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 when a methhead eats twenty tacos then goes potty on some canvas. (I'll leave further art comparisons alone since getting into the whole "inflated art prices are actually thinly-veiled attempts at money laundering" isn't anime related.) The nail in the coffin (HA) for me was the poorly Photoshopped photographs that are spliced in generously; in the final episode, there's an obvious picture of New York City with the Empire State Building right in the middle...despite the series taking place in Tokyo. Lmao.
My second major complaint is the loli crap. Fetishes are one thing, and DanceBund certainly does the whole "my body may LOOK like a nine year old, but I'm ACTUALLY a seventy-four thousand year old vampire queen" meme to justify showing prepubescent T&A, but it's the literal child molesting during a later arc that really pissed me off. There's a boy and he's shown making out (complete with pornographic spit exchanges and sound effects) with a grown woman before they fondle and so on. I get that Shaft were trying to be edgy--and again, I don't care at all about personal fetishes--but this was just fucking gross.
My third primary complaint is the shitty storytelling. As the series progresses it becomes constructed more like a crappy Youtuber shouting at a camera about whatever hot topic is in the news: jump cuts, jump cuts, jump cuts, random pictures, random Photoshopped images, random colors, jump cuts, cump juts, tuj mumps............it all just melts together with the terrible art direction to cement my opinion that this was directed by an idiot. And it didn't HAVE to be! The actual narrative is pretty good even in spite of the dumb central plot (vampire-werewolf forbidden love). There are ever-so-brief glimpses of what could have been, like political scheming, vampires revealing themselves to the world, artificial blood, power struggles, and more, but it's all lost in jump cuts and shitty Photoshopped images.
I don't recommend anyone watch this. There are zero redeeming qualities at the end of the series, and I honestly regret wasting any amount of time on this steaming turd.
