Well hello there
Welcome to Nikolita’s and Charibo’s final thoughts about Dance with Devils
This post will be full of spoilers, so if you’re still wondering if you should watch the show, go ahead and come back later because there’s a few twits that are worth seeing without having them spoiled beforehand
Charibo’s Final thoughts
I started watching this for the boys and stayed for the songs
I saw “Reverse Harem” and thought “lots of good looking guys” but also “annoying main heroine”. I read the summary and saw who was directing this show and I thought this was going to be a Diabolik Lovers’s spin off and boy, I was wrong. This show is definitely the pleasant surprise of the season for me. I almost couldn’t believe it. I had to go back and watch some episodes of “Diabolik Lovers: More blood” as a wake up call, to see if I wasn’t dreaming or anything… I wasn’t. And yes I did watch some episodes of the new Diabolik Lover season… I don’t know why… I guess it’s the same kind of thing than when you taste something that awful that you have to take another bite because you can’t believe how awful it was.
Story: The story is kind of basic but with a few surprises along the way like Azuna’s death or Ritsuka being the Devil king’s daughter. Also, the last episode did surprised me with the blood spreading all over like they wanted to paint the room in red. Seriously, WTF ? When I first saw the blood spreading in this episode I was looking all around me to find someone that could have agreed with me and shared my stupefaction but I was alone. Like always.
I don’t particularly care about Vampires, Devils or other Kinky stuff as long as the story is coherent and not boring. So yeah, the story isn’t amazing but it’s interesting enough to make you stay and let’s not forget that this show started with an handicap: it’s a Reverse Harem.
Characters: I knew from the first episode that I wasn’t going to find a new member to my personal Harem in this show. All the boy cast is quite good looking but their personalities are kind of meh. I guess my favorite is Rindo, because he’s he nicest and the hottest (must be the power of Red hair again) but his incestuous love for his sister is really turning me off. I might also like him because he has kind of the same role as the childhood friend, and I’m always rooting for the childhood friend. That would have been so much better if he was just his childhood friend… And not his cousin because honestly I don’t think this brings anything good to the story.
But for the rest of the cast: Rem is actually quite boring, Mage is a douchebag, Loewen is just useless and irritating (and zoophilia isn’t my thing by the way), Shiki is funny but too creepy/yandere-ish for me and I couldn’t care less about Senor Urie. So yeah, the boys cast is kinda “Meh, you could have done better”. Well, I shouldn’t complain that much given the fact that they are Devils and therefore they’re not supposed to be nice… At least they aren’t like the Diabolik lover cast.
Gosh I need to stop talking about this show, this is going to become a bad habit.
As for Ritsuka she is a decent Heroine and given the fact that she’s a reverse Harem anime heroine, a rather good one. I’d never wanted to slap her so that’s a good thing. She’s quite reactive and understands everything really quickly. She’s forgiving towards Azuna and she accepts what’s happening to her without crying rivers and running away from the problems. Also, she says “No” to the Devils when they try to seduce her. But still in y opinion, the trophy for the best girl in the show goes to Azuna the best friend ever, I shall miss you.
Expect from Ritsuka, Rem and Rindo there is almost no character development. The bad guys are introduced at the end of this anime and they don’t last long. The other members of the Hot guys crew don’t really have any evolution. Well, they do have they own episode but that’s it. Since the anime choose to focus on the Rindo-Ritsuka-Rem love triangle I guess it makes sense. But still, it’s almost like nothing has changed. In the last episode, after Lord Nesta’s death Urie, Shiki and Mage are saying that oh well, they’ll wait until there’s another girl like Ritsuka to seduce her. So they’ve basically learnt nothing from all this shit.
Songs: I think the main reason why I like this show is the songs and I was waiting every episode for the “song time”. I was so impatient that after seeing the first episode I went on youtube to listen to all the character’s songs. Yeah, I’m the type of kid that goes searching for the Christmas presents in the whole house but who is still enjoying the gifts way too much when he receive them. I think my less favorite song must be the ball dance song, with the flowers and rainbows, because it was just boring and not funny at all… I don’t know why they’ve done that by the way… Anyway, Rem’s and Rindo’s seiyuus were amazing. I can’t believe Rem’s seiyuu is also doing Yamaguchi in Haikyuu, the voices are sooo different . Eh… Wait a minute..He’s also doing Wakatake from Tantei Team KZ. Wut?! Gosh… Seiyuus are amazing.
I made another Ranking Chart with this time my Top 5 of the songs. Of course, it’s purely subjective
| Rank | Episode | Title of the song | Interpreters | Why |
|
1 |
Depravity and the Forbidden Quadrille | Labyrinth of Depravity | All the Devils | It’s when I realized it was actually a Musical Show. We don’t know the characters yet but they are all hot so Hype |
| 2 | Jitterbug of Doubts and Secret | Destinare | Rem | THE BLUE PRINCE OF DANCING FLAMES THEME SONG! Do I really need to explain why this song is amazing ? |
| 3 | Bolero of Solitude and Melancholy | Exorcist Only for You | Rindo | Because even if Rindo should consult to solve his incestuous thoughts he’s still hot as hell and can actually sing |
| 4 | Ending | Mademoiselle Pentacle | All the boys | What ? No it’s not cheating. Don’t deny it! It’s catchy as hell, I’ve never skipped it |
| 5 | Opera Ball of Endings and Beginnings | Dance With Destinies | Rem, Ritsuka Rindo | Because I cried, and this conclude the series well enough in my opinion |
Final Score : 8/10 I had fun watching this, most of the song were catchy and the Heroine wasn’t annoying. If this show gets another season I’ll watch it for sure. I’m a sucker for musical things and good looking boys…
Nikolita’s Final Thoughts
“Not too terrible overall!”
As Charibo said, Dance With Devils is a reverse harem. However unlike Charibo, I’m a sucker for reverse harems, particularly when it’s a female lead who’s surrounded by lovely men. ^_~ What can I say, I like eye candy. And reverse harems can be awesome shows, when they are done a certain way. (Read: not strictly following the List of Standard Anime Cliches.) Did Dance With Devils succeed in that regard? Well, it’s definitely not the worst reverse harem I’ve ever seen, I’ll give it that.
Story: I think one of my favourite things about this show was that events happened and secrets were revealed which I wasn’t expecting. For example, Ritsuka being Lord Maksis’ daughter? I totally didn’t see that revelation coming. Twists like these caught me off guard, and they are what help elevate the show above other shows in this genre and make Dance With Devils stand out. I also appreciated that the supernatural elements weren’t just limited to devils; no, devils and vampires got thrown into the mix too. The more supernatural the better, mwhaha!
My biggest concern before the beginning of the season was that this show would play out a lot like Vampire Knight did, and I’m really happy that it wasn’t much like Vampire Knight at all. (I haven’t seen Diabolik Lovers aside from a couple of short clips, so I can’t speak on a comparison between those two shows.) Held against similar shows in the supernatural genre, Dance With Devils was superior with not only its story (in my personal opinion), but also with some of its characters, which I will get to in a moment.
I’m honestly torn between saying the plot was basic and it wasn’t, because I honestly think it was a fair mix of both. That being said, with only twelve episodes the story really can’t be too complicated, unless a second season is a guarantee. (Speaking of which, what happened to the days when one season of anime was somewhere between 22-26 episodes long?? What is this recent twelve or thirteen episodes per season BS?)
Characters: The basic structure of a reverse harem are that regardless of whether the main character is male or female, the opposite gender characters surrounding the main character are of different “flavours” or “varieties.” With guys, there is often a macho/jock character, a jerk, a handsome Prince Charming, a best friend, or a flirt (among others). With girls, there’s usually a pretty princess, an athlete, a nerd, or a quiet girl, and so on. You get the idea. (This is also why I heap praise on good reverse harems when I find them, because it’s so easy to fall into the trap of using cliches and tropes to make a show fit in with what’s proven to be popular. I don’t like it when this happens, but I get why it does. But I digress.)
So, Dance With Devils was pretty basic in terms of its male characters. Rem was the Prince Charming, Urie was the flirt, Mage was the jock, and Shiki was… I dunno. The sexy-BDSM-character-who-was-meant-to-be-thrilling-but-was-really-just-creepy? All of the devils, including Rem, were pretty one-dimensional and static, which unfortunately was somewhat expected due to there only being twelve episodes.
As for Ritsuka, she’s one of the better heroines I’ve seen in any anime in quite awhile. She speaks up and stands up for herself and those she cares about, she fights back, and perhaps most importantly she pushes back against things she doesn’t consent to. She takes no shit from the devils, and in a genre where the female lead is often portrayed as being helpless or easily won over by a good looking body on a pair of legs, this is a refreshing change. Her decision in the final episode was also a pleasant surprise, showing she is capable of making her own decisions independent from what others around her might be offering her.
With regards to character development, I’m going to play the devil’s advocate and point out that even thought I know I bitched about it in at least one of my reviews, twelve episodes doesn’t leave a lot of time for character development for anyone aside from the main character and maybe one or two love interests. In this show, I think Ritsuka showed the most character development, with Rem coming in a distant second.
The time restrictions also meant that the relationships in this show really just boiled down to one main love triangle: Ritsuka-Rem-Lindo. And it was obvious, both from the opening theme and the show itself as it progressed that that was where the focus was going to be. The concept behind a reverse harem is that the main character has all of these other romantic options to choose from, whether it be the jock or the flirt or the nerd, but having only twelve episodes in this season meant that all the devils (except for Rem) really just got only one episode with Ritsuka and that was it. (Even Rem’s “relationship” with Ritsuka struck me as a complete sham. He showed little interest in her but still claimed to love her, and she went from screaming that she hated him to somehow caring about him in less than half a dozen episodes.) The lack of time ultimately meant that the declarations of love which were revealed near the end of the season came off (at least to me) as cheap and worthless, because there had been no time to develop the feelings which should be behind those words.
I’m also still psyched that this show had a best friend character who didn’t just fade into the background after the first couple of episodes. We actually got to see Azuna play a role in the series, and she even had a couple of secrets of her own.
My favourite bishounen was Lindo, as I’m sure some of you were able to easily guess. He’s good looking (oh man, those eyes ~<3) , and character-wise I think he’d be a good match for Ritsuka… if only they weren’t, you know, cousins. Damn incest getting in the way of my OTP. ;~;
Music: While the songs were one of the reasons why I started watching Dance With Devils (because prior to this show I had never seen a musical anime), they were not the reason I kept watching (that point goes to characters and their relationships, as usual). There were some tracks which were really on the mark and enjoyable to watch, while others seemed a little misplaced. Long lyrics also sometimes made the songs awkward, and the lyrics in other character’s songs were occasionally borderline inappropriate (I’m looking at you Shiki!). However when certain seiyuus were paired up together in song, such as Lindo’s and Rem’s, the results could be pretty awesome. One of my favourite songs was when all of the characters sung together in episode eleven. They just harmonized so well! *0*
Overall Thoughts: This show quickly turned out to be my guilty pleasure of the season. While certain things were a little bland and predictable, like our devil boys and some plot components, many other things kept me guessing and coming back for more. The music was all in all pretty enjoyable to listen to, and I actually liked it when there was only one or two songs per episode, because I felt that then the music didn’t take time away from the plot. If there is a second season of the anime down the road, I will definitely watch it and will hopefully be able to blog it too!
Final Score: 8/10
