Review of the Controversial ‘Dance in the Vampire Bund’

Dance in the Vampire Bund is originally a manga written and illustrated by Nozomu Tamaki, but like all popular manga series, it was adapted into an anime. I have already checked out the books, which I enjoyed, so I thought I’d give the show a watch as well, which is what brings you this post today.

“When Mina Tepes – queen of the vampires – suddenly appears in Japan to establish a colony for her blood-sucking brethren, Akira Kaburagi’s world will never be the same. As a boy, Akira vowed to serve the ruler of the night, and now he must fulfill his destiny by protecting Mina from those who would dethrone her!”

This anime starts off a bit rough; the very first episode is pretty bland and is clearly just a set up for future episodes. I almost didn’t bother giving the second episode a shot, but I did and luckily it was worth it. Dance in the Vampire Bund gets better and better with each episode. The story in unique, the vampire mythos is fantastic and there’s a bizarre mixture of horror and romance. This anime is definitely a breath of fresh air. It’s one of a kind for sure.

I will warn you right now, this anime almost didn’t make it to the US due to censorship issues – there’s a reason for that. There is a lot of nudity and the nudity is of Mina Tepes, the queen of the vampires. Why was that an issue? Because, while she is an ancient vampire, she has the body of a 9-year-old.  It’s creepy, but the anime was eventually released unedited because Mina isn’t actually a child… she just looks like one (which I still find disturbing).

A few episodes in and I am really enjoying Dance in the Vampire Bund. Once past that horribly boring first episode the story really picks up and draws you into this new world of vampires. My only big issue is the nudity, I know she’s not a child, but seeing a naked 9-year-old body creeps me out. If it were all adult characters stripping down I would have no issues, but yeah, even cartoon child nudity is disturbing. Personally I think the nudity is totally unnecessary and could have been left out.

If you like vampires and anime, you may want to check out Dance in the Vampire Bund. However, this is NOT an anime for children and not an anime for those easily creeped out (like me).

Have any of you watched it? If so, what did you think?

– Moonlight

By Moonlight

Moonlight (aka Amanda) loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to vampires. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of vampire folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and she may bite you (and not in the fun way).

5 comments

  1. We used to talked about this anime in That Guy With The Glasses forum under Anime. There was a debate about if Funimation should edit the series or leave it as is. My suggestion is that they should do two versions like they did with Dragonball Z, edited for those who don’t want to get offended and unedited for those who want to see it in it’s true format.

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  5. I’m watching this anime now so I decided to check out some reviews about it. First, I found it interesting plot, but I confess that her nakedness and her child’s body scared me a little. This shocked me because naturally I started rooting for a romance between her and Akira, and that’s weird, absurdly strange. However, I loved your review, made me want to keep watching and seeing what will happen in the coming episodes.

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