good relationship with some of the vampires in the school, he might survive a bit longer.

Speaking of Zero, this episode shows why I prefer his character to Kaname. When Yuuki dropped her valentine chocolate, Zero had no hesitation to throw it to Kaname. He knows that Yuuki wanted to give the chocolate to Kaname but had no courage to do so. Because of this, despite his hatred for Kaname and vampires in general, he willingly throws Yuuki's chocolate down Kaname's way. This suggests to me that he has no other interest but to make Yuuki happy and that's a plus in my book. As for the other vampires, Kaname is starting to creep me out a little bit when he sniffs that chocolate that Yuuki gave him. There's always this possessive tone that he shows when it comes to Yuuki and that is a bit unsettling. I am, however, grateful that we get to see more of the other vampires. Having said that, I didn't expect Aidou and Cain to use their power like that. I do hope that we'll get to see some kind of a fight in the future because it'd be a shame if we don't get to see those powers being used in a battlefield.

© memento 2003