Kaname Kuran

Kaname Kuran (玖蘭 枢 Kuran Kaname) is one of the main characters of Vampire Knight and a Pureblood vampire, who saved Yuki Cross from an attack by a Level E when she was five years old. Kaname is one of the main characters. Prior to his re-awakening by Rido, Kaname was the ancestor of the Kuran family, one of the founders of vampires. He is over ten thousand years old and does not recall the name he was born with. He is born in the year of the Rooster. His height is 184 cm (6'1") and shares a similar appearance with Haruka and Rido Kuran.

Background
Kaname Kuran is the Night Class president, both feared and respected by the other Night Class students. While he is cold and authoritative towards his contemporaries in the Night Class, he is always kind and sweet to Yuki. Kaname has shown that he cares for Yuki in a romantic sense and that he had fallen for Yuki ever since they were children. He wants to be closer to her, but senses how shy she is about it. Since he adores her, she is reluctantly accepted by the Night Class. He has attempted countless times to expand intimacy with Yuki. He is also Yuki's fiancée and Yuki knows him as her brother. He shares the Headmaster's goal of peace between vampires and humans. He worked with the Headmaster to create the Night Class at Cross Academy and with his presence, allows the Night Class to be kept in check. Although he is too old to be attending school, he attends to keep authority in the Night class and mostly so he can be closer to Yuki and protect her.

As a Pureblood, Kaname is capable of controlling lesser vampires, but he chooses not to exercise his powers, thus earning the respect of the Noble vampires. In the fanbook it is stated that he is all powerful. Even his shadow mirror is capable of beating up another pureblood, he can create different shapes that monitor Yuki, such as a wolf or bats.

Plot Summary

 * Main Article: Plot Summary for Kaname Kuran

Kaname informs Zero that he only allows Zero to exist by Yuki's side in order to ensure her safety. He eventually reveals to Yuki that he loves her.

He kills Shizuka Hio, so he could become more powerful to protect Yuki. Kaname offers Yuki the chance to remain by his side, to become his lover and a vampire. He also convinces Zero to drink his blood to stave off insanity, slowing Zero's descent to Level E.

As Rido's presence becomes threatening, Kaname bites Yuki in order to awaken her vampire nature and feeds her his blood to restore her memories as a Kuran and as his 'sister'. He reveals that he is not Yuki's true brother, but the first king and founder of the Kuran family who had been revived by Rido Kuran. As such, Kaname is unable to kill Rido, his "master", he can only injure him. As a child, Juri and Haruka Kuran raised Kaname as Yuki's brother in place of the son that Rido took, and Yuki and Kaname planned to marry when they were children, following the example of Juri and Haruka who were also brother and sister, but still married.

When Rido is revived, Kaname tries to take Yuki to safety, but she refuses. He goes to the Vampire Senate and kills all the summoned members, except Asato Ichijo. Following Zero's threat, Kaname keeps from killing Zero to prevent Yuki from hating him. Kaname takes Yuki to their childhood home and vows to take responsibility for. A year later, Kaname has solidified his leadership of Vampire Society. Kaname accepted Yuki's request to stay by his side in spite of her attachment to Zero, he impressed upon her his attachment to her preferring to be killed than losing her. Rido's remnants now haunt Kaname and he admits to facing an internal conflict of his existence.

After Yuki returned to the Kuran mansion, Kaname admitted his fears, when Yuki failed to understand, he urged her to bite him. Kaname's past is finally revealed in a series of flashbacks. After Yuki awakens, she agrees to stop calling him brother and asks if they can start over. Kaname agrees, but shortly after he leaves and ends up killing Hanadagi and Aidou-dono for unknown reasons, fleeing because Yuki, Aidou and Kaien witness him killing Aidou-dono, telling Yuki that he has chosen to carry out his plan instead of staying with her.

Kaname the Ancestor

 * Main Article: Kaname the Ancestor

Kaname was born more over 10,000 years ago. Kaname eventually joined the hooded woman as a companion and joined her mission in protecting humans and putting a stop to the vampires creating slaves, discovering how to create anti-vampire weapons. After all his companions died in the long war against their enemies, Kaname put himself into an eternal slumber. Kaname was awakened from his long slumber when Rido Kuran used the first child of Haruka and Juri to awaken him, attempting to drink the blood of the ancestor to gain more power, but he fails and is knocked out by the ancestor. The awakened Kaname is forced to revert to the body of a baby because of the overwhelming thirst caused by such a long sleep, during which he wipes his memories and is taken by Haruka and Juri in the place of their stolen baby.

Yuki Cross

 * Main Article: Yuki and Kaname

Yuki is everything to Kaname. Since her birth, he has promised to protect her warmth and always be by her side. When Yuki's memories were erased, Kaname became very sad knowing that Yuki wouldn't remember who he was. He spent the next ten years watching and protecting her. Several times he made it clear that he cared about her, and this made the night class students puzzled. After Yuki was changed back into a vampire, he knew he'd spent the last ten years waiting for her to turn back. To impress upon Yuki how much he loved her, he told Yuki that he couldn't let her go and would rather kill her or that she kill him by her own hand. And once she woke up for the first time in ten years of being human, he let her drink his blood, and told her they were engaged.

The Hooded Woman
The Hooded Woman found and met Kaname years earlier upon discovering that he couldn't remember his name, she named him after her village. She asked him to join her companions, but he declined. Later, after Kaname was run out of the village, he joined the Hooded Woman, who sympathized with his predicament. Yet despite being a pureblood vampire, she urged sympathy and kindness towards humans, understanding that humans must naturally fear the stronger and more powerful vampires. This sympathy stems from the fact that although humans have hated and attacked her, she was protected and loved by her human parents. Kaname became allies with the Hooded Woman and they worked together to find a solution to the problem of vampires creating too many "servants". When Kaname found a way to kill vampires, she took his discovery and sacrificed herself to create the hunters and the anti-vampire weapons. Kaname lamented that he had not done it himself so that he would have more time with her.

The realtionship between Kaname and the Hooded Woman relationship is not well defined, though obviously they felt mutual respect and affection towards each other, and shared a common goal. When Yuki asked Kaname if he was looking to replace her, Kaname refuted it as silly, as it is impossible to replace a person. The Hooded Woman still has a strong influence on Kaname, since the loss of her and her sacrifice caused him to fear losing Yuki in the same way.

Gallery
=See Also=
 * Yuki and Kaname
 * Zero and Kaname
 * Kaname and Takuma
 * Kaname, Yuki, and Zero
 * How did Kaname become Yuki's brother?
 * Kaname the Ancestor