Dance Dance Danseur

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I started reading this series to fill the gaping void in my heart left by “Ballroom e Youkoso”’s indefinite hiatus, and that might be the problem.

This series isn’t bad, it’s actually quite good. Asakura is an experienced manga artist and so visually I have no complaints. But I feel like I’m less tolerant of its faults because I kept comparing it to Ballroom e Youkoso.

The protagonist is, in my opinion, just not a very likable character. While Asakura seems to be going for a commentary on how masculine men can do ballet too!! it never quite hits the mark for me. ... In an early scene, you have an adult man telling the protagonist (a young boy at the time, not even a teenager) that since his dad is gone, he’ll have to protect and take care of the family now. NEVER MIND THAT HE HAS NOT ONLY HIS MOM BUT HIS OLDER SISTER. There is no critique of this scene, and fast forward to the protagonist as an aggressively rude MASCULINE type. He only joins ballet (after cutting ties as a young boy in order to be “masculine” ) because he saw the main girl’s underwear when she did a ballet jump in front of him in her school uniform. Like, that’s literally the reason why he goes, regardless of how he’s entranced by the dance itself when he gets to the studio. He still followed her there in the first place because of a shot at her underwear. For the rest of the volume, he basically gets free lessons from her mother, yet refuses to stop calling her “babaa” (extremely rude way of addressing an old lady), and is generally an unhelpful asshole the whole time.

Even though I’ve said all this, it’s still volume one so there is room for improvement. Although potential is not a promise, so I am wary of investing any further in this series. But what REALLY gets me is just that the whole time I was reading, I kept thinking “Tatara wouldn’t do this.”

Anyways, through this experience, I have gained even more respect and love than I knew was possible for Ballroom e Youkoso and the author Takeuchi Tomo. I’ll keep thinking over whether to continue reading this one.

Dance Dance Danseur which I will be referring to as (DDD) is a manga which follows Junpei and his Ballet Dancing journey. I will be adding three parts to this review - The good, the bad, and the ugly. First off Junpei is a character that takes time to start liking, he is a protagonist that at first sounds extremely bratty and annoying, however there is a reason behind it. Second of all the other Ruou and Miyako, become extremely dislikeable at the point where I start to wish they would just be removed from the manga in general. Lastly, this manga is in my ... opinion lowkey addicting due to the drama, this lead me to read the raws, which I usually don't do for mangas that are not completed.

The good : The drama in this manga hooks you hard, it makes you want to read the next chapter even if the characters are pissing you off. I believe if the author made some of the side characters even just a little more likeable, this would not have as a low rating as people give it and if they had made Junpei more likeable from the start. Next, the art for this manga is what made me remotely want to continue if some of the scenes were plain bland or extremely annoying ahem (Ruou). The art in this is absolutely fabulous, even through my current chapter the art has not changed, Asakura did an amazing job with the art. Another thing I absolutely loved about this anime was how Junpeis hair style changes as the story progresses, and his growth as a person as well.

The bad: To start, this manga had sky high potential, but as much I loved the Drama, at times it became extremely repetitive and at certain points became underwhelming and annoying. As much as I liked Junpei, he could never let go off his past, which you can see even in the current chapters, and off course you have the other two "main characters", which in my opinion you can't even consider Miyako as a main character. These two character as much as they maybe important, are extremely annoying for no reason whatsoever. Lastly, in my opinion the worst part of this manga is the romance. I will get in depth with it in the ugly.




The ugly: WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS








SPOILERS BELOW READ AT YOUR RISK-

The romance in this oh boy... In my opinion it's a train wreck as a big romance anime/ manga fan the way the romance was set up was absolutely repulsive and revolting. So Junpei ends up with his first girlfriend for a solid couple of chapters, after they kiss; his adversary gets jealous. His adversary then gets really jealous and keep in mind his first girlfriend and adversary are cousins they may not be blood-related however they are still cousins. This eventually turns into a love triangle between the three, in which the first girlfriend eventually picks the cousin.

Then after a while he gets another girlfriend, this would make it girlfriend number 2, and eventually they just drift away, not unusual.

But the MC still has lingering feels for old girlfriend one, which gets really annoying, but eventually he starts focusing all ballet more.

Then girlfriend 3 comes in, his long time rival since the start of the manga, she catches feeling for him and gives him a task saying if he still loves her after his trip abroad she will go out with him.

girl - friend 2B he meets this extremely beautiful girl in the abroad trip they become partners and become really close, eventually it is implied that girlfriend 2B in fact falls in love with Junpei, however he keeps his promise with girlfriend 3 and stays in love with her.




Conclusion: This manga shows the growth of Junpei, from personal tragedy at a young age, heart break, and then lows and highs of success. Some of the side characters also have interesting back stories of their own. As much as I criticize this manga, it also has its strong points as well. If you are a fan of Ballroom e youkoso, or love competitions / tournaments this manga is for you. However, if you are looking for a romance anime without any turmoil, you should have second thoughts before dwelling in. Overall I gave this Manga a 7/10. Hope this helps

After watching 8 episodes of the anime, I knew I would enjoy this manga, but never would I imagine for it to be on my mind every single hour for the past few days after i caught up to the latest chapter.

This 10 is just a personal rating, as has hit me in a way that I've never felt before after reading so many romance manga, never would I expect a ballet manga to bring me to the heights of "shipping" and wanting the manga to prosper.

The last time I had this feeling was during the peak of Domestic Girlfriend, the way an author is ... able to build up a relationship to get me so invested in wanting to see more.

Bringing in Domestic Girlfriend also puts things into perspective that this 10 may not last as a distasteful direction of the manga could very well ruined the whole piece.

But regardless of the future, as of Chapter 205, the adventure and drama and youth that I've felt is second to none other manga I've read in the recent days.

If you are someone who likes the idea that the first love of the MC is not his final choice (Nisekoi-ish) rather he went the direction of someone whom he build up chemistry and healthily support each other, this is the manga for you.

Regarding the other characters other than the main CP, as much as the author usually portray their darker ways of thinking, in a way all of them always cares about each other, similar to Sasuke-Naruto-Sakura chemistry. There are still some unclear direction as to how the author will lead the audience back to the OG main characters since it has pretty much been focusing on "Naruto". How the author go with "Sasuke" and "Sakura" may make or break the series as well.

But so far, the "Naruto-Hinata" part has been done really well.