First Impressions / Vampire Knight

Summary:

When Kaname secludes himself in his room, the other vampires get worried, but the more pressing matter at hand is the imminent arrival of Ichijou’s grandfather. It seems that Ichijou’s grandfather Ichiou is one of the oldest members of the Council of Ancients that has command over the vampire world, and though Ruka points out that the members aren’t monarchs, that doesn’t stop Ichijou from worrying because he doesn’t want to disturb their dorm’s peace. Ichiou arrives that night, and all of the vampires are there are waiting for him when he arrives, including Kaname. The two already know each other, but when Ichiou bows down to Kaname and starts talking about someday wanting a tiny share of Kaname’s unparalleled blood, Ruka and Aidou force him away from Kaname. Wishing for the bloodshed of another vampire is their society’s biggest taboo, and Aidou starts to say that he’s not afraid of Ichiou, however Kaname stops him with a slap across the face. Ichiou explains that Kaname is the reason he lets his grandson be at this school, and he then kneels in reverence to the pureblood.

Later that night, Ruka visits Kaname’s room because she feels that she hadn’t been scolded for what she did earlier. When Kaname doesn’t punish her, she changes the subject to how he’s been looking down recently and tries to offer him her own blood. He doesn’t take her up on it though and reassures her that he’s fine. This doesn’t make Ruka feel any better, and she cries to Kain about it afterwards. Kain knows that vampires try to satisfy a desire by drinking blood, and for Kaname, Ruka’s blood right now isn’t enough. Meanwhile, Ichiou tells Ichijou to keep watch over Kaname – that’s the true reason he’s allowing his grandson stay at that school. Ichijou, however, refuses to do anything that disadvantages his friends. This causes Ichiou to start talking about how Ichijou doesn’t understand and how the peace at this school is fake, however Yuuki suddenly interrupts him to say that the school is indeed peaceful. She and Zero are here to take him to the chairman’s room, and before they go off, Kaname appears to say that he looks forward to meeting Ichiou again. Having Kaname around also gives Yuuki a chance to thank him, and she runs off before he can respond.

Sometime afterwards, Yuuki runs into Zero in the bathroom as he’s thinking about her and Kaname, and she asserts that she never thought about giving her blood to Kaname. She then starts lecturing Zero about giving him her blood and talks about both of them being prepared, but Zero responds by pushing her against the wall and acting as if he’s going to feed on her, all to prove that she’s the one who’s not prepared for it. This both embarrasses and pisses Yuuki off, and she leaves after throwing a towel at Zero. As Zero reflects over what just happened, the chairman comes into the bathroom with a job for him. The Hunters’ Association has issued orders for Zero to go after a Level E, and he’s not allowed to refuse the job. The next morning, Yuuki sees Zero leave school and decides to follow him as he heads to the abandoned house where the Level E is camped out with his latest victim. When Zero confronts him, the vampire reveals that he can’t forget about the feeling of putting his fangs into a woman, and he thinks that Zero doesn’t understand. The Level E then catches Zero off guard and makes his escape, but he runs into Shiki and Rima with Yuuki at the front of the house.

Shiki and Rima were sent by the Council of Ancients to do the same job as Zero, and though Shiki uses his own blood as a whip-like weapon, the Level E manages to escape yet again. Yuuki then runs further into the house to look for Zero, but she gets caught by the vampire in the process. Fortunately, Zero saves her and, as he is about to finish off the Level E with his gun, the vampire seems glad that he won’t have to kill anyone anymore. Yuuki thanks Zero afterwards for saving herself and the vampire’s last victim, and this reminds Zero of how Kaname had said that he couldn’t betray Yuuki. Unbeknownst to him, this entire scene was seen by a raven who was relaying the images to its female master. This girl had been looking for Zero and finds Yuuki delicious looking, so she decides to go to Cross Academy.

 
 
 

Though I generally liked this episode, I thought its two halves were rather disjoint. I guess if there were a unifying theme, it would have been the Council of Ancients angle, but this still mostly felt like two separate stories. I would have preferred if they had focused on either the first half’s vampire society stuff or the latter half’s hunt. Both of those certainly have have interesting aspects to delve into (I’m curious to see more hunters and vampires competing for the same targets) without needing the other. Having said all that though, I still rather liked the episode. The action scenes – Shiki’s blood weapon in particular – were pretty good, and the introduction of Nakahara Mai’s character (Kurenai Maria according to the credits) means there’s something to look forward to next week. It sounds like she’s the woman Yagari Touga referred to a few episodes ago when he said that she was still alive.

21 Comments

  5. More Ichijo!! Seriously- he’s a great character 😉
    It seems that they sqeezed most of vol. 3 content in this episode- hence the feel of it being disjointed. It can’t be helped though- we’re already at 8th episode yet there’s still alot of manga to cover. They might still have to omit some chapters if they want to fit in the 24 episode restriction.

    Void
    Reply

  11. I love how everyone spoils parts of the series, without putting any spoiler tags up – like Splash. Way to go and ruin the anime for everyone who hasn’t already had it spoiled by people similar to yourself. >_>

    Xylona
    Reply

  13. @alrick13
    I’m actually waiting on either Mishicorp or Orange-VK groups since they got good history and they have proven to get good subs for earlier episodes of VK. The only drawback though is that they are pretty slow… But I still like to watch VK with them… Shokudan’s is okay but I’m not a fan. They’re fast though so I have to give them credit there.

    miara
    Reply

  14. One thing that does annoy me about this series is Yuuki’s incompetence when shit hits the fan. Every time she is put in a bad situation by a vampire or when her back is against the wall she cocks up EVERY TIME. Makes me wonder why she bothers carrying a weapon and trying at all if all she ever does is let Zero and Kaname come in to save her ass every chance they get. I know they are doing the whole ‘knight in shining armor’ but its starting to make me wonder if she can do anything by herself or the things she does manage to do are just flukes…

    APsycho
    Reply

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