Anime Review: Dance with Devils

Ritsuka is caught between the power struggle of vampires and devils in disguise slash student council in their race to find the grimwoire.

Dance with Devils is part of the new trend of multimedia projects. It's a collaboration between Rejet, Elements Garden and Avex. The anime and then the manga came out first and then later on were the stageplay and game adaptations. I initially thought DWD is throwing shade against Diabolik Lovers since the vampires are the villains here, but then again they're both from the same game maker, Rejet.

I find the heroine very plain looking in the teasers but after watching an episode she's pretty after all. But it's irritating that she always put herself in danger. Every. Time. My favorite bishonen is Mage, but I'm choosing him just for the sake of choosing. I'm not that vested to the DWD boys. At one point, I got really excited with the villain, Jek. Turns out, he's bat shit crazy. I have this feeling too that Maksis is going to look very young and handsome. Just a hunch.

The gothic yet vibrant palette, for some odd reason, gives me an impression that it will have a very bad ending like maybe the heroine will die. I know it's not related but it gives me this ominous vibe. The characters designs are from  Hirotaka Maeda who is the same artist of Vitamin X franchise. That's why they all look the similar with the Vitamin X and Tokayo Yamanote characters.  

Someone left a comment before that it's like Diabolik Lovers but better. I thought too at first but it just too drawn out. I hate it when you get to the point of dreading to watch it and it's only halfway into the series. We could also say it's like Diabolik Lovers meets Uta Prince no Sama because of the musical aspects. But unlike in Uta Prince where they sing to perform, in DWD it was kind of awkward when out of the blue the first character suddenly belted out to a song number. It's like Disney cartoons, when one of the characters will have a moment. Then after a while, you'll just get along with it. Don't get me wrong, the songs are lovely especially the credit/ending song. But I think the reason it becomes too drawn out is to be able to showcase the songs. It will be hard to feature the songs if it's like the OAD format of Diabolik Lovers.  If it gets too hard to watch it, you can do it. Watch it for the songs! Since they're both from Rejet, should we expect for crossover in the future? Vampires versus Devils. Samaki brothers versus student council of Shiko Academy. Even though I complain a lot about DL and DWD, I would still love to see that collaboration.