Kaname Kuran

Kaname Kuran (玖蘭 枢 Kuran Kaname) is one of the main characters of Vampire Knight and a Pureblood vampire. He is one of the few pureblood vampires still alive and the first pureblood introduced.

Character concept
Matsuri Hino states that along with Yuki Cross, Kaname was one of the first characters to be established. Unlike Zero and Yuki, Kaname was defined as complete from the start.

Name

 * "Kaname" means "hinge" or "door".
 * The kanji of Kuran, is a combination of the old fashioned way of writing ku, meaning "nine," and ran, meaning "orchid": "nine orchids". "Kuran" is the japanese pronunciation for "Clan."

Appearance
He shares a similar appearance with Haruka and Rido Kuran. Like Haruka and Rido, Kaname has brown-reddish hair and dark red eyes. Like all vampires, he has a pale complexion. Kaname wears his clothes like a gentleman, wearing clean and tidy clothes. However, when he is wearing casual clothes, he is more careless about it and it is slightly crumbly and unbuttoned, although his uniform is always prim, proper and perfectly buttoned. In her side notes, Matsuri Hino admits that this was a slight detail she accidentally overlooked.

Personality
He is normally a stoic and authoritative individual, but is very kind, warm, and gentle to Yuki. This disposition bothers both Yuki and the Night Class vampires, who do not understand his favouritism towards her. He is very strict and often imposes discipline in a fierce way, yet he is indulgent to Yuki. Kaname has acknowledged to Rido that he has a contrary nature, which leads him to both desiring to lock Yuki up and keep her to himself and alternatively, to watch her protectively while encouraging her to be herself. Kaname never hides the fact that he is not interested in anything else but Yuki’s welfare. Every action he makes is towards one goal, and that is Yuki’s safety; his greatest fear is losing her. He is very determined to have Yuki live for all of eternity by his side and not only deeply fears losing her because of the ten years she spent as a human, but because of the mysterious loss in his past. He is constantly solitary and plots as such also, making him rather secretive.

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.

Kaname the Ancestor
Kaname is the ancestor of the Kuran family, one of the founders of vampires. Thousands of years ago, Kaname put himself into an eternal slumber and was recently awakened from his long slumber by Rido Kuran.

Revived Kaname
Kaname transformed his body into that of a baby and was raised as Yuki's brother. He had a close relationship with Yuki, but remain distant with others. He met Aido, Kain and Ruka as a young child, they formed a bond when they several years later after the Kuran's death. During the Rido's attack on the Kurans, 10 years ago, Kaname discovered he was unable to kill Rido, he temporarily destroyed Rido's body instead and then took the now human Yuki to Kaien Cross's house. Kaname himself, was taken in by Takuma's grandfather whom he never trusted and was monitored by. He frequently visited Yuki with Takuma when he could. He lent his assistance to the Headmaster to create the Night Class at Cross Academy and with his presence, allows the Night Class to be kept in check. He attended to keep authority in the Night class and mostly so he can be closer to Yuuki and protect her. Kaname became the Night Class president, both feared and respected by the other Night Class students. He has been watching Zero since he arrived in the Cross household, aware that Zero would one day turn into a vampire, he lent on Zero as a means to protect Yuki until he himself could.

Yuki Cross
Yuki is Kaname's descendant, fiance and lover. Kaname adores her more then anything, telling her in volume seven, "You do know, right? I love you. More than anyone else in the world". Whilst he meant this romantically, Yuki considered this as him dodging the issue and possibly lying to her. For 10 years Yuki had been human, 10 years ago Kaname saved her from a vampire. Ever since then Yuki had desired to be with Kaname.

The Hooded Woman
She is the woman from Kaname's deep past. Also one of the founder purebloods and strongly hinted to be Kaname's ex lover, she tore out her heart and threw it into the furnace as well as let hunters drink her blood.

Zero Kiryu
Kaname and Zero have disliked each other since their first meeting. They both show very strong feelings to Yuki and envy each other from time to time.

Hanabusa Aido
Hanabusa is Kaname's loyal friend and right-hand man.

Takuma Ichijo
Kaname lived with Takuma after his parents died, they have became good friends since then.

Ruka Souen
Ruka appears to admire and love Kaname deeply; but he obviously doesn't feel the same way.

Powers
Like all pureblood vampires, Kaname is immortal and can heal from anything excluding an anti-vampire weapon wound to his heart or cutting off his head. Like all vampires he can absorb the powers from vampires whose blood he drinks. Kaname's powers have been listed as immeasurable. Kaname has demonstrated the following abilities:
 * Telekinesis powers
 * Wiping memories
 * Transformation his body into a bat or dog
 * Creation of a shadow self in any form he chooses, such as a bat able to convey messages, himself and a wolf from which he can receive information instantly. His shadow form is also strong enough to carry another person and wields his telekinetic powers
 * Transformation of his body into a weapon
 * Control of multiple (noble) vampires by his command against their will
 * Changing the physicality of his body i.e. changing his body into an infant
 * Controlling anti-vampire weapons, in particular, Bloody Rose, dominating over its bearer.

Quotes

 * "We are 'bait', but if we remain constantly aware of that fact, we can have them wrapped around our little fingers." (referring to the Aristocratic vampires.) - 54th Night, pg 10 (Chuang Yi ed.)

=See Also=
 * Kaname Kuran Image Gallery
 * Kaname, Yuki, and Zero
 * How did Kaname become Yuki's brother?