Diabolik Lovers

It's not bad but it's not good. To start of she doesn't get raped. It's just that thes vampire boyz just bite her ne k without her consent and harshly. She is being harassed and sexually harassed and verbally abused. She is like lifeless doll who should have left after the first day. She developed Stockholm syndrome. The character that annoys me the most is laito.

In short: Do not waste your time on this unless you are into boring rape fantasies and being bitten and abused on a daily basis.

At first, I thought this looked interesting. The beginning of the first episode when the female protagonist arrives at the house hooked me on and kept me hoping for more of the same... At least for three episode which was when I decided to drop the series.

The story is built on a Japanese dating sim for girls with the same name as the series. A girl arrives at an old mystical house to live there after her father has to move because of his job. Inside the house she quickly discovers that the habitants, 7 brothers, are vampires and that she is meant to be their bridal slave. From here on she gets scolded on heir manners at the same time that she is sexually assaulted, bitten and threaten with rape and death constantly, without ever fighting back at all and actually seeming to like it, or at least accept it a bit.

Basically, this is a female rape fantasy for female Twilight fans. And yes, it's as sick as it sounds. And quite annoying and boring at the same time. Several of the vampire characters annoys me greatly but most of all, the little whimsy spineless fragile girl protagonist is extremely annoying and adheres to the most man-chauvinist ideas of the past centuries and the fact that this is made for girls just makes it even more pathetic. Not to mention that the entire genre of kitty-punk Gothic vampires and dresses is just sad and removes everything great about vampires and, for me, put this in the same category as Twilight even though the vampires doesn't shine like diamonds here at least (but that's properly the best thing about this series).

I understand the need for fiction to outlive taboos and perverted fantasies that we can't, or wouldn't really like to, live out in real life. And up to a certain point, Japanese manga and anime should be applauded for being more liberal and dealing in a safe and unharmful way with such fantasies and pervasion's. But this is just sad. And boring. And especially the fragile girl aspect, as well as the unfolding of social and physically abuse as socially acceptable is both annoying and plain wrong, also in fiction. Already it is hinted that she can find a deeper more satisfying relationship with her would-be rapists and murderers. This slave-mentality (reference to Nietzsche) of accepting abuse is actually a personality trait that can develop in real life with people being routinely abused by the same people that they have the closest relationship with, like incest or a abusive boyfriend, thereby distorting their view of what to expect from a normal relationship. And the way it so unproblematic builds this in together with the male-chauvinism really is what makes this sick and for me, this is basically an example of some problematic aspects of Japanese culture.

Again: Do not waste your time on this unless you are in to boring rape fantasies and being bitten and abused on a daily basis. And if that's the case, maybe you should think about getting help.

Let me tell you, as someone who was once a die-hard fan of this show, I look back on this and I just want to scream. Yes, it all makes more sense when you've played the game and all that, and based on what I've read the game is way better. But I'm not reviewing the game here. I'm reviewing the anime.

I would just like to say that I adore the music and the art. And the voice acting was incredible--especially in the subbed! The dubbed was okay, but in all honesty the voices don't really fit the characters (mainly Kanato and Laito). If you really wanna watch this, I recommend subbed. Kudos to all the voice actors, artists, and musicians that worked on this! Aaaaand that's about it for my praises.

Oh, dear...where do I even begin with how unhealthy this is? It basically takes the whole concept of "No means no" and pours it down the drain, which is a mentality that countless people have fought against for so many years only to have it be essentially PROMOTED in a show aimed at horny teenage girls!

Many people criticize Yui for being such a weakling, but I would like you to think of it this way: she's nice, she wouldn't swat a fly, and these boys will LITERALLY RAPE HER TO DEATH AND/OR SUCK OUT ALL HER BLOOD IF SHE TRIES TO LEAVE OR FIGHT AGAINST THEM. I honestly think that Yui is extremely strong for keeping up with them for so long. Which is sad because that just tells you how horrible the boys are. (Except Subaru. He's okay). And throughout the show, all this abuse and mental torture is subtly portrayed as sexy and desirable.

The story's okay. It makes more sense in the game, but we're not reviewing the game. And to be 100% honest, there is a fair amount of characterization in the Sakamaki brothers that makes sense once you know their backgrounds, something that's way more fleshed out in the game. But what are we not reviewing? The game!

"So why not just play the game and review that instead, Rory?" you're probably wondering. Oh, I don't know why! I honestly don't know why. It's almost as if I, just one among many many people, don't have the console required to play it, on top of not knowing Japanese which is not a language you learn in a day. I really don't know why. It's such a shame, people actually having to properly flesh out characters and story lines rather than rely on the source material that not everyone has access to. Such a pity...

If you really want to watch this show, then go ahead. I can't stop you. But be warned: there's many a disturbing scene. If you find yourself utterly disgusted or on the opposite end, turned on, I encourage you in either scenario to close the episode and take a nice walk outside after having set fire to your eyeballs for a few minutes.

The storyline is pretty messed up and hard to understand, unless you've played the game. The game is a lot better than the anime, so if you're interested in Diabolik Lovers, do yourself a favour and play the game instead of watching the anime. The only good parts were the extraordinary animation, voice acting and the music. The rest isn't that exciting.

Diabolik Lovers is one of the worst anime out there due to its' abysmal writing. On the plus side, the animation is incredibly good for something like this. Also, the voice actors really seem to enjoy voicing these guys! As a result, I give it a bonus 2 points. But, it can't make it completely awesome, as the writing and the characters matters. The characters are always feeding on the girl's blood, and that's incredibly gross. Also, the writing seems to be a sadistic twisted version of Twilight. I like it and I loathe it as a result.