Dance With Devils | 12 Episodes | DUB | VRV
Initial Impression: This is going to be interesting.
In my experience, first episodes generally go really fast or really slow. Either they throw a bunch of information your way in one fell swoop or you spend circa 20 minutes where nothing — or everything — happens with no explanation whatsoever. This anime did a little bit of both and I think it turned out much better than I expected it to.
In the first episode, we meet Ritsuka Tachibana. It’s not explicitly explained, but she’s the type of girl who is, for lack of a better term, an ignorant goody-two-shoes. We find her making breakfast for herself and her mother, on a school day, with fresh herbs from the garden. The first sign that she’s ignorant of everything that’s about to go down is the fact that her mother makes her wear a locket for protection, and makes sure to switch out the pouch inside it every Monday without fail. She thinks it’s a cute little routine, but her mother has a sad and worried look on her face as she explains that she must always wear it because it keeps her safe. There is also a protection sign drawn on the brick by the front gate, but she doesn’t seem to notice that either. Her mother has the tell-tale hairstyle of an anime mom who isn’t going to last past the first episode, and sure enough, she doesn’t.
At school, Ritsuka is greeted by her friends who let her know that she’s been summoned by the president of the student council. Since this is anime — and of course she’s a normal girl that goes to a fancy rich school that has kids being dropped off by private chauffeurs — being summoned by the student council is the same as having a warrant out for her arrest. The student council president is Rem, and again we see that she’s ignorant of everything. This is another thing that isn’t clearly stated, but it’s heavily implied that he was about to either:
A. Eat her
B. Drink her blood
C. Kill her
D. All of the above
She doesn’t realize this, and the only reason she doesn’t become his breakfast is because of the locket she wears. This obviously peaks his interest. At the end of the day, she goes home to find a car has rammed into the brick post of her front gate, her yard and home have been ransacked, and her mother is lying nearly unconscious on the floor. Her mother signals for her to run and she calls the police, but when she comes back with them, everything is miraculously back to normal. The police don’t believe her and she calls her brother — at least, that’s who I think he is — and he tells her to go to her friend’s house and stay there until he can return. On her way, she’s ambushed by the people who ransacked her home and took her mother.
She’s saved by none other than the student council president himself.
He takes her to his (giant) house and helps her, probably for devious reasons, and she’s left to wonder what’s going on. A lot happened in the first episode, but it was pretty good. I haven’t been shocked by anything that’s happened yet, but I am liking the pacing and characters that have been introduced so far. I am actually pretty excited to watch the next couple episodes and aside from the boy-love anime I’ve watched recently, I haven’t felt this intrigued by an anime in a while. I’m hoping it keeps getting better.
The Otaku Couple
Update
So, I finished watching this. I’m not going to go into detail, but the first episode was the best. To sum it up nicely: this was a complete and utter waste of time that ended without any satisfaction. There is a proper ending — if you can call it that — but it’s lackluster and disappointing. Also, there is singing in every episode without subtitles, so if you only speak English, be wary of that.
I talk more about it here, on the podcast. I know the review above is somewhat positive, but I wanted you to know the whole truth — that I know now — so that you don’t fall into a trap of watching pretty bad anime because of something I wrote. So, to be clear: I don’t recommend this to anyone — watch at your own risk.
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