Ranked #2014

Dance in the Vampire Bund

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 the most. I suppose most people would just pass them off as whims, but SHAFT has a knack at making an impression of the subtlest things which brings the plot together. Most vampire stories seem to forget that time moves, and are always trapped in one time-frame but Vampire Bund is nothing like that. Vampire Bund's story spans centuries of vampire history and glory, and the darkness within. It shows that vampires are not just creatures sleeping in coffins locked away in the middle ages, but also advance in technology and culture as humans do. It's an enormous theme and it's certainly not an easy task to depict it, but SHAFT does a great job. I suppose most people expect there would be a 2nd season because there's still another last boss and because of the manga, but if I'm not wrong, SHAFT doesn't intend on making a sequel. It's a lot better leaving the ending as it is and letting the audience imagine the story after, or just read the manga.

Art: 8
It doesn't get any better in abstract animation than with SHAFT. They make the simplest scenes look cinematic and grand. It seems they have been slacking a lot since ef, though. Basically, there's very little movement and lots of shadows. Vampire Bund seems to be lacking in the shadow effect SHAFT loves so much, however. In a sense, it could have been a lot better. However, it's still very impressive nonetheless.

Sound: 7
The OP and ED are not the best you can get from anime songs, but it's complimentary. On the contrary, the sound effects are excellent, as expected from SHAFT. Many scenes would have been very empty and felt meaningless without the sound effects, but SHAFT always makes it worthwhile with the perfect timing and tone.

Character: 8
As it is, the story revolves around one person, the vampire queen. But this doesn't mean everyone else are just pawns. Yes, the side characters may seem to have very little screen time, but they make a powerful impression every time they come onto the chess board. Unorthodox as it may be, Vampire Bund never depicts the mains as powerful and unbeatable. Instead it shows that they bleed and feel the pain, and don't live on their own but are supported by various characters.

Enjoyment: 10
Vampire Bund is one of the few animes I've managed to finish in just a day. It's so enjoyable and interesting that I couldn't take my eyes of it. The conversations, culture, history, philosophy, and action makes every minute worthwhile. I haven't read the manga, and I probably would in a while, but I doubt I would enjoy it as much as the anime. It's beyond my mind that the beautiful abstract animation by SHAFT can be depicted in manga form. read more

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. read more

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 is how they justify their ability to hide and survive in the time they have been oblivious to common humans. In the beginning the story is very poorly developed but everything starts adding up around the latter half of the series. Don't give it up too fast.

Art-8: Everyone loves a naked 10 year old right? But seriously, it's not as bad as everyone is making it out to be. Although there are times when where they directly focus on her sexuality as a child, these are usually short and aren't that bad. So people should just take a chill pill. The animation moves in a way that Bakemonogatari does (yes I'm using it as an example, but in a good way) in that random motions and images are presented and there is a lot of emphasis on speech. Overall, expect fight scenes to have a dark undertone and blood is apparent when bodies are being cut in half. But that's just being realistic isn't it?

Sound-6: The background music doesn't stand out. The voice actors also don't really make themselves apparent. I do, however, enjoy the sounds that represent pain. They are far more realistic than many other animes and have almost a surreal quality.

Character-8: The characters are bland and some come in and out of existence way too suddenly. You're left with a "Who the hell was that guy?" kind of feeling a lot of the time. Despite this the Vampire princess is actually a very complex person and it stands to reason that most of the character development revolves around her. The rest of the characters are basically just there although some things do get explained during the last couple of episodes. I don't see enough character development based off of Akira but i still like his interactions with the rest of the characters.

Enjoyment-9: I actually enjoyed this series very much. Although the whole series wasn't "excellent," it was still a good watch. There are some very unpredictable moments which surprised me when I first read the reviews, stating that it is completely unoriginal. Oh and the princess' true form is sexy as hell, even though it uses a light effect instead of skin for representation.

Overall-8: If it's taken for what it is it can be very enjoyable. I'll probably get lots of haters for this who try to only see the things wrong the with the anime and people who just can't sit back and enjoy. Sigh...well this is long enough already so I'll just end with saying if you like it, awesome, if you don't like it, that's cool, and if you've never seen it, you should give it a try.

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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 out to be the Queen of the Vampires, who he meets again, and shares a special bond with her. And so the story begins.


The art is beautiful. So much detail, and colors.

The sound is ok. I didn't really pay any attention to it, to be honest.

Characters: Really well developed considering there was only 12 episodes to work with. If you put attention, you're not left lost or confused.

Enjoyment: I don't know why everyone gave it such low ratings. I really liked Dancing in the Vampire Bund. Though, the first episode made me dubious. It's said that the audience bases their opinions of what they're watching within the first 10 seconds of their program. Well, I'm glad I gave it till the second episode.

Overall: 8.5
Dance in the Vampire Bund was everything I was looking for. Supernatural with romance and some action (the blood was a bonus).
Anyone looking for a action-packed romance anime, should definitely give this a chance.

Sorry if it's not the best review, I'm still an amateur at this:P

To all you "Not Helpful" and "Helpful" people too, feedback is appreciated. [; read more

~*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 mangaka named him knowing this detail). As for Mina Ţepeş's name,her family name is derived from the Vlad Ţepeş (meaning Vlad The Impaler) also known by the surname Dracul or later "Dracula". Vlad was referred to in several documents as "Dracul", which means "Son of the dragon" and points to his fatherl, who received that moniker from his subjects because he had joined the Order of the Dragon. Dracul, derived from the Latin word Draco meant "dragon", though in modern Romanian it means "devil".
Now, returning to the story... The anime introduces the viewer to the main characters, Mina ( the above mentionated loli vampire ), and the bishōnen Akira , which is later revealed to be a werewolf ( love between a vampire,how original ). Akira-kun is the knight in shiney armor that wants to protect his lady ( Mina ) and rescue her. The intial story line shouldn't be taken so serious,since it is more of satire/parody of what modern japanese people about vampires, attributing many distorted concepts. Therefore,alternating the mythology in order to appeal to the modern audience. Per total the story wasn't meant to be a deep,complex and emotional story full of unexpected story twits, but more of a parody. Therefore the story seems constrained to take a serious turn,and even when it finally does it feels out of place and clumsy. This anime achieves more being a comedy/satire than it achieves being dramatic.
Added: Watching more episodes,I changed my rating to 5.
Story: 5

• I've always liked and admired SHAFT for the excelent animation and art, because of the master pieces animes such as Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Kino's Journey: The Land of Sickness -For You-, Maria†Holic ,Bakemonogatari etc. I can't say that I don't enjoy this anime's graphic same as the others,that would be a lie. It has good animation,interesting visual effects and innovative visual concepts. However, the story drags down the art,with its clichés and fanservice, especially from a loli exchibitionist like Mina. The fights scenes are decent,verging on average ...
Art: 7

• The music was good, but nothing out of the ordinary.The Opening Theme Friends by Aiko Nakano and Ending Theme Tsumeato by Hibiku were fine,and agreable but nothing surprising,interesting and kind of wanna be a deep song or something like that.I liked it,but they are far from being my favorite japanese songs.
Sound: 6

• The characters may seem at first glance full of clichés. Their personality may seem aphatic , even when they face situations of emotional intensity. That may be because the mangaka focused more on the superfical aspects of the characters, and less about their inner selves.However,as the story progresses, the characters seem to gain more substance,being more believable in the interactions with each other. The character that I empathize/symphatize most with is Akira, he is just a normal teenager surrounded by unusual circumstances. And never forget: A single word:FANSERVICE. A lot of fanservice, especially loli fanservice. They don't really have a role or any purpose whatsoever, the complexity of one's character is not that important.

Added:Watching more episodes,I realised the characters do have development,and I have been quite harsh in the beginning,now I realise that the over the board fan service and strange humor is not so bad,therefore,I changed my rating to 6.However,the characters remain the weakest point in the anime.
Characters: 5

• I really do hope that this anime will have in the future a more serious plot,and that the mangaka will be more serious about it,after all, is offensive to us readers.The idea was quite interesting and it could be a lot better and complex,but it turned out to be quite clichéic story.I really hoped for more..
Added:As I said before,I have been to harsh,now I realise the anime can be quite enjoyable if you don't take it to serious.I changed my rating.
Enjoyment: 6

Overall: 5.8
Note: I have made a review of this anime back in 2010,when the first episodes appeared. At the time I was angered by the lack of historical knowlege that made people misunderstand a few things about the vampire concept. However, as of 22.02.2013, I changed my review and ratings, toning it down, and presenting the anime in a more favorable light, without being blinded by subjectivism. read more

Hmm... what to say about Dance in the Vampire Bund...well personally I like the manga better but there is still much to say about the anime.

Story:
I found the plot interesting. However, the anime storyline lacks very important information. We the viewers are constantly wondering why something happens when it does which I personally found VERY frustrating.
Not to mention the ending where we're all left hanging...which I hated because now we have to wait to see if they make a sequel so we can find out what the hell really happened.

Art:
The animation in this anime was fantastic! Shaft really did a good job of making everything so life-like and realistic. My favorite part is where the camera moves up and gives a full range of the body of the character and then focuses on the eyes that are obviously a personal touch done by Shaft.

Sound:
The opening to the anime was well to put it in simply boring. It did not really suit the mood of the story at all.
However, I personally liked the closing to the anime. It is not something amazing but it does provided a simple yet catchy ending song to the anime.

The background is excellent you can hear every sound.
The voice actors are well fitted to their characters in a way that you cannot imagine anyone else voicing them.

Characters:

While most of the characters are...with lack of a better word their stereotypical.
Mina is the only one who shows more depth with her sarcasm and all mighty personality.
Although I personally did like the anime only character Mei Rin, the cracking sound when she bites hard candy just gives me a chill. She is a bit too forward with Akira but I personally found it funny how she constantly tried to make him uncomfortable.

Enjoyment:
I received much pleasure from this anime. Although lacking in storyline and in depth of the characters. This anime kept me on my toes, it kept me wanting to know more. I watched each episode trying to figure out what was going to happen only for the episode to end in a way I did not expect which was thrilling but also a little frustrating at times.

Overall:
Overall I would rate this anime a 10 just because of my personally enjoyment. Nevertheless, for the sake of other people who do not quite share the same opinion I would rate this anime a 7.


You might not like this anime if you hate vampires or werewolves.
It has many political things, which I know a lot of you readers find to be boring.
There is some blood and gore so if you are not into that then you should probably avoid this anime.
If you are super into sugary sweet romance then you are not going to like this anime, however if you like the whole forbidden love thing then this anime is for you.


Now this is my personal opinion and I am not forcing any of you to share it.
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At the starting of the Winter season Dance in the Vampire bund was touted to be the best of the 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 precluded the plot 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 the Kaburagi and the heroine. Why did he a werewolf willingly protect the Queen of vampires? We shall never know. Before this show seemed to have that allure of becoming a political thriller with a supernatural application intertwined. Instead we get a disjointed story about a guy who has little reason to have filial feelings towards his so-called master and then an arcane human enemy that we don't know about. I beg the question why didn't a person of the Japanese goverment become an enemy of Mina Tepes in her plans to create a utopian environment for vampires.

Then we have the school setting. Do you really think kids will be a monumental threat to the Queen of vampires designs? These supernatural stories always base themselves upon using the high school setting as their doctrine. The main character rebels against Mina tepe's hegemonic rule over his classmates, even though supposedly they have a master to servant relationship. Oh wait there's more. Yes if you thought this story was perfunctorily dysfunctional think again.A couple of episodes later.There's a planned coup to usurp the Queen of vampires. This segment comes after the fighting between her former servant and the vampires. One of the nobles tried to seize power.The servant comes to the aid of his master again even though he tried to extirpate her from top to bottom not to long ago. This show ends with the abortive coup and the consolidating of her power. Let's sequester more high schools, so I Mina Tepes have another excuse to show off the litany of flowers on my lavish dresses and bras. If you have a small tit fetish then enroll in Mina Tepes's district now. Overall a pusillanimous piece of work, riddled with questions more than answers.

Art-The art is similar to shafts prototypical art pieces. The animation tries to augment the characters with appealing surroundings, but lets face it the animation generally occurs only in a few separate settings. There's nothing remotely beguiling about the art, except in the ending song scenes.

Sound-Typical J-pop nothing new to see here at all. The music tries to acclimate to the dramatic points in the plot. However the serious taste in music is not warranted by a less than surpising or predictable outcome. Then we have the gothic music interposed with the vampiric theme, trying to effectually portray the story as a creepy vampire story.

Characters-First we have the blonde bomb shell herself Mina tepes, who exudes the pretentious little brat role that's quite abound in anime these days. Maybe it's the ennoblement that's required of her position..Kaburagi is the typical, reckless, and effront idiot that would make any level-headed question his existence in the show. He also the naive type that cannot figure anything out regardless if it's placed right in front of his face. Do we need more facile morons in anime, that are pervayers of naivety.The rest of the cast I couldn't care less about.Just a tasteless supporting cast. Nothing needed to be said.

Enjoyment- My enjoyment is poorer than the other categories because I had some remedial expectations for this show. Instead of an enthralling piece of politicization with aspects of correlating realism, we get a inane piece of anime that cannot execute.

Overall- Some may think I thought of this as an abject failure due to my denunciations. However its the seeping disappointment rather than having any deep consternation towards the show itself. If you want to watch an unfathomable anime that's below average, with horrible execution be my guest.


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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 original and overused premises in modern media, but I digress... introducing their existence to the unsuspecting public via the media is certainly a new one. On paper, this reads like a fantastic deconstruction of the vampire genre, but horribly executed and turns into a rather large clusterfuck. Amidst the TV show, Mina Tepes, a small blonde loli girl who looks distinctly similar to Evangeline A.K. McDowell, announces the existence of Vampires, and declares herself to be their ruler.

The above becomes largely forgettable, though, as something of an Episode 0 sort of thing, and the following episode picks up with the actual plot, introducing our protagonist Akira. I call him our protagonist in the very lightest sense of the word, since from the very beginning it was painfully obvious that the staff behind the show care about one character, and one character only, and that is Mina. Despite being our supposed protagonist, Akira shows next to no personality in the series, being a bland plot vehicle instead. As it turns out, he and Mina go quite a way back, but Akira has amnesia. Apparently, he is a member of the Earth Clan of Werewolves, and is bound to protect Mina.

Yes, you read that right. This features both Vampires and Werewolves. Where have I heard that one before?

What follows is a rather poorly-paced plot that takes several episodes to truly commence, and when it does, falls flat on its face. Whilst i'd rather not spoil too much, Mina takes a rather drastic choice within the series when the shit hits the fan, and starts to take a turn for the worst as a character. What doesn't help is that said decision seriously clashes with how she is portrayed in the previous episode, making her out to be a rather inconsistent character. At the same time, the plot that ensues is very generic, bland, and completely fails to ignite any sense of interest, with the exception being towards the end when the show begins to pick up.

All of this, however, is only so much detraction, and could still make for a passable show if it wasn't for my one and only massive complaint about this show: The directing. Put simply, Akiyuki Shinbo needs a good, hard kick in the 'nads for the horrible, horrible job he has done directing this show. For a start, the art style is extremely bland, and the colouring feels very undersaturated, making a very weak atmosphere for the series. But more importantly, the animation is horrific. Not since Evangelion have I seen such blatant corner-cutting, and at the very least Evangelion put it to good artistic use. Here, they repeat animation wholesale, and constantly use longshots, along with some very blatant and annoying censors. And just to put the cherry on the top, when the animation hits its low, can you guess what they did? They mixed in live action shots to save animation, if you believe they would honestly sink so low. But worst of all, the eye closeups. Oh dear lord the eye closeups. There's an extreme close up of an eyeball around every few seconds, or at least once every two minutes. In one episode, I actually counted how many, and guess what? 54. In a single episode. I am not making this up.

In essence, this show is garbage. It's hard to find more than a handful of redeeming features to it, aside from the fact that the manga might be something passable.

Final Words: Don't waste your time on it.

Animation/Graphics: 1/10
Story/Plot: 4/10
Music/Background: 7/10
Voice Acting: N/A

Overall: 3/10

For Fans Of: Bakemonogatari, Trinity Blood read more

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 Queen of the Vampires, rediscovers him after a long absence. At the same time Mina is making the existence of Vampires public. What ensues is a mixture of the occult, graphic violence, political entanglement, struggling with oneself, and romance.
Now Dance in the Vampire Bund is not without its own faults, the story seems to be choppy, and not entirely planned out as well as the complete open ended way that the final episode ends, begging for a second season. Despite this, the story will always have you asking questions all the way to the end with very dramatic and interesting ways to answer each and every one of them. The art of the anime was beautifully done, many panoramic scenes, and stunning visuals.. this is a dark anime, somehow though they don't overuse this aspect so the anime still seems light and in some areas cheery.

Changing the subject a bit,while i dissagree with many other people on this anime one thing t i can agree with other reviewers is why? It seems there are no reasons in the beginning as to why Akira does anything at all, changing from ignoring her, to helping her, to ignoring her again, then fighting against her, to once again being at her side. I believe this has to do with how he is gaining his memories back, but this wasn't truly evident in the anime.
All in all though this anime does a wonderful job at what anime should do which is entertain. read more

This is an anime that had the potential to be an all time classic if it had used its own premise wisely. I’m serious; the core idea behind the story is what the stuff of legends is made of. Here, let me describe it to you.

Imagine if you are the ruler of all vampires, centuries old, who suddenly gets fed up being hidden from the world and decides to reveal the existence of its kin and ask for acceptance. Imagine that you have the resources to buy the politicians, gain public support, and an entire army of powerful undead warriors at your side in case somebody doesn’t agree with you. Imagine you, appearing on the first episode on television and announcing all that, ready to take the heat as usurpers and traitors make their move. Isn’t that a great premise or what?

Too muscular and political for you? Let’s try the feminine romantic approach. Imagine you are a little girl who was turned centuries ago into a vampire, cursed to spend eternity as a child. Imagine being pampered all the time yet never feeling truly happy without someone to love you as a person and not as a rich spoiled brat. And imagine you can’t fully return your affection back without turning the whole deal into child rape (which will be troublesome because of the body anatomy even if you are pro to that idea). Furthermore, any potential lovers you meet will slowly grow old and die while you still remain permanently young and once again alone.

Both scenarios would make great stories on their own, so imagine both of them being combined in the same anime. That is, you are the leader of all vampires, a little girl, centuries old, who wants to reveal its existence to mankind, ask acceptance, and seek love and happiness without being able to return it back properly or hold on to it for long. It would be a masterpiece beyond all expectations.

But no, the scriptwriters didn’t stop there; they had to add a third aspect to the show. Instead of going for something special and rather unique for its time, they decided to throw in a run of the mill ecchi school comedy and ruin the uniqueness of the story. Why risk when mediocrities sell? Just screw it all with nude lolis, jiggly breasts, harem situations, and hell, if you are going to blow it all up you might as well throw in shonen superpower crap. Why be controversial when the same old shit sells?

It’s not as if typical elements can’t work in creating a good show. Neon Genesis for example starts as a run of the mill super robots show and it is full of female character archetypes. The thing is, Neon Genesis builds around that and later escapes the formula, becoming something entire different and special. Vampire Bund on the other hand does the opposite; begins special and interesting and then returns to mediocrity and boredom.

And so, the great story I described above became nothing but sleazy pedo-bait, typical highschool comedy, superficial politics, and average superpower action. If all these were not present, the rest would be more than enough to create something great; but no, they dragged it down to mediocrity because they though people like average works and not unique anime.

Well, they were apparently wrong because all the hype the show had was based on the premise of the story, which sounded great. As soon as they saw how lame it turned out to be, most gave up and forgot it right away. A second bait was of course the oversexualized main loli, as many expected to see child-sex or something. Again, none of that happens (not even off-screen, not even implied) so once again people gave up on it. Because that is what the hook of the series was all about; a great story around politics and vampires or sleazy child porn. Yet all they got is stuff they can easily find better elsewhere. Of course and the series would fail!

So starting with the story, I say the main idea is the only interesting thing in it. All the rest are just high school silliness, superficial politics, and run-of-the-mill superpower battles. There are also many occult overtones present as well that are quite atmospheric; yet they are heavily undermined because of the other silly elements and practically go to waste. Adding to that is the story which is left incomplete and a second season (which most likely will never be made) was needed to finish something that is already ruined in the eyes of most. Story gets a 4.

Moving to the characters, you will probably notice that all this time I was only talking about the main character, the vampire lord / ageless loli. Well what did you expect when the premise is all about her and all the focus is upon her as well? Mina Tepes is the only interesting character in the entire show for being those two different things I described above. All the rest are nothing but superficial and forgettable archetypes, typical villains and silly high schoolers, that are hardly aiding in anything or are even worthy support. There is also Akira, the co-lead, who is somewhat interesting since half the story is told through his point of view, plus he is the current romantic target of our eternal loli and her main bodyguard. Unfortunately they are both heavily damaged by the unnecessary secondary elements and lose a lot of appeal. Mina ends up being nothing but average pedo-bait; undressing or dressing all moe for the pervy viewers, while Akira is constantly having amnesia excuses to hold back his true potential and personality, plus he is usually using lame excuses to win in most battles, so he is not even an interesting warrior. And forget the whole lovers part because it is hardly there. Cast gets a 4.

The artwork is very good, with vivid colors and lots of details, plus most action scenes and people walking have lots of lively animation. There are lots of artsy touches as well, from the use of light, to zooming at blinking eyes or flashes at the background, full of goth or other weird imagery helping to bring out the mentality of the characters. The thing that ruins it is when people are just talking. They gave some basic attention to lip-synch but their bodies remain completely frozen that makes it feel very superficial. I can even place the fan service in the negatives as it is actually working at alienating the viewer from the core story or the main character drama and make him focus on naked lolis and big boobs. Otherwise, I liked what I saw. Art gets an 8.

Sound is rather overlooked. It has no special music pieces or overall exceptional voice acting. It really goes unnoticed because of the undermined setting. Music gets a 7.

Down to it, there is very little value or enjoyment in this series. The disappointing turn around from something great to something average and the incomplete story can’t help you get interested in rewatching the whole thing. Plus, you can get bolder child porn or school moe elsewhere; so nothing worth looking into a second time. read more

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 the story (as opposed to anime where the story is cut short with respect to the manga but have well rounded endings)

The art is very "meh"... They use different cinematic techniques to emphasize scenes but it gets repetitive, which together with the insane amounts of censoring, make the storyline of some episodes difficult to follow. The music just sounds like a cut and pasta from a random anime--I was expecting Dance in the Vampire Bund to have some good music as in Bakemonogatari)

I will admit that when I published the first draft of this review around episode 3, I was biased biased by the fact that I am a big fan of the manga. Back then, I suggested people to continue watching this for at least a few episodes. But, now I guess that I must say, you should spend those 24 minutes reading the manga =).


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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 you see her you would like to hug her and pat on her head... Cute little girley! Oh well... Yes she looks as terrifying as a poring (Small pink enemy ball in Ragnarok Online)... Well... But, even if the first few episodes of this don't show the real intentions and character of Mina, she can be quite hardcore... Well in fact the characters are good as they are. I like them! I like hime, Akira, the dumb glassed megaboob president pedo girl who loves her little brother, yeah and even yuki, who is the normal girl in this anime... Yeah... They are nothing special, nothing new, but all the categories are there. So everyone should be happy...

Well if I were to rate the first few episodes, this anime would have a score about mh 4 or so. I read the manga after I watched the anime. So I was confused sometimes about the scenes, there were holes in the storyline and somehow it seemed cutted... Hm, but after a while it got better, you get to know more about the characters and the bund... You'll learn a few secrets, you get to see some action, some moe and some ecchi... Well, in fact I don't give such a high score for an serious anime... No it's a high score for a lightweight anime. Yeah, you can search for a deeper meaning, and you'll even find it. Yes, you can read the manga and the story'll develop in a much clearer and more interessting way... But oh well let's write a fazit:

If you want to watch a good Anime with some weaknesses, but a lot of entertaining scenes: like action, romance, ecchi and so on... Hey it's ok watch DitVB. If you don't take it to serious it's a very good anime. Else read the Manga, but I belive if you don't like the Anime you won't hype the Manga as well. read more

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 great that they keep their existence a secret. But collecting money for thousands of years without ANYBODY noticing their wealth, it's like taking humans for retards.
Basically, it's like vampires were running the world economy but nobody knew it was them because nobody knew they exist and that is bullshit.

The art is good, nothing else to say here. It gets a 7.

I didn't pay attention to the sound, so can't say it's good or bad. Neutral so 5.

The characters suck. I hate fake lolis. Mina's been living for ages yet she tries to impress high school students with the statement of a math formula. I can do it even without living for millennia. It's like: "Look how awesome I am, I know basic math formulas even though I'm a loli who lived for so long I crap fossils". There's nothing impressive here. And why stay a loli when you can be hot, with a mature ladylike body (the body gets +2)? Just for that, the characters gets a 0 and a +2 for the hot body.

Enjoyment... The first episode was bitter because it was too slow on development. Watching the second one was like shoving food up your ass till it comes out from your mouth. I don't enjoy that. read more

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; I want a different artistic experience. For example, the first episode of Dance was a parody of Japanese variety shows and was completely original--and so far it's still the best episode in my opinion.

Anyway, if you like action and "hot babes," you'll probably enjoy this show much more than I do. For now, I'm going to d/l the eps every week and hope they stray from the fanservice and delve deeper into the political aspect. read more

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 weird angles, small movements that just added to the over all picture. And most recently, Kimi ni Todoke, which took it's original style (from the manga) and added wonderful animation to make it a light hearted, lovely anime.

SHAFT JUST TOOK THIS AND MURDERED IT.

The constant zooming in and about the place as if it were a shitty matrix remake. The crappy mouth animation that dosn't fit the faces at all. The random hair blowing in the NON EXISTANT wind, for no apparently reason. SHAFT isn't being daringly artistic, no, they're just being stupid.

PLEASE, FIX THIS.

Onto the story. I don't hate it, I don't like it. I was looking foward to an intense political drama, from what I've heard of the manga. Instead, I was given a vauge remake (with shitty animation /shot) the seems to more be focused on a romance. So ok, I like romance stories. So I will hold my judgement on this until later episodes.

Character. Heck, I could watch this show blind and still know what was going on, the characters are so freaking bland and obvious. I know, I know, anime is not without cliche, but please. PLEASE. Do they have to be /this/ bad? I see little room for developtment/major growth. What I do see, is how this is going to end. However, I will hold out for suprises.

Art. Well, animation aside, the art annoyes me to. It seems rather messy, blotchy, and overly shiney, like a new comer to photoshop who hasn't ever been tutored, or heck, bothered to learn how to use color properly. Mina's hair is about the only thing in the anime I like, in terms of art. This, combined with the animation from hell, means I would probably enjoy watching this blind. However, I don't understand enough japanese to do so.

Overall, this anime has potentional, which it currently will probably never achieve. But y'know what? I'll see it through to the end. Damn it. read more

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 vampire, in this story, is Mina Tepes, the descendant of Vlad the Impaler we can only presume. Since you know, he was definitely a vampire, because that's what Dracula says. This time around though, the poor little vampires just want to be peacefully accepted into society. Two things come to mind when I hear this, the first being Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (1818), where a "monster" tries to integrate itself into society, and is nonetheless feared and shunned by everybody. The second is the anime Vampire Knight, where vampires and humans already co-exist to a small degree in a school setting, where the 'Day class' is occupied by humans and the 'Night class' by vampires.
It goes further to hit every cliche in the arsenal, where the vampire chooses to attend school with her servant, who also happens to be a werewolf, the very school she of course has rule over, and the defiant student council wants to fight back for the school they most certainly love. Perhaps this wasn't meant to be an original story. For the rest of the review therefore, I will look at it as a re-telling of all the old legends of vampires and stuff like that. Story itself though, gets a 3 for lack of original content.

Art: 5
Shaft has always had a unique style of animation. That's what makes me a fan. Being a fan I've seen many of their other works. Having seen many of their other works, I recognize re-used animations and stills, re-colored to fit the characters in the current show. Clearly not their best effort. The animation itself however, is fairly decent, smooth, and with consistent characters and interesting angles. On the contrary, it's not as stylized as other Shaft works, such as Bakemonogatari or Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, which means it does tend to just look a little generic compared to their other works. Also, there is no actual animation in the ending theme. Knowing Shaft, they will change that soon, but for now, 5'd.

Sound: 4
The opening and ending themes are good. Everything else is generic, or even inappropriate. Comical sound effects mixed in with serious conversations set you off, and in my opinion, all the important voice actors have done better work in other shows.

Character: 2
Here's one of the biggest disappointments of this show. Where they could have gone with creative, decent characters, there's just an eyesore lackluster display of crashing waves of mediocrity. The main character (at least, I think she is?) Mina Tepes, is basically some sick combination of Remilia and Flandre Scarlet, as well as Nagi Sanzenin but without the nerdy side. An oppressive, static loli vampire queen. She shows two sides - the dominating, quick-witted personality you would expect from any major boss in a shonen show, and the slightly irritable yet teasing-playful unavoidable Tsundere archetype. Not exactly something to go in the record book.

Then there's the other "main" character - Akira Kaburagi Regendorf. He made a promise as a child. Creative. He's a werewolf. Creative. He's a bullheaded protagonist that will go to unnecessary lengths to help the one he loves, even if he ends up just getting in the way. Creative. That, and if I were to describe him physically (short and somewhat spiky brown hair, school uniform, ..........) I'd run out of things to say about that fast. Complains a lot, same old, same old.

Enjoyment: 2
Unless this anime is just a satire on anime or attempt to kill the industry, it's not worth watching. At all. I found myself checking the timer to see how much longer until each episode finished, so that I could be done with it and go on to bigger and better things, like staring at my computer's wallpaper.

Overall: 3
Unless you're an undefeated vampire champion striving to peck up every last piece of lore you can relating to vampires, I would avoid watching Dance in the Vampire Bland. If you're looking for a vampire show with lots of action, there are many, many other, better choices. read more

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 a purpose, not a wasted note is to be found. Sometimes, just when the dissonant camerawork and cut scenes seem about to overpower, it resolves into a beautifully harmonic scene. Sometimes the artwork is truly beautiful, like the shock-waves through flowers (cleomes, which only bloom at night)in the opening, and sometimes it's twisted, like a few of the vampires' true forms.

It may be avant garde, but it is by no means pretentious. Rather, it is a drunken romp flavored with gore, eroticism, dry humor, and pulp. It starts off sober enough, as most drunken romps do, but, well, you know how those Friday nights go… By the end, it sobers up into a pretty love ballad, and finishes quite touchingly with an epic and emotional finale.

It's often hard to tell if the story's continuous or not. Just as distortion allows a punk rocker to hide wrong notes and sloppy technique, the mania of this show obscures its sanity. When the show hits a sober note, it is ofter startling. One particularly delightful moment in the story was the parable of the butterfly and the flower who looked like a butterfly. The butterfly tries desperately to court the still flower, who never responds to him. As one of my favorite characters says, "no matter how strongly the butterfly feels, he will never be together with a flower." The music this series dances to is the weakest link. Even so, it is delightfully gothic during the episode, pretty and energized before, and raunchy after.

I thought this would be a controversial review considering the negativity this show has gotten here, so I checked the ratings distribution over at animenewsnetwork. This show is considered "very good" by a strong mode, though the average is drawn lower by a minority who find the show to be "worst ever". This means the people who dislike it are the most vociferous, not the most representative. What I'm getting at is that you, dear reader, shouldn't be scared away by the negative reviews.

Here's a guide to see if you like it: 1. Did you like the manga if you read it? As far as I know, everyone who was a fan of the manga hated the show. You might be the exception, but not likely. 2. Do you like SHAFT? If so, then you have a greater chance of liking this release. 3. Do you pick up on dry humor? Almost every anime I've seen that's not a comedy or pretentious "art" (such as haibanme renmei) has some level of dry humor. If you don't really pick up on that stuff, a lot of this will seem boring to you. 4. Can you tolerate inappropriate fan service? Our 100 year old protagonist has the body of a ten year old, but definitely has tendencies belonging to much older females. 5. Watch the first episode. If you are one of the few who liked the first episode, then you are most likely going to enjoy the rest of the series. If you hate the first episode, don't bother with this series.
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A fan of Twilight? Vampires? Werewolves? Fantasy? This anime has it all. Dance in the Vampire Bund was previously adapted from the manga and consists 12 episodes with 1 recap. A highly suspenseful and mysterious source. I personally thought everything was thorough, and detailed. If you're interested in a fantasy, horror, slight bit of nudity, this is a perfect anime for you.

Story: 10
The story was very well thought. The audience clearly understands what is going on and the plot doesn't skip all over the place, definitely have transitional scenes in between. The future scenes were somewhat predictable in some areas. There were 3 different stories that connected and the 2nd scenario were fairly predictable, but otherwise i thought the plot was interesting. The plot really stood out, it wasn't those typical romances with your typical daily lives. Really is unique compared to the rest, especially when both protagonists start to reveal their past to the audience

Art: 10

The art was very detailed, indeed. The contrast in black and red, against the bright yellow and white portrays a very evil aspect of the anime, yet the brighter colours kind of portray a type of hope and peace. Although most of the anime was set in the dark you can distinguish the many aspects of the animation. It also had great effects, especially with the vampire attacks and transformations.

Sound:

Similar to the art in the movie, it was well used at the right times. When you hear the sounds you can feel the different emotions in it, for example, if one would scream, it'd give a really eerie feel and send goosebumps up your spine. Its as if the sound runs through your body giving you the right reaction to the event that is occurring. Truly astounding.

Characters:

The characters were well developed. It was brought with a third person omniscient view, in which we know some things that are only revealed to the audience but not the actual characters in the story. The characters were very mysterious in every concept, you don't know some of their motives, etc. But as the anime progresses, the anime unfolds and many would start to understand the character's motive and personality better. The one thing I wasn't so pleased about was the nudity of the Vampire Queen (who has taken form into a young blond child), it was....rather disturbing. However, after awhile it'll be easily to absorb those images. Akira's personality was a little too obvious, really, a typical hero, who tries to keep his promise and does anything to save his friends, and Queen.

I absolutely enjoyed the anime and I hope you will too =] read more

Children of the night, something that always seems to entertain me. This series however, made me fall more in love with series that deal with the Vampires and other supernatural creatures. Something that bugged me was the low rating this seemed to have, naturally an anime that I enjoyed I wanted to write a positive review. So let's get started shall we?

Story: 8/10
The premise of the story deals with the Queen of Vampires, Mina Tepes, and the promise 10 years before the current setting made with the main protagonist Kaburagi Akira. "The Queen who had all the power, and boy who offered her everything." Or something like that was the reason this whole story had happened. The two's promise was that Akira would never leave her side, and he'll always have her smile. A little cliche'd but I didn't mind. Now I would have given the story a 10/10 if the plot gave more detail about Mina and the Japanese government. This also dealt with politics, knowing the Japanese were in a huge debt, along with the Bund the queen created to support all the vampires. Sadly they didn't provide much detail, but all in all the story was done quite well.

Art: 10/10
From the get go, I knew the art was done by Shaft, the animators of the Bake and Nisemonogatari. From the odd viewpoints to the realistic characters. What I mean is that the characters anatomy was done closely to realistic ones, unlike those big eye'd stereotypical type of characters. This is what I really enjoyed. Another was the beauty of mixing real pictures along with the anime. Shaft has an unorthodox way of animating things, something that really catches my eye.

Sound: 9/10
The sound was a bit out of the ordinary but not something over the top. The soundtracks played during key moments and the tone fit it as well. Opening and ending songs were something to remember, that also kept me on the positive side of the Sound portion.

Character: 10/10
Primarily, the story mainly focused on the two, Mina Tepes and Kaburagi Akira. The growth the characters have were amazing, the development was much needed for the story and they were done right. Although some side characters stand out, not much development but still important to the story.

Overall: 9/10
For me, I would've gave it a 10/10 but I tried my best to be unbiased for this review. I really enjoyed Dance in the Vampire Bund. I suggest for fans of any supernatural creature fans, romance fans, and action, this is something for you. If not, I highly suggest you try this, you may enjoy this as well :) read more

my very first review!!when vampire queen mina tepes arrives in japan to bulid a home for the vampire race,akira kaburagi must keep his childhood promise to protect her from those who would dethrone her.i really like anime because its a great story.there are some pretty good fighting scenes and its also a great conspiracy-like anime