dance in the vampire bund

While I don't really expect Dance in the Vampire Bund to reach masterpiece level by the end of the season, I wholeheartedly agree with hashi that it is the most promising show of the winter. Beyond the hilarious first episode, the mesmerizing opening sequence and the scenes of underage nudity (which we at tsurupeta.info strongly approve of), it is the way the show revisits original vampire myths in the light of contemporary sexual morality that really makes it shine, as was thoughtfully pointed out by E Minor over at Moe Sucks (a site that doesn't always suck!).

He does however express some reservations regarding the show's message which I must take issue with. In episode 2, he notes, Mina is “protected” by Akira a couple of times. Therefore, he concludes, despite its seemingly powerful, assertive heroine and its unconventional representation of sexuality, Dance in the Vampire Bund ultimately conveys a conservative view of gender roles. I think this is a misperception of the power dynamics at play in a couple such as Mina×Akira.

For some reason I can't quite put my finger on, 2009 cake appreciation club anime K-On has become an effigy for moe haters to burn. They love to lash out endlessly about how the show was nothing but cuteness without subtance, which is really half funny. The funny part is that this is exactly was the show was trying to be—a harmless pleasure to watch every week, although nothing to write home about. Complaining about the lack of plot, character growth or realism in the portrayal of guitar learning is superlatively moronic. The unfunny part is the following fallacy: “K-On is kind of shallow and a moe anime, therefore all moe anime is shallow.” Guys, Socrates is supposed to have cleared that up for you two and a half millenia ago.

That last bit was too ridiculous to take seriously until the last few days when things got pretty much out of hand. Sora no woto, a new original Aniplex anime project, came under fire from hordes of angry fans before the first episode even aired, for no other reason than character designs distinctly reminiscent of K-On. The problem lay not so much with the moe haters, whose reaction was expected and promptly ignored, but with more reasonable people whose usual sound thinking got somehow polluted by the tea-baggers of the anime blogosphere.