Juri Kuran

Juri Kuran (玖蘭 樹里), Yuki Cross's mother and a pureblood vampire who resembles an older version of Yuki. Juri was the wife and sister of Haruka Kuran.

Character outline
Juri Kuran had the etheral beauty of the purebloods, she posessed brown eyes and dark brown hair typical of the Kuran family. As mentioned before, she had very similar looks to Yuki but appears to be more mature, taller and with curly hair instead of straight hair like her daughter. Juri referred herself as a "cute young girl" and appeared to be in her early 20's before and when she died. At that time she was around 3000 years old. It also noted that her daughter, Yuki Kuran, has the "scent of sunshine" while Juri Kuran is "the very blaze of the sun".

Background
Ten years ago when her eldest brother, Rido Kuran, appeared, she sacrificed her life to suppress Yuki's vampire side and erased her memories. She had wanted Yuki to be able to live happily like a normal human girl. Headmaster Kaien Cross stated that he is in debt to her. When she was pregnant and he had attempted to kill her as a vampire hunter, she had spared his life. Her last wish was for Kaname to look after Yuki.

Relationships
Juri did not like Haruka at first and was irritated by his first attempts at courtship. He eventually won her over and they had been a happy couple for several thousand years, but only recently decided to have children. Despite their amical relationship, Juri chose to sneak out of her husbands protection in order to pursue her goals.

Though Rido was in love with Juri and even drank her blood, its unknown what sort of relationship they had at that time. After he stole her first child, Kaname, away, she harboured a great deal of anger towards him. Rido continued to desire Juri even after her death and sought Yuki as a replacement for her. His attachment to Juri bordered more on obsession than on love.

Trivia

 * The kanji of her surname is a combination of the old fashioned way of writing ku, meaning "nine," and ran, meaning "orchid": "nine orchids". In her first name, ju means "tree" and a ri is traditional Japanese unit of measure for distance, one ri is about 2.44 miles. The kanji of ri is the same as in Shiki Senri's name. The name Juri can also have double meaning, as Juri is the Japanese pronounciation of the name Julie which means "soft haired" or "youthful", which may refer to her apperance as an young woman.
 * The Vampire Knight fanbook specifically mentions that of all things purebloods can do, Juri specialized in spells. This futher shown as she was the one to seal away Yuki's vampire side and turn into a human.