Summary

Seemingly long ago, an older version of Kaname with long hair walks through a desolate landscape in the red sun. In the slightly more recent past, a young Kaname reads a book with a very small Yuki while she dreams of being able to see such beautiful landscapes.

Yuki in the present day is on a mission to accomplish what only she can do, and gets attacked by some stray nameless vampires. Instead of shooting them with the gun that Zero gave her, she’s saved by the night class students. Everyone except Aidou urges her to escape to a safer place.

Things become sandier around campus as Rido has his fill and all the nameless vampires are destroyed as well. Everyone runs after the sound of a gun shot to provide support to Yagari-sensei. Only Ruka and Kain stay behind briefly to chat about how she’s protecting Yuki because she only wants to protect what’s most important to Kaname. Kain jokes sweetly that if that’s the case, he better do his best to become more important to Kaname, too.

As Yagari regrets not bringing a sword (because he runs out of bullets), everyone arrives to save the day. Large amounts of poorly dressed nameless vampires meet their end as Kaien shows up and destroys the entire front gate to stop the incoming creatures, running off to fight them all alone and leaving Yuki free to confront Rido with everyone else at her side.

Elsewhere, the Vampire Hunter Leader has some makeup problems because of Kaien’s attack from before, so Ichijou’s grandfather teases him by offering his blood to heal him before breaking his neck and letting him crumble to the ground anyway. Kaname gives a fantastic fireworks display as he enters the Vampire Council’s building in order to meet with Ichijou’s grandfather. Before he can escape into an underground tunnel, Kaname greets him in his office. Blinded temporarily by a much less impressive display of fireworks power, Kaname begins to follow him through the tunnel but Ichijou himself shows up with his sword in hand. Kaname allows him to take care of his grandfather personally. Ichijou greets his grandfather at the other end of the tunnel and unsheathes his sword dramatically in the moonlight. As Kaname walks away from the building, he turns around to witness the entire estate to crumble and shatter to the ground.

Meanwhile, the night class students rush to the roof of a building (except for Shiki and Rima, who just walk casually) and meet Rido at the top. Rido repeatedly mistakes Yuki for Juri, and binds the night class with his pure blood power. Sitting on a throne of bodies, he orders all the other random vampires to attack the night class students while he takes a lick up on Yuki’s neck. Before he can bite, she grasps the violently reacting Artemis strapped to her leg and swings it around to slash his arm. It transforms into an extended, larger form, and presumably more dangerous than ever, although that doesn’t stop Yuki from being tied up by blood-tentacles.

Yuki saved the night class students from the nameless vampires, but they’re still powerless to stop Rido from having his way with Yuki until Zero shows up. He shoots Rido in the back with the Bloody Rose gun, but seems to have trouble with his sudden increase in power. His body becomes engrossed and malformed behind his left shoulder, so he begs Yuki to cut him with her Artemis blade in order to calm the power and make it manageable. After Aidou protects Yuki from a blast of power set off by Zero’s massive arm when it blasted the ground, she gains the courage to slice Zero’s shoulder just a little bit. Zero smiles as the distorted arm heals. He thinks fondly of his brother while he leans down to picks up the Bloody Rose. It glows with a stunningly white light, growing ever brighter as Kaname and Kaien look up at the school from outside the front gate.

 

“Preview”

 

First Thoughts

If you detect the slightest hint of displeasure in my tone, I’ll give you one guess as to why that is. Apologies for the late review, but the end of this season for VK has been a really rough ride. I watched the season finale tonight on TV and it made me crazy with rewriting. It’s so unfortunate that they couldn’t wait to animate this until it was finished being written, because the chapter of the manga that was released this week was the ultimate ending to this section of the story. I’d go as far as to say it is my favorite chapter to date, and would have been a great ending place for the entire manga if not for one or two tiny loose threads they probably insist on dragging out forever. Suffice it to say things did NOT go down the same way for the anime’s adaptation, and I don’t think they’ll be able to reconcile it smoothly in the future if they choose to continue animating this series. But ok. Let’s try to enjoy this for what it is. I’m officially unable to separate my bias for the manga at this huge divergence, so I’m very interested in strictly anime-watchers’ points of view. I’m quite literally unable to stop criticizing every stereotypical or emotional plot turn or twist.

Also, one more small vent paragraph concerning censorship and anime: Vampires sucking blood is OK but a kiss between not-really siblings is not? Are you kidding me? They chose not to animate a touching scene that would have sent fangirls screaming wildly in happiness, presumably because of the possible incestuous connotations. I can’t think of any other reason. But it seems so ridiculous to censor something so inane when you’re watching a series about vampires. Blood splattered everywhere, people dying left and right, but NO KISS. That would offend the viewer’s sensibilities. Honestly, why bother censoring images or specific instances of questionable material if the entire premise is “pushing the envelope,” as it were.

As to this episode’s plot, Kaname proves the one thing he can accomplish can also be accomplished by Ichijou, and Yuki confronts Rido on the roof while everyone else looks on kinda uselessly. She’s the only one he can’t control due to pure-blood status, but unfortunately the vampire Yuki forgot to eat the part of human Yuki that gets kidnapped and plays the victim all the time. And blood tentacles. Let’s not go down that dark path.

This week’s episode should be released within the next few days so we can finally put an end to this madness. I wish I could be a bit happier about it, but it’s not the end of the world. I can still adjust my memories to believe that the anime followed the manga and everything was incredibly suspenseful and well animated. Seriously, it’s that much better. Consider this an endorsement for the manga. Enjoy your holidays! Go vote for your favorite anime of the year before time runs out!

24 Comments

  1. Claymore and the mess they made of the ending in the animated version springs to mind, when I watch what the studio is doing here. I hope they at least follow the most recent parts of the manga rather then coming up with something on their own.

    Ronin09
  2. Hum… I think they only took out the kiss between Kaname and Yuuki for another reason, from what I can tell by the last episode anyway… Can’t say I’m said they took it out though xD

    All I can say about this anime is, thank goodness for the manga. X_X

  3. I know the differences between the anime and manga at this point, but I don’t find it that bad. At least the explanations remain the same.

    The Vampire Hunter president had been feeding on vampire blood to retain youth, and Zero’s absorbing Ichiru’s and three purebloods’ blood makes him a vicious mean badass monster to contend with.

    Chino F.
  4. this is probably the most dramatic ep. of VK ever … did i miss so many eps already? how did Yuki’s hair grow so long? … awww Zero looks kinda wierd now, he was much cuter in VK 1 probly cuz hes suffering alot right now i wonder whats gonna become of him

    Snehova
  5. AHHH!! I cant even express how angry I was at this episode. I’ve never wanted to blog something so badly in my life! XD And I never blog. There were soooo many things wrong with this ep that I could write a book!
    After episode 11 which I thought was fantastic they throw this at us…¬¬
    I agree that where the latest manga chapter ends would have been the PERFECT place to end the manga series and the anime series but they just couldn’t wait!!!
    I mean they could have even ended the anime with zero pointing his gun at yuuki or something like that! would have been acceptable.
    *End of Rant*
    XD sorry

    Himeh
  6. Chapter 41 page 25 ^_^ Kanayuki kissu! If only it had made it into the anime, and the latest chapter would have been great in the series, adds so much more depth than the finale of the anime gave…it was quite anticlimactic… so disappointed…

    Mochi
  7. I have no words for how angry I am at the last two episodes of the anime. Most of all when episode 11 was so well done and heartbreaking, it really did look like they were going to stay pretty faithful to the manga right to the end but man did they mess up. I have a headache at the stupid muck up these last two episodes were. And as you pointed out, chapter 46 of the manga was a perfect way to end the anime. What a let down.

    Madame Parker
  8. Bleh overall the second season was just decent =o probably because I thought that Yuuki was going to keep her word and stay by Zero’s side forever but I guess that wasn’t what really happened… how annoying .-.

    Davie

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