Dance in the Vampire Bund [Anime Review]

I watched this primarily because I had just recently picked up the manga in omnibus form, and found it to be amazing. Then I found the anime on sale, and this review is the inevitable result.

Mina Tepes, descendent of the line of Tepes.

I'm always weary of vampire and zombie stories, really any horror story, thanks to the filth that was Twilight. I tread carefully when approaching any such work for fear that somehow they have been for lack of a better word, tainted, by the miasmatic plague left behind by the works (and I use the term loosely) of Meyer.  

4 out of 5 stars

Yuki Saegusa. The story is told from her perspective.

The manga is amazing. The art is super clean and the story is excellent.
The anime is not quite as good. It's good... but just not as good. This may lie in several easily surmised facts.

First off, the manga is 14 volumes long (for season 1), but also includes a half dozen side stories that actually build into and upon the main story. The anime is 12 episodes. It is not possible to fit 14+ volumes of awesome into 12 half-hour spots.

Akira Kaburagi. Our main protagonist, along side Mina.

Secondly, with a short 12 episode season, they do not even begin where the manga begins. Instead they do this weird first episode that is completely extraneous, if funny. In fact it takes until episode 3 to get to where the manga begins. Thanks to that strange start they also change the tone of Akira's character and his interactions with Mina are a touch different because of that.

Meirin. Does not appear in the manga from what I've read.

Thirdly, they added in a character. Meirin takes the place of Hama, but her roles is both expanded and reduced from his. It's a strange move. It's not even that she is a bad character... it is simply an strange change.

No guy should ever feel 'right' when that is occurring...

And lastly, in the anime the series is told, more or less, from the perspective of a third party. Yuki Saegusa gives each episode the tonal feel at the begining and the ending... little sections of monologue that set the tone. Again, this is not necessarily bad... but it would have been a major problem if the series actually continued all the way through the manga. I'll say no more, but it would have been very difficult to continue that structure.

Now, I've listed my faults with the series, and they all stem from the simple fact that the manga is amazingly good, and this is just not the manga.

However, the series itself is very good. It does capture the main elements of the manga and it is gorgeously animated. Both the anime and the manga capture the best part of the whole series. It is Game of Thrones level scheming and back stabbing and manipulation. However the stage is set not with seven kingdoms, but with 3 (4 actually) vampire clans! No objections here, obviously. Plotting and scheming make sense for vampires, it was actually nice to see for once. The way vampires are portrayed is also very interesting. It spends time talking about how vampires must have something to live for in order to live forever. The manga of course deals with this in more depth, but the anime covers it as well. A vampire without a reason does not die, but they become restless, unstable, and will begin to risk themselves recklessly. It is an interesting take; the insinuation that vampires must be strong emotional creatures to survive. Far better than being sparkly.

Yes, the anime and the manga do push some boundaries. Mina is a four century old vampire queen who has the body of a young girl (spoiler: most of the time). Akira is high school boy. Things are weird, and yet the show handles this well. Heck, the whole thing is a fashion style in Japan.

I enjoyed Dance in the Vampire Bund, and if it is not been obvious, most of my complaints against the anime have been one thing. The anime is not the manga, and the manga is simply amazing. The anime is well worth watching, and the manga is a must-read manga. 

A very climactic battle.