Dance Dance Danseur

Junpei Murao's love affair with ballet began at a young age during his sister's ballet recital, when a male ballet dancer roused his interest with a gripping performance. But for Junpei, nothing could be worse than his peers finding out about his secret passion for ballet and perceiving him as effeminate. That is why he is in the soccer club, trains Jeet Kune Do, and is intent on following in his father's footsteps of becoming a stunt coordinator: all very "manly" activities.

When Junpei's classmate Miyako Godai spots him demonstrating an impressive kick that combines skills from ballet and Jeet Kune Do to his friends, she suddenly recruits him to join her mother's ballet studio. He resists at first, and although he has abandoned his dreams of formally pursuing ballet, nothing quite captures the euphoria that ballet elicits. After suppressing his desire to pursue ballet for so long, it is not so easy to shake off his hesitation and break free of the shackles of masculinity. Junpei has to be willing to make certain sacrifices and fully commit to ballet, all while risking losing some friends.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Murao, Junpei Main

Yamashita, Daiki Japanese

Mori, Ruou Main

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Godai, Miyako Main

Hondo, Kaede Japanese

Oikawa, Natsuki Supporting

Fukuen, Misato Japanese

Godai, Chizuru Supporting

Asano, Mayumi Japanese

Murao, Nanako Supporting

Aoyama, Yoshino Japanese

Nakamura Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Murao, Ippeita Supporting

Fujimoto, Takahiro Japanese

Mioka Supporting

Kazuki, Hiroto Japanese

Sagura, Hyouta Supporting

Kaiden, Michiko Japanese

Kamei, Hiroshi Producer

Ogawa, Takahiro Producer

Okada, Akihiko Producer

Hiraki, Ryouko Assistant Producer

Reviews

Dec 10, 2024

superwolfkin

Recommended

The animation is great. It's just beautiful to look at. I can't imagine how difficult it is to draw ballet that looks so engrossing but they do it. MAPPA did great working making an absolutely gorgeous anime from start to finish. DDD also has a very strong pilot episode. Where as for an anime this length I'd normally give it 2 episodes to get you sucked in. I was instead sucked in like I was 5 episodes deep at the end of the first.

The storyline is strong and emotional and compelling. The characters are interesting. I'm not a fan of the character design. Specifically ... the eye design because it makes it look like the characters are crying which ordinarily wouldn't be a problem but this is a pretty emotional series and the viewer might tear up at any moment much less the characters.

Like many shows about school aged children they often neglect one or more aspects of life. Some might call this unrealistic. I consider it creative license. A show about ballet focuses on the characters dancing ballet. Whoda thunk it. There are also aspects specific to Japanese culture that might feel unusual to those new to anime. But nothing so while or frequent or frustrating that it breaks verisimilitude. You get sucked in and you'll be sucked in till the very last episode.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Apr 4, 2025

5iv3_

Mixed Feelings

Overall, Dance Dance Danseur is great...until the end. It had wonderful themes, the animation was gorgeous, and overall was really really well done, but the ending felt kinda of like a pity party to me. There were complex relationships and plot setups that felt discarded all for the sake of one character and just doesn't sit right with me.

The story itself was beautifully done, and as an ex-ballet dancer myself felt it really conveyed ballet in its truest form in a way that's easy to digest for the audience. It also showcased the harsher sides to the sport and the extremes it harbors which ... added a great duality to the story. So overall, in this aspect it was great.

Animation was lovely, but i'm not surprised. But for this series to have great animation I feel was essential and it delivered in that aspect. To showcase the beauty of ballet and it achieved that so that's another aspect that was great.

All my issues and gripes with this show basically just come from episodes 10 & 11. It feels like they just threw away a relationship for the sake of the other main character and just went with it. It didn't really feel well developed and was just a complete letdown from what I was wanting and wishing for from the ending. Though I still give the show a solid 8, because I cant discard how amazing the rest of the show is.

In summary, the ending sucks but the rest of this show is wonderful and can't be completely dragged down because of a lackluster ending.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Oct 30, 2023

just8lank

Not Recommended

Spoiler

Predictable, mess up romance, following horrible shounen trends. Genre is okay, but why they alway have trash romance set up, create main female lead, seduce male lead, then pair her with some side character. Its alway first impression, if you want to make her a main character, put her in first episode, give her all the screen time, give the big influence on the main male lead, dont sway people with crap like that, i swear, i already saw 3-4 anime/mange with the same setup, the romance alway mess up what supposed to be good anime, its alway the male lead has admiration toward ... the female lead, bla bla bla. If you want to mess up romance part, dont put it the story in the first place. Its really ruin the experience for some of the people who watch it, you give they hope they backstabbing them later on. Event the main cover of the anime/manga also give wrong impression, its like you scamming the people to watch it only to backstabbing them later on. This is my honest opinion, whether you accept it or not, i dont care.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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	is Dance Dance Danseur ok for kids Haikyuu_ForLife - Jan 24, 2023	4 replies	by stefanoiulli1999 »» Apr 9, 3:23 PM
	Poll: Dance Dance Danseur Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Jun 17, 2022	95 replies	by DazeFire »» Mar 9, 12:33 PM
	Poll: Dance Dance Danseur Episode 6 Discussion KANLen09 - May 13, 2022	31 replies	by luquinha5 »» Jan 15, 7:57 AM
	Poll: Dance Dance Danseur Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Apr 22, 2022	59 replies	by Puri20thboy »» Dec 15, 2024 7:13 AM
	Poll: Dance Dance Danseur Episode 9 Discussion KANLen09 - Jun 3, 2022	45 replies	by LeenPhoenixRae »» Feb 1, 2024 11:43 PM