Dance In The Vampire Bund

[Kraco]

"After millennia in hiding, Mina Tepes, the Princess of the ancient covenant and ruler of all vampires, wants change. Using the vast wealth of the Tepes line, she has paid off the entire gross national debt of Japan and in so doing, gained the authority to create a "special district" off the coast of Japan that is to become the future haven to vampires the world over!
Now, on the eve of the landmark press conference announcing the existence of vampires to the world, terrorists and rival factions are plotting to assassinate Mina Tepes before she has a chance to make her world-changing announcement."
-Seven Seas (manga description)

Episode 1 - SFW

Anidb
ANN
Official

In the main roles Aoki Yuuki (Murasaki Kuhōin of Kure-nai, Noeru Kannagi of Sora no Woto) as Mina Tepes, Yuuichi Nakamura (Tomoya Okazaki of Clannad, Alto Saotome of Macross Frontier) as Akira




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This episode certainly surprised me. Should be no spoiler to tell the manga didn't start like this. Still, I trust this wasn't a sign of things to come and they will stick to the source after this weird kind of an introduction.

Mina's VA isn't a very well known, I have to say, but she seemed to be doing quite well. With Akira's VA I've no problems whatsoever, of course. That dude is a pro. The visuals are impossible to judge because of the strange format of this intro ep, though. We will need to wait and see. Also, the video quality in that SFW release was rather poor. I hope proper 720p releases appear later. This looks almost like a VHS rip... Translation itself was decent SFW quality.

Perhaps not as exciting a beginning for my most awaited series of the season as I was expecting but oh well.

[Pandadice]

are [sfw] good, or should i wait got [gg]? (they're planning to do this, right?)

[Penner]

Sweet! I was waiting for this to get released, unfortunately i'll have to wait until tomorrow before i watch it.

[Kraco]

are [sfw] good, or should i wait got [gg]? (they're planning to do this, right?)

SFW is decent enough. If you are going to wait, you might as well wait for a release with better video. I don't know what to think of gg anyway these days. Their Kobato was worse than Chihiro's first sub yet they seem to produce the old kind of quality at least when they are cooperating with some other group. So, does one dare to trust their subs?

That being said, I'll replace this SFW release with one of better video quality, at least, should one hopefully appear. Only time will tell the different subbers available.

[Archangel]

GG has dropped it, but apparently it will be done by one of their members belonging to coalguys

Shall we start the countdown for how long it will take before shinta's new vampire loli sig?

[Penner]

Aha, i think ill wait for a better video quality one then ^_^

[Ryllharu]

This was a different approach than I expected, but I loved it. They nailed the lame, cheesy, sensationalist, and ultimately utterly pointless debate atmosphere of those kinds of programs on Japanese television. They even got the panel members down. One pretty and vapid currently popular actress, one popular dreamboat actor, one non-scholarly quote unquote "expert", one obnoxious has-been celebrity, and one actual scholar.

Constant interruptions to mention the sponsors (many of them cleverly named to fans of the manga), stupid "on the street" interviews, and various other common things those shows have, including the enormous gimmicky contraption of a scale.

I thought the approach was cleverly done, and potentially fits quite nicely into the atmosphere of the series. I'd elaborate further, but I'd have to get into some details that the manga provides, and with any luck, we might see those later on.

[shinta|hikari]

I thought the style was absolutely brilliant, something I was expecting from Shaft. While I appreciate faithful adaptations, nothing beats encountering something positively new from something that one has already initially liked.

I agree with Ryllharu completely. The parody of Japanese TV talk shows really hit the mark, and also emphasized the context in which the events will play out. It at the very least showed how happily ignorant most of the populace in the show are, while also reflecting the mindsets and entertainment aesthetics of real people. I guess one has to have watched at least some of those stupid programs to appreciate this episode to the full extent.

[Pandadice]

^so y'alls posts made me forget about waiting, grab the ep and watch it.

and man i'm glad I watched it. this first ep was incredible. easily the best premiere I've seen this season. The way the tension built throughout the whole ep was fantastic. And though I really didn't like how it finally boiled over with the guy flipping out and grabbing his arm (i thought it was kinda a let down for the amount of tension they had built up), the ending with the chick knocking him off and her announcing the stuff about the bund was awesome.

all in all, an awesome ep adn i can't wait for the next one .

also, did anyone notice the animation error at the 4:00 mark?



notice how the girls screen is already pink saying "false"

while then at the 7:30 makr it is shown to be blue (what it still was until she changed it later)

[Buffalobiian]

In that case, I guess I didn't fully appreciate the parody of Japanese TV shows being done here, mainly because I was expecting exactly what I had seen from the preview, with the dark tones and all. This felt like a troll episode, and I hope they do a proper introduction next week.

All in all, I guess I feel a bit disappointed. That said, I did come to enjoy it more after I settled in a bit.

The vid quality was rather shocking.

[shinta|hikari]

I'm sure the next episode will be darker and more to your taste.

About the animation error... Well, it is Shaft.

[Yukimura]

I didn't really like the whole game show/exposition thing, at first I just didn't feel drawn in and after a few minutes I was becoming more and more interested in fast forwarding or finding something else to watch. By the time the more active stuff started happening I was already partially checked out of the episode and I didn't care as much as I might have otherwise about what was going on.

I got the feeling that if one had read the manga some of the side characters in the first ep would have been familiar and cultured a sense of nostalgia or something and maybe it would have helped make the episode more interesting. However, for me coming in blind about everything except for the blond girl being a vampire I'm not sure I would continue with this series after seeing just this ep if it was not for all the hype I've heard over it from manga readers and the inkling that the whole show is not going to be like this episode. I find it kind of troublesome that the main thing that will bring me back for the next episode of the show is derived almost completely from information filtered through spoilers about the manga and not from much of the actual premiere episode. If I ever recommend this show to anyone who shares my tastes I'll probably recommend they skip to around the 12 minute mark in episode 1 to try and reduce the negative impact.

[Ryllharu]

I'm willing to bet a lot of people coming into this series fresh feel the same way you did. I know I would have. Recognizing a number of the characters changes everything about this episode. This episode was largely fanservice to the manga readers or fans of SHAFT's referential and parody humor.

There are a lot of things given such short screentime in this episode that unless you were familiar with the characters, you would never have even caught. Notably, one of the shots of Mina during the panel show. There is no frame of reference for it unless you already know.

[Pandadice]

well, i haven't read the manga, and i know nothing of this beyond what was in the pv, and i really enjoyed the ep at least :\

[Penner]

Are any of the releases 720p quality?

[RyougaZell]

well, i haven't read the manga, and i know nothing of this beyond what was in the pv, and i really enjoyed the ep at least :\

I haven't read the manga either and I bloody loved the episode. It was complete win.

Although its me anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter.

[animus]

That was a brilliant ep. I read the manga and was skeptical when I read the first episode was in this format.

SHAFT do like to think outside the box for their adaptations. This one was a home run imo.

[masamuneehs]

i'm interested in picking up this show, but i just noticed that after days SFW only now released a v2. to me, that sends up all sorts of red flags about a group...

is there any other group doing this series? for a rather anticipated show, only this one group seems to be impossible...

[David75]

I'm also waiting for an alternative.
What is the V2? because if it's a better image and no after QC, then it could be fine.

Thanks

[Kraco]

I think it mentioned fixes for the subs, karaoke (and a font for the karaoke) and other such things. It's certainly not a better video. SFW's home page does suggest they might make a release with a better video later but who knows. Unofficial releases using their subs with some other raw are already out, so why haven't they already got their official out?