Don’t let the cool cover deceive you! >.<

I’ve been finding better time management ways to lower my anime back log.  No more naps… it’s a sacrifice I’ll do once in a while. A good friend of mine gave me the DVD box set of Dance in the Vampire Bund series.  I’ve watched the first ep when it came out last year and didn’t finish the series since I thought there were better series out at the time. Looking back I don’t recall what I considered “better” series.

So I had the evening open and decided to finish this series. Normally one hears the mantra that beauty is only skin deep. But at this point I have doubts when it comes to this particular anime. As with any animated series based on a manga/book I understand there are a lot of back story the director has to condense into an extremely short time frame. So it tends to leave two general options:

•  Follow the manga and take some liberties in order to fit in an animated series.
• Create a new storyline/timeline using the characters from the manga as a launchpad.

While both options have plus sides which introduces existing fans and new people to the series; there’s always drawback that can be potentially fatal to a series. Not having read the manga, I personally felt the series was following the first option I listed and the emphasis was heavily set on “liberties”. I have not read the manga but the loli/shota scenes with adult innuendos did not sit well with me and it was really taking away from the supposed story between .

What I did find interesting was series theme on one’s perception to decide what we think is correct. The loli references in the series and the lore of vampires definitely places one’s decision heavily on looks versus having all the facts before making judgement.

Unfortunately the flow of scenes was really choppy in which events transitioned from one piece immediately to another without much explanation. You would start on a scene where the protagonist, Akira, is conversing with Mina Tepeş, princess-ruler of all vampires, on vampire culture and their relationship. Then suddenly halfway another event comes and I find myself thrown into a new topic and scene without the previous scene being completed; nor did it have a direct connection to the previous scene I was seeing.

Initially I thought this is to emphasize the male protagonist’s fragmented memories.  But having it constantly happen throughout the series really took a toll on the focus on the story. I was not sure if the story is focusing on a love story through an innocent children storybook type narration or the perception of what one uses to decide what is right or wrong. Unfortunately the series didn’t really congeal until towards 2/3 into the series and abruptly ended. At the end of the series I’m left feeling rather dirty watching due to many loli scene and a creepy shota one based solely on my perception on what a normal relationship should be. All this and I was not watching an adult rated movie.

If you are curious about the series, I’ve included the link to Wikipedia pertaining about this:

Wikipedia Link to “Dance in the Vampire Bund”