List of Vampire Knight characters
The Vampire Knight manga series and its anime adaptation features a cast of characters created by Matsuri Hino. The series at first takes place at Cross Academy.Creation
While initially developing the characters, Hino reported that though Kaname was created earlier, at every step in the characters' creations, she found it difficult to maintain a balance between Kaname and [|Zero] as she struggled with fears of the former overshadowing the latter.
Hino has described [|Yuki] as a healing and soothing character, who exemplifies her justice side.
Hino has stated that she borrowed the character of Kaito "from Ayano Fujisaki's Vampire Knight novel".Main characters
Yuki Cross
Yuki Cross / Yuki Kuran is the adopted daughter of the Headmaster of Cross Academy, [|Kaien Cross]. She begins as a human. She wields the Artemis rod to protect herself and the day class students against vampires. Yuki is extremely close to Zero Kiryu, who she becomes determined to help once she learns he has become a vampire. Her other significant relationship is with Kaname Kuran, whom she has been in love with since he saved her from a vampire attack as a young child and later found out that Kaname was her brother and fiancé. She is generally a kind, caring, cheerful, and comedic character, but she is naive and careless, and performs poorly in her studies due to spending most of her nights as a Guardian. She is often kept ignorant by other characters who know more about on-goings, which gives her immense guilt for being unaware of the suffering of other characters. Later in the story, it is revealed Yuki is a Pureblood vampire and the daughter of [|Haruka] and [|Juri] Kuran. Even after becoming a vampire again, Yuki's personality remains largely unchanged. After Kaname sacrifices his heart to the furnace that creates anti-vampire weapons, Yuki gave birth to a daughter that she conceived with Kaname and sometime later, another child with Zero. After her children reached adolescence, Yuki sacrifices her life to turn Kaname into a human and thus resurrect him, leaving her children with a message that describes the world he will see the same way she saw it.
Yuki's name means Kind Princess and Black Master.Zero Kiryu
Zero Kiryu is unique being both a vampire hunter and a vampire. Yuki's close friend and a Cross Academy Guardian, he was trained to be a vampire hunter by [|Toga Yagari]. Zero lives with Kaien Cross and Yuki, after being bitten by a Pureblood vampire, [|Shizuka Hio], who also murdered his family. Due to the attack, Zero developed a deep hatred and distrust of vampires, despite originally being a gentle character by nature; however, he retains his kindness beneath his scowls, always looking out for the Day Class students in case the Night Class "misbehaves". He has a tattoo on his neck that allows him to be restrained by a charm that temporarily immobilizes him and allows him to enter the Hunters' Association's headquarters. Zero also holds a deep hatred for Kaname Kuran, who tells him that he is simply a shield for Yuki. Zero is deeply in love with Yuki, but chooses to hide it; his feelings left him temporarily confused after Yuki was revealed to be a Pureblood vampire, but Zero continued to love her. In the anime's final episode, Zero lets her drink his blood, allowing Yuki to see how he feels about her. He is one of the few vampires whose body refuses blood tablets, leaving him constantly thirsty for blood; Yuki often gives him her blood to satisfy his thirst. After the time skip, Zero is being considered for the position of president in the future for the Association, and he also drinks the blood of vampires he hunts to satisfy his thirst. He later dies. Matsuri Hino described Zero as exemplifying her hesitant nature.
Zero's name means Zero and Drill Life.Kaname Kuran
Kaname Kuran is a Pureblood vampire who saved Yuki from an attack by a Level E when she was a child. Kaname is revealed to be one of the original vampires and founder of the Kuran family. He was raised as Haruka and Juri's son after being reawakened by [|Rido Kuran], who used the Kuran's first child as a sacrifice, making him Yuki's brother and ancestor and fiancé. He worked together with Kaien Cross to establish the Night Class to promote peaceful co-existence between vampires and humans. During the first arc, Kaname spends his time working to protect Yuki, which includes killing Shizuka Hio and fostering Zero Kiryu's powers. During Rido's assault on the school, Kaname destroyed the Senate. Following the time skip, Kaname begins a plan to eliminate all Purebloods aside from Yuki, even willing to place his own heart in the furnace that produces the anti-vampire weapons. The night before he sacrifices his heart to the furnace, Kaname sleeps with Yuki. His body is preserved in ice by Hanabusa. Kaname's notes on transforming vampires into humans without sacrificing a Pureblood are found by Hanabusa, who perfects it. After centuries pass and the furnace is to be shut down, Kaname is resurrected by Yuki as a human; their biological daughter Ai Kuran, along with Yuki and Zero's daughter Ren, passes on a message from Yuki saying that the world he sees as a human is just as how she saw it.
Kaname's name means Hinge or Door and Nine Orchids.Day Class Students
The Day Class students are humans who attend Cross Academy and live in the Sun Dormitory. The majority remain ignorant of the vampires at the school. They attend classes during the day only, hence the name, while wearing black uniforms. Following the battle on the school, the students realized the true identity of the Night Class students. At first they were fearful, but eventually accepted the vampires reluctantly; however, upon the reopening of the school, all but a selected few had their memories erased of this information.Sayori Wakaba
Sayori "Yori" Wakaba is Yuki's dorm-mate and best friend since junior high. Yori is a very perceptive girl who finds Night Class to be scary. She is one of the few girls with no interest in the Night Class and not intimidated by Zero, frequently joining Yuki to tease him while maintaining that Yuki is the only one capable of dealing with him. When Yori discovers that Yuki is a vampire during the attack on the school, she accepts Yuki. After a year has passed, Yori remains Yuki's loyal friend, she refused to have her memory erased by the hunters, and is now one of the few students who knows what actually happened at the school. According to Kaito, Yori is quite unique for being the human friend of a vampire who hasn't been devoured. Kaito uses Yori as bait at the vampire ball in an attempt to provoke trouble, while she does this in order to meet with Yuki whom she hasn't seen in a year. After the time skip, Yori is seen helping Hanabusa find a way to revive Kaname. They soon fall in love and get married. Despite Hanabusa's pleads, Yori refuses to become a vampire stating she wants to live out her life the way she was meant to. Years later, Yori tells her grandchildren about Yuki and the battle to restart the furnace. In the extra chapter, it's shown Sayori stayed friends with Yuki and Zero for over 50 years before dying.Nadeshiko Shindo
Nadeshiko Shindo is a shy, but daring Day Class student, and like the rest of the other Day Class girls, she first appears as silly, because of her giddy admiration of the Night Class. She was considered as brave by her fellow Day Class students after she timidly, but bravely asked Zero to dance with her during the ball. Shindo braids her long hair into two low pigtails and she has clips in her hair. She also wears glasses. Shindo's hair color is very light brown which almost looks blonde, and her eye color is blue. Shindo is first seen on St. Xocolatl's Day, when the Day Class girls stand outside the Night Class. She attempts to the climb the wall to get into the Moon Dormitory and falls, but Zero catches her, leading Shindo to develop a crush on him. Zero rebuffs her repeated attempts to get close to him. She is not seen again until after the battle with Rido's vampire servants is over and is one of the girls who speaks up for the Night Class, one of the many voices of the Day Class girls who voted that they did not want to forget about the Night Class's secret of being vampires.Kasumi Kageyama
Kasumi Kageyama is a student of the Day Class at Cross Academy and the Class Rep of the Day Class. He has dark brown hair and wears glasses. He wears his uniform properly and normally has an expression on his face. Kasumi is in love with [|Ruka] and shows it to her, but Ruka has no interest in him. When Ichiru arrived at the academy, Kasumi was told to take care of him. After the one-year time skip, he has a small role, but spies Yuki walking into the forest with Zero and notes that the Night Class are strange, and is nearly attacked by two vampires. He runs into Ruka and Kain, along with Sayori, Shindo, and the Day Class sun dorm president and recognizes her and his memory of her is regained, but Ruka does not remember him, to his disappointment, but Ruka thanks him for remembering her, and orders the three to go back inside.Fuka Kisaragi
Fuka Kisaragi is a secondary character who appears only in the novella Vampire Knight: Ice Blue's Sin. She initially has a crush on Kaname, but later focuses her affections on Aido. She almost dies in a near fatal accident before she begins attending Cross Academy, but is saved when a Pureblood vampire bites her and turns her into a vampire. She is used by Aido and other members of the Night Class as a test subject for blood tablets, and is kept in the dark about the fact she is becoming a vampire. At the end of the novella, she realizes what is happening to her and is killed by Aido rather than become a Level E, but not before admitting her feelings for him.Ichiru Kiryu was Zero's younger identical twin brother. Ichiru failed to be a vampire hunter due to being a sickly boy and his lack of skill. He was believed to have been killed by Shizuka Hio, but he returns healthy after revealing that he had become the servant of Shizuka and she had given Ichiru her blood to cure his chronic ill health. In spite of his desires, she does not turn him into a vampire and he remains a human. With Shizuka's death, he returns to Cross Academy as a Day Class student by the orders of the Vampire Council and his own desire for revenge for Shizuka's death. During Zero's imprisonment by the vampire hunters, Ichiru visits and shoots him, but reveals that he attained a mortal wound in an attempt to kill [|Rido], because of his role in Shizuka's death. After he shoots his brother, Ichiru convinces Zero to devour him so they can finally become one, as they were originally supposed to be. Zero buries him alongside their parents' grave. When Zero starts questioning his humanity after the time skip, Ichiru is revealed to live on inside Zero; he asks Zero to consider what is considered "human". He makes one last appearance when Yuki drinks Zero's blood, amused how Zero hides his true feelings.