Review for Dance in the Vampire Bund (Review)
Thursday, 13th October 2011, 17:02

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Introduction
A point of silliness… 'Bund' is a rude word in Panjabi. So not only am I giggling every time I read the title of this show, I'm also pronouncing it incorrectly, in an Indian accent. God help me if I ever have to speak about the show in polite company. Typing is okay, I can get away with typing, and also Dance in the Vampire Bund isn't the sort of show that that you regale the moral descendants of Mary Whitehouse with. It's a vampire show most obviously, and you have to wonder if the anime world actually needs another vampire show. It's another vampire show from Studio SHAFT, with a young prepubescent female vampiric main character. So naturally I'm going to be comparing it to Moon Phase. But first things first, let's ride that mammoth out of the room. Prepubescent female nudity, potentially with sexual overtones has cleared the hurdle of the BBFC with just a 15 rating. Of course context and story have a big part to play in this. When your main character may look like a child, but is actually an immortal and ageless vampire, there are certain story ideas that become less anathema. Lest we forget, this isn't exactly new territory for UK anime, as Le Portrait de Petite Cossette has similar subject matter.

It's already had a rocky road on its US release, with the initial Internet streams censored, and when the possibility of the DVDs being similarly obscured was raised, the fan outcry had Funimation actually issuing a statement to the contrary. Those DVDs now come to the UK, although as usual they do so via Australia's Madman Entertainment. And if they can get past Australia's notoriously touchy censorship, maybe all this loli-vampire brouhaha is just a storm in a teacup. Still, with anime always an easy target for the tabloid hacks, and the papers currently lacking in suitable moral outrage stories, is it the best time to hang a bull's-eye around the throat of the industry? If you're going to risk the ire of Middle England, Dance in the Vampire Bund is going to have to be very good, High School of the Dead good.

Mina Tepes is a vampire. Actually she's vampire royalty, heir to the legacy of the notorious Vlad Tepes himself, and all of vampire society ostensibly swears allegiance to her, obey her through instinct alone. That's not the sort of thing you'd expect anyone to advertise. Mina's just gone and announced it on live TV, confirming the existence of vampires to a stunned world. Mina has a dream. She's the Martin Luther King of vampires, and with their extensive, and long accumulated finances, she's just bought an island annex off the coast of Japan, where she aims to set up an independent vampire state to coexist with humans, where both societies can prosper and grow equally. All she has to do is to convince the government of Japan to deed her people the rights to that land in perpetuity.

And as usual, such people with dreams become the targets of those who would much rather preserve the status quo, both among the vampires and the humans. Mina needs a bodyguard. A young high school student called Akira Kaburagi is that bodyguard, only he doesn't know it. When he was a child, he promised Mina that he would protect her and always be by her side; only he doesn't know it. Akira Kaburagi is also a werewolf, only he doesn't know it. One year previously, he was in an accident that resulted in a head injury, and 16 years of his life vanished in an instant. It's only the return of Mina Tepes into his life that begins to jog those memories. Now Mina is attending his school, is sitting next to him in class, and causing all sorts of uproar and scandal among the students. As the conspiracies, intrigue and plots deepen around Mina Tepes, Akira has to play catch-up if he is to fulfil his oath to protect her. He may not have the skills, and he doesn't have the memories, but at the very least he can rub anti-sun gel on her naked body.

Manga Entertainment present twelve episodes of Dance in the Vampire Bund across 2 discs.

Disc 1

1. Prom Night
2. Howling
3. Teen Wolf
4. Interview with the Vampire
5. Shadow of the Vampire
6. From Dusk Till Dawn

Disc 2

7. Innocent Blood
8. Near Dark
9. The Lost Boys
10. Walpurgis Night
11. Underworld
12. Dance in the Vampire Bund

Picture
Dance in the Vampire Bund gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, which as is the way of most anime being released in the UK today, is a native PAL image, with the 4% speedup that implies. It means that Dance in the Vampire Bund looks clean, sharp, and free of any of those old NTSC-PAL conversion issues. The only complaint you may have is that of the very slight aliasing that you see at the limits of the DVD format. The transfer is more than welcome, as it is Studio SHAFT doing the animation here. If you want an animation company that knows how to use the medium to eye-catching effect, it's SHAFT, and once again with this show, they throw their entire arsenal of tricks at the screen. Different animation styles, visual effects, camera angles, lens flare, moody lighting, gothic direction, and of course the controversial fan service, they know exactly how to give a show style. Don't let the more comical and static first episode fool you, Dance in the Vampire Bund is a veritable visual feast, surpassing previous shows of theirs like Negima!? and Moon Phase. I did notice a smidge of cross colouration when the show was scaled up to an HD screen, but it was selective, and maybe a creative choice.

Sound
As is par for the course for modern anime DVDs, we have the option of DD 5.1 Surround English, and DD 2.0 Stereo Japanese, with translated subtitles and a signs only track. I was happy as a lamb with the original language track, the stereo used to decent effect, especially when prologicked up. For fans of the English dub, my brief experience of it didn't throw up any howlers. No cheesy Transylvanian accents thankfully, but the dialogue was clear, and the 5.1 audio gave the show a little more room to breathe. The incidental music is forgettable, but works invisibly to drive the story, while the theme songs are more memorable and induce a little toe tapping.

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