is a Japanese

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written by

Matsuri Hino is a Japanese manga artist born in Sapporo, Hokkaidō. She made her professional debut in the September 10, 1995 issue of ''LaLa DX'' with the one-shot title . Matsuri is known for her manga series ''Vampire Knight is a Japanese manga se ...

. It was serialized in

Hakusensha is a Japanese publishing company. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company mainly publishes manga magazines and is involved in series' productions in their games, original video animation, music, and their animated TV ...

's ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''

LaLa Lala may refer to: Geography * Lala language (disambiguation) Places * Lala (Naples Metro), an underground metro station in Naples, Italy * Lala, Assam, a town in Assam, India * Lala, Ilam, a village in Ilam Province, Iran * Lala, Lanao del No ...

'' from 2004 to 2013, with its chapters collected in nineteen ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' volumes. The manga series is licensed in English by

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

, who has released all nineteen volumes. The English adaptation premiered in the July 2006 issue of Viz's ''

Shojo Beat ''Shojo Beat'' is a manga magazine formerly published in North America by Viz Media. Launched in June 2005 as a sister magazine for '' Shonen Jump'', it featured serialized chapters from six manga series, as well as articles on Japanese cult ...

'' magazine, with the collected volumes being published on a quarterly basis. Two

drama CD Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

s were created for the series, as well as a twenty-six episode anime adaptation based on the first two sagas. Produced by

Studio Deen is a Japanese animation studio founded in 1975 by Sunrise producer Hiroshi Hasegawa and ex-Sunrise animators. The studio owns three subsidiaries: Danny Donghua (丹尼動画), a Chinese sub-contracting studio; Megumi (め組), a digital work sub-c ...

, the anime series' first season aired in Japan on

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...

between April and July 2008. The second season, aired on the same station from October to December 2008. The anime uses many of the same voice actors as were used for the drama CDs. The anime adaptation was licensed for release in North America by Viz Media.

Plot

Yuki's earliest memory is of a stormy night in winter, where she was attacked by a rogue vampire and rescued by Kaname Kuran, a Pureblood vampire. Ten years later, Yuki is the adopted daughter of the headmaster of Cross Academy, Kaien Cross, and has become a guardian of the vampire race, protecting her childhood crush, Kaname, from discovery as he leads a group of vampires at the elite boarding school. At her side is Zero Kiryu, a childhood friend whose hatred for the creatures that destroyed everything he held dear leaves him determined never to trust them. This coexisting arrangement seems all well and good, but have the vampires truly renounced their murderous ways, or is there a darker truth behind their actions? In this world of secrets, nothing is as it seems. The price of misplaced trust may even be worse than death. Should Yuki truly find out what was in her past, is the truth going to hurt her worse than not knowing?

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by

, ''Vampire Knight'' was serialized in

's ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''

'' from November 24, 2005, to May 24, 2013. The individual chapters were collected and published in nineteen ''

'' volumes, released from July 10, 2005, to November 5, 2013. The series was licensed for English release in North America by

. In addition to publishing the individual volumes, the series was serialized in Viz's ''

anthology from the July 2006 issue until the magazine was discontinued after the August 2009 issue. It is licensed for English release in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment, which released fifteen volumes. The final volume was released in English on October 14, 2014 by Viz Media.

Sequel

Since the manga's conclusion, Hino began releasing a series of special chapters, which take place after the end of the final volume. On November 8, 2013, Hino released the first special chapter titled in ''LaLa Fantasy'', which was licensed and released digitally by Viz Media on December 9, 2014. Following chapters were released in ''

LaLa DX Lala may refer to: Geography * Lala language (disambiguation) Places * Lala (Naples Metro), an underground metro station in Naples, Italy * Lala, Assam, a town in Assam, India * Lala, Ilam, a village in Ilam Province, Iran * Lala, Lanao del N ...

''. The second special chapter, titled , was released on February 10, 2015. On December 10, 2015, the third special chapter, titled , was released. On February 10, 2016, the fourth and final special chapter, , was released. The chapters were collected as the first volume of a sequel manga ''Vampire Knight: Memories'', released on June 3, 2016. ''Vampire Knight: Memories'' itself officially launched in ''

'' on June 10, 2016. Eight volumes have been published as of August 2022.

Anime

''Vampire Knight'' was adapted into a thirteen episode

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series by

, which was broadcast on

from April 8 to July 1, 2008. A second thirteen-episode season, ''Vampire Knight Guilty'', was broadcast from October 7 to December 30, 2008. The series uses four pieces of theme music. The opening themes of both the first and second season are performed by the duo On/Off, with as the opening for the first season, and as the opening for the second one.

Kanon Wakeshima is a Japanese musician and singer. Originally produced by musician and fashion designer Mana, Wakeshima debuted under the DefStar Records label on May 28, 2008 with the single " Still Doll", the ending theme for the anime adaptation of the manga ...

performs the first season ending theme, "Still Doll", and also the second season's ending theme . The soundtrack is composed by Takefumi Haketa and consists of 30 tracks (including the opening theme and ending theme). In North America, the series was licensed by

. In the UK, the first volume was officially released on DVD via

Manga Entertainment Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1987, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyro ...

on November 22, 2010. In Australia,

ABC3 ABC Me (stylised as ABC ME) is an Australian English language children's free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was officially launched by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 4 December 2009 as ABC3. Hist ...

aired the series in 2011. ''Vampire Knight'' was made available for streaming on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

, and

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...

Light novels

Three light novels created by Matsuri Hino and Ayuna Fujisaki were published in Japan by Hakusensha in 2008 (the first two novels) and 2013 (the third), respectively. The novels feature side-stories that use the characters of the manga, but are not specifically based on chapters from the series. The first novel, , was published on April 5, 2008. The first story within the novel looks at an incident that occurred at Cross Academy in the year preceding Yuki's arrival about a Day Class student named Fuka Kisaragi, while the second story details an incident that occurred while Zero was still in training to be a vampire hunter alongside Kaito Takamiya, another boy training under Toga Yagari to be a vampire hunter. The second novel, , was published on October 3, 2008. The story focuses on two minor characters, Nadeshiko Shindo and Kasumi Kageyama, from the manga, following their respective unrequited love at Cross Academy, as well as detailing a case that happened when Akatsuki Kain and Ruka Souen go to visit Senri Shiki and Rima Toya's modeling studio. The third novel, , was released in 2014, featuring side-stories about Rido Kuran, Sara Shirabuki, and Yuki's and Zero's activities during the timeskip. The third novel is the only novel thus far to have been licensed by Viz Media and released in North America.

Other media

Two

s have been released for ''Vampire Knight''. The first, ''LaLa Kirameki'', was released as an extra with the September 2005 issue of ''

''. The second, ''Vampire Knight Midnight CD-Pack'', was released only via mail order. is a Japanese

dating simulator Dating sims, or , are Video game genres, video game subgenre of Simulation video game, simulation games with romantic elements. Dating sims are often dialog-heavy and focus on time management. The player must befriend and carefully build and m ...

based on Vampire Knight that was released by

D3 Publisher is a Japanese video game developer and publisher founded on February 5, 1992. The company is known for the ''Simple'' series of budget-priced video games. Their games have been released for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Ninten ...

in Japan in January 2009. In November 2008, the official ''Vampire Knight'', titled , was published in Japan. In addition to providing additional information about the series characters and story, it includes images and details from Hino's

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...

. The fanbook has been licensed by Viz Media and was released on October 19, 2010. A 94-page ''Matsuri Hino Illustrations Vampire Knight'' was released on July 5, 2010, the artwork included one original double page spread created for the Artbook and a compilation of 100 previously released Vampire Knight color artworks. A live-action musical adaptation was announced and staged at the Hakuhinkan Theater in Tokyo from January 21 to the 25th, 2015. Another musical took place July 1 to the 5th, 2015.

Notes

References

External links

Official Viz ''Vampire Knight'' website
* {{Studio Deen 2004 manga 2008 Japanese television series endings Anime series based on manga Aniplex Dark fantasy anime and manga Fictional vampire hunters Hakusensha manga Hakusensha franchises Incest in anime and manga School life in anime and manga Shōjo manga Studio Deen Supernatural anime and manga Television shows written by Mari Okada TV Tokyo original programming Vampires in anime and manga Viz Media anime Viz Media manga Viz Media novels