Vampire Knight, Vol. 5 (Vampire Knight)

Matsuri Hino, Vampire Knight, vol. 5 (ViZ, 2007)

More of the same, pretty much. If you enjoy the series, you'll enjoy this one. If you don't, it won't convince you. I continue feeling middle-of-the-road about this series, and, well, you get the picture. ***

The fifth volume of Vampire Knight continues the excitement of the series while turning up the romance and intrigue. The quality of storytelling and artwork is maintained through the series and fans will not be disappointed. Truly a cut above!

In this volume, the cast deals with the consequences of Kaname's shocking actions as the lives of several characters are thrown into chaos.

Shizuka's death has the immediate result of sicking the vampire Senate on Zero - who is, of course, the logical prime suspect - a situation not particularly helped by the fact that Kaname doesn't pipe up about the truth. He does, however, rally the night class around Zero to help avert a disaster.

On more personal levels, Ichijo starts to stress over Kaname, very aware that he isn't himself, at the same time that Kain starts worrying over Aido - who spirals into a deep depression as he suffers the burden of being the only witness to Kaname's capital crime at the end of the last volume, having been at the doorway at the critical moment.

Unable to handle staying in Moon Dorm under the circumstances, and with the Headmaster busy dealing with damage control, he turns to Yuki and Zero - who take him in as a roommate in Sun Dorm, seeing that he's clearly upset although he won't tell them details. In some ways, this is actually Aido's volume, as he and Yuki verge on a tentative friendship, and he shows that he has at least a shred of integrity and isn't a complete and total malicious jerk when the living arrangements inevitably lead to him finding out the whole situation between Yuki and Zero. The scenes between the three are both amusing (we're talking Yuki and Aido dorming together, need we say more?) and surprisingly touching considering Aido's personality as we've known it thus far.

As Kaname goes to confront the Senate with backup from Ichijo and Kain, Vampire Knight continues to develop it's character relationships and political jockeying among the vampire clans, and continues to become much more interesting than it seemed it would in the initial volumes.

I loved this series since day one. The artwork is amazing but i swear you'll be kicking yourself over the head for the wait, till the sixth volume

You'd think that by volume 5 I'd be used to Matsuri Hino's gorgeous artwork. Every time I open the next installment of Vampire Knight, it's like I'm seeing the art again for the first time. Vampire Knight Volume 5 is pure eye-candy all the way through.

This is one of the most exciting volumes in the series and it leaves you yearning for the next volume right after you're finished. I bought this book yesterday in Borders but wasn't ready to dig in yet when I woke up this morning as I had other things that I needed to do first. But I couldn't resist reaching over to where it sat on my dresser so that I could simply thumb through and peek at the gorgeous drawings. I made the mistake of looking at page 1 and started reading... and couldn't stop. This one is a page-turner!

Some questions are answered in this volume but a whole lot more are introduced. What we suspected all along is finally very touchingly revealed in the last pages of this volume, but you're also left heartbroken because there is no guarantee that it will ever see fruition.

And what will become of Zero? Time will tell. One of our heros gets what he wants, but not in the way that he wanted, so it's hard to say whether he truly did or not.

Shojo Beat/Viz can't churn these volumes out fast enough. Take your time reading this volume because you will be sad when you turn the last page and realize that you have to wait quite a bit for Volume 6!