Dance With Devils – Episode 5 [B-Boying of Vainglory and Impulse]

With reverse harems, the trend seems to be that the main female character is surrounded by men of different “types” or “flavours.”  My first major introduction to this genre was with Ouran High School Host Club, and Dance With Devils hasn’t strayed too far from that formula.  Rem is the quiet, stoic one; Mage is the athletic, egotistical jock; Urie is the pretty boy; and Shiki… well, I’m not sure what to classify Shiki as. Psychotic? If he has a parallel from another show, I haven’t seen it. ..)

“B-Boying of Vainglory and Impulse” is Mage’s episode. Right from the beginning, he casts some sort of spell and interrupts Ritsuka’s class in order to kidnap her. Note that Azuna is the only one to notice Ritsuka’s disappearance; I’m still wondering whether these details surrounding Azuna will have any significance later in the series.

I’ll be honest, I have a love-hate relationship with characters who, while I know their personality is intended to be passionate and romantic, are essentially bullies. Mage is no different. He teleports both him and Rituska to the top of a tower in the middle of the city, and demands that she fall in love with him. Apparently this devil has a string of ex-followers behind him a mile long, and he’s convinced that if he demonstrates his powers and flexes his muscles for Ritsuka, she’ll become one more member of his fan club. While he’s whisking her around the world, he sings his song, completely oblivious to Ritsuka’s fear and unwillingness to be near him.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a sampling of the lyrics, which was overlaid scenes of Mage showing off his muscles and Ritsuka trying to run away from him:

♪ ♫ ♩  Vanquish: say “Mage is the great!”
Vanquish: I’ll get the grimoire and the girl
Now be mine, already!
Tell a lie: for a devil, it’s a piece of cake
Or a frontal attack, yeah, it’s okay
Blow off those creeps, Rem, Urie and Shiki
I’m gonna snatch you away  ♪ ♫ ♩

So while I know that Mage’s hotheaded, arrogant and personality is meant to come off as overwhelming and passionate, all it did was make me not like him as a character. I don’t know whether this is because I’m a slightly older anime watcher, or it’s a difference in cultures between East and West, but the end result was that I didn’t enjoy a large part of this episode. I saw Ritsuka repeatedly try to flee his presence, only for Mage to catch up with her and transport her away once more, and all I felt was uncomfortable. Even a surprise appearance from Rem doesn’t faze Mage, who takes the opportunity to fight Rem long enough to distract him and then steal Ritsuka away to some tropical paradise, all in an attempt to woo her over to his side.

The aforementioned scene is the one tolerable moment in the episode. Ritsuka cries and Mage tastes her tears, which are apparently sweet. He is surprised, and then blushes and drops her into the ocean. While the reason behind her sugary tears is not specified, I imagine it’s because she has feelings for Rem (or Mage?!), or some other emotion-based reason, and it caught Mage off guard. I still think Mage is a jerk, but it was cute to see him all flustered.

After Mage makes a rip in the space-time continuum returns Ritsuka to Shiko City, Lindo is ready and waiting for him, and the two of them start duking it out with their respective magical abilities. Their battle only ends when Ritsuka throws herself between their oncoming attacks. Mage takes the opportunity to teleport himself back to the Third Library, while Lindo hugs Ritsuka tightly, relieved that she’s alright. (But what do his scary red eyes mean? Is he both an exorcist and part-demon?? Is he part of the team that ransacked their family’s home back in the first episode?)

Two things I’d like to mention about this episode. The first is that while the appearance of Rem is seemingly pretty random, his conversation with Ritsuka quickly eliminates her previous misconception that he has feelings for her. She is nothing more than a pawn to him, and thus to all the other devils as well. They are all searching for the grimoire, and she apparently is the key, which means that said key is probably going to be some BS concept like her heart or some other shoujo trope. I still have my suspicions about which ship will prevail by the end of the series, if one does at all, but now that Ritsuka is presumably not as trusting of the devils now, I’m interested in seeing how that plays out in future episodes.

The second is that it’s been pretty obvious for a little while now that Ritsuka’s brother Lindo is in love with her. If you remember in the previous episode, Lindo sang a song and essentially promised his eternal love to his sister. During the song he was looking at a picture of both Ritsuka’s mother and an unspecified redheaded woman, and I am hoping that there’s going to be a twist where Ritsuka’s not actually his sister. Maybe the redheaded woman is Ritsuka’s aunt and therefore Lindo is her cousin and not really her brother. Anything would be fine. Just some kind of plot twist that separates Ritsuka from her brother, because that part of the plot is starting to get pretty creepy. I’m not a fan of incest plots, nopenopenope. (Unless the sibling is revealed to have no blood ties to the main character, in which case it can be pulled off if done carefully. See Hot Gimmick for such an example.)

Compared to the other episodes I’ve reviewed, this one definitely wasn’t my favourite. Join us next week for another episode of “Hot Guys Terrify Young Schoolgirl in an Effort to Win Her Heart!”