Vampire Knight Guilty Volume 2   Starring (voice): Daisuke Kishio, Mamoru Miyano and Yui Horie Manga Entertainment RRP: £19.99 MANG9046 Certificate: 12 Available 23 May 2011

Yuki Cross finds herself stuck between two worlds as a ‘Day Class’ Guardian at the Cross Academy, run by her adoptive father Kaien Cross. Her job is to protect the female students of the day class from the boys of the night class. It’s not just their womanhood that needs protecting as the attractive boys of the night class are all vampires, led by Kaname Kuran. The principle, Kaien Cross, hopes to foster understanding between the two races, but some cannot forgive the vampires for what they are, including Yuki’s partner and childhood friend, vampire hunter Zero Kiryuu...

Volume Two of Vampire Knight Guilty (2008) has episodes five to seven: The Subordinate's Trap, The Fake Lovers and The Kiss of Thorns - of the second season of the show, which eventually ran to thirteen episodes. The show was directed by Kiyoko Sayama and written by Matsuri Hino, who also wrote the original manga.

These three episodes finally resolve Yuki’s continuous hallucinations regarding blood, the three way relationship between Yuki, Kaname and Zero is also finally wound up, in a way, with an unexpected revelation at the end of the third episode.

The show is still excruciatingly slow as Yuki tries to find out what happened to her ten years before, so were still watching the three main characters spend more time in discussion and introspection than engaging in any combat.

The picture is a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, and very pretty it is too. The artwork remains high quality, with distinctive character designs.

Given that it is a show aimed at adolescent girls, it succeeds. The atmosphere is brooding, if not particularly sexual. Romance is the order of the day here, with impossibly attractive males and a demurely vulnerable Yuki as their main object of interest and what young girl wouldn’t want to be seen in such a light?

My biggest concern with the show is the cost of collecting them all, with only three episodes and no extras, this is going to be an expensive series and I’m not convinced that it is that good for the asking price.

5

Charles Packer