Well, they definately put in a lot of 'fanservice' in this episode!
I somewhat liked the beginning of this episode. But then the plot caught up and 3 vampire lords we never heard about arrive to 'claim' the queen because of an ancient agreement we never saw or was never explained to us *sigh*. Despite that, I found the scene between wolfy and candy girl kind of funny, especially when she lobbed the candy into his mouth.
The still images keep coming back. I'm thinking they were on a really tight budget here.
It's surprising to me how much this show manages to suck my enthusiasm out. Initially I was starting to be excited about seeing something interesting and coherent this episode, becoming invested in the story, but then they have to throw out something that just makes me depressed.
No problem! There's no rush to watching these - watch them at your convenience, Inaba-san.
Dance in Vampire Bund, Episode 9
You know, a lot of things bug me about this series, but writing about them would make me come off as cynical asshole.
I suppose it makes a little bit of sense that they tried to save the president since they know her, and the rest of the vampires are nameless red-eyed drones that explode themselves at the drop of a hat.
I believe all the action of the series occurs outside of the bund itself. The bund is what everyone in the anime is for, but we never really... see it - aside for a moment in some earlier episode where we see the fangless hop around.
The school I believe is outside the bund itself.
Now, to the episode itself.
It was.. pretty awful.. Really, really bad. And I think that's at least in part because I'm currently watching 4 anime:
Tokyo Ghoul Psycho Pass Princess Tutu Dance in Vampire Bund
Whenever I compare DiVB to any of the others, it just comes out so weakly in comparison. We got to see how cheap the anime can be here, with the repeated still frames of real life photographs with a bunch of filters put on them. That is as lazy as you can be. This isn't the first time the anime has done this, but it's the first time it was so.. blatant.
You remember your reaction to candygirl's boob being groped? Well, that was my reaction to the whole episode. I stared passionlessly at the screen waiting for it to be over - aside from a very brief outburst, as I stood up and blurted out "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!" when the sequence of still images appeared one after another.
I hate Hysterica. Because she's dumb, cliche and evil just because.
Turning the president to Mina's 'brood' was plot convenience yet again.
The only part of this episode I liked was the very end, where the president could be together forever with her beloved younger.. kid. And it was very short.
I love it. Which is not what I was expecting. Usually I shit on what other people recommend me, because I'm an opinionated cynical asshole, but this one? I honestly don't have much to complain about.
There is a lot of disturbing censorship in this anime, but I understand it. Clearly the artists themselves decided to draw some gorey scenes, however post-production it was edited out to not show anything too intense for the main audience.
I hate it, but I don't blame the anime creators for it, which is why I won't lower my score based on that fact - I hate the anime that censors its artwork deliberately to get a lower rating, but these guys? Nope.
I fully expect that when it releases on Blu-Ray or other media, it'll have an uncensored version. Thumbs up guys!
I love how the ghouls of this society decide to just live with each other, there are assholes, but they're smart about it and try to blend into the human world. Rather than do everything to get themselves destroyed, like the dumbass vampires in Shiki (fuck.. do I dislike Shiki!).
http://myanimelist.net/character/87277/Touka_Kirishima is a fun character, doesn't put up with the little whiney protagonist we have. And honestly I'm not even annoyed with Kaneki. He's fine for the most part, he does his job to introduce this world to us.
I also love http://myanimelist.net/character/103409/Rize_Kamishiro - who is like a companion character to Kaneki. Really, I thought she'd die at the start of the anime, but NOPE. She dies in a much more spectacular fashion.
Really, the only way this anime could screw up is by having a shitty ending and boring next few episodes. That would make it a 6 at worst.
It's nice to hear that you have similar feelings. Please don't feel pressured to share my opinion about anime that we watch - I have very strong and particular opinions about anime based on my near 30 year experience of being glued to the TV screen (and then the computer screen).
I'm always interested in hearing what other people think - I want to hear your own opinions!
Dance in Vampire Bund, Episode 8
When it comes to vampires, there are many ways you can tell a story involving them. One of them is the drama/tragedy of a family member becoming the vampire and then having a dilemma - their nature draws them to hurt the ones they love, yet they try to resist.
I.. just love that shit! And hence I had a very positive vibe towards this particular episode.
I did let out a laugh when I hard the phrase bloodsucking PTSD <3. Though honestly, it does actually makes sense to have something like that in their world. By the way - wasn't a vampires 'kiss' supposed to be pleasurable, or was that only someone lying on TV?
Yay, I'm glad that Candygirl is back. And so is the cliche anime scene where the guy falls on the girl and 'accidentally' gropes her tits. It can be funny, I get it. It's just a bit.. overused.
In the scene where hopeless girl who has a crush on wolfy realised that she brought the wrong notebook and ran out on Mina... Why'd she leave her secret book-novel thing? That's almost begging the people in the room to read it.
Awww, Mina and hopeless girl who has a crush on wolfy (I seriously forget her name every time) are now friends. And then we see some exploding vampires.
The bad guys are pretty arrogant, aren't they? Come to think of it, the bad guys are almost ALWAYS arrogant in anime. It's like an anime cliche.
Again, I gotta say - that touching scene with the bespecled vampire girl and the poor younger kid was nice. And so was the rest of the content on that subject. You know, just take Mina out of the anime, wolfy, the weird new vampire chick, the bund and just make it a story about a boy and his 'sister' who is a vampire.
It's good to see a viewer that's not in denial. Nowadays, there's so many out there that pretend they enjoy the show and easily influenced by what other people think or telling them how they should think.
brb I have no idea what I just watched, but the animation is nice and 99% of people think it's the best show ever, so I'm going to give it 10/10 as well! yay me!
Majority of this is from females and beta males mostly, but it's their lives after all. I have no problem with people living in denial or live like a sheep. I simply speculate and cringe at them.
You are one of the few exceptions. I can tell you're going to make it.
I can certainly see how you'd think that! <3 Candygirl is certainly mysterious and a bit of a smartass, so - you have me there!
Generally speaking, I look for strong female characters in anime, and you can see them pasted all over my favourite characters' list on my MAL profile page.
Dance in Vampire Bund, Episode 7
Pardon that expression but... that fucking music again!! Just start episode 7 and listen to it! Argh!
I somewhat thought it was somewhat appropriate earlier on in the show, but now when we're having a recap of the previous episode where vampires have broke into the church, well.. Um... Er.. I don't like it.
Well, Wolfy leaves the kids in the church vulnerable and unprotected. While knowing vampires will be attacking them (there are stained glass windows in that church, right - that can't have been a good idea). Goes to get some weapons (which ultimately aren't used), and then meets a guy which he remembers.
Oh, suddenly there are a lot of people on the elevator talking to him. Where'd they come from? Ah well... So, we discover that he's failed his mission to protect her Highnessness, and could've been killed, but instead he.. forgot about it. Hm.
This is just a lot of stuff to take in at once for an audience, I feel.
So.. Why did you undress and don a cloth, Mina? Were you worried that your transformation a few scenes later would tear them to shreds? OK.
Also, these vampire girls sure like to show off their rack and the vampire boys like to see the rack of the girls that aren't vampires while they're feeding on them. Even the vampire girl wants to take a close look on the rack of the girl that's not a vampire who has a crush on Wolfy.
The vampire dude turned into a bat. Why is the girl who has a crush on wolfy who's not a vampire protecting Mina? I thought they didn't like each other very much.
Then Wolfy and Vampire Queen are having a fight, because he didn't keep a promise. OK
I'll say one thing, as pervy as that transformation was, the end result with the wings... was pretty fucking awesome. Until they (the wings) went away. And that made me go "awwww..."
No worries though, everything is fine! Even though the Demon Queen was supposed to eat the boy who broke a promise, she didn't.
Does it seem like I'm being a little snide? Well.. Sure. Honestly though, that was a lot of stuff going on in one episode. Given the fact that this is 7 episodes out of 12, and we've come to something of a conclusion, it makes me think the anime is too short, and would've benefited from being a longer series.
Also makes me think that the script of the anime was a bit rushed and not thought out. But still, we have more episodes to see, so I'll reserve my judgement.
By the way... I have to call ... BULLSHIT! Everyone in the church that was attacked AND the kid of the Prime Minister were cured using a magical vampirism cure? I hate it when anime, movies, series, books, whatever pull this kind of crap! It's insulting to me as a viewer, seriously!
Can the characters please live with the consequences of their actions? Is it really that much to ask? I will now proceed to go into a corner and sulk.
Yeah, the Queens/Kings theory makes sense - the anime seems to be implying it throughout the show.
If Mina is sad, it's most likely because she's lonely. Being a person with so much power, and being so ruthless must mean she doesn't have a lot of people to talk to or befriend. I believe you're thinking way too kindly of Vampire Queeny here!
Oh, making theories in mystery shows is certianly fun, but I won't agree with you on Hyouka there. I watched the show, I made theories, I watched them crumble to ashes before me because every... single... time, the answer was much more mundane than I had hoped ending in a string of disappointment.
Dance in Vampire Bund, Episode 6
I gotta say, I'm liking candygirl more and more. And this is the type of mystery I can certainly appreciate - it's where you see certain events where many things are going on behind the scenes. When you re-watch the anime itself, you get that particular feeling "I know what's going on during this moment!". Despite that, I still think they goofed with the initial few episodes - they were silly, over the top and somewhat haphazard in their execution.
Once again we see one of the kids revealing he's a vampire in front of everybody for apparently no reason. I suppose you could explain this away by the fact that he's a new vampire, and hence very inexperienced and drunk with power, but still it seems somewhat unbelievable. Moreso, since it's happening in broad daylight.
Yes, I know there's 'polarized glass' or somesuch, which prevents the vampires from going 'poof' in the sunlight at school, but this, along with the lightblocking gel seems like 'cheating' to me. They might as well have went along with a version of vampires which do not get hurt by sunlight.
I mean, why not?
If you're going to go to the lengths of having polarized glass, lightblocking gel and all that, you might as well have vampires immune to sunlight!
Moving on, though. I like how evil Mina is being here - more like a real vampire. How things have turned around with wolfy being suddenly against Mina.
I'm not sure if I subconsciously remember what's going to happen next, but the teacher - Sister Laura, I predict that she'll die in the next episode. These kinds of characters always die.
I couldn't help but facepalm when the dumbasses were opening the cathederal door. This is the moment when the script of the anime reaches the bulletpoint literally saying "Dumb kids open door and unknowingly let vampires in". The director scratches his head trying to think of a convincing way to make this happen, waves his hand, gives up and literally follows the instructions without giving it much thought.
I mean, I'm not a director and I could've done this particular scene much better. Though, now I remember that I have the previous 5 episodes of stuff going on hamstringing my directing, so perhaps this is the best the director could do at this point. Oh, well..
I think this next episode, or the one after that, will be the last episode I've seen of Dance in Vampire Bund, so far. Not exactly sure why I stopped watching, but I'm pretty sure I didn't finish it.
Oh, the guys all dropping their boxes when Mina apologized to the nerdy kid that dropped his was awesome! That genuinely made me chuckle.
Cooking scene between Ms. Vampire Queen and Girl-who-has-a-crush-on-wolfy, was also quite interesting. Not for the gags, but rather the suggested feelings they had towards each other during the actual scene.
Moreso pronounced this is when Akira leaves the scene and the two girls have a bit of a chat in the meantime. Not only is Mina possessive, but also willing to go to pretty far lengths to get what she wants.
Jealousy and intrigue.
If anything, this is the episode that piqued my interest really freaking high!
I am confused about: "During the episode, we get to hear Yuki's future voice (the girl crushing on Akira), and the voice says something about Mina being very sad and I believe that is because of Minas responsibility.. (if she dies, so does her bloodline)", though
I think there was a bit more to this particular episode than just action. When it comes to episode 4.. I get it!
From what I gather Vampires in the world of the anime are very territorial beings, striving for dominance. The Queen here is the commander-in-chief, yet we haven't really seen her political skills at all.
Basically, one of the Vampire lords under her had a bad opinion of the wolfy-people. When he told her to send them away and he'd take care of security, she did. Even though she could've basically ordered him to work with the wolfy people. Instead, she chose to let them 'prove' themselves. And they did.
The arrogant Vampire lord person guy therefore found either respect and/or has been shamed by them - and either result seems to be what Mina was aiming for. This was kind of clever.
Unfortunately it was a bit cliche with the bomb during the press converence, and at the same time it was a little ridiculous.
So, a woman gets changed into a vampire and gets convinced somehow to smuggle a bomb and kill herself? I guess it was some form of mind control.. *sigh*
This anime is trying to be both silly and very serious at the same time.
If Mina does turn into anything - I have a feeling it'll be graceful and pretty.
You do hit a good point here - Mina is trying to be a lot of things at once. She's supposed to be whimsical and unpredictable I suppose.
It seems as this is all setup for a big reveal somewhere down the line - and I'm fine with that. As long as there's a payoff.. If there isn't one, this is going to be disappointing.
Are you sure you're fine with the soundtrack? I've been quite spoiled by recent anime where the soundtrack wasn't filled with odd, generic synth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbo1cKyj-is
It may seem fine at first, but when I compare it to the background music of other shows:
It turns out quite weakly in comparison. So far, anyway!
But onto Episode 3 itself...
I'm still unsure how I feel about the show. This episode is almost something that can be called 'filler'. What has happened exactly in this episode:
- Mina sleeps with Mr. Wolfy
- Mina joins school
- Mina reveals she created the school for some reason and is the actual chairwoman
- People run around school chasing Wolfyface
You could cut 80% of the content of this episode out, leave in the conversations between Mina and the Amnesiac and then fill the rest with story or background about the world. And candygirl. I don't know why, but I love candygirl. I saw her and I was like "Hey, I remember this character!". She's going to have some dental problems in the future if she continues biting on those like that. BETTER BE CAREFUL, CANDYGIRL!
So basically, we're watching this anime for the mystery - is the way I see it. What did Wolfy forget? What is Mina's true goal? Why is a girl with fangs biting down on candy? What attacked student council person and is she still alive?
Find out in episode four, I guess! This is an anime I'm not going to be able to make a judgement on, unless I watch the whole thing.
I'm actually glad to hear that you're watching content you haven't seen before! You'll get to experience the beginning of the show for the first time, and I will get to experience the latter half for the first time.
While I will agree with you, that many shows have the so called 'plot convenience', not all of them do. The structure of a story has it's own flow and rules of the world, but what the creators of a said story are going for is coherence.
An example of plot convenience would be something like this:
1. Character is tied up. 2. Character takes out a knife she had in a picket and cuts herself loose.
This makes the audience feel like this is, essentialy cheating - the characters can produce whatever they need to get out of a certain situation, thereby reducing the tension of the story.
An easy way of avoiding this would be to insert something that sets up this knife:
(many scenes earlier)0. Character plays with said knife and then hides it in her pocket. 1. Character is tied up. 2. Character takes out a knife she had in a picket and cuts herself loose.
And that's it. Now, to Episode Two...
You remember how the cameleon appeared suddenly in episode one? Well, this time we have a giant spider! I certainly hope Mina herself can turn into something interesting, or else this will seem really.. strange.
Prior to that happening though..
I'll give this anime one thing. It has really nice, flowy animation during certain moments. Particularly the skirt scene, and the scenes when blonde vampire loli gets real close to clueless Mr. Wolfy.
I used to feel like the oil rubbing scene was a little creepy, but now I have a somewhat different perspective. Mina is trying to seduce the guy. Yes, she has a young body, but she's a vampire - she's definately much older than he is. I GET IT.
One thing that I don't get is how showy the vampires are in this anime. If they were as glad to present themselves to the world as they are during the anime, you'd think the world would know about their existence since the dawn of time.
Yet here they are, Mina parading around everywhere (subjecting herself to danger just willy-nilly, knowing she's a target) alone. Why does she want to 'prove' she's a vampire to Mr. Wolfy?
One thing that's definately a huge minus is the background music - it didn't seem to fit what was happening on the screen. That said, I don't hate the show. There are far too many unknowns to make a full judgement at the time. I certainly hope there's an episode where they explain things a little more.
Dance in Vampire Bund really takes me back - I remember watching the first episode with my roommate, right when it came out, over four years ago. Our conclusion was probably something akin to "WTF" and then "Let's watch the next episode before making a judgement".
Instead of reminiscing though, let me go to my thoughts of the first episode as I just finished it.
So, I thought this is actually pretty clever - I like this method of storytelling. Basically, we as the audience see the recent "vampire" attacks on high school girls though the eyes of a japanese game show. I'm somewhat familiar with Japanese culture, and I know they have tons of these goofy, wacky, crazy shows on a variety of topics.
As we watch the anime, we get to feel the way these people percieve the 'vampire attacks' as they're portrayed by the media. It felt realistic in a way.
If you've ever seen the movie Starship Troopers, they used a similar method of storytelling ( example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faFuaYA-daw ), where they show war as its seen through 'newsreels', as they were called in the first half of the 20th century.
Art and animation of the show is standard, good quality. However, our main heroine - Mina - during some parts of the episode seems as if someone drew her character, then spilled bleach all over the drawing and they went with it. She's so.. white and washed out, her hair in particular. It was only in the studio though, so perhaps they were trying to emulate the studio lights.
What happened in the latter half though, I can't help but ask the question "YOU WHAT?!".
I can understand the fact they wanted to catch a stray vampire, used the show to corner him - but revealing the fact that vampires exist to the entire world just like that feels odd. Yes, I know that they intended to reveal themselves, but this all seems a little convenient to me: http://i.imgur.com/oUhpp0G.jpg
Also... Why did the vampire turn into a cameleon? Why? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!
So, in general - I loved the execution of the events, and the way the show portrayed them, rather than the story itself so far (which is ridiculous).
My message box is full again, so I'm replying to your message here. I might get around to it tomorrow, but most likely I'll start on Friday, as it's my weekend.
All Comments (15) Comments
Dance in Vampire Bund, Episode 9
And honestly?
I love it. Which is not what I was expecting. Usually I shit on what other people recommend me, because I'm an opinionated cynical asshole, but this one? I honestly don't have much to complain about.
There is a lot of disturbing censorship in this anime, but I understand it. Clearly the artists themselves decided to draw some gorey scenes, however post-production it was edited out to not show anything too intense for the main audience.
I hate it, but I don't blame the anime creators for it, which is why I won't lower my score based on that fact - I hate the anime that censors its artwork deliberately to get a lower rating, but these guys? Nope.
I fully expect that when it releases on Blu-Ray or other media, it'll have an uncensored version. Thumbs up guys!
I love how the ghouls of this society decide to just live with each other, there are assholes, but they're smart about it and try to blend into the human world. Rather than do everything to get themselves destroyed, like the dumbass vampires in Shiki (fuck.. do I dislike Shiki!).
http://myanimelist.net/character/87277/Touka_Kirishima is a fun character, doesn't put up with the little whiney protagonist we have. And honestly I'm not even annoyed with Kaneki. He's fine for the most part, he does his job to introduce this world to us.
I also love http://myanimelist.net/character/103409/Rize_Kamishiro - who is like a companion character to Kaneki. Really, I thought she'd die at the start of the anime, but NOPE. She dies in a much more spectacular fashion.
Really, the only way this anime could screw up is by having a shitty ending and boring next few episodes. That would make it a 6 at worst.
Thanks for the recommendation!
I'm always interested in hearing what other people think - I want to hear your own opinions!
Dance in Vampire Bund, Episode 8
It's good to see a viewer that's not in denial. Nowadays, there's so many out there that pretend they enjoy the show and easily influenced by what other people think or telling them how they should think.
brb I have no idea what I just watched, but the animation is nice and 99% of people think it's the best show ever, so I'm going to give it 10/10 as well! yay me!
Majority of this is from females and beta males mostly, but it's their lives after all. I have no problem with people living in denial or live like a sheep. I simply speculate and cringe at them.
You are one of the few exceptions. I can tell you're going to make it.
Cheers.
Generally speaking, I look for strong female characters in anime, and you can see them pasted all over my favourite characters' list on my MAL profile page.
Dance in Vampire Bund, Episode 7
Yeah, the Queens/Kings theory makes sense - the anime seems to be implying it throughout the show.
If Mina is sad, it's most likely because she's lonely. Being a person with so much power, and being so ruthless must mean she doesn't have a lot of people to talk to or befriend. I believe you're thinking way too kindly of Vampire Queeny here!
Oh, making theories in mystery shows is certianly fun, but I won't agree with you on Hyouka there. I watched the show, I made theories, I watched them crumble to ashes before me because every... single... time, the answer was much more mundane than I had hoped ending in a string of disappointment.
Dance in Vampire Bund, Episode 6
Dance in Vampire Bund, Episode 1