Thursday, April 15, 2010

Vampire Knight




Yuuki Cross' earliest memory is of being all alone on a snowy night in winter, when she was attacked by an evil "Level E" vampire and saved by a powerful but kind vampire named Kaname Kuran. Afterward, Yuuki is then brought to Kaien Cross, who adopts her. Kaien Cross is the Headmaster of Cross Academy and is also an ex-vampire hunter who now wishes for vampires and humans to live alongside peacefully. Yuuki grows up to become a prefect AKA: "guardian" for the school, which is running an experimental program that is trying to prove that vampires can coexist peacefully with humans. The human students of the "Day Class" are not aware that their counterparts in the "Night Class" are all actually vampires. Only the prefects know the truth.


The Night Class student body is made up of upper-class vampires, as there is a hierarchy among vampire society. "Purebloods" (Level A) are the rarest and most elite, having never mixed with humans in their ancestry. They are also the most powerful and their blood is the most desirable as it grants whoever drinks it greater powers. Purebloods are also the only class of vampire with the power to turn humans into other vampires. Kaname is the only pureblood within the night class, though a few others are introduced throughout the series. The other students are "nobles" AKA: "aristocrats" whose bloodlines have only slightly mixed with humans. They are still very powerful however, but not as powerful as purebloods. Then there are 'normal' vampires (level C). And finally, there are the lower classes of vampires (level E) that consist of humans who have been changed into vampires- not born as one. These types of vampires eventually go insane with bloodlust unless they are stabilized by drinking the blood of the one who originally bit them. Level E vampires are almost always beyond help, losing all their rationality and killing without remorse to get blood.


Yuuki's fellow guardian and childhood companion, Zero Kiryu, whose parents were killed in front of him by a pureblood vampire four years earlier, is now determined to kill all purebloods and refuses to trust the other vampires at the school. Zero himself is now manifesting vampire traits however, having been bitten that day by the same vampire who attacked his family, Shizuka Hio. Due to his horrific past and the fact that he came from a family of vampire hunters, he hates what he has become and fights his instincts the best he can.

Yuuki tries to help him fight his bloodlust while also seeking to recover the memories she lost as a young child. As the series progresses, Zero's thirst for blood leads to his drinking from Yuuki, by her consent, to avoid becoming a level E vampire and losing himself to his monstrous instincts. Kaname is very protective of Yuuki, and to stop her from having to do this, he gives Zero his own "pure" blood. Also, since he had consumed the blood of Shizuka Hio, his own helps keep Zero from going insane and from needing to feed from Yuuki.


Eventually, it is revealed that Yuuki is a pureblood vampire herself; the Pureblood Princess of the Kuran family, who had been transformed into a human before she lost her memories. It is also revealed that Kaname is Yuuki's older brother and that they spent their childhood together. They were also apparently meant to be married and were technically engaged as children, a practice common among purebloods to preserve bloodlines. Despite this, Kaname is not Yuuki's true blood brother, but an ancient and powerful ancestor of the royal Kuran family who was resurrected by Rido Kuran. He was raised by Yuuki's parents, Juuri and Haruka Kuran, after Rido had kidnapped and sacrificed their first child to bring him back to life. To save Yuuki from being killed by her evil uncle Rido, her mother sacrificed her life in order to perform a spell that would seal Yuuki's memories and allow her to live as a human in order to avoid being found.


After Yuuki reawakens to her vampire nature, Rido again tries to kill her and consume her power. As Kaname kills the corrupt vampire senate who they had discovered were working together with their uncle, Yuuki fights Rido. During a fierce battle, Zero aids her in killing him, but later on tells her he will have to kill her when he sees her once again, since she is a pureblood. She tells him that she will keep running, so that he will have a reason to live. Although this is where the anime ends, the manga continues the story and is updated monthly in LaLa Magazine.

Toradora!


Toradora!'s story begins with the male protagonist Ryūji Takasu who is frustrated at trying to look his best as he enters his second year of high school. Despite his gentle personality, his eyes make him look like an intimidating delinquent, so he is utterly hopeless about his chances of getting a girlfriend anytime soon, and does not have many close friends either. After being greeted by his hungover mother in the morning, Ryūji goes to school and is happy to find that he gets to be in the same class with his best friend Yūsaku Kitamura and a girl he has a crush on, Minori Kushieda. However, it is then that he unexpectedly knocks into "the school's most dangerous animal of the highest risk level"—Taiga Aisaka—who just happens to also be in his class, and is a good friend of Minori.


Taiga has a negative attitude towards others and will not hesitate to snap at people. After meeting Ryūji, she takes an instant dislike of him. Taiga comes from a rich family, but she has moved out to live on her own due to family issues. She is coincidentally living in an apartment next to Ryūji's. When Ryūji discovers that Taiga has a crush on Yūsaku, and Taiga finds out about Ryūji's affections towards Minori, Ryūji suggests that they cooperate to win the objects of their affections. Taiga exploits the fact that Ryūji will do anything to get closer to Minori. She makes him her personal servant, getting him to do all her household chores (cooking and cleaning).

Taiga spends a lot of her time over at his house, so much that she could almost be considered a member of his family. Since Ryūji spends a lot of time with Taiga, he has opened up to her world and to a side of her that most people do not see. The two also try to help each other improve the way people view them. However people they know from school start to become curious about their strange relationship and rumors begin to spread about them behind their backs. Ryūji and Taiga start getting along more and eventually become a couple.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Phantom of Inferno


Phantom of Inferno (known in Japan as Phantom -PHANTOM OF INFERNO-) is a visual novel game created by Nitroplus, and distributed by Hirameki International (a subsidiary of the Japanese visual novel publisher Hirameki). It came out in Japan in 2000, and then was distributed in America as an AnimePlay title in 2003. The story can take either a dark action/drama path or can turn into a romantic drama depending on the choice of the player. A port for the Xbox 360 console will be released in the summer of 2010.



Tuesday, April 13, 2010

D-Gray Man


D.Gray-man follows the adventures of 15-year-old Allen Walker, whose left arm can transform into a monstrous claw and destroy akuma, evolving machines created by the Millennium Earl to help him destroy humanity. As ordered by his master General Cross Marian, Allen becomes an Exorcist, people who can destroy akuma, for the Black Order, an organization attempting to stop the Earl. He becomes a powerful asset for the Order because he can detect disguised akuma with his left eye.


Allen is sent to recover pieces of Innocence, a substance that gives the Exorcists the ability to destroy akuma. The Earl decides to call together the Noah Family, superhuman descendants of Noah who can destroy Innocence. Both sides start the search for the Great Heart, the most powerful piece of Innocence that will assure victory to the side that finds it.


During his search, the Earl begins killing the Generals, the Order's most powerful Exorcists. To protect them, the Order attempts to bring the Generals back to headquarters, and Allen and three other Exorcists are sent to search for the missing General Cross. During the search, Allen and Lenalee Lee are nearly killed and saved by their Innocence, leading the Earl and Bookman and his apprentice Lavi, who are chronicling the war, to believe one of them possesses the Great Heart. Meanwhile, the Order learns that the 14th, a Noah that betrayed and was killed by the Earl, implanted his memories into Allen. The memories will erode Allen away until he becomes the 14th. This leads the Order to believe that Allen may betray them.