Buy Dance in the Vampire Bund at **Amazon**
By: Robert Murphy
Alright, alright I know this is going to have some of you
cringing at the thought of vampires and romance but oh well here we go with
“Dance in the Vampire Bund,” a supernatural love story that follows the emergence
of vampires into the human world. The story revolves around Mina Tepeş,
princess-ruler of all vampires, and her protector Akira. Like other vampires,
Mina has been in hiding with her people for many years and seeking to end
centuries of isolation, Mina gains permission to create a special district for
vampires, "The Bund” off the coast of Japan. Mina then reveals to the
world the existence of vampires and her desire for both races to live together.
Tensions, however, run high as fearful humans and extremist vampire factions
begin to interfere with Mina's wish for peace with the human world.
The show itself is like many out there is based on a manga,
and unfortunately like most animes, the manga continues to go on while the show
doesn’t and we are left with a fractured series like “Claymore” and “Black
Blood Brothers”. The show itself plays party to a unique concept that has been
tried before where vampires come out and reveal themselves so that they can
co-exist with humanity (cue the “True Blood” theme song). However this seems to
take a back seat through most of the series as most all of the attention in the
show is given to Mina; our alleged ancient and “wise” vampire leader who acts
more like the spoiled child form she appears to us as in the show. Some attention
is given to Akira, Mina’s long lost love and werewolf bodyguard (werewolves
that are established as willing protectors and servants of vampires in this
series) but even though Akira is essentially the main character, he often gets
out shined by Mina. And as I said before, the show is very much unfinished,
normally this wouldn’t be too big of a deal but throughout the show everyone is
trying to figure out what happened to Akira on his last mission where he lost
his memory from a tragic discovery. Because the show doesn’t continue with the
manga (at least for now) we don’t understand what happens to Akira and even
understand it because after we find out the mystery the show ends.
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| (Above: Mina Tempes Queen of the vampire race) |
I feel that I must take some time to exercise a word of
warning to anyone who wants to check out “Dance in the Vampire Bund”, Mina, our
spoiled little princess, is in a child form throughout the entire show and this
wouldn’t strike to many people as bad until you start watching. Mina frequently
removes her clothing throughout the series and often puts Akira in
uncomfortable situations like putting suntan lotion on her body. Other
unnerving situations include: the gynecological exam she’s forced to endure
during the length of the series, this skates pretty close to kiddy porn and it
is clearly played for eroticism, unfortunately. Other instances occur during
the show as well with the ex-president of Akira’s class becoming a vampire
which causes her feelings for a young boy to escalate to very complicated
levels of attraction.
“Dance in the Vampire Bund”, while having questionable
moments that test the boundaries of "kiddie porn," still makes for an
interesting show to watch for its take on the vampire stories that we have seen
all too much lately. While Mina steals most of the show for herself and her
spoiled brat attitude, she actually is a pretty interesting character; and
while I don’t like spoiledness at any level, Mina makes her's actually
appealing and often quite funny. If you are a kid though I wouldn’t recommend
you see this show, strictly teens and adults only.
Good:
-An interesting take
on the vampire stories we’ve seen
-Mina steals the show
but is an engaging character
Bad:
-The show is
unfinished
-The child like porno
angel is a little much
-The ending leaves so
many questions and is very out there
Scully rating: 5.0
out of 10