Vampire Knight ep.11

June 29, 2008 | 15 Comments

This has to be one of the worst ever episode for the series when it comes to character design. My analysis back in the first episode about how the character design can easily turns ugly in the hands of lazy animators turns out to be correct. When I see an episode like this, I wonder if it's because the budget is so small that the animators refuse to labor on their craft more than necessary or if they just lose interest in what they do. It's probably hard for animators to be excited about each series that they do so I wonder at what point does the hobby turns into nothing more than a job that needs to be completed. Anyway, for some reason Ichiru sounds a lot like Zero in this episode so does this mean Miyano Mamoru voices both characters? That would be weird but kind of amusing as well since both are supposed to be twins. Ichiru sounds more like Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club though, albeit an evil one.

Episode 11

Zero wakes up only to find that Ichiru is still alive. In addition to this, he finds out that Ichiru is actually delighted when he and his parents got slaughtered by Shizuka. Ichiru explains that he feels put down in that family since their parents often think that he's useless. When he was a kid, Ichiru encountered Shizuka, who was crying on top of a Sakura tree. It was then that the two felt immediate bond. In the present time, Ichiru tells Zero that eventually he feels nothing for his parents and realizes that the love he feels for Zero is actually hatred. Although he wants to kill Zero, Ichiru feels that it'd be better to let Zero suffer as the later degrades into a Level-E. Before Ichiru gets out of the room, however, Yagari storms in. Ichiru tries to attack his former teacher but Zero stops him, causing the blade to almost stab Ichiru. Before that can happen, however, Yagari uses his own body to shield Ichiru. Although the injury is not serious, Zero has no choice but to carry Yagari back to Cross so he can get treatment. Zero then leaves again to look for Ichiru.

Instead finding him, Zero encounters Yuuki, who offers him to drink her blood so Zero roughly press her body to the wall before sucking her neck from behind. Yeah, it's not sexual at all. Afterwards, Yuuki remembers how Maria told her that if she wants Maria to save Zero, she'd either have to give herself or deliver the corpse of Kaname. Meanwhile, Zero has finally calmed down thanks to Yuuki's blood. Before he can go off to confront Maria and Ichiru, however, Cross finds him and asks him to guard the student party. At the same time, Yuuki is informed by Yori that she has a present. It's a white gown from Kaname. Meanwhile, Cross tells Zero to enjoy the night and to not be bound by his future. Their conversation comes to a halt when Yuuki comes by, dressing in the white gown. Upon seeing Yuuki looking excited, Zero wonders why she's always smiling. Yuuki tells him that it's because she wants to see him smiling too. Inside the party, Yuuki asks Kain if he knows Kaname's whereabouts to Kain tells her that Kaname is at the balcony.

When Yuuki finds Kaname in the balcony, he asks her to dance with him as a thanks for the dress so Yuuki complies. Instead of listening to the beat of the song, however, he just dance slowly because he wants to remember of the time when the two of them used to dance. Gross. She was a little girl back then you creep. Yuuki is embarrassed about this so she tells him that back then she was just started to learn Waltz so she wonders until when he's going to treat her like a child. Kaname claims that's not his intention so Yuuki brings up the fact that Kaname was the one who tempered with her memory the other night. Kaname tells her that he's not treating her like a child. He just wants to protect her. While this happens, Yuuki remembers how Maria asked her to kill Kaname but Yuuki decides not to do this and instead run away from the guy. At the same time, Kain and Aidou finds a place where Shizuka's real body is stored. Before they can do anything however, Seiren arrives to tell them not to do anything. Kain, realising that Kaname has a plan of his own suggests to Aidou that they don't do anything for now since they can't fight a pure-blood like Shizuka.

Impression

The part where Ichiru claims that he was willing to kill his family because he felt unappreciated still feels unnatural. It's not like anyone in the family was abusing him. It's not their fault that he has such a low self-esteem. Even if he can't become a hunter, he can still get other jobs. I highly doubt that he'd be looked down by others just because he can't be a vampire hunter. After all, it's not like he lives in a middle-age period where vampire hunting is the only respectable job in the country. In fact, most people do not even know about the existence of Vampires. What I'm trying to say is that should Ichiru gets impaled with a stake one of these days, I doubt that anyone will feel sorry for him. He decided to betray his own family and kill them for no good reason other than a pathetic insecurity. I guess one can claim that he's been manipulated by Shizuka to go against his family but until we see the flashback which suggests this, there's no excuse for what he's done. At least Shizuka has a reason for wanting a revenge while Ichiru has none whatsoever.

I'm glad that Yuuki finally decides to confront Kaname about his creepy, controlling behavior. I'd have bought him claiming that he just wanted her to be safe if all that he did that night was putting Yuuki to sleep so she won't be in danger. However, he did more than that. He modified her memory so that she won't remember not only the incident but also Zero. That's a violation of her right to decide what she want or does not want to remember. I also didn't like the way he ordered Zero around like he's some kind of personal slave who is still alive because of he still has some kind of function for Yuuki. On the other hand, Zero is also not faring better this episode. After taking Yuuki's blood, he was being quite rude towards her instead of thanking her. I guess he's embarrassed about the whole thing but the whole pissy act gets a bit tiring after a while. Both Yuuki and Cross have tried their best to make him happy. The least he can do is to be nice to these two people who have been nothing but good to him. I really hope that in the future, the series will develop him beyond his moody personality traits.

Poll At the end of the series, would you like Yuuki to end with either one of the vampires or to be by herself?

© memento 2003