Tuesday 23 March 2010

Dance in the Vampire Bund - Episode 10

Episode ten of Dance in the Vampire Bund begins with a nightmare for Akira - Always a pretty bad sign of forthcoming peril in any visual medium, and of course things are no different here.

However, away from Akira's subconscious things actually seem pretty quiet in the Bund, to the point where Mina Tepes even has some free time to spare to relax, enjoy herself and spend a little attention on Akira... or at least she would if he didn't have other plans.


Thus, while part of this episode turns into Dance in the Vampire Bund's swimming pool episode, so Akira meets up with Mei Ren, who when she isn't flirting blatantly with him also gives him some cryptic advice of the dangers headed his way. These dangers certainly seem to turn up sooner than you might expect after this warning, as Mina is visited by the Three Clans - A trio of individuals who may be the closest she has to family, but their arrival is far from welcome. The reason for this soon becomes clear enough, while also shedding a not inconsiderable amount of light on Mina's real role and power within the vampire hierarchy, and it's her expected role in particular which is about to cause a massive amount of trouble for poor old Akira.

Once again, this episode of Dance in the Vampire Bundmanaged to do everything that was required of it, but never to the point of bringing me to the edge of my seat. While the revelations about Mina and the expectations of her from her "relatives" where a genuine surprise, the rest of the episode really just ticked along with a certain inevitability, being knowingly cryptic without being clever and delivering action sequences that never quite feel as though they really mean business. SHAFT's visual touches are certainly becoming more welcome within this series by the episode (even above and beyond the fan service moments) to add a certain something to this particular concoction, but as an overall story it's still struggling to really grab me beyond the odd moment of fleeting interest here and there.

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