In one of SHAFT's latests, Dance in the Vampire Bund, there is actually very little to dance about. SHAFT usually has a knack for finding strange source materials and then adapting them in interesting new ways that break the troupes of their genres. Usually is the key word in that last sentence. I'm trying to write a non-bias review, but it's inevitable to say Dance in the Vampire Bund is not a good anime. But! At the same time it isn't a terrible anime. But what Bund is, is absolutely average. There's nothing this anime does to set it apart from other second-rate anime about
...
vampires or political conquest. At first, everything that happens you'll feel like "Hey well I kind of thought that was coming" and by the end you'll be like "Wait? Was that a plot twist?" Note that is a review on the anime only and from what I've seen of the manga, this is a poor adaption of what could have been a much better experience.
Story: 4/10
Mina Tepes, the vampire princess has decided to establish a safehaven for all vampires. Through various means she gains political ground for the establishment of "the Bund." Of course, exposing to the world that vampires exist and that they will be Japan's next door neighbor is troublesome and the events told in this story are about them. I think. Mina also happens to own some fancy Japanese High School where our protagonist attends and our protagonist also happens to be a werewolf whose dad works directly under Mina who also happens to attend her own school. Huh? I'm confused too. The story becomes derailed whenever Akira, the protagonist, is focused on, because to be frank, the anime isn't about him. It's about Mina Tepes, but SHAFT decided to make the back plot some nonsensical love story (which only resolves with loli-rape - I'm dead serious). Oh, and be warned, there's most likely a sequel coming.
Art: 5/10
Oho. SHAFT is one of my favorite animation companies because they always do interesting things with their anime and try and tread new grounds by playing with color or 3D elements or optical illusions. SHAFT is also one of the most underpaid and overworked studios in the current anime market and thus they have an incredibly low budget. The only reason I can make sense of why Bund's animation quality was so low was because at the same time SHAFT had been working on the eye-candy "Hidamari Skecth Hoshimittsu." Almost everything about Bund in comparison animation-wise fails. The character movement is repulsive and over-dramatic. Every time a character does something they have a strange angle placed on them, then a zoom onto a random body part, followed by a slowed sentence that it wouldn't matter if it was even said or not. The only time you really see SHAFT's personal touch is when they zoom in on the eyes of the characters talking, which by the end of the anime was more of a nuisance than a pleasure. The clarity was also a huge problem. I started watching this anime in low quality TV rips, and then moved up to bigger and better looking files. There was no difference. The entire first episode had this weird green tint to it that made it unpleasing even to look at. The clarity fluctuates too (how fun!), so it's hard to enjoy when you have to up the brightness of your media player to view the episode normally. Oh, and other than Mina, every character looks boring. The main character looks like every other cliche male protagonist, and there's nothing even to set him apart from the other characters visually. Yuki, one of the female characters, is almost as interesting as Yuki from 11eyes (Note: Yuki from 11eyes sucks and she looks generic). I still like SHAFT's animation style, which is a plus for this anime, but the moments of camera genius that often appear in other SHAFT works are definitely missing here.
Sound: 7/10
Nothing to complain about. The opening and ending are both nice but nothing memorable. Character voices are fitting (I enjoyed Mina's) but once again aren't anything to flaunt. BGM was quiet and rather uninteresting most of the time, but nothing bad.
Character: 4/10
Vampires, werewolves, tigresses, oh my! DERP. Mina Tepes is the one interesting character in this entire anime and every other character exists solely to support her. She's the under-estimated soon-to-be queen of vampires who tries and fights the old traditions of vampires to finally reveal her people to the world so they will not longer be persecuted. Kind of like a Martin Luther King Jr. of vampires, except in the form of a ten-year-old girl and not black. Hey, strong lolita leads are cool in all (Pani Poni Dash! I'm looking at you) but SHAFT needed to realize that there were other characters in this anime. The list includes a Chinese Tigress, a blood-sucking "older sister," a vampire with massive eyebrows, a priestess, and about thirty five thousand big breasted women. There's actually very little to say about any of them except that they're bland. As soon as they're introduced you know exactly what their personality is. Mina is the only dynamic developed character, and thank god she is, because more than half of the anime is spent following her around. Akira on the other hand manages to grab as much time as Mina and ends up wasting it all. He's inctredibly undeveloped and the only point of appeal (kind of) is that he is a werewolf. COOL (BUT NOT REALLY). Even when he's a werewolf he most of the time gets the crapped knocked out of him and that's when a Deus ex Machina comes into play. Yuki is also an undeveloped annoying "for some reason it's a harem" bitch who gets in the way of the main "relationship" between Akira and Mina. She has absolutely nothing that separates her from other female characters in any anime ever and could easily be a background character that accidentally wandered onto the foreground.
Enjoyment: 5/10
SHAFT tries to do the impossible and fails when they tried to make a show about political warfare with a touch of "romance" and then ended with a harem and fighting with plot twists as original as "I AM YOUR FATHER". It's frustrating seeing how much potential this show had. I can safely say that after such a thrilling experience I wiped the anime off my hard-drive and will have probably forgotten most of it by tomorrow morning.
Overall: 5/10
That isn't to say that there aren't worse anime, because hot damn there are. I thoroughly enjoyed when Mina was on camera and thoroughly disliked whenever she wasn't. The annoying "wait for season two where we explain what the final episode was even about card" is pulled too. The only thing I can say is that for an anime about vampires, this show falls right into the pit with the other ones already out there, and unlike Hellsing, does not bring massive guns or blood. It brings one thing and one thing only - Mina Tepes - and if you don't like it, then this anime is definitely not for you.
Alternative Titles
Japanese: ダンスインザヴァンパイアバンド
More titlesInformation
Type:
TV
Episodes:
12
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Jan 7, 2010 to Apr 1, 2010
Premiered:
Winter 2010
Broadcast:
Thursdays at 09:00 (JST)
Licensors:
Funimation
Studios:
Shaft
Source:
Manga
Theme:
Vampire
Demographic:
Seinen
Duration:
23 min. per ep.
Rating:
R+ - Mild Nudity
Statistics
Ranked:
#44272
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#1055
Members:
230,144
Favorites:
721
Available AtResourcesStreaming Platforms | Reviews
Filtered Results: 57 / 58
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Your Feelings Categories Apr 21, 2010
In one of SHAFT's latests, Dance in the Vampire Bund, there is actually very little to dance about. SHAFT usually has a knack for finding strange source materials and then adapting them in interesting new ways that break the troupes of their genres. Usually is the key word in that last sentence. I'm trying to write a non-bias review, but it's inevitable to say Dance in the Vampire Bund is not a good anime. But! At the same time it isn't a terrible anime. But what Bund is, is absolutely average. There's nothing this anime does to set it apart from other second-rate anime about
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Jul 19, 2010
To be honest, it's really surprising to see so many reviews giving Vampire Bund such a low score. For me, it was absolutely the best vampire anime I've ever seen. I can't really say that I'm obsessed with vampires, but it's certainly an interesting genre. Unfortunately there isn't really a lot of animes which use this theme to its fullest. In that sense, Vampire Bund has managed to utilize all the glory of the vampire legend and myth.
Story: 10 As it goes with most vampire stories, Vampire Bund's plot revolves around the vampire princess, or vampire queen. However, it's really the subtle things that impresses me ... Jun 13, 2010
I was hesitant to watch Dance in the Vampire Bund, after all the bad reviews and ratings it was given, but I was surprised to find myself entertained by it. So much that I finished it all in one day.
I decided to give a summery of the anime because I dont believe the synopsis is fair to it. Story: A 17 yr old boy has had all his memories erased due to an incident that happened a year and a half ago. What he does remember is a promise he made to this girl seven years ago, to always be together. That girl turns ... Jan 21, 2010
Okay, so Dance in the Vampire Bund. Or Bland, as I call it. First off, I had to look up what a bund was, because I thought I was missing something. Turns out I wasn't. It's just bad. I won't just stop there though, I will explain in detail why I think it's bad.
Story: 3 Imagine if you will, the most painfully generic and dreadful story you can think of. Take what's chic. Vampires, right? Yeah, I mean, everybody loved Twilight, right? They'll like it even more now! Since you know, vampire shows haven't been beaten to death since the 1931 film version of Dracula. The ... Mar 5, 2010
I did not read the manga so the review is based entirely upon the anime. I don't really describe what happens in the series and spoils are from none to very little. Look at the description if you wish to know what the anime is fully about.
Story-7: Wow, vampires that have been hiding among us for centuries! I've never heard of anything like that before! That was sarcasm, if it wasn't obvious enough. Honestly though, yes it is overused and this anime doesn't pull it off as well as many other books or movies. But it doesn't have to. What I find very well done ... Jan 21, 2010
7 episodes so far, and I decided to post this fe de erratas. Dance in the Vampire Bund is an anime that is sticking to the manga in the big picture sense. However, it lacks the details, both in the characters and the plot, that make this manga about vampires insightful and clever.
The anime has a lot of fillers which may have been intended to be creative, but turned out to be ridiculous. I really wasn't expecting much of a 13 episode anime in terms of the development of the story, but the amount of fillers will probably result in the abrupt truncation of ... Apr 20, 2010
Before I begin this review, I would like to make it very clear that I have not read the Dance In The Vampire Bund manga, nor do I have any immediate plans to do so, and this review is based entirely on the animated adaptation Thus, don't complain about how the manga was good, because that is completely irrelevant to how much I fucking hated the Vampire Bund anime.
The series starts off with an interesting premise, namely a TV gameshow discussing all the increasing amounts of signs that vampires walk among us. Although Vampires are hardly an original premise... actually, they're one of the least ... Apr 22, 2010
At the starting of the winter season Dance in the Vampire bund was touted to be the best of the anime winter line up. However, the show did not amount to all the hype. D in Disorder is a befitting name for this show. Be wary of Spoilers.
Story-The story begins with Mina Tepes (The Queen of vampires) unveiling the existence of the vampire on a game show. What happens afterwards came as a surprise..At first you thought the show was about protecting the existence of vampires and somehow requisitioning a school as a corporate asset will stifle all insurrection.Right. Only opaque flashbacks are shown between ... Feb 28, 2010
I dropped this anime after four episodes so this is a negative review.
I didn't read the manga, I don't plan to, I don't care how good it is in comparison. The story gets a 3 because it has vampires. Vampires are awesome but here, they are lame. Really lame. Seriously, the story doesn't even make sense. I mean it's okay if the queen of vampires is rich, like the richest in the world, but being able to pay off the "entire debt of Japan", this is BULLSHIT!! Besides, nobody knew about the existence of vampires because they were "hiding" for millennia. That's okay, I think it's ... Feb 6, 2010
CURRENTLY ON EP 5.
Alright. First off, let's get out of the way, the reason why I'm having trouble with this anime. FOR THE LOVE OF PISS, SHAFT, LEARN HOW TO ANIMATE. If it's one thing I love about the evolution of anime, is how natural animation is becoming. It began early with KyotoAni, who despite being money whores, animate like gods. Clannad was an animation masterpiece, where even the comedy felt natural, everything flowed. This was 2006, mind you. Later on they follwed with The Melancholy, which was a genius mix of character and animation flow. ToraDora was the next piece I loved the animation for. No ... Nov 4, 2014
If you're going to watch this anime, do me a favor and watch the Blu-ray version. The TV version is so horrible that I even consider giving this anime a 6 once.
Now for those who are too lazy to read: Pros: + Good art and animation (Blu-ray version) + Great and well-developed character + Interesting Plot Cons: - Forgettable soundtrack ... Sep 25, 2019
This is a spectacular piece of shit and I can't recommend it to anyone, no matter how vampire anime deprived they might be.
My #1 criticism is the colossal shitshow that is the art style. It's difficult describe with words, but it's that kind of "art" where someone throws a whole lot of motifs around that *should* be artistic but the way it's all put together just produces a cringy mess. Art in general is highly subjective, but in this anime it's comparable to showing up at a high-class show in Paris and instead of seeing masterful works through the centuries you actually see what happens ... Feb 10, 2010
To me, this series is almost two separate beings: on one hand we have a highly intelligent show about political maneuvering and possible anti-discrimination undertones, while on the other hand we have a lame action show about large breasts. I can't say "characters with large breasts" because absolutely every female character (besides the princess in her normal form, ironically) has such abhorrently large ones that they dominate the screen.
I supposed some viewers don't like the fact that SHAFT messes with the chronology and creates scenes that aren't in the manga, but I enjoy this. I don't want to to simply see a manga in motion; ... Nov 14, 2013
"Still a better love story than twilight." No, but seriously now. This was phenomenal!
I knew this show existed via cover art that I've seen in various places. So, I decided to take the time to watch it when it was finally recommended through another show. I figured vampires usually make something interesting to watch. This show was no exception and stole my complete attention until it was over. No spoilers, but slight references possible. Story: 9 Simply put, supernatural love story. I mean a good one too! This story did, however, take time for me to wrap around but it gets better. In other words, give it an ... Feb 1, 2017
Dance in the Vampire Bund is a rather notorious series. It's been heavily criticised for having sexualised content involving a character who looks like a child and when it was released outside of Japan there was a big fuss about censorship as various companies grappled with whether or not to cut some of the more controversial content. It's a series I've avoided because it looked crass in the same vein as Strike Witches or Upotte but I was asked to review it in spite of it being, according to the requester “a not very good show” due to it being a prototype in the
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Jul 9, 2010
So, I basically adore this anime. In my opinion, it's better than Bakemonogatari, another SHAFT production directed by Akiyuki Shinbo. You should know that Shinbo is quite an auteur. His shows are positively smeared with his unique timbre. If you don't like other works from Shinbo, you won't like this one either. This show is directed intelligently schizophrenic: zoom, cut, still frame, cut, blur, cut, shot of seemingly unrelated object/scene, cut, dialogue, cut, wide-screen, inverted colors, etc. Despite all this, it's not confusing. Instead, it's exhilarating. Staccato. Fast. MTV on speed. Never boring.
"Intelligently" schizophrenic, because none of the cuts are actually random. Every movement has ... Apr 24, 2012
Due to the overwhelming amount of negativity in this anime i decided to write this review.
Dance in the Vampire Bund was an anime that caught my attention completely by accident stumbling on a video while exploring the internet. I was immediately immersed within the story. While yes the main plot behind the anime, (boy loses memory, cant remember girl/ promise with girl, goes through adventure to regain memory) is a bit cliche and the whole amnesia thing is truly overused but the story and presentation of this is truly magnificent. Akira the main character initially has a cases of memory loss when Mina The ... Feb 22, 2013
~*Dance in the Vampire Bund*~Review (revised):
• Story: Dance in the Vampire Bund is the anime adaptation of the manga with the same name. The author is Tamaki Nozomu,well known for his ecchi and hentai mangas, so we didn't expect too much from him either way.In this anime we have a blonde moe prepubescent girl (most likely twelve years old) that never ages. We also have the bishōnen Akira Kaburagi Regendorf (the first two names are japanese ,but the etymology of the last name is a little complex,"Rege" means in romanian "king", but I'm not sure if the ... Mar 22, 2010
As even the Manga isn't finished, the 12 Episodes Anime will probably just cover the story till chapter 32. Well at least I hope so, and I really hope that there will be a second season. Well, yes I've read the manga and seen the Anime... But I don't want to compare it... I'll just write a review for the Anime as it is:
Do you remember Hellsing? Yeah, cool guy with cool sunglasses, and a gun which is taller than the one of Vash the Stampede... That's what a true Vampire-King is about!... Well, let's summarize the Vampire-Queen from DitVB: A cute little Lolicon-princess, when ... Jun 10, 2015
Dance in the Vampire Bund
There's been time when I felt a certain kind of curiosity to know about the genesis of vampire fiction and the root of this popular and discussed genre.So,obviously,I searched on google.Learned a little about Vlad the impaler.So,afterward,as I got the basic idea,I intended to watch some anime series about vampire.Despite of some people's opinion,I do not think that vampire stories in anime is bad.In most of the cases,the storyteller uses his imagination and makes a vampire which have superpowers or they don't have to bite or they don't get burned in the sun etc.So,yes,This show is no difference.But among the vampire ... |