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Year: 2010
Genre: Action, Supernatural, Vampire
Episodes: 12
Rating:
Vampires and werewolves. Two supernatural folklore that encompasses the fascination of many movies and TV shows. Through the years in film and television, vampires and lycanthropes have become mortal enemies of each other. Whether it is vampires portrayed as being beautiful, wealthy creatures that uphold the best of everything, they are seen as the highest standard of society. Werewolves, on the other hand, are portrayed as dirty creatures that are beneath vampires in every way possible. As time has gone on, these two folklores have become in the subject of hatred for each other.
Lately, the theme of many movies or TV shows that have both vampires and werewolves in them, are having a Shakespearean Romeo and Juliet theme to them. Vampire boy or girl meets and falls in love with a werewolf boy or girl, but their families hate each other. This has been the theme in movies like Underworld and Twilight. In both of these movie series, vampires and werewolves hate each other or in a war with each other. Somehow, one from each side manages to fall in love with each other.
Dance in the Vampire Bund takes only a section from this proposal. Even though vampires and werewolves don’t hate each other, the werewolves serve the vampires as protectors. The princess of vampires falls in love with one of her werewolf protectors.
Dance in the Vampire Bund shows the extent of what they must go through to preserve their love but also fight for things that are bigger than them.
Overview:
During a popular TV show in Tokyo, Japan, the panelist debate on whether vampires exist. The primary guest, a voluptuous woman, claims to be the ruler of all the vampires. During the show, the panelist asks the “vampire queen” a variety of answers to prove whether vampires are real or not. During the show, a little girl with bright blonde hair keeps asking questions to sway the panelist opinions. One by one, the panelist believe vampires don’t exist.
While asking questions to people on the streets of Tokyo, a boy appears and catches the attention of the little girl and the interviewer. With options out, the “vampire queen” presents an arm, which has the appearance of a reptile arm. The “vampire queen” states that the arm belonged to a vampire that had been attacking people. The “vampire queen” discusses the arm, the actor who is a panelist goes on a rampage and turns into his pure form to retrieve his arm. During the turmoil, the existence of vampires is revealed. The little girl who asked questions declares herself the true vampire queen and points to an area that she claims is her bund.
Dance in the Vampire Bund follows the stories of Mina Tepes and Akira Kaburagi Regendorf that are individual but also intertwined. Mina is the ruler of all vampires. She appears as a young and prepubescent girl, even though she is centuries old. Mina is on a quest to provide a place for her people to live. Tired of living in the shadows, Mina purchases a landfill off the coast of Tokyo. She wishes to create a special district for the vampires and offers to pay off the national debt of the Japanese government. Mina journey takes her through the perils of politics while trying to create a permanent home.
Akira is a high school student who doesn’t believe in vampires. He has lost his memories during a mission and now spends most of his days sitting in the sun at school, not realizing what he is or where he came from. One day after school, he meets Mina. While protecting her, he realizes that he is Mina’s werewolf protector, along with being the love of her life.
Dance in the Vampire Bund follows the progression as the two dance around their situations while strengthening the love they have for each.
Review:
Dance in the Vampire Bund is a very, very average story but has many entertaining moments. It pretty much came out during the height of the Twilight series. The anime has three main stories that are intertwined with each other. The first story is the realization that vampires exist. Mina, Ruler of the Vampires, introduce the world to vampires through a game show. What better way to show yourself to the world than through a game show. The second story is Mina trying to get a piece of land and making it her new home for all vampires. She calls it her bund. She deals with many political aspects while trying to make it a country. The third and driver of the story revolves around Akira, a boy who lost his memories but has many ties to the vampire community. The anime presents many stories that are broken into three main parts. Each storyline is full of action and violence with EXTREME sexuality. You might not see any naked bodies, but the anime does come very close. Where the story falls short is who the villain is and why they are doing what they do. We know that the enemy is an organization is after Mina along with the Three Clans, but after that, it gets hazy. The story progress at a pretty quick pace. Almost every three episodes have a purpose to the overall story, but each story revolves around on whether or not Akira can get his memories back. The final battle is pretty good. It is probably the best part of the whole series. One of the best things is the episode’s titles. Each one is after a vampire or werewolf movie.
The animation is pretty okay for this anime. Nothing that will blow your socks off. The anime does a good job of displaying the world of darkness. Many of the colors used have a dark shade to it with many of the episodes happening at night. The anime actually does a great job with the separations of the world. On the surface of the bund. The vampires are portrayed as unruly with dark and sinister colors (red and black). Underneath the bund where the fangless live, the colors are bright and calm with a sense of family. One thing that the anime does well with its animation is the color scheme for when Mina transforms. Mina has this golden aura about her, almost resembling the sun high above.
The characters in this anime can be put into two categories: the truly major players and the significant players that didn’t need any development what so ever. When it came to Mina, Akira, and Yuki, the anime develop them pretty well. A great example of this was Mina. Mina is a centuries-old vampire that walks around in a little girl’s body. Mina can act arrogant, cocky, and naughty with an extreme sense of entitlement during political matters, but underneath that, she feels vulnerable and lonely at times. She has an absolute love for her people. Akira is a werewolf that loves his friends and would do anything for them. He has an extreme sense of loyalty and love for Mina. On the other side of the coin are some characters that you feel should be important but the anime glosses over them. Akira’s dad and Alphonse get minor development time which makes you think less of them when they are significant players.
This anime will be a joy to watch if you like that vampire and werewolf type genre. There is plenty of action in this with a love story that actually falls almost in line with Twilight. The first time I saw it, I enjoyed it. It was something different with a ton of sexuality in it. After watching it a second time, the series could’ve explained more rather than going along without leaving stuff on a cliffhanger. It is a great anime to watch during the Halloween season.
