Vampire Knight/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Accidental Innuendo: Zero's "If you don't like my behaviour then force me into submission." line to Yuuki in chapter 72. Yeah...
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Rido had to suffer the toll of Unrequited Love over and over again.
    • Hiou Shizuka, definitely. Despite her awful crimes and general Bitch in Sheep's Clothing attitude (which she doesn't try very hard to hide), you learn some things that might make it a lot easier to sympathize with her.
  • Anticlimax Boss: Rido. For all that build up, he gets beaten in two rounds by Yuuki and Zero with seemingly no hard effort.
  • Badass Decay: Interestingly, Yuuki after she becomes a pureblood vampire despite the fact that as a human she was completely capable of protecting the school from the Night Class. This trope may go hand-in-hand with the Seasonal Rot mentioned below, since for a good portion of the second story arc, she's obeying her brother/lover Kaname like a good vampire princess and staying neatly in the vampire kitchen. Somewhat justified in that she can't use her anti-vampire weapon any more but unjustified in that she's allegedly one of the strongest vampires in existence - she should be able to figure out some way to fight and protect herself!
  • Better Than It Sounds: People who hear of the manga might think it's just another shallow Twilightesque vampire flick, but the story is alot darker, edgier and intelligent than the common western vampire stories of today.
  • Die for Our Ship: Zeki fans vs Yume fans. It gets pretty crazy sometimes.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Kaname. While he's an Anti-Villain, there are people who insist he's not even that, but just a "misunderstood hero", and that the murders he commits, even towards characters that were either good (Aidou's father) or didn't oppose any threat/had done no apparent harm (centuries asleep purebloods) were most likely done for a "good reason" or simply that, being Kaname, he has the right to kill and/or cruelly manipulate people if it's necessary for his plan; it still doesn't make him an antagonist.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Zero and Yuuki.
  • Fandom Rivalry: Do not compare Vampire Knight to Twilight. Just don't, unless you want to be attacked by a mob of angry fangirls. There seems to be a strong dislike against Meyer's sparkly vampires within the VK fandom.
  • Freud Was Right: Although it's obvious, the Kiss of the Vampire serves as a metaphor for sex. Especially with regard to the "secret relationship" between Yuuki and Zero during volumes 3 and beyond. In other words, Zero is "boning" both Yuuki and Kaname. Seen in this light, the final scene with Zero and Ichiru is quite Freudianly symbolic as well.
  • Foe Yay:
    • Kaname x Zero (rather popular amongst others. You don't just let ANYONE drink your blood.)
    • Shizuka x Yuuki
    • Zero x Ichiru
    • Sara Shirabuki x Takuma
    • Rido x Yuuki (since he calls her Juri, may double as No Yay...)
    • Zero and Shizuka, most notably for the expression Zero gets when Shizuka bites him again. It didn't exactly look like he hated it...
  • Fridge Brilliance: At one point in the manga, Kaname tells Zero: "I envy you, you who can protect the girl you love". People at that point naturally assumed he meant how Zero was able to directly protect Yuuki while he wasn't. Then in chapter 61 and beyond we're introduced to Kaname's past where he knew a mysterious pureblood woman who ended up sacrificing herself for the creation of hunters. Kaname reveals how he was the one supposed to had sacrificed himself instead and is shown mourning over her death on several occasions, implying she was the woman he thought of when telling Zero what he did, not Yuuki.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: For a shoujo manga, it's pretty damn popular in America. But it's a given since it's about vampires, so...
  • Ho Yay
    • Yuuki x Shizuka
    • Zero x Kaname
    • Zero x Ichiru
    • Aidou x Kaname
    • There's also a one-off Yay scene between Shiki and Ichijou at the latter's birthday party, complete with blood.
    • Also in a bonus manga in volume 4 Shiki is sleeping on Ichijou's shoulder Matsuri Hino said in a side panel that she should have had him leaning on Rima instead and that "it's difficult to develop love relationships in this manga" (Instead of Ichijo...)
  • I Knew It!: Yuuki is a pureblood vampire. This was somewhat easy to see coming, but the exact manner was still something of a surprise.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Kaname.
  • Love to Hate: Rido.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Rido and Kaname.
  • Moe: Yuuki and Maria.
  • Narm: Thanks to the quality of the animation; so damn many times in the anime.
    • To some, there are moments of this in the manga too. One in particular being Yuuki's out of nowhere giant butterfly wings popping out her back in chapter 68.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Zero's Kubrick Stare when he's drinking from Kaname.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name:
    • Zeki (Zero/Yuuki)
    • Yume/Kanaki (Kaname/Yuuki)
    • Zename (Kaname/Zero)
    • Shima (Shiki/Rima)
    • Rukain (Kain/Ruka)
    • Ichishizu or Shizuru (Ichiru/Shizuka)
    • Zechiru (Zero/Ichiru)
    • Zaria (Zero/Maria)
    • Ichimari (Ichiru/Maria)
    • Aidori (Aidou/Yori)
    • Aiki (Aidou/Yuuki)
    • Zori (Zero/Yori)
    • Kayori (Kaito/Yori)
    • Ichira (Ichijou/Sara)
    • Aika(?) (Aidou/Fuuka)
  • Seasonal Rot: It's widely agreed, though Your Mileage May Vary, that the arc after Yuuki becomes a pureblood vampire falls into this. The manga just gets weirder and weirder with each new chapter.
  • Stoic Woobie: Kaname and Zero both.
  • Squick: Inevitable for at least some readers given Pureblood romantic preferences. Leads to disbelieving reactions of how Yuki is perfectly okay with continuing a romantic relationship with Kaname after learning he's her brother.
  • True Neutral: Kain. He doesn't necessarily agree with Aidou's antics, but he doesn't stop him either. Also, his reason for following Kaname is because there's no reason to have Kaname as an enemy and because he wants to follow and believe what Ruka believes.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: In the manga, many fans assumed the President of the Hunters Association was a woman, until they watched the anime that is...
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Alot of people are unhappy with how the anime differentiates from the manga, with worse art, random order of events, and the characters' personalities being somewhat messed up.
  • The Woobie:
    • Considering the increasingly horrible things Zero gets subjected to, yet somehow doesn't go comatose from a despair overdose, he fits pretty well into this trope. Could also fit into Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, at least where vampires are concerned.
    • As of the second arc, he could fit into the Iron Woobie section as well. For witnessing his parents being killed, his twin brother betraying him and later having to kill that brother, watching the girl he's in love with be in love with someone else, being turned into what he hates the most, discovering said girl he loves is what he hates the most, and then letting that girl go to the guy he hates, he has not shed a single tear or complained about how pitiful his sitation is even once (unless you're gonna be a Jerkass and say his lash outs at the pureblood who ruined his life or his fits from the pain the transformation and hunger caused him weren't necessary on his part and qualifies him as a wangster.) ...what?
    • Fuuka from Vampire Knight: Ice Blue no Tsumi. After all, she does end up becoming a Level E vampire and is killed at her personal request.
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