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ダンスインザヴァンパイアバンド
82
14
Finished
Dec 5, 2005 to Sep 5, 2012
9.3/10
Average Review Score
100%
Recommend It
4
Reviews Worldwide
This has to be one of my all time fave manga hands down. There isn't one area where it doesn't shine. Awesome Characters, Gripping plot , loads of action , intrigue, romance , loyalty betrayal ,suspense ,and one hell of a climax . It is intended for a more mature audience ,as some of the themes and topics aren't really suitable for younger readers. Twilight this isn't!
Personally for me I loved this manga all the way through. I watched the anime and loved it so I decided to read the manga. The manga is leaps and bounds different and it expands on so much more while accomplishing a lot more. I currently own the entire series Plus all the side stories, the new volume for the new series, and the two doujinshii collections that were released. As you can tell I over this series. The story is great and feels authentic. The characters are wonderful and have many hilarious quips along with huge personality. The art is great, beingable to convey the story that it is in with beautiful designs mixed in with other designs that seem to represent the characters themselves. Finally I would like to address the world building which is amazing, it feels sort of like the ghost in the she'll manga in how nozuma tamaka goes into all the intricate details of the world which he has created. Overall I give this a ten out of ten as it is my favorite manga thus far.
After millennia in hiding, Mina Tepes, the Princess of the ancient covenant and ruler of all vampires, wants change. Using the vast wealth of the Tepes line, she has paid off the entire gross national debt of Japan and in so doing, gained the authority to create a "special district" off the coast of Japan that is to become the future haven to vampires the world over! Now, on the eve of the landmark press conference announcing the existence of vampires to the world, terrorists and rival factions are plotting to assassinate Mina Tepes before she has a chance to make her world-changing announcement. (Source: Seven Seas)
First impressions, so my first thoughts story was hmmm this looks quite interesting. We got super natural elements mixed with politics throw in with a vampire romance going on as well seems good enough. Story, 7/10 So dance in the vampire bund. We have this cool idea of what would happen if vampires publicly declared there existence to the whole human race. So the basic plot of the story is about the vampire queen named as Mina along with her knight in shining armour arika. who to make a long story short publicly reveals the existence of vampires with the intention of building a safe haven for vampires calledthe vampire bund. Which you can probably tell that isn't going to fly very well with the genual pubic, Because some people aren't really happy with the idea of blood sucking monsters pretty much moving in next door. Which this series, for the most part, focuses on in the background the political and social implications of what would happen vampires where to be real and live in a modem society which I feel was done were done in the quite realistic way. Like For example's you got people who what to kill the Mina because they want to remove her from power, you got humans who want to become vampires so they can be immortal, you got rogue vampire's trying to cause problems byways of suicide bombing and etc and then you got humans starting lich mobs to try to find/kill vampires and their human friends. Also another interesting aspect about the whole human and vampire thing is it also show cases the psychological aspects that people go though when they become vampires or what makes vampires different from humans. (Which i will talk about more in the character section) Which takes up most of the series runtime as the story itself is pretty much shit is happing and we need to stop or fix it. Now one element which I quite like and enjoyed was mia and Arika bond together which turns into a bodyguard/ forbidden love story as the story goes on. Becuase the last pureblooded vampires aren't happy that she is refusing to have any of there children and also the fact that mia seems to have in their eyes a favourite pet and I feel it add a lot to the series because not only does it talk more about the culture and society that vampires have but also showcases mia as a kinda like Queen Elizabeth the first figure as even if she has these feelings and relations towards certain people of the male variety. She cant peruse it any farther because of the fact that the females in mia bloodline can only give birth once and only once and these last 3 pure-blooded vampires seem to be very set on the idea of keeping the bloodline "pure" are in no way going to let their vampire queen get down to business to anyone that isn't one of them. Now just before I continue I have to say that it dose have some problems to it. for example some love triangle elements with Yuki who is Akira childhood friend who also likes him along with mina. Like theirs literally, this part where you have Yuki having an augment with mina over who the dick belongs to which at this point I am facepalming. But The plus Side to this is that they both start to become close friends because of there connection with Akia and it doesn't drag out for too long so i am grateful for that at least until they throw in another character who has this blatant homo lust and yes are big wolf on campus is such a chad that even guys want him as well. Also i feel that there some plot points that aren't fleashed out enough or given proper development For one big example is why there are only a few pure blooded vampires left and the reason for that is that the last 3 pare blooded vmpires that are left killed them all in an attempt to attain power and get into the previous queens bed cambers and the reason I bring this up is because I feel not showcasing it or even foucusing on it is a wasted opportunity becuase think about it a massrive vampire cvil war between all these vampire clans fighting to survive and also get power That sounds cool as fuck. One last thing is a plot hole which I want to talk about is what happens to arika around the end of the series, now it was established that if a vampire bites a human that human will become a vampire in about 48 hours if they don't take a vaccine and when a werewolf wolf is bitten by a vampire they will die in slowy in the span of a few hours unless they get the vaccine because they were genetically engineered to die shortly after wards to prevent a vampire/werewolf hybrid from being made and basically what happens is that arika feeds mia his blood and to make a long story short instead of death he transform into a vampire/werewolf hybrid even though that shouldn't be possible so this series at times will literally brake some of its rules or bend them slightly to justify any outcome they want. Characters, 6/10 The main character Akira was at first kinda somewhat nice guy that has a will of ion personality felt very plain and boring to me. but his where wolf background and his warrior lifestyle did make him somewhat interesting And the fact that he has to juggle his normal life with his warrior duties makes a nice clash as he as a person at times is somewhat conflicted on what to do when certain things happen, like for example, he keeps his distance from his normal school friends even if he really likes them or enjoys there company, because it interferes with his duties and also keeps them safe from anyone that would target them because of there relationship. The other main character mina was a lot more interesting in personality And background. Her personality is kind of a mix between the nice sweet girl and a person who will use any methods to get for own way. Which I find cool and interesting because it showcases the duality of her personality. because in normal circumstances mia seems like a pretty nice person that you could get along with and have a casual chat with even if she comes off a tad bit arrogant and bitchy at times. But when the shit hits the fan and people have tempered her wrath she will come down quicker than a ton of bricks. Which is highly showcased in actions so ruthless that even Machiavelli himself would pat her on a back for a job well done. For example, she has the young grandson of a diet member turned into a vampire so he would back down his opposition to her and her vampire bund activities or when she nearly killed the last three noble vampires if they didn't submit to her So even if she is this benevolent monarch of vampirism it shows that even if you are this benevolent ruler you still have to do things which aren't the nicest or moral things to do as she has no problem of getting rid of people that are in her way if its to her own benefit and her people as well. The side characters are somewhat also interesting as well. But there are mostly two dimensional at the most and they could be more developed But the problem of a that there are quite a lot of side characters and the story doesn't have enough time flesh or development most of them because this manga runs for 80ish chapters. But one big positive I would like to say about the side cast that is vampires or turned into vampires are used to explore the idea of being a vampire kinda sucks and a few other ideas like how a lack of purpose or a reason to live can make immortality hell on earth, Becuase even if your immortal, have all these abilities there are negatives to it. Becuase vampires at there core nature persuade whatever their heart desires regardless of the consequences and its really cool that some of these characters are used to talk about this idea and also the fact they showcase characters who are trying to keep their vampire impulses at bay to retain some level of humanity. Which was nicely showcased for example in the character of Nanami who was kinda against the idea of vampires moving in and in a tragic irony she becomes a vampire and for a time she goes through quite a bit of turmoil as she tries to control this impulses and also coming to terms with the fact with these emotions and feeling that she didnt know she had or was trying to hide it. Art, 7/10 The artwork is pretty well done There is quite a lot of small details put in. But the backgrounds do look kinda shifty. The art style feels a bit like plastic to me. I don't how to explain it. But the art looks like I am looking at something that made of plastic. The character design is dated by today's standards and this series suffers from the biggest case of same face syndrome i have seen in manga to date because in some panels its really hard for me to tell which character is who and makes me very confused Other than that Nothing's else really noteworthy here except the monster designs looked pretty cool. Enjoyment, 7/10 So dance in the vampire bund was pretty entertaining enough. I found it somewhat interesting. Like for example how the vampires work and how they do things and also the implications of how vampires can have an effect on human society. But one thing that really did bring the manga down for me was the parts where we got lolicon nudity which really brought down the story a bit for me. Overall, 7/10 If your looking for a good vampire story then this will be the manga for you. But if you turned off by gore and lolicon or nudity in general then stay away because they're a lot of scenes where you wonder this should be counted as a eechi series or a hentai.
This is a manga that quickly grows from an okay beginning to an intense story with meaningful characters, deep plots that mix action and intrigue, and absolutely no filler. Although it differs on many aspects, I did have the same feeling as when I read Fullmetal Alchemist or Kekkaishi, with the mix of shounen-style combat and the political scheming going on with multiple factions (past or present). The star of the show is Mina Tepes, princess of a large vampire faction and founder of the first country where vampires could exist legally and in peace (hopefully coexisting with humans). Due to events in her past, shestopped growing while she was still very young, so she has a child-like appearence, but rest assured that you will *never* see her act cute or girlish. She's an experienced political leader, depicted as extrememy shrewd and showing a hard edge when necessary. In spite of this rather cold exterior, Mina doesn't lack in kindness and has a lot of depth. She quickly becomes a character that you care about. A lot. The other protagonist is Akira, a high schooler but also a member of a faction that has sworn loyalty to Mina. As such, he acts as her bodyguard, but also a very close friend. It's not really a spoiler to say that a romance between them is going on. Akira is obviously devoted to Mina, but he still has agency of his own, and he's often shown taking intiatives and investigating… in other words being competent at his job. The largest part of the story is about politics, betrayal and manipulation, with frequent action scenes to keep things smooth and engaging. - negociations with the closest neighbour, Japan, to get the new vampire country accepted and recognized as something other than a threat, with a bit of social commentary about accepting refugees and taking responsiblity for past atrocities - old feuds between vampire factions, with racism among vampires based on "pure blooded-ness" The tone of the story has a foot in heroic territory and the other one in dark fantasy; on the one hand, main characters are likable heroes that have ideals and fight for them, on the other hand the world is harsh and political schemes have ugly consequences that aren't shied away from (including when the population is the target). That's what makes it a seinen rather than a shounen. Aside from the two main characters, you have a large, but well-managed, cast of secondary characters. Many of them are well-developed, with agenda of their own and important roles to play, resulting in a network of consistent characters that serve the story. As for the echii tag given to this manga, it's certainly justified, but it's never thoughtless. It's infrequent and mostly consistent with the story tone and character relationships. It helps that Mina, although she has a child-like body, always behaves like the harsh, blazé politician that she really is. Even when she allows herself to show a more open side of herself, she's still an adult in control. It also helps that Akira and Mina are extremely at ease with one another, so moments when they get to touch each other are often shown as natural and "glossed over", avoiding a pointless ecchi depiction.