Instead of just watching the show like a normal person would, I wrote a few notes down in order to write a review for this blog. I know I usually tackle otome games, but this is otome-related, so it still belongs here, right?
So sit back and relax as you read my very long ramble about the Diabolik Lovers anime! Beware of spoilers for the anime and the games down below!
The last time I watched the anime was a few years ago, and that was only the first episode. Even after listening to the drama CDs and playing the first game, I always stayed away from this series. Why? It was because of two reasons. The first was that I thought that the plot was just going to be like the game, so I didn't need to bother watching it if I had already played it. The second reason was that I didn't like the animation style, specifically the character designs. They seemed quite ugly compared to Satoi's lovely artwork from the games and CD covers. But still, today I was bored, so I decided to watch it. Plus, everything else about it was probably going to be good anyway.
Let me just say before I discuss the plot that the theme tune, Mr. Sadistic Night, is an absolute banger! The title sounds a bit funny, but the whole song is just lovely. Diabolik Lovers songs are just awesome in general. There's this specific bit in the tune where it just sounds so amazing, the bit where the sequence below shows up on the screen. I would buy this theme tune on CD if I could, it's just that good. It fits quite well with the opening sequence too.
So, the plot of this anime is like a mash-up of every single route from the first game, Haunted Dark Bridal. There are scenes that are almost identical to how they were in the game, as well as a few extra ones, like the pool scene. The writers decided to make it so that Yui falls in love with nobody here, just so that the fans don't get annoyed or something. I think that this was a bad idea, because instead they kept trying to develop her relationships with every single Sakamaki brother, flip-flopping between each one, so none of them got any development with her. They should've just done what the Code: Realize anime did and just picked a route, maybe Ayato's, since it always seems like Rejet wants to make him the canon love interest.
The boys who got the most screentime were the triplets, and it feels like either Subaru or Shu got the least amount. Each one got their time in the spotlight with Yui at least once, and it sort of felt like a preview advertisement for the game. It was like they were saying "If you want more of this sexy vampire, check out Diabolik Lovers: Haunted Dark Bridal, in stores now for your PSP!". In the middle of a lot of these scenes, there was just a flashback scene shoved in there, just to show the new viewers the tragic childhoods of each brother. Now, I like backstory scenes as much as the next person, but it just felt like some of them were inserted in the wrong place. It's probably because they only had so much screentime to give the viewer this information, so they had to get it all in quick before the series was over.
That brings me to my next point: the episodes were way too short! I'd be getting really invested in it, then it just ends suddenly. It's weird that they settled for a fifteen-minute run time for these episodes. I feel like they made that decision for budget reasons...
The basic plot was this: Yui moves into a house of vampires, she doesn't have to pick one like she does in the game, they each get a few minutes of alone time with her, then a lot of blood sucking and not much else happens until the grand ending, just like the games. Near the end, Richter pops up and Cordelia comes out to party in Yui's body, but then everybody stops her, Yui almost dies and they all live happily ever after.
Yui was alright in this. I actually like her quite a bit more than I did before now. She's just so sweet that it's hard to dislike her. It's amazing how she manages to stay kind when she's stuck with that lot. I know some people think she's a bit weak, but if you were thrust into her situation, you'd also be a bit scared to stand up for yourself. Yui tries her best to fight back, I think. The only time she was a bit stupid was when Subaru told her to leave, but she just decided to stay because she wanted to know something about her father. That's not really Yui's fault though, the writers needed a reason to keep her in there.
Yui even stabs herself in the end, something I didn't expect her to have the guts to do. I've only seen her do that in bad endings. She just seemed so selfless at that point, and I liked her even more. I know she doesn't really have much of a personality, but I just really like Yui now. She's better than what people make her out to be.
When you self-insert into the games/drama CDs and the vampires all do terrible stuff to you, you don't really mind it, but when you watch them do it to Yui, you feel bad for her. It's because you can see her in pain and crying. I just want to give her a hug. In fact, I want to give everybody a hug, because I feel sorry for all of Sakamaki brothers, even though they can be horrible at times.
The Sakamaki brothers are there, too, behaving like their normal selves. I wished that they would have a bit more interaction with each other, but most of them only really spoke to Yui. That's why I liked the ending, because they all seemed to work together to save Yui from dying. It was quite sweet. At the end of the series, everybody suddenly cared about Yui, but it didn't feel right. They didn't have enough time to develop a relationship with her, so they went from being all "You're useless prey!", then suddenly they were like "OH NO SHE CAN'T DIE!". That's why they should've picked one brother for her to develop a relationship with, instead of just switching between each one. It's better to have one person love her and for it to seem believable instead of having everybody like her but it being rushed and out of nowhere.
As I mentioned earlier, Cordelia's in this. We got a whole episode where Yui somehow goes back in time whilst sleeping, and you get to see even more of this woman being absolutely awful. I liked this episode, because I just like backstory stuff in general. Cordelia takes over Yui's body like she does in Reiji's route, but you don't get to hear our heroine's inner thoughts during this, unlike the game. You think that Yui's been completely shut down, but in the game you know that she's still inside there watching all of this unfold. I just really can't stand Cordelia, she's awful. When Laito pushed her off the balcony in that flashback scene, I clapped.
Richter's also there, and I just don't like him even more now. He was just using Cordelia here, which I don't think was mentioned in the game. I suppose that explains why he never minded his supposed "love" flirting with Reiji and wanting to lovingly murder Karl Heinz, because all he really cared about was becoming the head of the family. At least he died at the end though. I feel like he could've been an interesting love interest for Yui though.
I suppose now I'll talk about my favourite scenes. I liked literally every scene with Subaru in it, because he is my favourite so I'm obviously going to biased towards him. He didn't really have any scenes where he acted very mean to Yui, but to be honest, he didn't really have much screentime in general. I liked the scene in the rose garden. I sort of wish that they had animated the ballroom dancing scene from his route, since it was my favourite. Still, I'm not sure how they would've fit that into the plot. Maybe they could've had an episode where Yui goes to the ball? I don't think they had enough episodes to fit that in...
I also enjoyed the scene with Reiji where he offers to make tea, only for Yui to find out that he only made some for himself. Then he offers to make her a cup, but he just actually uses her as a guinea pig to test poison. I don't know why I laughed at this bit.
Kanato was also cute. It's really funny because I didn't like him when I first got into this series. I think I began to warm up to him because he's voiced by one of my favourite voice actors, he's a yandere, and because we're both interested in dolls. The bit where Yui's all scared he's going to fall off the balcony is funny, I was like "He's a vampire, he's not gonna die!". Sometimes I think that she forgets that they're not human. Oh well, she was just trying to be caring. Then Kanato just falls off the balcony like he doesn't care. I laughed at that bit.
Another cute scene was where we got to see a young Shu with a puppy. I don't normally care about stuff like this, but that was cool. Reiji's just sitting there in the background looking really peeved.
The ending where all of the brothers just appeared in the room together to defeat Cordelia was good. As I mentioned before, I really wish that they had more interactions, but the franchise as a whole is all about the vampires interacting with you/Yui, not with each other. The scene early on in the series at the dinner table was also quite good. At least you could tell that the triplets were quite close with each other in the flashbacks and all that.
The artwork did grow on me a little bit. Once I saw the characters moving around, the animation looked a bit better. I think it's the thick black lines and the way the colours are done that ruins it for me. The backgrounds are quite pretty though. The Sakamaki mansion just looks really nice, it actually sort of makes me want to live there. Some of the long shots looked pretty good, and Yui's design looks alright. Sometimes the animation was a bit sparse, but that might be because of budget reasons. There were a few times where Yui just stares at the vampires, it reminded me a bit of Twilight where Bella and Edward just awkwardly stare at each other. Another thing I really liked was the episode title cards with the clock. That was a cool idea.
The voice acting, as always, was stellar. I didn't use headphones with this series, but I don't think they used the dummy head mic. After all, this series isn't designed to be self inserted into. A lot of the lines were almost the same as the ones from the game, so I wonder how the actors felt about repeating the same stuff again? That's actually a silly question, because I don't think that they would mind, as long as they were getting paid.
This anime has an English dub, too. It's strange how this has been localised, but Rejet won't let the games come over to the West. I listened to around five seconds of the English dub, but I didn't really like it. I don't really like anime dubs in general, because every character always has the same generic American accent. Also, I quite like the voices of these characters, I wouldn't want to change them at all.
In conclusion, I liked this anime quite a bit, even though it did have its flaws. It does have a few problems with the story, but I don't really expect stellar writing from this series. I just want to have fun listening to sexy vampire voices, that's all. Even though this feels like an advertisement for the games and CDs, I think that this series is better for the fans. Newcomers might feel like it's a bit lacking on its own, or at least that's what I'd predict they'd feel. In the West, this series doesn't exactly have a good reputation amongst some people. Actually, the only reason I know about this franchise is because of a "Top Ten Worst Anime Series" list! A lot of the criticism is that the characters are absolutely horrible to Yui, which I agree with, but vampires are supposed to be bad. I know we've had a lot of media where they're portrayed as nicer, but they are monsters after all!
Wow, I wrote a lot about this. I couldn't go into this much detail about the game because my Japanese sucked, but next time I'll try harder to write better!
Once I've watched the next season, I'll review that too. I haven't played MORE, BLOOD yet, but I know the basic plot. It'll be interesting to see how they adapt that in the anime. Will they again make a mishmash of all the routes like they did with this first series? I suppose I'll have to find out...
Thank you very much for reading this! I hope you all had a nice time. I've been thinking about DiaLovers a lot today. I listened to a lot of the songs and even played through Ayato's drama CD again. I will be buying more of the games and CDs to review, don't worry. My blog's theme does have Yui on it, so it would make sense for me to tackle this franchise more.
I'll see you all later then, everybody! Have a nice day!
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