May 22 2010 12:38 AM Finally finished the series and I will say way to disappoint SHAFT and Shinbou. This was probably the worst series they've done since Negima?! in 2006. The anime began to follow the manga much closer as the series progressed, but skipped various parts along the way in order to "catch up" to the manga at the end of the series, which was definitely not the best move, especially given the anticlimatic cliffhanger ending. In addition, judging by how they ended the series, they're going to simply let that cliffhanger sit and not do anything about it. I'm starting to wonder though as to this may be why SHAFT sold off Dance in the Vampire Bund to Funimation and not any of their other works
Regardless, I expect the blu-rays to do a numerous amount of touch-ups and revisions, but I'm definitely not expecting the series to look pretty. For a SHAFT work, this was pretty sub-par given their more recent titles including ef, Bakemonogatari, and Hidamari Sketch.
The music wasn't anything exceptional in the end. Didn't really like either OP or ED themes, nor did they stick to me very well.
Overall the series had its high and low points as with most others, but in the wrong places and wrong times. The climax of the show was really in the middle when Akira fights with Mina, and that was literally the only exciting and well animated episode in the series. Everything else before and after was garbage, and this is coming from a manga reader. I didn't really look forward to the show each week, and hence (partially) why I ended up putting it off to finish it now. No higher than a
6 or 7/10 for this series.
As much as I would like to see a second season, I can't see SHAFT doing one, and even if they did, I definitely don't see much expectation or interest coming from the audience this time around.
