Dance with devils is a mishmash of a supernatural vampire reverse harem musical anime based on a 2015 manga that wasn’t finished when the anime aired. If that doesn’t scream disaster for you, the following article will. The only way this show should be consumed is through a hate watch, with a group of friends to joke about it. Frankly, it may not even be worth it, but if you look Dance with devils is your business. Surprisingly, it’s not the musical elements that make this media a train wreck, even though the songs usually erase any tension felt in a scene.
Dance with devils is a supernatural romance inverted harem musical starring a female human protagonist named Ritsuka, who has fallen into a world of devils and vampires. While having her first encounters with these supernatural beings, her mother is kidnapped and her brother comes home to support her. However, it is clear that even her brother is hiding information from her, leaving her unable to trust anyone, as she slowly falls in love with her supernatural classmates.
Characters fall flat
The characters, especially the main character, have no personality. The only personality of the harem members is that they are alluring, dangerous devils and vampires… but that’s all. The characters are all one-dimensional and show personality traits only when the plot needs to move forward, but only when the plot needs to; the characters are otherwise incredibly inconsistent. The plot itself isn’t bad, it’s quite simple and could have interesting characters to carry it around.
The whole point of Ritsuka is that she’s a perfectly normal girl; her character description on MyAnimeList is “An ordinary girl who lives with her mother. She is part of the Art Club”. Although this could be so that the protagonist can be projected more easily, similar to Link in Legend of Zelda, but since the other characters are also poorly developed, we can only assume it’s a quality issue.
The previous quote is the only two sentences in her character description, and while the other characters are one-dimensional at best, at least they were given a bit more description and some semblance of personality and reasoning for how they act in the story. Even if most beautiful guys feel the same way.
The very few personality traits some characters have, other than being an alluring non-human, are usually problematic as well. For example, Shiki is a sadist who likes to hurt other people without their consent. That’s his whole personality. Lindo is a whole train wreck in himself and gets his own section below, so we’ll get to him later. Urie is an incubus, and yes, that means he uses his powers to trick Ritsuka into manipulating information out of her in one episode, only stopped because someone entered them. Keep in mind that these are the characters we have to pick a favorite to root for in their quest to win Ritsuka’s love. At least that’s what should happen in a harem.
The “But wait, he’s not really her brother”
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This is by far the worst character in the series. His main personality trait is that he is overprotective towards his sister. This is a common trope in anime where the ‘overprotective’ sibling is actually more obsessed with the innocence and image of their sibling than their sibling themselves, coming from a place of family pride rather than affection towards their siblings. And yes, on top of this exaggerated trope, he’s technically part of the harem. But rejoice, the redhead beautiful vampire boy is not her brother! But it really isn’t any better.
Not only does he confess his feelings for Ritsuka, he justifies it by saying she’s his niece, not his brother, so he says it’s okay. Both revelations are revealed in quick succession. Now we have to keep in mind that in Japan cousin marriages are legal. However, it is by far the norm with only 1.6% and 3.9% of marriages as of this year in Japan as consanguineous marriages, i.e. marriages between close relatives. This statistic covers more than cousins though, culturally it’s not the norm anyway. However, this isn’t the point I necessarily want to get into as to why Lindo has despite the scientific evidence of birth defects due to incestuous relationships like first cousin relationships, since I wasn’t raised in a pro-consanguineous marriage culture like Japan.
The problem I create with this character is how little they see themselves as Ritsuka’s sibling. Lindo grew up as Ritsuka’s sibling for most of his life, and vice versa. Even if we consider the consanguineous marriage culture in Japan, it is not only capable of having feelings, but also openly confessing them to their sibling, denouncing their sibling relationship; he doesn’t see her as his sister. This same concept can also be found in the sexualized stereotype of step siblings. Stereotypes like these imply that step siblings, or similar adopted siblings, are not true siblings. These stereotypes are harmful to blended and adoptive or foster families; it continues to perpetuate the idea that non-blood related siblings are not really related. Thoughts like this make mixed or other unique family situations even more difficult than they already are, and unfortunately the media isn’t quick to slow down the step sibling or fake sibling.
In the end, Dancing With Devils is more than a terrible piece of media. All the most memorable moments are shockingly disgusting, predatory, or a badly placed song. If you want to see this terrible anime for yourself, you can watch it at Funimationbut we don’t recommend it.
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