The Art of Vampire Knight cover image is courtesy of Anime Castle Books.

Vampire Knight is a popular shojo manga from creator Matsuri Hino.  The series first appeared in January 2005 in LaLa magazine, a Japanese manga publication.  Vampire Knight became a media franchise with the publication of light novels, video games, and two 13-episode anime series, among other things.

VIZ Media is Vampire Knight’s English-language publisher, releasing the series in a graphic novel format, and will publish the 13th English volume of Vampire Knight in early October 2011.  VIZ Media also published an English-language edition of Vampire Knight Official Fanbook, a guide to the manga that is filled with illustrations, trivia, and general information.

VIZ Media recently published The Art of Vampire Knight: Matsuri Hino Illustrations.  Originally published in Japan in 2010, this hardcover, full-color book is exactly what the title declares on the cover: the art of Vampire Knight as presented through illustrations by Hino depicting characters from the Vampire Knight manga.

Vampire Knight is set at the private boarding school, Cross Academy, where there are two classes – the Day Class and the Night Class.  The Day Class students are humans.  When they return to their dorms at twilight, the Day Class doesn’t know that the Night Class students that are on their way to school are actually vampires.  Vampire Knight’s main character is Yuki Cross, the adopted daughter of Headmaster Kainen Cross.  Yuki’s earliest memory is of being attacked by a vampire.

There are two co-leads.  One is Zero Kiryu, a human suffering the curse of the vampire.  Yuki and Zero are Guardians at Cross Academy; they patrol the hallways and school grounds to protect the students of the Day Class from the vampires.  The other co-lead is Kaname Kuran, a pureblood vampire who is the leader of the Night Class.  Yuki is attracted to Kaname, and the two actually have a connection revealed later in the series.

Quite a bit of the movie Underworld (2003) takes place at the mansion of a vampire coven.  Most of the vampires in the film are sleek and sexy; hair is cool platinum blonde or dark and sexy dangerous.  They lounge around their posh estate, with its Gothic flourishes, in icy luxury.

The Art of Vampire Knight is a catalog of similar images.  There are vampires in tuxedos, Goth-Loli girls, Victorian fashions, Pre-Raphaelite touches, etc.  Actually, much of what Matsuri Hino presents is a blending of many styles, but an artist must take her influences and create something that is uniquely her own, even with its familiar elements.  Hino has certainly done that.

The two-page spread on pp 40-41 is oddly familiar, with its wings-as-drapery, but Hino fans know this can only be Hino.  Illustration meets fashion design, and the art of Vampire Knight is born.  Vampire Knight fans, get this book.  Clutch it to your bosoms.  You might even want to… get down with it… so to speak.

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