Monday, July 29, 2013

Dawnleaf Watches Vampire Knight: Episode 5 – Time To Go Castlevania on This Mofo



Finally!  Another character for me to like showed up!  The school just got a new teacher- a vampire hunter!  And he has an eyepatch.  And he smokes.  And he’s a freakin’ badass!  This anime really needed a new infusion of badassery. 




Apparently, vampire hunters in this universe can only hunt vampires who’ve done something bad and Level Es, which is why he hasn’t been running down the hallways and gunning down bishies (which I totally hope will happen, by the way).



And I also learned that the students in the night class are all vampire nobility, and they hunt Level Es for fun.  The way that information is delivered, it sounds like they’re supposed to be evil for doing that.  But, if the Level Es randomly run around and murder people, it seems that they should be gotten rid of as soon as possible, and it shouldn’t matter who kills them as long as the job gets done.



AHHH!  A SPARKLING VAMPIRE!  RUN AWAY!


…um, well, catching up on our characters… Well, the vice president of the night class dorm wields a katana.  Okay, I guess that the vampire hunter isn’t the only one making things more badass up in here. 


He’s also one of those supporting characters who falls under the category of ‘people who are trying to add some levity to the endless dreariness’ category, meaning that he’s rather cheerful and goofy.  He’s having a birthday party this episode, and it was rather funny to see the contrast of him actually being happy while everyone around him is being sullen and mysterious and crap.



We also get some shounen-ai fanservice with him and one of the other vampires licking his finger, framed in a way that makes it really easy for the fangirls to tell who tops.



(this anime needs  a prequel in which they fight vampires together.  Studio Deen, get on to that right now)
The headmaster is in comic relief form this episode.  He seems to be it every other episode.  If you’re curious about whether he’s in comic relief form or serious business form, check the opacity of his glasses.  If you can’t see his eyes, he’s silly.  If you can, serious.  I prefer his comic relief form, because all he seems to do in serious business form is spout exposition.



Kaname’s been himself.  Which means he hits on Yuuki, talks about how important she is to him, etc, etc.  You get the picture.  You know what?  Why the hell does he like Yuuki so much?  I really can’t detect a reason that she’s so special to him.  The two aren’t friends- they only see each other every once in a while, and they never really talk when they do (unless you count Kaname saying “You’re the most important person in the world” to her as an engaging two-sided conversation). 



Whenever she’s around him, she doesn’t really do much except mumble awkwardly and blush, so you can’t say that she’s been doing things that his fangirls (who he doesn’t care about) haven’t been doing.  He saved her life- but that’s the reason she would have a crush on him, not the other way around.  For example, if you pushed someone out of the way of a speeding car, you wouldn’t suddenly fall in love with that person. 



Also, on that note, isn’t it creepy that Kaname has a crush on Yuuki, since he’s a lot older than her and met her when she was a tiny child?  Yuuki also hasn’t really been doing her duties properly, and constantly needs help from other people, so you can’t say that he loves her because she’s independent and good at her job.  I’m not trying to say that I hate Yuuki or anything, I’m just pointing out that Kaname’s interest in her makes no sense.



At least in Zero’s case, it makes a bit more sense.  The two have been friends for a while, and a lot of their more lighthearted interactions (her telling him off, him teasing her) in earlier episodes helped make their relationship believable.  And she still repeatedly proves that she gives a damn about what’s going on with him, and is constantly worrying about him even when he’s not around.  In fact, I can say with reasonable certainty that she cares more about Zero than he does.



Also, Zero’s been doing a bit less dark brooding this episode.  He’s still sullen and quiet, but I’ll take what I can get at this point.



On the topic of Zero, there actually have been two important things related to him in this episode.  The biggest one being that he can’t have the blood tablets (they make him cough and stuff).  This actually was foreshadowed earlier, but I dismissed it as him refusing to have them because he didn’t want to succumb to his vampiric urges.  This plot point seems to have been made purely for the purpose of creating drama.



The other one is that now Yuuki has been taught a sort of spell that allows her to paralyze him if she thinks that he’s getting out of hand (I can see a ton of comedic possibilities here). 



However, because Zero feels like he needs to make things as depressing as possible, he then hands Yuuki a gun and tells her to shoot him if he goes Level E.  She agrees (probably to just make his MCR-listening-self feel better).  Also, later in the episode, just to prove her competence, he tries to bite her again, and she for some reason doesn’t use the spell.



But don’t worry, Eyepatch shows up and shoots him.   Non-fatally, of course, but it still made me excited at the possibility of something actually cool happening.   Then, we learn that Zero and Eyepatch knew each other in the past, and then the episode ends.  I hope the two have a gun duel next episode, because that would be pretty cool.




“My… vampire… senses… tingling… Must… STRIP!”

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