First Impressions / Vampire Knight

Summary:

Zero has a nightmare one night of the vampire who killed his family holding him in her arms and saying that he’s tied to her through a bond that cannot be broken. Yuuki meanwhile continues to think about how Zero is hunting vampires now, and she nearly gets overwhelmed by the crush of Day Class girls who are trying to see the Night Class. Aidou pulls her out of the crowd and into the dorm where Kaname suggests that she not work too hard or else she’ll get hurt. Yuuki is barely able to say that she’ll be careful before Zero drags her away from the vampires. That night, the chairman asks her to show a new transfer student around, and Yuuki is surprised to find that it’s a female addition to the Night Class. This new girl’s name is Kurenai Maria, and she confides in Yuuki that she’s afraid of being ostracized since she’s a vampire with a weak body. When Yuuki reassures her that it’ll be okay and offers to help if anything happens, Maria hugs her and declares that she loves girls like Yuuki.

Maria then heads to the vampire classroom by herself and gets everyone’s attention by giggling and expressing her delight at how the class looks fun. She directly confronts Aidou for referring to her in a rude manner, and much to Aidou and Ruka’s dismay, she sidles up to Kaname claiming to be happy to meet a pureblood. Since the other vampires are now looking at her hostilely, Maria excuses herself and leaves as quickly as she appeared. During this time, Yuuki manages to find Zero by himself and tries to cheer him up with good news about the girl he saved. Zero, however, tells her that he did the job not to save someone but because it was just work. Yuuki then worries that he’ll just disappear someday to go avenge his family without saying anything to her, and when Zero asserts that he doesn’t have to tell her, she claims that he does because of how he made it her role to eventually kill him. Zero acknowledges that this would trouble her, and shortly after she says that she believes in him, their conversation is interrupted by the appearance of Maria.

Seeing Maria causes Zero to immediately point his gun at her, but Yuuki stops him from shooting by protecting the new vampire. Realizing that Maria isn’t who he thinks she is, Zero lowers his gun, and the two get introduced to each other. Maria then thanks Yuuki for protecting her and comments on how she likes Yuuki and knows that girls like her have delicious blood. Maria later gets Kaname’s support in allowing her to move to the empty dormitory away from all the other students. Suspicious of her, Kain and Aidou dig up what they can about her background but find nothing particularly strange. Aidou nevertheless asks Kain if he’s ever seen the woman who has the same rank of pureblood lineage as Kaname and who disappeared after going mad: Hiou Shizuka. Kain answers that he hasn’t ever met her, and Aidou decides to drop the subject because talking about it is bad luck.

Meanwhile, Yuuki has both the upcoming joint Night Class and Day Class dance as well as her own exams to worry about, but all that takes a back seat when she sees Maria running through the school during the daytime with Ichijou trying to chase her down. Zero, however, stops Yuuki from going after the two and warns her not to get close to Maria. Aidou also appears and, after shocking everyone by hugging Yuuki in public, he and Zero head off to talk privately. This leaves Yuuki to fend for herself against the horde of angry girls, and in escaping from them, she happens to run into Ichijou who had lost sight of Maria. Though his job is difficult, Ichijou explains to Yuuki that he and the others in the Night Class would do anything for Kaname since purebloods have the ability to get non-purebloods to obey them.

As for Zero and Aidou, Zero wants to know if Maria is related to Hiou Shizuka, so Aidou reveals that the two are only distant relatives from a long time ago. Zero nevertheless suspects that Hiou Shizuka hasn’t been heard from in four years because she changed her appearance, however Aidou can’t answer that because he doesn’t know all the abilities of the purebloods. Aidou is instead more curious about how Zero feels since Zero is the one who has bonds with her smeared with blood. Zero then realizes that Maria has been watching them, but she runs off as soon as he turns around and glares at her. That night, Ichijou asks Kaname what they should do about Maria, so Kaname assigns Ichijou to look after her. Kaname knows that it’d be problematic if he publicly made a move because the pawns that a certain woman wants are all gathered at this school. This isn’t a coincidence though since Kaname personally arranged it that way. At the same time, Maria is alone with her masked servant and leans in to bite his neck, but she stops short as if she were just teasing him.

 
 
 

Wow, that was a really good episode. I had thought Kurenai Maria was the woman that they were referring to in previous episodes, but it turns out that she’s not. That doesn’t stop her from being delightfully sinister though (it helps that I really like the way Nakahara Mai voices her), and it still seems pretty likely that Hiou Shizuka is involved in some way. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hiou Shizuka is the woman that Kaname is referring to in that scene near the end. Speaking of Kaname, I wonder what he’s planning because it sounds like he’s trying to lure whoever he was referring to to the school by gathering all those pieces. I still don’t know what his motivations are though (aside from wanting Yuuki), so it’s hard to figure out what he really intends to do. The interesting sidebar to all this is that – now that they’ve finally shown him up close – Maria’s servant looks remarkably like Zero. I don’t think it’s a stretch to guess that this is his little brother, and I’m sure that’ll stir things up in the story further. Even if it isn’t, I have to say that I’m really enjoying how intertwined the story has become.

28 Comments

  11. Hmm thats strange and i thought that Omni have read far enough in the manga to know who is Kurenai Maria and Ichiru. Haha guess not, this is following exactly like the manga now i wonder how they will make the ending.

    setsuke
    Reply

  15. It’s official,I hate studio DEEN..Shizuka looks…awful.I’m so dissapointed(not that I expected much,but still…)
    @someone you met outside,this is Maria Kurenai(I’m not gonna spoil,explaining who she is).And she also looks far worse from her look in the manga..
    Gosh,why do they even get on it,when they do such drawings >.<

    Shiz..
    Reply

  18. Ichiru! Yay! Hey, does anyone know the episode where Zero first talks about his brother? I don’t remember. I want to see the cameo. Hehe. Why does everyone think Yuki is so amazing? I mean, I know about her past and stuff but you’d think SOMEONE in the show couldn’t care less about her but no, everyone centers on her all the time. It’s getting annoying. Anyway, thanks for the blog. ^_^

    Hana
    Reply

  19. Shiz: What? She’s not that bad. They’ve eonly changed her hairstyle abit (made it less…long)

    I think I’ll watch this episode atleast. I need to hear Nakahara Mai’s evil voice.

    Did they have the scene with Maria’s servant (at the end…with the blood drinking) in the manga? I don’t remember it. It’s a good implication of their relationship 🙂

    Avisch
    Reply

  26. Hey, the opening this week had a change !!!

    In the part in which yuuki grabs a piece of crystal and turns to look at zero, it was changed. Now Yuuki grabs the crystal, another one also grabs and it is Maria Kurenai. The sequence ends when she almost kissed yuuki !!! OMG !!! O.O !!!

    last_memory
    Reply

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