Random Anime Review Monday #14: Vampire Knight Guilty
My project: watch and write about the first episode of a series with as little prior knowledge as possible.
Today's mantra: I will neither solely recap nor solely snarl.
Today's selection: I have heard of Vampire Knight, because I buy manga in bookstores and it's everywhere, but all I know is that it's got vampires and a school and kewl uniforms. Plus, this has to be a later season, and I haven't seen the previous seasons. I could do worse for lack of context, so I'm letting this one slide.
Week 14: Vampire Knight Guilty
Fansubber: Anime-Kraze & Diffusion
Jumping straight into season two, we see right away that this is a school with two sets of students, by day and by night. That's one way to design two sets of kewl uniforms maximize your real estate. The girls in the school squee en masse over the boys in one of the schools - Night School, I think, in white uniforms. Also, vampires are involved. Of course.
No, we're not AT ALL helped along by the serendipitous rise of Twilight. Anime is totally different and deep and important, and pandering totally sucks if it's to some other group of people, and also popular things are dumb. - Whew! I can channel high schoolers like a pro.
Okay, okay, I Get the general outline of this trend. What's the point of escapist entertainment without characters who are more mysterious and important than you? But the high school setting makes it relateable. Wouldn't-it-be-totally-awesome-if the losers making fart noises in the hall could be traded for sweeping, mysterious ciphers embroiled in centuries-long sagas? Of course they'd care deeply about the goings-on of a random (or not so random) high school. High school is important, after all. So you both confirm and escape what life is all about at that point.
Since this is pitched at a female audience, the standoffish, "I'm so wracked by angst that all I can do is stand around and stare at things" factor is a draw, too. Real boys wolf-whistle and yell crude comments and grab whatever female flesh they can reach, and no Romantic Hero would ever do that. They're too wracked. All they want to do is protect and brood. So the audience heroine is free to stare back at them and make the move whenever she wants to.
I am, of course, making this up, but that's one way I can see it working out.
I snark a bit at the audience of this sort of thing, but I also know that I used to be in that audience, so I don't mean any harm. I do hope that they grow out of it eventually, but I don't wish death and dismemberment upon them or anything.
I'll get back to the story as soon as the episode does. I'm still waiting. They do dissect the events of the first season (the finale, sounds like) and run around in the dark a lot, making me a bit confused as to whether dark uniforms = Night Students after all. Do they ever attend class?
...then again, the characters of half of the "school" anime out there never attend class, so you never know. I don't expect the camera to track through an entire period of algebra, but some token shots would help. Then again: second season.
First impression: This episode starts with a crowd of girls squeeing. I don't think I've ever seen such a fitting intro.
Would I watch more? No, thanks. Been there, done that, read up to Memnoch the Devil and wondered what the hell happened.
Has this damaged my faith in humanity? No, as long as its fanbase grows into something else eventually. I trust they will.
Here's what happens in my imaginary previous season: The Night Students have formed a secret boy band that is fantastically popular, but no one knows who they are, because they don't wear their oh so stylish uniforms on stage. Their fan club grows until intra-fanclub rivalry threatens to rend the pop idol world asunder, and factions form and plot revenge against one another. The drum-machine beat of war threatens until the Sulky One offers himself up as a sacrifice at a crucial New Year's Eve show to stop the war, upon which the fanclub melts in a puddle of squeeing goo. All is well and night falls once again, with only distant mutterings of infighting over whether purple or silver light best sets off the highlights in Sulky One's hair.
Also, vampires are involved.
Today's mantra: I will neither solely recap nor solely snarl.
Today's selection: I have heard of Vampire Knight, because I buy manga in bookstores and it's everywhere, but all I know is that it's got vampires and a school and kewl uniforms. Plus, this has to be a later season, and I haven't seen the previous seasons. I could do worse for lack of context, so I'm letting this one slide.
Week 14: Vampire Knight Guilty
Fansubber: Anime-Kraze & Diffusion
Jumping straight into season two, we see right away that this is a school with two sets of students, by day and by night. That's one way to design two sets of kewl uniforms maximize your real estate. The girls in the school squee en masse over the boys in one of the schools - Night School, I think, in white uniforms. Also, vampires are involved. Of course.
No, we're not AT ALL helped along by the serendipitous rise of Twilight. Anime is totally different and deep and important, and pandering totally sucks if it's to some other group of people, and also popular things are dumb. - Whew! I can channel high schoolers like a pro.
Okay, okay, I Get the general outline of this trend. What's the point of escapist entertainment without characters who are more mysterious and important than you? But the high school setting makes it relateable. Wouldn't-it-be-totally-awesome-if the losers making fart noises in the hall could be traded for sweeping, mysterious ciphers embroiled in centuries-long sagas? Of course they'd care deeply about the goings-on of a random (or not so random) high school. High school is important, after all. So you both confirm and escape what life is all about at that point.
Since this is pitched at a female audience, the standoffish, "I'm so wracked by angst that all I can do is stand around and stare at things" factor is a draw, too. Real boys wolf-whistle and yell crude comments and grab whatever female flesh they can reach, and no Romantic Hero would ever do that. They're too wracked. All they want to do is protect and brood. So the audience heroine is free to stare back at them and make the move whenever she wants to.
I am, of course, making this up, but that's one way I can see it working out.
I snark a bit at the audience of this sort of thing, but I also know that I used to be in that audience, so I don't mean any harm. I do hope that they grow out of it eventually, but I don't wish death and dismemberment upon them or anything.
I'll get back to the story as soon as the episode does. I'm still waiting. They do dissect the events of the first season (the finale, sounds like) and run around in the dark a lot, making me a bit confused as to whether dark uniforms = Night Students after all. Do they ever attend class?
...then again, the characters of half of the "school" anime out there never attend class, so you never know. I don't expect the camera to track through an entire period of algebra, but some token shots would help. Then again: second season.
First impression: This episode starts with a crowd of girls squeeing. I don't think I've ever seen such a fitting intro.
Would I watch more? No, thanks. Been there, done that, read up to Memnoch the Devil and wondered what the hell happened.
Has this damaged my faith in humanity? No, as long as its fanbase grows into something else eventually. I trust they will.
Here's what happens in my imaginary previous season: The Night Students have formed a secret boy band that is fantastically popular, but no one knows who they are, because they don't wear their oh so stylish uniforms on stage. Their fan club grows until intra-fanclub rivalry threatens to rend the pop idol world asunder, and factions form and plot revenge against one another. The drum-machine beat of war threatens until the Sulky One offers himself up as a sacrifice at a crucial New Year's Eve show to stop the war, upon which the fanclub melts in a puddle of squeeing goo. All is well and night falls once again, with only distant mutterings of infighting over whether purple or silver light best sets off the highlights in Sulky One's hair.
Also, vampires are involved.