my humble opinion on 'Dance in the Vampire Bund' ~ warning! a loooong post

only 6 minutes of the first episode have passed, but I am already writing this post. you know why?

masterpiece

plot and characters

I have watched only 1 work directed by Shimbo Akiyuki-san so far, 'bakemonogatari', but 'twas enough for me to understand that 'Dance' would probably be an interesting anime, too

it proved to be so. 6 minutes have passed - and I am already laughing so that I cannot even eat my salad. this is simply gorgeous. the parody on the modern world, modern Japan, modern show business - a young handsome celebrity, an elder comedy actress, a girl who loves manga about vampires and a mangaka who creates it with a thorough understanding of what vampires are thought to be, and what he can use in his manga to make it popular, a professor who knows much - and knows well that he knows much, the TV news rogram which, on the first sight, tells about the strange incidents, but mostly - arouses the spectators and boost the story, and in the end - TV show where the guests and the audience decide whether a statement brought to discussion is true or false with the help of huge weigher - oh no, I am not a specialist in Japanese entertainment industry, but even I am able to say - this is just so completely true...

the preview of the next episode done in a chibi manner with characters as if drawn on paper with pencil. the mocking 'this programme is brought to you by...' where, instead of the real sponsors, the anime studios and fictional dorama (which was just mentioned in the anime) are used (BTW, reminds me of 'Tamayura') - 'tis not that I am against big companies 'contributing' to anime or doramas so that their logos are shown in the 'sponsors 20 seconds', but whenever a director of anime is brave enough to make such parodies - I feel this world is not dying yet

on the other hand, beware of fanservice. why am I still watching it? ohh, this is completely different case from works like 'Ikkitousen'. the level of nudity may seem much higher, and big boobs of Vera delight us with their full view in the very first episode, to say nothing of the fact that the main heroine is an absolute loli, on the other hand - while there is a harem of different types of girls around Akira, there is also a harem of boys, which is harder to notice, but which still exists... still - this case is completely different. this is the fanservice done with a full understanding that 'tis fanservice

the plot itself is rather slow. this is the style of Shimbo-san, I guess. more attention is paid not to what happens, but to the reasons behind the events, to the feelings of every person involved and thoughts and motives that everyone has. after watching 'bakemonogatari' I already knew how good Shimbo-san is in penetrating every corner of human psyche, but he exceeded my expectations. I thought only the sassy character of Mina would be exposed - as a capricious child, but I was wrong - the creators showed a lot of other people with their own way of life, their own ways of viewing the world and their own reasoning

on the other hand, there is one point I cannot skip - there has never been a character in 'bakemonogatari' whom I could feel close to. I might like them, or respect them, or admire them, or even feel a bit of sympathy towards them, but there was not a single person who was 'like me', 'soulmate' or how should I put it? a person I could feel at ease with. they were all strange to me. unlike 'bakemonogatari' where everyone seemed too far from me, 'Dance' presents people who are more understandable, and maybe even too close to usual anime characters. still, this very fact let me pick up if not characters - then at least feelings I could go through myself, not see as something external. while I did not accept them completely - in the end, this is quite a cruel plot we have here, and 'tis not full of kind persons, you know, dozens of people eaten by vampires, a crown turning into a bloody mess and a head torn apart from the body are not a pleasant things to see... still, there were times I could empathize with some of the characters

Mina was a perfect illustration of a person who wants someone who would be by her side no matter what, someone who would support her anytime and whatever she does. 'a friend is a person who helps you to carry and hide the corpse without asking questions' - I read this phrase in my friend's status in m-agent. I am not in favour of people who hide corpses, and I am not in favour of those who help to hide them, but if we don't take this feeling literally - there are moments when we want someone who would accept us as we are. if not approve completely - then at least accept, even when we are wrong. no, especially when we are wrong

another character who captured my attention was Vera. and this has nothing to do with her name! though I was a bit confused - I am not used to someone beside me called this way ^.^ so, she was simply the type I like most - devoted to something/someone and selfless. I always tend to wish such characters to obtain at least some personal happiness. especially when they are not 13 years old children (like Hikaru Shidou, who is one of my favourite characters of the same type, but whom I consider to be 'slightly too' young.....)

also, though I did not like her much, Saegusa was also a memorable character. look at  the episode where Mina and Yuki made up and laughed together - both of them gorgeously portrayed - Mina able to admit her mistakes, Yuki able to come to peace, funny discussion of her BL novels and their laughing at Akira - a short moment of bliss, a proof that the creators are not trying to make a completely black picture of their characters presenting them as either weak and unworthy, or cruel and full of pride
well, to say nothing of school council president who kissed her 13 years old neighbour twice - and twice 'twas shown fullscreen........

the only bad point there is - the usual poor treatment of foreigners. but 仕方ないわ～ - should we have three foreign representatives, than we are for sure to see a Chinese, an American or European and a Russian. I only wonder if their names were made so simple on purpose or not. of course, there is a chance that the creators intended to make a mock of the fact that they used the most popular surnames. however, I also would easily believe that they simply used what was at hand

don't you think this post is getting too long? well, I cannot help it. this work is just as wonderful as I expected, and it made me think a lot

music

while 'bakemonogatari' (sorry for constantly comparing them, but I have to) had a very strange music which was almost completely psychedelic, 'Dance' has an OST which may seem usual, but together with the visual part which is also less psychedelic they made a perfect duo. there were also pieces one may enjoy very much, slow ones, nice ones, calm ones

as for the OPEDs, perhaps I am already prepared to face the fact that the time when OPEDs were masterpieces has already passed. the ED theme was quite an imaginable thing when we have a vampire-themed anime, and the OP was simply great! - I would say, if not for the fact that 'tis a cover of Rebecca's song created in 1985. this is a fact I learned thanks to the kind person who uploaded the full version of 'Friends' on YT, and I appreciate that very much, because though I already listened to some of Rebecca's songs, I did not recognize 'Friends'. instead, what I thought when first watching the OP was - what a usual arrangement... another song that fails to surprise me... what was really good is Nakano Aiko's vocal. unlike Nokko-chan's sweet and cute high pitched voice, Nakano-san has a nice strength in her singing, which made me want to download her discography, unfortunately there are only 2 singles in it. however, the very fact that the song is a cover, and also the original arrangement frustrated me greatly. really... theme songs are no longer a thing to bother a serious composer, or invite a good singer

seiyuus

this is one more weak part of the anime. they were pretty good, and there were several seiyuus I know, like Watanabe-san, but you know - nothing memorable. well, Mina's seiyuu did a good job in speaking with 'ja' etc., but this is nothing special, any seiyuu should be able to do this. otherwise he/she is not seiyuu at all

on the other hand, the seiyuus were pretty veritable and realistic. actually, some animes do give me a feeling like 'this voice cannot belong to this person', and vice versa 'this appearance should not be decorated with such a voice'. this time there was no such mistake. at least

conclusion

a strange thing, partially ugly, partially attracting. it did not capture my heart, and it actually tired me a lot being a hard thing to watch. however, this is a masterpiece of realism. and an anime for adults - not because of blood or nudity, but because of the very fact of HOW realistic 'tis

in the very end... after watching such a thing, I have to go and heal my soul with something light and pleasant... there are animes which you watch to soothe your heart, but this one is more of those you watch to tease your brains. it does not let you to relax

so, my recommendations - watch Shimbo's works rarely and in small portions

my humble opinion on... many things

thing #1

new Berserk

I was a small kid when I watched the TV series of 'Berserk'. and I loved it. yep, the me, who was some 15 (?) years old loved it very much

I should admit, the greatest object of my fascination was Griffit, who was obviously a bad guy - yep, he was... or... was he? no, for me, who was 15 (or not?) years old, Griffit WAS a bad guy. still I felt a great deal of interest and... pity? towards him

the other object of my fascination was Kaska. strong and proud women have always been one my favourite types of heroines

were I ignoring everything else? no way. I loved everything else as well. I loved that work for the very fact that it portrayed everything so that it stabbed me in the very heart, even things I disliked - violence, human weaknesses, dramatic stories

there was only one thing I ignored - the music by Susumu the Great Hirasawa - those times I could not allow myself downloading everything I wanted, and I only listened to several tracks. it turns out, I listened to the main ones that every fan knows - 'Gatts', 'Behelit' and 'Forces' and some others

now I read another studio made a new version of this masterpiece. I know already how much biased I am when it comes to remakes of 90s classic works. BUT. I was not wrong in my prediction. most people who watched it noted that it has less charm than the original TV, less credibility in terms of coherence with the manga, and everything that was changed - graphics, plot developments, seiyuus - did not add any good points to the new 'Berserk'

new approaches to classic artworks are always good. I should not shut my eyes to them! or so I thought

well. there ARE things that should rest in piece. I mean, things that should not be touched and remade - ever, by anyone. 'Rurouni Kenshin' is an example. 'Berserk' became another one

thing #2

Nisemonogatari

one day, when I become a REALLY fluent Japanese language speaker, I WILL sit down to read the whole bunch of '-gatari' ranobe. I will! I know it!

unfortunately, now I cannot. my Japanese is too poor to read them without looking up 90% of words in the dictionary. and when you have to do that, only a VERY interesting work can make you cling to it without dropping

'-gatari' novels are probably not THAT interesting. '-gatari' animes, though, are interesting enough for me to celebrate the fact that 'nisemonogatari' had already been aired in Japan and two more novels are currently in the process of creation

now that I recall watching 'Bakemonogatari', am I such a fan of the series? nope, I am not. I am just happy for the fact that stylish, cool and unique animes are not extinct. though we have no more 'classic' masterpieces like those of my beloved 90s, we can have something like '-gatari' to enjoy. hope the seiyuus, graphics and music are the same in the coming series. hope the coming ones will be the same interesting and strange - enough to keep me watching, even though I had no favourite character to wait for, and could not feel any sympathy towards anyone

thing #3

Sore de mo Sekai ga Mawatte Iru, Hanasaku Iroha and... Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutsu

though my best source of info about anime is world-art.ru I like myanimelist for providing info which is absent in the Russian service. for example, recommendations

actually, 'recommendations' as phenomenon disappointed me greatly. things like 'similar artists' on Last.fm or JPopSuki hit the bull's eye once in a while, but their general helpfulness is doubtful, to put it mildly. generally, I have either to check out whether the recommendation is really based on something, or to search for additional info to make my request more precise

unlike those websites I mentioned, myanimelist does not give random recommendations - it allows users to write their own, and the most important part of them are the explanations of the recommendations given. those explanations allow to find specific info and understand WHY exactly the person thinks the two animes compared to be alike

this particular feature allowed me to find a few animes which are similar to 'Working!!'. oh, I should say 'Working!!' - while being far from an ideal - impressed me very much, so much that I cannot oust it from my head, and so I embarked on a search for a slice-of-life with a love-story that would remind me of Satou-Yachiyo, main characters of different types like Poplar, Kyouko and Aoi who would create constant turbulence, and beautiful everyday life in Japan

however, I only faced recommendations that emphasized the sides of 'Working!!' I did not pay much attention to - 'comedy', 'hilarious', 'strange people', etc. well, yes, I do like these things, but the setting decided everything, in the end. Mashimaro, or DRRR, or Azumanga will NEVER be in the same line with 'Working!!' - they have another style, another manner and probably - another aim?

some of the recommendations, however, were really relevant. out of them I picked up 'sore de mo sekai ga mawatte iru' which describes a cafe again, and also provides a good company of main characters, and 'Hanasaku Iroha' which impressed me already much with the graphics and interesting plot description

however, these two missed another important point. the only recommendation which highlighted my favourite couple - Satou-Yachiyo - was the one offering... 'Haruhi'. and I was like o___O

I mean, from everything I heard about this piece, there is NO WAY Satou-Yachiyo could resemble the main couple of 'Haruhi'. moreover, knowing how popular 'tis I already felt a kind of despise towards this, perhaps, good anime, so I firmly decided NOT to watch it EVER - so many unpopular things wait for me, huh?

still, if the person who recommended it saw some similar points... there might be... and I will never know if I don't check myself

mama mia... will I end up watching one of the most popular animes ever? noooo 嫌だ！！！　Ｔ＿Ｔ

p. s. - somebody, please find me an anime with a couple reminding of Satou-Yachiyo. I would do anything for you.... >____<

my humble opinion: Bakemonogatari

there is a good way to describe something applying analyses and without boring explanations. 'tis naming good points and bad points one after another. shall I try to use it?

the animation itself

will anyone argue that SHAFT is great in terms of animation? I doubt...

a good point - both the moving parts and the static views were created for us to enjoy. the colours are vivid, and the scenes are psychedelic enough to make us stare with all our might. white silhouettes instead of furniture or some everyday life objects, strange shapes and angles, just everything one may need to get lost in an artificial word

a bad point - someone might get tired with such a concept. 'tis obviously not for admirers of nature, pastel colours etc (I am not one of them, so I was never tired though)

the music

a bad point - the theme songs are utterly boring. hearing them for the first time I thought they were pretty good, but the key point is - first time. first time is good, but the second time I heard the melody I was already fed up with it. moreover, 'twas such a waste of seiyuus' voices... we have brilliant Saitou-san, Sawashiro-chan, Horie-chan, and others whom I do not happen to have heard earlier, but the voices are pretty good. what spoileth them is the music itself - spoileth by giving them no chance to show their beauty, or cuteness - better to say. the only one that had an interesting part was the theme song of Nadeko ('de mo sore ja dame' line was good). I should say I was especially disappointed in supercell - why so plain? both the melody and the girl's voice. a free indie band should have something more than that...

a good point - the back melodies were great, again - psychedelic, but very nice, always following the mood of the psychedelic images, and sometimes even making the anime more psychedelic than it could be. however, 'tis not the kind of ost I would listen to as a separate piece

the seiyuus' work

a good point - as I already mentioned, we have a whole company of good girls this time

a bad point - they would not consider voicing these characters as one of their best works. obviously... nothing special, nothing memorable, and I even did not recognize them at once - I speak of Horie-chan, Saitou-san and Sawashiro-chan, though I have heard them already in other works

a good point - there were nice lines in the script which were quite funny and the intonation was also contributing to the impression of those parts

a bad point - apart from those funny lines, most of other seiyuus were quite plain and some of the main characters were a kind of epic fail... Araragi and Oshino, for example, were created as quite distinguishing characters, but their seiyuus spoiled everything, especially Oshino's one. but that' already the next paragraph

the characters

so, a good point - Oshino was really meant to be a 'cool, and he knows he is cool' guy type. the same as Sanosuke from RK or Onizuka, for example.

a bad point - what a disappointment, his seiyuu sounded as if he was chosen out of a crowd of amateurs because his former seiyuu's heel was itching and he could not come to work... I want to say, the seiyuu completely ruined the image, though he did his best, obviously

a good or a bad point, I cannot even decide, but Araragi is that typical UJS - usual Japanese schooler, as we call them. of course, he is a vampire partially, so he could not be a UJS precisely, but his behaviour and his 'type' is certainly the UJS one. and that is not my type, so I was simpy enjoying him shouting funny things from time to time. as for his striving to help everyone - that was cool, but I could not appreciate it very much actually... somehow I just did not. I would prescribe it to the manner of the storytelling

the good point - the girls were much more interesting. a harem, but not the usual one, though the types are quite usual. all of them are cute and have their own nice/funny/adorable points

the bad point - none of them was the one I could really like from the very bottom of my heart. at first, Hitagi seemed to be the one, as I loved her swiftness and determination, but to my surprise I got tired with her very soon, and I was not amused very much with her teasing Araragi. I also liked Tsubasa at the beginning of the first episode, as I tend to like calm 'supporting' characters - supporting in terms of their importance in the story, as opposed to the main ones. however, she turned up to be more important than a supporting one, and less attractive than I expected her to be. 'twas not that I was disappointed with her 'problem' in the Tsubasa Cat chapter, but I simply lost the impressing point of hers. finally the one whom I sympathized the most turned out to be Kambaru, though come to think of it - and there is nothing special about her I could take as an advantage

the plot itself

as I plan to end in a good point, I shall start with the bad one - the plot itself is not the plot at all, too illogical and separated - in terms of separation not only into chapters, but also separation of the events. somehow it feeleth as if a lot of things are omitted and we never understand how the things developed while we were 'absent'. moreover, the overall impression is somewhat mixed, so stating that the plot is gorgeous would be a big lie

but the good point - though I have much to complain of, I did not drop the series, and moreover, while my 初心 (I have learnt the word two days ago and I have just recalled of it unintentionally) - my initial intention was to watch 5 episodes a day in order to while away the time before the 2nd episode of Sherlock is aired - as I had precisely three days to wait - I ended up watching 13 episodes in one day. the first ones were passing like an instant. several times the episode ended I was thinking 'tis the break for commercial which is usually dividing the episode in two parts. this meaneth, I was waiting for the episode to last two times longer. no, I am wrong, I was waiting for the episode to develop two times slower - better to say, two times less absorbing. even taking into account I was absolutely bored and I have not watched anything since July, a bad anime just doth not do that, doth not have that effect of making thou stare at the screen without noticing time pass

therefore, the conclusion is

a stylish thing with every element possible being unique - maybe excluding seiyuus only. a nice thing, though not a masterpiece, entertaining and interesting. at least, 'tis good to have such a thing in 2009, where almost all the animes have already become the 'conveyor' type
_____
forgot to mention... beware of ecchi - nothing harmful (even I could endure it), but there is some