A few Shaft Animes (Reviews)

Dance in the Vampire Bund is based on the manga written by Nozomu Tamaki. It has the animation the same animation style as other recent works of the studio, which is the best one known to me, while using captivating dialogoues to move the story along. The characters are not of the see-through kind (at least not entirely) and the music supports the story and the characters well.

Bund vol1 cover

In the series, the Vampire princess establishes a kingdom by buying the Tokyo land reclaimation and pressurizing the Japanese government to give it to her entirely. While the general story revolves around the establishment of the Bund (german for Union), it only advances through events surrounding the protagonist Akira. It is all told from the perspective of the third important character Yuki.

The animation is pretty much mainstream, but it encompasses little details, like a scene where the protagonist is told by his uncle (who is driving a car) to get in the car, but instead he walks(runs) beside the car. To accomplish this detail, he is exhausted in the next scene. Unlike Bakemonogatari it is more action-packed and has way less dialogoue. The animation itself presents a lot of nudity (not in an ecchi way) and blood. Torn of limbs are part of it. The background music fits perfectly, but is not memorable. The opening and ending are both great.

The characters all have some secrets to them, each explained differently (for example amnesia of the protagonist), that unravel one after another. Each character is unique and has his/her own set of problems, dreams and hopes. The antagonists are drawn out clearly through the series, although you have to wait until the episodes were their backgrounds are explained (until then, they are only a bunch of rebellious youths).

All in all it is a great series, but it will need a follow (I might as well try the manga). I definitely recommend it to those who prefer mainstream action shows, over more abstract impressionistic shows like Bakemonogatari or Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Since this is licensed by Funimation you will not find it on BakaBT.

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