“Look. Look. Look at me!”
There are times when we want others to notice us. To praise us. Accept us. We’re real people and we crave interactions. But sometimes we’re unable to understand one another. We fight and argue, kiss and make up, then return to war again. Relationships are complicated. Maybe even delicate. In this sports drama, relationships are a focal point, but not the entire point. While what’s on the surface may be a show about dancing. Underneath, there’s much more.
The story centers around a middle school boy named Tatara. He’s shy, timid and doesn’t really stand out. When his teacher asks him for
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his career plans, he can’t answer. Because he has none. No dreams, no aspirations, nothing. So it surprises him when he overhears another student, Shizuku, in the same situation, and thinks she can relate.
On his way home after school, Tatara coincidentally sees Shizuku and follows her to a building called the Ogasawara Dance Studio. He comes across a tall, blonde man as well. His name’s Sengoku. He’s a professional ballroom dancer and an owner of this studio, which just opened. Short on students, and possibly cash, Sengoku drags Tatara through the door where he forces a free trial of ballroom dancing lessons on him.
Inside, Tatara pairs up with Shizuku to learn because this artistic sport requires a couple, usually of opposite genders. The man is the leader. The woman is the partner. A better way to describe this partnership would be like a framed flower painting. The man is the frame and the woman is the flower. “The frame shall enhance the beauty of the flower and should never let it wilt.”
When the trial is over, Tatara observes Shizuku practicing by herself. Her movements are graceful and enchanting. She’s no amateur. She’s a competitive dancer with hopes of going pro. And Tatara’s shocked to discover that, unlike him, she’s the opposite. She has dreams and aspirations. A future. Tatara storms off, feeling embarrassed for thinking they were alike.
At home, a dejected Tatara finds a DVD tucked inside his school bag. It’s a copy of one of Sengoku’s old ballroom competitions. Curious, he watches it in a dark and cold room. As the TV flashes on, a wave of warmth light washes away the frozen shadows behind Tatara. It dazzles him. He sees Sengoku dance. He hears his thoughts, and he feels his emotions. But more than that, he’s welcomed to the magical realm of competitive ballroom dance. It speaks to him. It hooks him. And so Tatara, who has nothing, resolves to change.
The story goes on to track Tatara and his struggles to learn ballroom dancing. His goal? To change from nothing to something. To become a pro ballroom dancer like Sengoku. And to stand on the same floor as the other dancers he meets.
There’s Shizuku, of course. There’s also her partner, Hyoudou, a dance genius with a cold and icy personality. A brother and sister couple: Gaju, an athletic freak that behaves like a dog, and Mako, a gentle girl who appears to love her brother too much. And finally, there’s Chinatsu, a bold and fierce female dancer who’ll become Tatara’s equal.
Although these characters are interesting and do undergo some development, the focus will become mostly fixated on Tatara. It’s especially visible in the second half of the series, where the other main characters are relegated to commentators – albeit to still keep them involved while we see and understand certain intricacies of ballroom dancing through their eyes.
A particular thing that does stand out is the drama among each partner couple. To clarify, each leader and partner dance pair squabble like husband and wife. Because beneath this layer of endless fighting lies a theme about marriage and separation. At one point, Sengoku even compares dance partners to married couples. Likewise, Tatara’s family doesn’t appear much throughout the series. There’s his father and his grandma, but no mother present. Later, it’s revealed that his parents divorced, and the one memory he has of his mother is her cold departure out the door.
Another theme that’s more apparent is transformation. Several of the characters experience a range of change, but Tatara’s the most obvious. He develops physically and spiritually. There are even visual cues that help illustrate the development, such as flowers and doors. Flowers help demonstrate the dancer “blossoming” on the floor. Doors show the character locking away his real feelings; when unlocked, the character opens up and shows his true self.
Now, if there was a weakness in this anime, it might be pacing and animation. Some parts seem slow, other parts feel fast. For instance, most of the dance sequences during the competitions are breezed by with still frame shots until the last round, where only a few glimpses of a routine can be seen animated. Even then, there are things added to the dance scenes that disrupt the flow and momentum of the performance, such as too many flashbacks and too much commentary by other characters.
Additionally, the show is dominated by dancing one thing after the next – practice, competition, practice, competition. Often times, it looked like there wasn’t much room to breathe. It needed a break amidst all the dancing. Maybe further interaction between Tatara and his classmates at school, or his family at home. Anything. Because, other than that, the setting takes place almost entirely inside dance studios and stadiums in Japan.
Sound may be one of the anime’s strengths. The voice actors really do a fine job embodying their roles and adding life to their characters. For example, Tatara sounds like a nervous child at the start, but grows to sound more like a confident adult by the end. Even some of the minor and supporting characters exhibit a nice vocal color. Plus, the music compliments the dance scenes elegantly and powerfully. It’s composed and arranged by Yuki Hayashi, who’s also worked on the original soundtrack for Haikyuu!! and Boku no Hero Academia. If the music does one thing adequately, it’d be synchronizing with the dancing in a way that builds and intensifies the emotions.
All in all, the show does a fair job presenting ballroom dancing to a new audience. But “Ballroom e Youkoso” is not just a story about dancing, but about self-discovery. It’s about finding a passion and a purpose. About taking the first step to changing and transforming. About finding inner happiness and loving oneself. Perhaps, it can be best expressed by the words Tatara himself repeats at the beginning and references in the end:
“If there was just one thing. Something that I could say I loved. I feel like I could change.”
Jan 3, 2018
Ballroom e Youkoso
(Anime)
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“Look. Look. Look at me!”
There are times when we want others to notice us. To praise us. Accept us. We’re real people and we crave interactions. But sometimes we’re unable to understand one another. We fight and argue, kiss and make up, then return to war again. Relationships are complicated. Maybe even delicate. In this sports drama, relationships are a focal point, but not the entire point. While what’s on the surface may be a show about dancing. Underneath, there’s much more. The story centers around a middle school boy named Tatara. He’s shy, timid and doesn’t really stand out. When his teacher asks him for ... |
