Dance With Devils – Episode 1 [Depravity and the Forbidden Quadrille] [First Impression]

 

If I had to pick one word to describe Dance With Devils, it would be “excessive” – but in the best possible way.  Shiko Academy looks like a billionaire designed a mansion with no expense spared, its uniforms are extremely formal (and for the girls, frilly), and even one of the songs is a little over-the-top.  Yet this show feels like a giant chocolate bar; you know you probably shouldn’t eat it because it’s not good for you, but you do anyways and hot damn it is just so delicious.

In Dance With Devils we meet Ritsuka Tachibana, a second year student who attends a luxurious high school where the girls all dress like crimson French maids. She lives alone with her mother while her older brother Lindo is overseas in London, and we see that her mother Maria believes in the protective power of pendants and symbols. Naturally this comes into play when Ritsuka arrives at school and finds she’s been summoned by the Student Council President Rem  Kaginuki to the third library, where the whole council breaks out into boisterous song and Rem attempts to steal her soul.

After she has what appears to be an otherwise typical day at school, she returns home to find her home being ransacked by a crew dressed in black and her mother lying injured on the floor. They are searching for an unnamed item, later revealed to be a magical item called a grimoire. Ritsuka flees but when the police arrive, there is no damage and Ritsuka’s mother Maria is gone. She calls her brother, who advises her to stay with a friend and to keep her pendant on. Ooo, someone’s keeping secrets!

Ritsuka heads to Azuna’s house, but after being ambushed the crew in black from earlier and then saved by Rem, she ends up at her blonde white knight’s house. (Poor Azuna. -_- ) Rem offers to call the police for her but is a rude jerkface about it. Once he leaves the room, a small, puntable dog mysteriously appears.

 

You don’t even have to hear the audio to know that it’s a yippy dog.

Because Dance With Devils is a reverse-harem, I imagine the show will follow the path of each male character being a different “type” or “flavour,” much like Ouran High School Host Club.  I can already guess which pairing will be the main ship in the series, but I hope that said ship might have a few detours before it arrives at its final destination.  ヾ(●⌒∇⌒●)ﾉ  *cue my hopeful dancing*   We weren’t formally introduced to any of the guys aside from Rem in this first episode, so I’m looking forward to the next episode where I hope we will get the remaining introductions.

I came upon this show thinking it might be similar to Vampire Knight, given that they both deal with supernatural creatures, or even Diabolik Lovers  (SHUDDER), but was happily surprised to see that it was different enough from both of those shows for me to enjoy and appreciate it for what it is. I have never watched (let alone reviewed) a musical anime before, but I was glad to see the insert songs are sparse enough that they don’t overwhelm the show. There is a good balance between musical interludes and actual content.

In terms of where the plot might end up going, between Ritsuka’s insert song and both the opening and ending themes, I have the feeling that this show might be about finding a bride for Ritsuka, and that this mystical grimoire will herald the usual “Find this item or the world ends! cliche.” Or maybe she’s some secret love child and pairing with a demon using the grimoire will save both worlds or something. As I said, as long as it’s not similar to Vampire Knight or Diabolik Lovers, and as long as the cheese-factor doesn’t get to be too much, I’ll be happy. *fingers crossed*

An interesting tidbit that I suspect might come into play is that after Ritsuka specifically mentioned to Rem that her grandfather was deceased, it will be revealed that he’s not actually dead. I’m thinking this because we can see an older gentleman sitting in the shadows in the opening sequence, and during the ending song we can see an older man lying in bed in front of Lindo. Both men don’t look a lot like the picture of her grandfather seen at the beginning of the episode, but then again we can’t see much of either man in either shot. We’ll just say I have lots of speculations and guesses right now.

As for the music and graphics, both are pretty sharp. I’m not yet a huge fan of the opening and ending themes, but the insert songs are catchy and they serve their purpose of introducing us to the main characters. Lastly, while I’m not familiar with many of Brains Base’s works, the animation for Dance With Devils is high quality and I have no complaints.

So will I be watching? This show is definitely going to be my guilty pleasure this season. More reverse harems please!

 

Possibility of watching: High
Possibility of blogging: High

Charibo Impressions : 

 YEEES !! This is AMAZING ʕ≧ᴥ≦ʔ I LOVE IT !

This show, this show… First, with the opening sequence I thought: “ Oh ok, nice song creepy sect members “. And then when Ritsuka starts to randomly sings in the street about being a normal High school girl I thought “Meh,  this is reaallly confusing, is it the opening or… ? “ .But then, when the student council presentation song began, I lost my breath for a second. This is so bad but  yet so funny. The lyrics of this song are soo dumb but this song is definitely catchy. All the glasses broken, the roses and the animals allusions are so kitch but  yet so great ! Should I feel bad about loving the songs of this show so much ? oh well oh well, maybe, maybe not, Who knows ? ᶘ ᵒᴥᵒᶅ

As you may have already guessed, I am a huge fan of musical shows. I love the way how everybody can just start singing at any moment without any reasons about almost everything. I want to watch the show just for the songs ʕっ•ᴥ•ʔっ

Actually, I’m relieved that this show didn’t turn out to be a Diabolik Lovers undesired child. Because, yes, Dance with Devils is actually produced by the same guy who gave the world the magnificent and precious treasure that Diabolik Lovers is.  So, shall we talk about plot now? Like Nikolita said the plot  is a bit predictable but oh well, I’m ready to keep on watching and to not be picky if the show doesn’t serve me a story about a girl who is the reincarnation of a dead mother with shit magical powers (the ones who suffered pain and tasted pure evil will understand my reference). In my opinion what really saves this show is the music. It adds a certain touch to it which helps me to not take this show literally. And in this way, it’s enjoyable.

Another good point for this show : the fact that Ristuka is actually a nice heroine. She talks back to Rem in the student council fancy library and when she saw her house being damaged and her mother being attacked by the bad guys she goes to the police and warns her brother. It might sounds a bit strange because those are basic and simple actions that everybody can do but for a basic Reverse Harem Anime heroine that’s a lot.

Also, I made my own Dance with Devils Shipping charts according to the first episode. The relationship between the protagonists may evolve as the show goes on but I ‘m pretty sure my chart is accurate as hell. Please feel free to tell me which couple you like the most ᶘ ͡°ᴥ͡°ᶅ

 

Possibility of watching :  I’ll keep an eye on this one for sure

Possibility of blogging :  Yup ʕง•ᴥ•ʔง