"You can't fake passion"
**Very minor spoilers**
Dance Dance Danseur is a ballet anime that absolutely exudes passion. From the voice acting, to the animation, to the choreography, It is an embodiment of passion. While DDD is an anime about ballet and that can seem off-putting to some people, I don't think it matters even in the slightest. If you have played a sport you are passionate about, you will absolutely recognize the moments that our main protagonist, Junpei lives through. There are these moments where Junpei is doing a dance and stars and fireworks start shooting out of his eyes and the background. These
...
moments are when Junpei is feeling his most passionate and you can absolutely feel it. It's bone chilling for someone who has felt the exact same way about him and it's one of the most cool experiences I've had watching an anime.
Unfortunately, this anime does have its fair share of problems. The romance moments are very questionable and almost feel sort of forced. A lot of the side characters are inconsistent and Luou, our other main protagonist, is honestly unbearable a lot of the time.
We'll get to that in a bit though.
Story: 7
The story is very simple and if you're expecting anything complex I wouldn't suggest this to you at all. The story is straightforward and is always moving forward. Rarely does it ever come to a stop and have an episode dedicated to being a slice of life or anything like that. Whether its training, performances or character relationships the show will always be moving forward in those aspects.
Characters: 7
This is probably the most questionable part of DDD. I personally liked Junpei as a protagonist because of how much I could relate to him when it came to his conflicts. However I could definitely see how Junpei could come off as annoying and a bit too hyped up. The main problem with this show in my opinion is Luou. Luou was insufferable. Luou is a quiet kid that keeps to himself a lot except when he talks to Junpei. He rarely ever speaks for long periods of time, not even internally but Luou easily becomes aggressive towards Junpei and launches insults at him. Besides that, Luou is an incredible ballet dancer. He dances full of power and energy but he himself has none of that. Luou has these incredible dance performances which I really enjoyed watching but outside of his performances, I really disliked him as a character because of how quiet and snappy he came off. I don't even think he's necessarily a bad character, because he gets his backstory for why he's a great dancer and a quiet kid. It's just for up until the point where we get his backstory, I found him to be a huge turnoff to this show. Miyako as a side character is fine, she seems to be very fond of Luou for what seems to be no reason but it is explained throughout the story. I actually found the side characters from the Oikawa school to be much more interesting than Luou and Miyako. Natsuki and Misaki both seemed very interesting to me, Natsuki even being featured in my favorite moment in the entire show along with Junpei. To sum up, the characters all have explanations for why they do things, so stick with them until the end even if they seem annoying as some did to me.
Art: 10
DDD has outstanding visuals. It has consistent fluid animation that seems to always be in motion. It's actually crazy how smooth the dances are in this show and it stays like that for all 11 episodes. The art style can be off-putting but I don't think it hindered the show at all. In fact, I think it helped the characters express themselves more. The long necks and arms seriously enable the characters to stretch and move in ways that really express themselves. I know next to nothing about ballet so I can't speak for how accurate the choreography is in all this, but for someone who knows nothing about it the dances all seemed super smooth and very nice as a viewer.
Sound: 10
Between the voice acting, music and sound effects, DDD seriously does it all. Junpei's voice acting brought his character to life. In the times Luou actually gets significant time to speak, Luou's voice actor also kills it. Props to Daiki Yamashita and Kouki Uchiyama as they did a fantastic job. Between the piano that plays for the performances and the music for the moments outside of that, DDD has a great OST and the sound director also nailed exactly when to use them. The most impressive part about the sound in DDD, is the sound effects. Each time a dancer does a jump and land you hear the landing and it's crisp. Earlier I talked about a moment where stars and fireworks start lighting up in Junpei's eyes and the background. The sound effects in these moments are seriously amazing. The crackling, and fireworks shooting off, encapsulate exactly what it feels like to experience that passion Junpei is feeling.
Enjoyment: 9
Outside some of the characters I found to be hard to deal with, this was one of the best experiences I've had watching anime. The pure amount of passion that went into this can be seen. I would seriously recommend this to anyone who has been super passionate about something because I consider this more of a passion anime than a sports anime. As someone who was also very passionate about a sport just like Junpei, I found this anime to be super relatable and it was awesome to watch. Lastly, I know I've said this a couple of times now but the moments where Junpei has this sparkle in his eyes, it spreads across the screen from just his eyes and it slowly turns from stars to fireworks shooting everywhere. Every time that happened, I got goosebumps down to my bones because of how much I could relate that happening to me when I played sports. DDD seriously encapsulates passion and just runs with it all the way and I enjoyed it a ton.
Overall: 8
DDD was a unique experience for myself and I believe for other people who have had passion for the things they love to do it would be a fantastic watch for you as well. If you can suffer through a bit of annoying characters, I think this is a super unique experience that contains some of the best animation and sound direction I've seen in the medium.
This was my first review and if you have any criticisms I encourage you to leave a comment on my page. I plan on writing more and I'd love to know how to make reviews better.
Jun 17, 2022
Dance Dance Danseur
(Anime)
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"You can't fake passion"
**Very minor spoilers** Dance Dance Danseur is a ballet anime that absolutely exudes passion. From the voice acting, to the animation, to the choreography, It is an embodiment of passion. While DDD is an anime about ballet and that can seem off-putting to some people, I don't think it matters even in the slightest. If you have played a sport you are passionate about, you will absolutely recognize the moments that our main protagonist, Junpei lives through. There are these moments where Junpei is doing a dance and stars and fireworks start shooting out of his eyes and the background. These ... |
