At the behest of her father, Yui Komori goes to live in a secluded mansion, home to the six Sakamaki brothers—Shuu, Reiji, Ayato, Kanato, Laito, and Subaru—a family of vampires. Though at first the siblings are confused as to why the girl has arrived, they soon realize that she is to be their new "sacrificial bride," not to mention their other, more carnal intentions for her. After meeting the brothers, Yui quickly begins to question why her father would have sent her here and why she feels a strange, new pain in her chest. With each brother more sadistic than the last, Yui's life as a captive takes a harrowing turn in her new home. As her days turn into endless nights, and each brother vows to make her his own, Yui falls deeper and deeper into madness and ecstasy.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Stark700
This series....or rather this abomination is what I would call a trainwreck that never had itself on rail. Visual novels aren’t easy to adapt. In fact, recent years has shown that many anime series never lives up to its original material that result in disappointed fans. However, there are also some VN adaptations that are so horrid, so atrocious, so dreadful, so disastrous, so unappealing that it can be in a category of its own. Diabolik Lovers belongs to the category for failure with all its rights. This show is something of a tragedy - an anime adaptation that is almost an insult to thebrain to watch.
Diabolik Lovers is an anime series adapted from the visual novel of the same name. Zexcs handles its production and from one of their more recent notorious series known as Aku no Hana (Flowers of Evil), it’s their chance to step up to the plate again. But only this time, we deal not with a gym clothes but instead with vampires.
The series begins with a young girl named Yui Komori who we know almost nothing about. Well, on the surface, we know that she seems to be a normal girl with a sweet personality. However, I would describe Yui as an empty doll. Why? Well it’s because she is constantly being played by the guys of this show. She takes the role of a toy and the boys just loves to have their play time. Of course, the guys that plays with her aren’t exactly normal. No in fact, they are vampires. They view Yui as a meal nearly every time their eyes are set on her. She is their happy meal and they’re loving it.
Yui also gets treated by the vampire boys as almost a dog on a leash. In essence, she becomes exactly what a frail girl is - helpless, pathetic, and unresisting. On various occasions, she tries to get out of her situation typically involving rape-like scenarios but finds it ever so difficult to do so. It’s a story gone wrong with Yui being the heroine. No matter how girlish she is, there’s no limit on her stupidity and how she deals with her new lifestyle. Whether it’s at home or at school, she submits to her tormentors without ever trying to escape. To make matters worse, she even compliments on the guys in hopes of getting a break. The result though? Vampire rape, hickeys, and blood scars.
As an anime series aimed at a female audience, I suppose the guys have some appealing features. Most of them are designed to look aristocrats and behaves as such. In their minds, they are the masters of the mansion and Yui is their dog. The only difference is that instead of the guys feeding them, it’s the other way around. Most of them have contrasting personalities ranging from Shu’s laziness, Reiji’s demanding attitude, Ayato’s aggressiveness, Kanato’s unstable mind, and Raito’s sadism. Regardless their differences though, they all want one thing: Yui’s blood.
The construction of the story is absolutely ridiculous. There is almost no plot development or characterization; there is never in fact any character development since all of them sees Yui as food with their vampiric eyes. Most of the early episodes focuses on the guys whom each gets his chance to spend some time with Yui. These usually end up with Yui losing blood and crying herself to tears. Are we supposed to feel sorry for the girl? Perhaps but with what she’s doing, there’s a complete sense of hopelessness for her. Each of the guys also seems to have some sort of history as demonstrated by occasional flashback scenes played throughout the series. Unfortunately, it’s never really fully explored so it’s up to viewers to guess in their heads. The story itself also assumed contain a form of romance but usually comes out in an atrocious way that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Artwork wise, there’s nothing really special with the way the characters are designed besides their outfits. Their eyes reflects those of a vampires so some of them are noticeable. The mansion the characters live in has some artistic value with an English-like architectural design. Unfortunately, the atmosphere of the series obliterates any sense of artistic value since it twists around the idea of sexual abuse.
The soundtrack is mediocre at best with an eerie like background. The way the show handles itself hardly comes as any special in terms of OST because most of the time, you’ll be listening Yui fighting for her life and screaming her lungs out. The screams she lets out is a cry for help but no one ever comes. I do give some credit to the ED song though as it creates a sense of darkness. Additionally, the show’s sadistic voice tones of Ayato and Raito gets the job done in that field.
Diabolik Lovers is the perfect example of how to not adapt a shoujo anime series based off a game. The shows’ sadism and vampire rape tones is almost an insult to viewers itself. Yui is one of those characters that is unbearable to watch. At various times, I found myself siding with the vampires since they at least have a control of their characters’ degree. Oh and the humor? It’s blend as dry paint. It tries to add some humor to its dialogues but this comes out as awkward and senseless. Thank goodness each episode is less than the typical 24 minutes or I would of screamed my lungs out for it to be over. Ultimately, I did stick around the show to see how it developed or ended. Unfortunately, it proves once again just how much of an abomination it really is.
MoeAllNighters
I never intended to ever write any reviews, but i just couldn't stop myself from giving a heads-up to people who are intending to watch this shitty anime. This anime is basically a waste of everybody's time, it's so bad that ill probably get more enjoyment in watching Dora the explorer....... Story-1/10: Story follows a highschool girl who unknowingly walks into a "Rape Mansion," that inhabits psycho fucks that takes extreme pleasure in assaulting the girl and making her feel like shit. I would rather watch Twilight for a better vampire story. First few eps just shows the girl getting played by each one of the brothers,great fucking character introduction...... I couldn't even find a plot, as all it was is just fucking douchebag vampires assaulting the helpless girl for her blood, in and out of the mansion.
Which group of viewers is this anime targeted for? I have no fucking idea. This fucking reverse harem shit just makes guys like me to want to punch a fucking hole in my screen. I don't think girls would find joy in watching other girls getting assaulted, named-called, attacked by douchebags in every fucking minute of the anime either. I'm surprised feminists haven't shoved the creators of this anime in a deep pile of gender equality shit yet.
Finally after about 3 quarters of this anime, you can finally see some plot (Not as it anybody in their right mind would care about the plot anyways). Maybe the creators finally realized the shit they were making, and decided to create some character development that makes you feel more sympathetic to the vampire pieces of shits. Ha, as if. I want these fuckers to die a slow and agonizing death the sooner, the better.
Since i don't want to waste anymore time of my life on this piece of shit. Ill only explain one of the shitbrained brothers. Lets just call him crap, since there is no reason for me to even remember their names. If you ever watch this show, you will remember the little shit with the dolls. Apparently crap has a whole fucking dungeon of these dolls, wtf does he do with them? My best guess is that he probably practices his raping skills on these dolls, cause that is just how fucking sadistic he is.
His fucking teddy bear, that fucking teddy just fucking puts five nights at freddys down the fucking drain. The little shit takes this fucking teddy everywhere to rape innocent women, or spirits of some sort(Couldn't give any shits to find out wtf he was actually doing) Imagine the resolve the fucking teddy has..... To watch his fucking owner fuck everything up without even saying a word. That is a true mastermind, the secret boss of bosses.
The ending cannot even be explained, its not even a ending. The creators were probably just fucking tired with this shit, and to atone for the deaths of their co-workers during the creation of this anime. They made sure that the ending was extra shit.
Art-4/10
Art was ok for the first few minutes, before the fucking vampire douchebags came. Everything became unbearable after that.
Sound-2/10
The voice of the fucktards made me want to puke. +1 just out of sympathy of the female voice actor for having to work with this shit.
Character-1/10
Character? Could care less about the character development from being too traumatized by how shit they were.
Enjoyment-1/10
Could give negative if i had the choice.
Overall-1/10
Need I elaborate?
Plz, don't waste ur time on this crap.
WitchyCat
In the beginning it seems to be a lot of fluff, though as you progress through the show the plot reveals itself. The only thing wrong is that the flashbacks need to be explained more, and there are many holes and unless you read it up on the wiki or have played the original game, you'll be left with questions. The plot itself was originally well written and pretty deep, though somehow when made into the actual anime it came out confusing and somewhat hard to follow, especially when the episodes are only 15 minutes long at most, and it is a full plot inneed of full episodes. Some episodes felt rushed, though the ending was extremely satisfying and surprisingly touching considering in the beginning parts of the anime you'd think the anime is shallow, though it proves itself wrong.
The art itself was beautiful. The characters are my favorite part. They are well rounded, and best of all, realistic. Realism might be the main part that turns others away. The vampires act exactly what you would expect a vampire to act like, sadistic and hungry. Most people come here expecting a knight in shining armor twilight copy and are disappointed. They're vampires, and act like so, not as a fairy tale. Though this is a turn off for people who are expecting fairy tale men. Unlike others I actually liked the female lead. Like others she is also realistic, not some perfect brave strong hero out to save the world. Just an ordinary but still special girl. I don't see that many vampire series out there, so I definitely won't forget this one soon.
inuzuka-k
If you are considering watching "Diabolik Lovers" and you're sensitive to rape, dubious content etc., then do NOT press "play". The story is overall ridiculous; there are so many plotholes it hurts, the resolution is utterly stupid, and almost nothing gets explained. The main female character, Yui, is treated in such an awful way it's actually painful to think about it. She gets molested and told that she's worthless basically every time any of the vampire brothers talks to her. Even more so, not only Yui does absolutely nothing to stand up for herself (which could be explained by saying she didn't want toget killed, fair enough), she starts CARING for the psychopatic brothers. Obviously though, she's not the worst character in this anime, oh no. It's the vampires who basically abuse Yui throughout these 12 episodes who bother me the most. I get the idea of picturing vampires as they are: cold, heartless, not caring about anything and treating humans as food, but it's so sexualized and romanticized that it completely misses the point! Even though they were supposed to be hot and mysterious, something went horribly wrong, because they came out just horny and gross.
The opening wasn't anything special, I'll just mention it included scenes of Yui getting bitten by everyone (what a shocker). I suppose the judgement of the song should be left to the viewers because it's mostly the matter of one's music taste.
The art was actually pretty good (maybe except Subaru's eye on his fringe) and I feel upset that it was completely wasted on this piece.
"Diabolik Lovers" made me feel uncomfortable and was the most unenjoyable anime I have ever seen. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wants to have a nice time.
defunctmaluser
Let me just state for the record that this is without a doubt THE most misogynistic and abominable thing I've EVER watched standing alongside the likes of Itazura na Kiss. Make no mistake: this show is among the absolute worst that humanity has to offer and yet... it's just SO entertaining! I'm not even going so far as to call it a guilty pleasure because for it to be a guilty pleasure, I'd have to be ashamed of liking it in the first place. I can safely say that I'm *NOT* ashamed to admit that I like this abomination that was churned out from thebowels of Production I.G alongside Abunai Sisters. This programme can definitely be referred to as "The Room" of anime.
When you get right down to it, Diabolik Lovers is a series which is just so fascinatingly bizarre to the point where I question who in their right minds at Production I.G thought it was a good idea to even make this programme in the first place. Everything about this series is bad. The production values are terrible (which is incredibly disheartening given that Production I.G was behind such visual delectations like the entire Ghost in the Shell franchise), the OST probably consists of tracks recycled from the visual novel which always fail to set the mood properly at any rate, and the story/characters are an affront to all that is good in this world.
The story itself is far too misogynistic and reprehensible to ever work as a self-insert fantasy and it takes itself far too seriously to be a reverse-harem comedy along the lines of Ouran HSHC. The 15 minute runtime essentially gives this programme a 6-9 episode length when you condense it all together which is just laughable, especially when you take into account the fact that this is also a visual novel adaptation... did I forget to mention that? Oh, well on top of ALL that shit, it's also a visual novel adaptation. Lovely. Leave it to visual novel adaptations to provide us all with countless hours' worth of wonderfully flawed storytelling.
Yui Komori makes Kotoko Aihara look like Albert Einstein and almost every single male character in Diabolik Lovers makes my skin crawl because of their treatment of her. Despite that, I don't take umbrage with them. I take umbrage with Yui because of the fact that she's a walking doormat who just sits there and takes the abuse. Considering the fact that I also happened to grow up under circumstances where I was exposed to quite a bit of domestic abuse, it's no stretch of the imagination to think that seeing shit like this unfold IN ANY MEDIUM is enough to make my blood boil. In fact, if I took this programme seriously like almost everyone else does, I'd find it just as reprehensible if not more disgusting than I find Itazura na Kiss and yet that's not the case whatsoever.
With the circumstances as such, one would have to imagine WHY I like this particular programme so much. Simply put, it's BECAUSE it's so outlandish and bizarre to the point where it almost becomes an obsession. I didn't call this "The Room" of anime for no reason. Much like the aforementioned film, it's unlike anything I've ever seen and considering the fact that it does almost nothing right and yet plays everything so sincerely, I can't help but laugh whenever I'm supposed to take it seriously. If that ain't bad enough, Sentai Filmworks is giving this piece of shit a dub and forced great voice actors like Chris Patton, Tiffany Grant, and even Her Highness Luci Christian to get wrapped up into this mess! If that doesn't grab your interest, I don't know what will. All I can say is that I can't WAIT to hear Blake Shepherd say "bitch-chan" when he's playing Laito.
They say that bad drama makes for amazing comedy, and Diabolik Lovers is the shining example of that saying personified. There's a reason why I love watching bad movies like Birdemic, The Room, Battlefield Earth, Showgirls, and so on and so forth and it's because they ALL provide me with countless hours of entertainment through the magic of unintentional humour. I also love it BECAUSE of the fact that this anime is so tasteless and has almost no respect for its characters nor does it have any respect for itself. This is not meant to be a guilty pleasure because truth be told, there's no reason to ever feel guilty for liking this piece of shit. Hell, I'm actually planning on buying the Blu-ray release with the English dub when Sentai decides to push it out because hot DAMN, was this programme entertaining.
It's one of those programmes that you have to show to someone else JUST to gauge their reactions, and what better way to do that than by gathering around the TV set with your friends and popping it in the Blu-ray player so that you can experience it all from the beginning whilst eating popcorn and hot wings you purchased from Crown Fried Chicken? This show gives you so much snark bait to work with that you NEED to watch it with someone else just so that you can make fun of EVERYTHING that it has to offer. Now with all of that said, I HOPE you understand why I like this show so much and why you should probably give it a shot. Alack, chances are that most people will just downvote this review because I gave it a 10/10 and didn't bother reading what I actually wrote. Oh well, c'est la vie as the old adage goes.
Whilst we're here, let's play a drinking game. Every time Laito says "bitch-chan," take a shot. Every time Yui acts like a complete dumbass, take two shots. Trust me, you'll die of cirrhosis before the episode will ever end. With that, I'm out. Peace. :)
GabbyLovesAnime
If you're looking for a good reverse harem with vampires DO NOT WATCH THIS SHOW. There was no true plot to this anime at all. All that happened was that the main protagonist, Yui, lives in a house full of vampires and is borderline raped almost everyday. I don't understand how this show would slightly be considered "enjoyable". Do not let the beautiful artwork fool you. The show is full of sexy vampires to draw you in and the episodes are 12 minutes each, but don't let this persuade you to watch the show. It is a complete waste of time! You would expect a girlgetting sexually harassed by like 7 vampires a day would leave when given the option, BUT NO! She is a very dim-witted protagonist. She makes stupid decisions and makes it even seem she wants to be in these predicaments. She pathetically tries to get away but gives up within the first few second. She is not a strong leading character at all.
Laito, one of the vampire, is a very annoying character. The show would have been slightly less terrible if he wasn't in to. Almost everytime he is in the scene he calls Yui "Little B****" It is very annoying and I wish he would just shut up!
Overall, I really hated this show, the only thing that kept me watching was how short it was and the artwork. I truly recommend that you do not waste your time watching this show!
kuuki
Don't let the first episode fool you - this is not a romance anime. Not at all. I watched the first episode and I was satisfied: Yui, the main character, looked cute and clueless and the vampires, she was sent to under mysterious circumstances, were shown off as ignorant and frightening beings. I was sure the story would revolve around how the vampires start to like Yui one after one. But no. I came to realized that this wouldn't be the standard reverse harem story once Yui was bitten by a vampire. And how the scene was depicted, made sure there could be no atonement for theact in one of the later episodes. So I set my hopes on the other vampires. And I was totally wrong. They are a bunch of masochists that like nothing more than torturing Yui and kept her around only to suck her blood.
So I kept on watching, hoping there would be at least some plot progress, when there was no character development after all. Maybe Yui would find out why she was send to the vampires. But even that didn't exactly happen. The story picks up so late, the anime is almost over by then. Maybe that is why the ending felt so unsatisfactory. A lot of things were only implied, but never explained. And some things just don't make any sense at all.
One thing I have to say: I read a summary before watching the anime and it sounded a lot more interesting than what actually happens. And that is the whole problem with this series. I think there might be actually material for a story somewhere, but the whole anime was distorted so much that it's barely noticeable anymore. And it was done so for those that get a kick out of seeing how the male characters treat Yui. I didn't.
Art and sound are fair up to good. There's nothing bad to say about the art style if you like it. And I kind of do. It matches the setting and is unique enough to catch your eye at first. Nothing extraordinary though. The soundtrack didn't really attract my attention, but it seldomly does. The opening and ending songs sound decent.
Ultimately I didn't enjoy watching this anime very much. It wasn't boring to watch like some other series - the episodes didn't feel like filler, something was happening - but what was happening had very little relevance to anything. And the only thing I'll remember is that the anime has scenes with rape overtones. And maybe that Yui was called "Bitch-chan". But only maybe.
snartjelly
Diabolik Lovers was brought into live action from their original dating sims, leaving the story to be scattered and confusing, as well as forcefully awkward. The characters were dull, leaving us to be unsympathetic when needed be. It would only be delivered to us as fan-service for anyone who was interested in the original game, or was interested in randomly placed perverted rapey scenes, leaving everyone else behind in a disappointed mess. Story: 2/10 You would think that since this is a game already, the story would be set up already for the writers to just cut and paste into the animation. Yet, we were leftwith little to no story at all, and once there was a story, it was too late and was very forced.There was no build up, no story to hold onto from beginning to end. They introduced characters at the wrong time, and once the climax came around, it was too painful to watch, so most people would shrug it off because no one had sympathy for any of the characters. It would make more sense to actually play the game rather than see the anime. I felt as if it was made into an animated series for just showing the supposedly "rapey but romantic" scenes.
Art: 4/10
It does seem like once dating sims are made into anime, the quality of the animation goes down by a ton, although I did enjoy the colors that were chosen, it was interesting seeing their eye color and hair color, it was something to look at rather than painfully sit through a show with no plot. I was disappointed that they could've put more effort into the animation, it would've served a little bit better and wouldn't have been much of an eyesore.
Sound: 6/10
The music from the dating sim was transferred over to the anime. it was enjoyable music although everything would distract you from even being able to hear the music. There was one soundtrack that would come up repeatedly once in a while through out the episodes. The soundtrack itself is good and it probably serves well within the game, but there are more tracks from the game that could've been used.
Characters: 2/10
Each character had little to no dynamic traits to them. The vampires were feeling up on Yui, and Yui was the victim. That is basically the whole show. I will give it to them that they at least tried to stick a story in there, but it was too late and it was very forced. A solution was forced at the very end, too. They wanted us to have sympathy for the characters, when there was not even any material early on that we were able to use to have sympathy later on.
Enjoyment: 3/10
The only things I enjoyed about this series is the music and the art, although the animation wasn't very up to par. The story was too dull, and the characters were very flat. Someone may have a better go at this story if they were to try the games rather than watch the animated version. There may be more potential placed there, even though, I myself haven't played any of the games. I didn't want to be disappointed, and I wanted to be reminded of an anime like Vampire Knight, but at least there was a reason to everything that was happening. This anime introduced a situation, but there was no reason for it happening. It just happened, and I'm sure that he majority shrugged it off because we weren't able to have sympathy for the characters.
Overall, I wanted to enjoy this as much as possible, when I realized that I couldn't. I was confused from beginning to end with useless nonsense that would only be necessary in the game itself. As a dating sim, you don't want to let your fans down. There was potential for this but it went straight down the drain. There's a balance between romance and actual story that can be accomplished, but this was thrown together and completely severed into two different things. They should've focused on the main plot, while once in a while throwing in romance. It would've been better if the main character, Yui, actually developed sympathy for each character first, then once the romantic scenes rolled around, we would've all felt the same emotion. This show got it completely backwards, and I hope that they can figure out those faults and change it around once season 2 comes around.
Kozumosu
you're an inocent girl and one day your dad decides to drive you to a mansion in the middle of nowhere full of sexy horny vampires. perfect reverse harem isnt it? Apperently this vampires havent seen one sigle woman in their entire lifes besides their mothers so whenever they see the protagonist they cant help but abuse her. you have the fuck boy, the fedora man, the psychopatic kid, the angry issues, the fuck everyone around me face and the... i duuno what to call glasses guy. basicly they're all mentaly disturbed. this was supost to be an harem but none of the boys has romanticfeelings for her, all of them objetify her, belittle her and call her selfcentered without the poor girl doing shit. you cant even choose if you prefer them rough of gentle, all options are gonna step on you and then complain how you dirtied their shoes. its made purely to satisfy the guilty pleasure of masoquist girls.
but honestly, i found this shithole very intertaining. so ill give it a 10/10.
Baddie007
Bueno, what can I say, everything about this anime "SUCKS" and I gave all of its category a flat 1 as in everything "PATHETIC." So question, if it was this bad why did I even watch it at the first place? My answer, it was because, at first I was hoping that some miracle or something will save the main protagonist ( I'm referring to the chica, Yui), but, the end result was the main character ends up being one of them despite of the near death horrors she underwent in the hands of six bastard vampires, frankly only the life story of them sixbastard vampires were the only consolation here everything else sucks. The art, well I'm not much into the art thingy, by I do say, those vampires' fashion were too dorky to say the least, that even my hommies would laugh out loud when they see them, also their hairstyle, hummmmm, kinda makes them look like a bunch of dirty old matrons, most notably Kanato and Reiji who both resembles an 8O year old faggot. Thought them seiyus are good in portraying the characters, it was the opening theme that kinda tick me off, the characters on the other hand, well Yui maybe the only protagonist, she pretty much a stupid one and quite frankly her sweetness isn't enough for me to change my rating for the character category, since most character's do nothing but suck on Yui and sometime they do a some other nasty things. So even-though I've said that I've given all of this anime category a flat one, I'm still gonna present it the way it is suppose to be.
Story: Pathetic 1
Art: same
Sound: same
Character: same
Enjoyment: same
Since the otome game version would be more fun to enjoy than this anime.
Overall: same
Where, I only have two words "THIS SUCKS!"
Aines445
To say anyone was expecting a masterpiece out of Diabolik Lovers would be a big fat lie, and not just because it happens to be a reverse harem (which, granted, is a fair enough reason to lower your expectations). The premise itself gives no room for one to think this will be remotely good: some girl named Yui Komori gets moved into this mansion full of vampires and they're all lusting after her (blood). Of course, something can always surprise you, but this is not at all the case with Diabolik Lovers. It's exactly as you're supposed to expect it, if not worse. As a reverseharem, there is no actual sense of romance between the vampires and the protagonist, because these vampire men are all complete monsters who don't even see her as anything other than some sort of blood bank, blow-up doll or something in between. Of course, since they're vampires, it makes sense that they would look down on our human protagonist, but that isn't the problem here.
The problem is that despite the fact that they're all complete monsters, who physically and emotionally abuse this poor girl we call the protagonist (AKA No-tits, Bitch-chan, and other wonderful nicknames our token bishies give her), we, the audience, are effectively supposed to be gushing over how handsome and sexy these "love interests" are. We are supposed to fawn over these vampires sucking the protagonist's blood, or at how they violently handle her, or at their stupid nicknames; we're supposed to find that hot. Some do.
In essence, the purpose of Diabolik Lovers is fanservice for a female target audience by way of having sadistic men forcing themselves on the protagonist, who more or less serves as the self-insert, stand-in person for us. The blood-sucking is its gimmick, which we are supposed to find a nice bonus because uh, sucking noises are sexy? (Don't ask me, I don't see it) However, just because this is basically fanservice, and that there are people who do in fact enjoy what it has to offer, it doesn't mean that what I mentioned above is moot and not an issue. It doesn't, at all, mean that the anime doesn't suck.
Before anything, I'll mention that the source material of this is an otome game, which is basically a galge for girls (seeing as you go after your favorite bishie and it's a visual novel): due to its popularity (yes, its POPULARITY; I get as baffled by that as you probably are right now), it got an anime. I'm familiar with said source material and know that it also sucks, and it was made with the gimmick of blood-sucking (and this one dummy mic thingy that I completely forgot the name of and don't care to remember because that feature's damn creepy) in mind. What this means is that no, this is not a satire of anything, and it has no deeper meaning than it lets on: you are indeed supposed to gush over these characters. If you do, that's fine, but it doesn't make it stop being an issue.
With that in mind, the fact that the monstrosity of these love interests (this word will be loosely used) is something you're supposed to fawn over is a problem because there is no conceivable way that you can infer romance or sexiness from the actions of these vampire guys, and yet the show itself tries to make you feel that way, which is largely inconsistent to common sense. The situation you're seeing is a disturbing, frightening one: you're seeing a girl, a high school girl, being kept in a mansion by a group of vampires and constantly abused by them, whether by unwillingly getting her blood sucked on, or flat out being subjected to forceful or manipulative behavior. This is actually scary stuff that you could portray or see portrayed as a psychological horror without a single problem, but you're expected to at least feel the slightest of emotional attachment to these love interests. At the very least, you aren't supposed to see things that way because these vampire guys are hot vampire guys, even though it shouldn't make a difference. The realism card must be played here because this simply isn't a good set-up: it isn't good to make the people that are supposed to service you into terrible people because, in the end, you'll be more focused on how terrible these people are than thinking about how sexy they are instead. Would you want fanservice from characters you hate? Would you want your blood sucked by someone you find disgusting (in personality)?
I wouldn't. Even then, this isn't the only problem with Diabolik Lovers. No, this is just getting at the core of why it's terrible; why it's unenjoyable and fails from the get-go as a decent anime. Now, you know the set-up: Bitch-chan goes into the mansion; gets abused by terrible, terrible vampires. That's just great, but what's the plot? As in, what's the story afterwards? Does it go anywhere?
... Well, it goes somewhere, but its actual plot is greatly toned down and basically unimportant. What's at the forefront is the blood-sucking, and the plot only really moves forward by the final episodes. It just doesn't matter, because the show itself makes it not matter. Even when you get the tiniest pieces of information, you get a bishie thrown at you for your enjoyment ("enjoyment") and the focus is largely there. It gets to shallower levels than its source material by making you get to know even less of its plot than the little it did have. It goes without saying that as a story, it's not stellar; it's basically abysmal.
As a reverse harem, it isn't particularly fulfilling, in my opinion, by the problem I've raised above: there is no actual romance to it, even though you're kind of supposed to feel attracted to them, and consequentially, there's no reason for me to like or even remotely care about the guys around this protagonist. You may call a bishie saving the protagonist from drowning "romantic" but I call it "the bastard not wanting to lose his blood bank" instead, because in context to how horrible these guys are to the protagonist, there is no reason for me to romantically think of these vampires. Context is key here, and rightfully so. Most episodes are focused on one of the many vampire guys, but since it's just one episode and the main love interest is completely and utterly obvious, this feels pointless. You really just get a feel for them, they get a feel for Bitch-chan's blood, and then they're gone. It's as shallow as it sounds, and you will in no way find yourself fascinated, liking or empathising with these guys. Sometimes, you get loosely shown some of their backstory, but it's short, tells you nothing about the almost non-existent story, doesn't make the vampires have that much depth (because it's too vague or unexplored for you to really get what's up with them) and does not in any way make these guys redeemable; thus, no purpose is served with them. Besides, as I said, since the main love interest is amazingly obvious, there's no value in the other guys being shown as though they have a chance.
No guys "fall in love" with the protagonist: they either don't care about her at all, or get possessive over her because reasons. It's realistic (kiiinda; not really; more like understandable), but it defeats its purpose right away because of this. After all, this is a reverse harem, where you're supposed to like the characters presented to you. They're also supposed to like the protagonist, which is why it's a reverse harem; they're all after the protagonist. However, these guys are after the protagonist so they can drink her blood or because they're downright creepy and insane, meaning that Diabolik Lovers equally fails at the romantic aspect of a reverse harem, and intentionally, too. By wanting to intentionally have these dudes be far from romantic, but also portraying them in a way that's supposed to make you fawn for them is the anime's attempt at having the cake and eating it too. Needless to say it does not go well. Of course, to me, this anime fails at its fanservice and supposed sexiness because I'm not into dominant, sadistic bastards and much less into them sucking blood left and right. There is no appeal in having unlikable bishies doing supposedly sexy things since it's not like you'll enjoy some guy you consider terrible doing them.
By the end, the main character just sort of decides to be into the main love interest because she had to end up with someone and you don't feel fulfilled in the slightest. You feel even less fulfilled as you get subjected to the vampire guys randomly talking in a non-scene specifically made for self-insertion before it ends for good. It's overall a shitty experience, as you'd expect.
The origin of all the problems in Diabolik Lovers is its characters, especially seeing as reverse harems (and harems in general) are largely dependent on the appeal of their love interests. As I've hammered into your head many, many times by now, I find these guys purely unlikable. They aren't particularly interesting characters: the vampires are all brothers, some from different mothers. There's Ayato, your token dominant sadistic arrogant prick whose existence I personally wanted to erase; Kanato, your token cray-cray shota prick who'll either annoy you or creep you out; Laito (freaking Laito of all names), your token flirty douche and annoying creeper whose existence I also wanted to rapidly erase (you're the Bitch-chan, you bitch!); Reiji, your token calm and strict prick whose purpose seemed more about telling the guys off for not abusing the protagonist in a room than to actually be sexy; Shu, your token lazy and unmotivated prick; and Subaru, your token aggressive (literally) prick who somehow happens to be the most decent of the guys... while still being a prick because of his violent personality. They sound simply charming, don't they?
And then there's the protagonist, the most unfortunate chick that's graced reverse harems. You don't need to know her name: just copy Ayato's "Chichinashi" (No-tits) or Laito's "Bitch-chan" and you're fine. After all, she's devoid of personality: you literally know nothing about her other than the fact that she had a dad and said (adoptive) dad made her move into the vampires' place. What you see of a personality in her is how much she's in constant unease and insecurity and yet doesn't act bitter towards the bastards abusing her at all, instead showing worry for them in certain occasions, which is baffling to say the least (or just downright stupid). She tries to escape or resist the vampires, but she never thinks intelligently about it and quickly fails, and even when given a clear opportunity to escape by being able to deal real damage to these OP vampires (they can teleport, are overall strong and resillient and don't have most known vampire weaknesses), Bitch-chan flat out doesn't take it for stupid, clearly forced reasons (since anyone in their right minds would GTFO, no questions asked). She gets bitten and abused so much that you can't help but feel sorry for her and cheer for her when she attempts to escape, even though you know it isn't gonna happen; this shouldn't be a thing with reverse harems. In the end, Bitch-chan is further ruined as a character you could at least sympathise with for her horrible situation alone by acting like she can ever conceivably care about any guy in particular and choosing the main love interest because the writing demands it, and just being a dumb, Stockholm-ridden protagonist in general.
The side characters that appear in this show are about two, and they're as important as the plot: this means they don't matter at all except for the final episodes, where the plot moves forward because the anime's gotta end on something. With that in mind, there is no need to write about these people. Instead, it's just better to conclude that the characterization in Diabolik Lovers is greatly lacking in all aspects, and is overall as abysmal as the story it has.
The art, however, is admittedly appealing. The animation is not amazing or astounding, but you can see the physical appeal in these bishies somewhat (if they weren't all crazy jerks). Bitch-chan looks really sparkly (just her eyes, really) and cute, and I have to admit she's my favorite character design despite having just stated that the bishies looked good. The eyes might be a bit strange, depending on the viewer, since they have all sorts of colors. Speaking of eyes, Subaru's eye being seen through his bangs was pretty annoying to see.
The soundtrack is good enough for the anime, if not a bit too good for it, and the tracks fit it nicely. However, I can't say it was particularly great and it didn't stand out for me while I was watching (if anything, I actually think the game's original soundtrack was far better, but that one was just too good for the series in general, though it begrudgingly fits it well). The all-star male cast succeeds at portraying these terrible characters, as expected, but I mostly found myself wishing they weren't using their talent in something as terrible as this. Meanwhile, I especially wished Bitch-chan's voice actress hadn't started her anime voicing career with Diabolik Lovers since she did a good job and had a really nice voice to listen to.
Overall, Diabolik Lovers was an unenjoyable experience I found myself not even able to mostly laugh at (with a few exceptions) due to its awful set-up, premise and execution of these elements, its greatly lacking story and equally lacking characterization that made the anime thoroughly unappealing to me. There was no likable character in the midst of this anime, and nothing in particular one can cling to except the character art and perhaps somehow finding the abusive shtick of the characters and their blood-sucking sexy, which I most certainly couldn't.
Unless blood-sucking is totally your thing no matter who it's from, there is no way I can recommend this garbage to anyone. And now that I've re-written this review, surely that can be better conveyed to everyone.
Nasty001
OOOOOh Shucks, this anime was really a drag, quite frankly, I ask myself as to why did I ever bother watching this horrible thing.......I guess it has something to do with the female character, Yui as she was made into this sacrificial lamb by the very institution who should be protecting her and should consider vampires as an abomination, I guess it was my pity for that character were she finds herself in such appalling situation which it involves them Sakamaki siblings, who are in fact a bunch of cool blooded sucking SOB's, so, how do I rate this not so good thing? Here's how: Story, art,sound and character: Poor number 3, Oh shucks!
The story was simply wasn't there, since this anime was based from an otome game, it was pretty obvious that this anime was like playing that game were the one playing it is a really bad one. The art, oh who is the SOB who did the wardrobes of them character? It was a poor combination of classic, gothic and casual, in fact I see them vampires as a bunch of trendsetting losers. The sound, except for Yui, my dislike for the Sakamaki brothers also makes me hate the voice characters who did their role, and, as for the character's, I would have given this part a higher score, but after seeing how cold blooded most of the character's here and Yui's stupidity really makes me give this part the score it deserves.
Enjoyment and overall: Pathetic number 1, Oh shucks!
Ok, so at first, I felt pity for the main character, I was kinda hoping that some bloody rivalry will occur amongst the Sakamaki brothers in order to be the sole owner of the girl, also I did hope at first that the church would come to her rescue, but no rescue came just another deep and dark situation that creep into the main character's life. Overall, if studio Zexcs were playing the otome game, I'm guessing that they really suck, and for a moron (me included) who've watched this horrible thing from start to finish was probably the studio's way of saying "SO LONG SUCKERS!!!!!"
Mila91
I don't know what you people are on about, but let me tell you something. This anime is pretty sexy. If you are into vampires and great looking art design, this is the one for you. The key is to not take things SOOO seriously, I mean saying this is an abomination...No, it's not. This anime has a perfectly good gothic style to it, and a good dark atmosphere. Yes some of the Vampires are evil,yes they are rapey but so what? They are not humans. It's a VAMPIRE anime, and they are evil creatures. Oh, but you want them to be all goody goody because you watched Twilight....Wellboo-hoo.The point here is :
-beautiful art
-beautiful eye colors of all the characters
-beautiful hair styles and hair colors of all the characters
Okay I didn't like that guy with the hat, he was too rude, haha!
Their mother is also a terrible person, so what did you expect from an upbringing like that? Duh...
The main character is really hopeless, so all she can do is - surrender to the lust of these Vampires.
Crazy right?
But also entertaining and fun to watch. Overall 9 out of 10, just because I can.
ThatCrazyElitist
Some anime have zombies. Others have witches. This show has a set of perverted sadistic blood-sucking handsome supposed-to-be-vampires. I've said it. This show reminded me of a horrible Twilight fan fiction, written by a masochistic (and also very horny) woman. I can imagine only two kinds of people who would like this show. The first one is a group of men who love to see women suffering and being inferior to men. The second kind is, like I already mentioned, masochistic women. If you're part of any of these cliques, I'm sure you'll love this show. If not, do me (but above all, yourself) afavor and ignore this piece of garbage. Why is this show so hideous? Stay tuned.
~Story~ 1/10
Is there a story? I had difficulty explaining this aspect of the show in this review, but I tried my best. The main character is our ultra-brave heroine Yui Komori. One day, her father sends her as a religious sacrifice to the Sakamaki brothers' mansion. Why? Nobody knows, and no one probably ever will. Great parenting, right? What Yui doesn't know, is that her new fellow "brothers" are six vampires. What a shock! But instead of trying to run away, or trying to call the police (or maybe even the vampire version of the ghost busters) to come and capture them, she stays! Because, guess what? She tries to reason with six guys, who could totally vampire-gangbang her any moment, even though it's completely obvious that they are NEVER going to listen to her. She even stays after these guys have sucked her blood. She even goes to some sort of vampire school, which (for some reason) has never been discovered by the commoners, with them. That's basically the story. A chick with no brains who gets vampire-raped multiple times. Fun, right? I'll list some more plotholes. Even though this girl gets her blood sucked out of her multiple times a day, she has NEVER shown any serious severe blood loss symptoms. Even Twilight was more realistic at this aspect! At least they almost let Bella die when Edward Sparkles drank her blood. Just what kind of magical creature, who apparently doesn't need her blood, is she? Oh wait, I almost forgot. A magical creature who apparently doesn't need her blood and can see ghosts as well. Why can she see ghosts, you ask? No good reason, other than the one that she gets to see the sad backstories of the perverted vampires. Why does she get to see the ghost of their mother? Why does that ghost take over Yui's body? Why does the mother's ghost KISS her own son in the body of a random chick? I. Have. No. Idea. I'm completely lost.
[CONCLUSION]
The "story" basically consists of vampire porn scenes. That's all this is. There is no story.
~Art~ 7/10
Yes, I know, the art is really pretty. A pretty girl with a harem of good-looking bishounen. A lot of pretty colors. Looks like it's a high quality show. That's exactly why I clicked on this damn trash. And that's exactly how the director (also known as satan) lures you into this anime (also known as hell). DON'T FALL FOR IT. You'll waste 3 hours of your precious time. And for what? Vampire porn. I won't deny that the art is good, because it is, but please. Do you really want to watch a show about vampire rapists sucking a brainless zombie's blood because it has some pretty colors?
[CONCLUSION]
Don't let these pretty colors fool you. This anime is still trash.
~Sound~ 4/10
I guess the sound of this show could have been considered as okay, if it fitted the show. Why does an anime about sadistic vampire rapists have church OSTs? The only thing I can understand is why the opening is called 'MR. SADISTIC NIGHT', except that it should be called 'MR. SADISTIC BLOOD-SUCKING PERVERTED VAMPIRE RAPIST'. The ending is mediocre. I'm not too positive about this aspect of the show, although it's one of the best parts of it.
[CONCLUSION]
The sound is mediocre, and the OSTs are questionable.
~Characters~ 1/10
Haha, this should be fun. I'll work all the main characters out for you.
Starting off with our main character, Yui Komori. Let me just get this out there: she got absolutely no character development. She started off as a brainless masochist, and guess how she ended up? A brainless masochist. I'm quite open-minded, so when I started watching this, I immediately saw opportunities. I mean, imagine what the directors could have done with her... They could have turned her in a vampire-slaying yandere, or at least have let her escape the mansion and be the starter of a humans vs vampire war. But nope, none of this happened. I should have been the director of this. Actually, on second thought, no, I shouldn't have been. I would have been way too ashamed of myself if I'd came up with this. I'm already ashamed enough that I've watched it.
Well, I don't really have anything else to say about this useless walking corpse.
Moving on to our six perverted vampires.
Meet the eldest Sakamaki brother, Shuu, who is basically living the dream, because during most of the anime, he is asleep. How does he spend his waking hours? By laying down on a couch, or in a bath tub, or sucking Yui's blood while laying down. Interesting character.
Then there's Reiji, the stereotypical smart guy, who loves reading books, drinking tea and sucking Yui's blood while poisoning her with some weird tea.
Here comes my personal favorite: Kanato. Just kidding, I don't have a favorite. And even if I had, it wouldn't be a creepy 12-year old, who looks like he's suffering from the worst insomnia ever and who stabs the living shit out of his potatoes while laughing like a psychopath.
Then there's the most perverted one of them all: Raito. Also known as the guy with the hat. Or as the guy with the most awkward laugh ever. Seriously, when I heard his laugh, I cringed so hard. I didn't know whether I should laugh or cry.
Then the potential savior of the show: Subaru! He approached Yui, telling her she should run away from the mansion. He even gave her a silver knife to stab the vampires. Just when I thought Yui was going to start the vampire massacre by stabbing Subaru first: nope. He sucked her blood. And she let it happen. My minuscule faith in this show was shattered.
And finally, the worst one of them all. Ayato. The guy who does not only suck Yui's blood, but also sees her as his possession. And as if that wasn't bad enough, he also came up with a nickname for the main character that is so offensive that I almost threw my computer out of my window.
Well, that's basically your cast. Excluding some psychopathic ghosts who seem important at first, but end up adding nothing to the show at all. Even though it couldn't have been saved anyway.
[CONCLUSION]
One of the worst female leads ever, and some of the weirdest harems ever. Like I've said a dozen times already: just don't watch this.
~Enjoyment~ 1/10
I don't know how you'll feel when watching this show. You may burst out laughing, you may start crying (whether it be of laughter or of depression). You may feel like throwing up (like I did) or like you want to beat the shit out of basically all characters in the show (like I did). What you WILL think after watching this, is "why did I spend 3 hours of my life watching this?". Because that's what this show is. A waste of time. A waste of money. A waste of capacity on websites. But above all, this show is a wrecking ball that will DESTROY your faith in equal rights for men and women. That's what this show did to me. Because I didn't just hate this show. This show even managed to make me feel personally offended as a female. And that doesn't happen often. This show, however, pulled my inner feminist out. Some may see that as an accomplishment, but I see it as something to be very, very ashamed of.
[CONCLUSION]
Ugh, I'm so done. Just don't watch it.
Well, congratulations if you've made it all the way through. If you want to see a show about vampire rapists, ghosts, and a useless girl, this is your thing. Have fun. This garbage even managed to get a sequel. Shows like these make me feel very sad about anime productions nowadays. Luckily, there are still a few gems out there, but this show could never be one of them, not in its wildest dreams. Peace.
dammdd123
So I came watching this anime knowing that there was going to be some massive S&M abusive thing going on, but ended being disappointed. I think that the story had a lot of potential in terms of the setting, but the execution was just horrible. On with the story, I actually liked the idea of having this innocent girl literally walking into a den of abusive vampires, and living with them, but they didn't really do a good job with developing the characters. I know that this series is from an otome game, and it's suppose to advertise the game, but the overall execution wasstill dreadful.
On with the characters, I think the characters were pretty interesting for a while...but only for a while. After the next few episodes, I just got bored of them. Especially with the heroine, I thought that she had the most potential for developing throughout the story, but she kinda...dedeveloped(?) and got worse - in my opinion. I know that, since this is from an otoge, it's trying to make me self insert into the heroine, but I couldn't do that. Why? It just fails to make the heroine interesting enough for me to self-insert into her. I don't want to be her character at all!
On with the good stuff, I really like the character designs and the sounds. I think the animation went a bit downhill later on but it was only a bit. But the sounds tho. I need to give props for the voice actors and the people who did the soundtracks. I think that the art and the sounds were the only thing that kept me watching this, also, the hope that the heroine would develop.
Maybe they should've focused on one guy instead of trying to fit everyone's lifestory in to the anime. It was just halfhearted, the anime puts in plot points, and just leaves it there as a plot hole. Well, I hope that the plot holes gets answered in the game.
IN CONCLUSION, if you're just a masochistic person hoping to hear handsome-looking fictional male characters abusing you with their sexy voices, and (if you're planning to self-insert) biting you in literally every episode, then you might enjoy this. Might! Also applies if you're a male, and you have a serious issue with being a sadistic bastard. If you're not that person, then you should stay the hell away from this anime.
Swantje
EDIT: REVIEW UPDATED AS I PLAYED THE OTOME GAME IT WAS ADAPTED FROM. And I can say, this anime is a disgrace to the game. The game it was adapted from is a dating game called 'Diabolik Lovers: Haunted Dark Bridal' The game itself is actually pretty good, starts bitter but gets sweeter in the end. But this? This stays bitter. Let's start by saying one of the only positive things about this anime; It actually portrays vampires as they really are. They won't protect nor love you, but will suck your blood. So if you're expecting a Twilight-like Harem romance, you're completely wrong. This animeisn't even romance. This is a sadistic, rapey and bad anime that you just...can't enjoy at all.
The story actually starts pretty good. After reading the summary, it already didn't sound like a happy anime. But the truth is, the plot just disappears after the first episode. It's every episode the exact same thing, Yui getting her blood sucked and verbally and mentally abused. Like our classic Reverse-Harem lead, Yui can't say no and always helps the boys. She was literally being every episode tossed from boy to boy. That's all I have to say about that.
EDIT: At least in the Otome game itself, after a while the boy she choose will start respecting and loving her, but still keeping the sadistic and you-belong-to-me tone. Here in this anime they just all stay jerks.
Art is good, colorful but mixed with gothic elements. It portrayed the sadistic tone of the anime very good, animation was also decent (Yup, bite-scenes included) and the guys were bishies.
Sound is decent, music was bad chosen but the voice actors did a good job and they fitted the characters.
Character is 1. Never given anything so low. The main lead is like a lot of Reverse-Harem leads simply pathetic, she allows the boys to do everything to her and can't say no. She is two dimensional and boring. The boys are pretty much the classic guys you find in otome games, but twist, they're all jerks! They have like real vampires only a desire for blood. But they're still simply pathetic. They do have interesting and sad backstories, but if that was an attempt to make me feel sorry for them, it failed. There is no further development in the characters.
Seriously, you just can't enjoy this unless you like seeing the stuff I said above. It's not a sweet romance story, but a very sadistic story. There is simply no character you will like, they are all meant to be hated.
Overall is 3. If you know what's good for you, avoid this anime. Don't keep watching expecting something interesting will happen, since you will only be disturbed.
EDIT: When will they finally learn you can't make dating games an anime? Yui is in this anime hopeless, while in the game you have the option to sometimes makes her rude or disobey. While in the actual game you can choose between the boys, and while the chosen boy starts sadistic and rude, he starts respecting and loving her. Even in most good endings they end up being a couple or marrying her. Here? Since it's an anime, the boys just stay jerks and never get to know her. This anime gives a completely wrong picture of the actual game.
***Feedback is always welcome :)***
Fear_the_Reefer
When seventeen year old Yui Komori’s father has to go overseas for work, her church convinces her to temporarily move into a large house shared by six teenage boys... Because that’s totally something a church would do... And transfer into the night school that they all attend. What they don’t tell her is that the six boys are all vampires, and like any boys their age, they are only interested in one thing. They make no bones about the fact that she now belongs to them, even branding her with the demeaning nickname “Bitchu-chan,” which roughly translates to “Little Bitch.” With no hope of escape, andhungry fangs awaiting her at every turn, will Yui’s new living arrangement turn out to be a sweet dream, or a beautiful nightmare?
Before I sink my own fangs into the meat of the story, I guess I should talk about the artwork and animation. Thankfully, I really don’t have anything negative to say about it. Diabolik Lovers has a very strong, very consistent sense of visual style, blending the flowery water-color aesthetic that you’d expect from a shoujo series with a dark, gothic edge to a very beautiful result. The backgrounds are rich and highly detailed, with a lot of obvious love and care going into every frame. The character designs are inspired and memorable, if not a little on the rough side. The animation is low budget, but it’s well managed, so it still looks passable.
It’s a very pretty looking show, but unfortunately, that beauty is only skin deep, and this anime has a wealth of problems below the surface.
To start, the dialogue may have a few clever moments, but it’s mostly stilted, expositional, and sophomoric. We’re told a lot of things that the characters say ‘should be obvious,’ but that’s rarely ever the case, as the logic behind it all is spotty at best. The six brothers have unique traits to them, but at the end of the day, they all have one thing in common: They’re all heavily unlikeable douchebags who don’t care about our heroine for any reason other than the bright red juice flowing through her veins. In fact, they’re so voracious about it that the only thing the writers have to do to endear one of them to Yui is to have them stop drinking her out of boredom. Nothing about them ever changes, from first episode to last. Even the flashback episode, which tries very hard to humanize them and explain their adult attitudes, just comes off as hollow for the effort.
But as badly as our male cast is characterized, they have absolutely nothing on Little Miss Little Bitch. Even though she clearly doesn’t like being feasted on, she is submissive down to her very last drop, rarely ever putting up a fight against them aside from a half-hearted ‘no, please stop!’ request. She’s not clever, she’s not smart... Painfully so on both counts. No matter how much pain her frail little neck endures, it doesn’t even compare to how sore my throat is from yelling at her to stop making so many stupid decisions. Yes, I know, this anime was adapted from a Visual Novel, and the people doing the adapting thought it would be just fine to leave her as the blank slate she was when they found her. It’s not uncommon for the main character in this type of adaptation to be a self-insert wish-fulfillment character, but who the hell would want to insert themselves into a role that could basically be described as human livestock?
Well, let’s examine that idea for a moment. If you haven’t caught onto this just yet, Diabolik Lovers has developed a reputation for being incredibly rapey. This is a reputation it whole-heartedly deserves, on numerous different levels, from the vampires’ lack of concern with Yui’s emotional status to the genuine affection she develops for them as a result. But I’d like to take it one step further... I don’t think this show is rapey by accident. I think it was intended, in every conceivable way, to be a rape fantasy, with actual rape being replaced with fang-rape. And I can prove it, with one simple observation.
See, the icing on this cake... Is the fact that the vampire brothers all eat cake! Yes, that’s a bad joke, but I’m not really kidding, either. The vampires are shown eating human food on several occasions, and it’s suggested that they do so on a fairly regular basis. They like the taste, as well. It’s not hard to draw the conclusion that it sustains them just as well as it would sustain any other human, since no information either for or against this idea is ever brought up in story.
Why is this a problem, you ask? Well, in most vampire stories, the nocturnal ne’er-do-wells need blood for sustenance, which makes their plight all the more sympathetic and understandable. They can survive on substitutes, like the animal blood in Twilight and the synthetic blood in True Blood, but it’s a poor substitute for the real thing. In Diabolik Lovers, however, the brothers don’t actually need Yui’s blood... They can survive on human food, which eliminates the sustenance argument completely. They don’t physically need it, which narrows their desire down to two possible explanations... It’s either a psychological compulsion(addiction), or a sexual desire.
Since they express their desire for her blood right off the bat, and immediately start the process of ‘domesticating’ her, It’s fair to say this isn’t just an addiction. If that were the case, they’d be actively farming humans to drink from. Which wouldn’t be difficult, because they go to school, and are surrounded by human females on a nightly basis. (At least I assume so... We only see them in school once, and no other human characters are shown.) They want her, specifically, because she’s in their territory, and she belongs to them. Once that sense of male entitlement enters the picture, It doesn’t get any more clear-cut than that. They want her blood not for the nutrition, but for the thrill of it... For the sense of power it gives them over her, as they know in their cold hearts that she wants it just as much as they do, whether she realizes it or not.
In other words, the thirst for blood in this show is entirely sexual, and never consensual. For that, Diabolik Lovers isn’t just specifically designed to be a rape fantasy... It is hands down the rapiest anime I have ever seen. Oh, and the fact that Yui is basically roofied in episode five doesn’t help, either.
And even if you’re able to forgive all the moral problems with this show, you’re still left with a terrible story. For ten straight episodes, we follow this helpless little damsel in faux distress as she gets bounced from vamp to vamp, having her seemingly endless supply of blood drained as inappropriate music plays in the background, ranging from romantic to borderline pornographic, a musical tone that’s not at all helped by the way a lot of these attack are staged and framed. Her wounds then magically heal faster than you can say ‘Wolverine,’ and she’s on to her next pitiful display of self defense.
Even in the rare moments when she escapes, she never takes advantage of it. She’ll run to a church, instead of to a police station, and even though the crucifix approach failed her in the first episode, she’ll be surprised when church doesn’t work, as they just effortlessly teleport to wherever she is. She doesn't try to ask anybody for help, and at one point even consciously decides to stay for some forced, senseless reason that never actually gets followed up on.
There’s an actual plot in the last few episodes, but the writers clearly had no interest in it, as it has little impact on the story and gets swept away with little finesse, despite the admittedly impressive set-up that went into it. The episodes are mercifully only fifteen minutes in length, but the pacing is so awful that I didn’t even notice it until episode ten. There’s no development, no logic, no consistency, and seemingly no thought beyond the desires of it’s immature target audience.
And here’s the most annoying part... With a sweets-guzzling, stuffed animal-wielding immature character like Kanato floating around, there’s a very distinct possibility that this entire franchise might have been conceived as a terrible Ouran High School Host Club fanfic, with Haruhi replaced by the author’s own blank slate self insert character. Seriously, think about it... The eldest brother is a lazy blonde, who pushes all of his work and responsibilities onto a glasses-clad second in command, and if that doesn’t prove it, nothing will.
This show is intended specifically as a metaphorical rape fantasy for teenaged girls who can’t decide between 50 Shades of Grey and Twilight, and hey, if that’s what you’re looking for, then look no further, this is the perfect show for you. For fans of dark vampire romances who DON’T want all of their precious bishies to be detestable douchebag rapists, then I highly recommend checking out the first season... And I can’t stress this enough, ONLY the first season... Of Vampire Knight. It’s not a great show, but it’s still leagues better than this piece of garbage.
For the rest of us, Diabolik Lovers is an uncomfortable and often infuriating experience. There are some things I kind of like about it... It looks great, and I thought having the episode numbers represented by a ticking clock was kind of cool... But overall, It just doesn’t have any qualities that are good enough to justify all of the things that are glaringly wrong with it. For that, I can’t think of any good reason to give it anything higher than a 2/10.
S_C
WATCH IF YOU LIKE SADISM/MASOCHISM, VAMPIRES, GOTHIC TONES,...ect DONT BE FOOLED BE THE 1,2, and 3 reviews try it for yourself ad see if it suits you. I love the show, it does well in telling a complex story in only a matter of 12 episodes, yes it has implied rape, sadists, and masochists, but it tell how vampires are really seen by the public, where they see people as nothing but food, but the show is good to were the start to treat Yui nicer along the way, Zexces did well with the animation and design, i couldn't ask for any better, the show starts slowbut pickes up episode 7.
I would recommend it to anyone that likes this kind of stuff.
El_Psy
It goes without saying while I say I might have enjoyed this anime immensely that is not necessarily due to this anime itself and more the absolute destruction I was unleashing on the poor defenceless 2D series while I sat laughing my lungs out watching. Let me start by giving you my overall opinion of Diabolik Lovers and please keep in mind I only watch anime in dub, but in this case I very much doubt it would matter. Before cutting down why I think this of the show in more depth later on. In short, this anime is bad. Bad, bad bad. Like holy hellput this thing down before it can breed. Diabolik Lovers is the worst kind of bad because its so pretty and well animated that at first glance you think its alright, its only until you actually start paying attention that you realize that there is plot or any character development worth your time. Saying that, this anime is very pretty and if the creators might have put a little more thought into the story and characters it could have been a true mast... a decent piece of work... Maybe.
Story: SPOILER WARNING: Though in this case there isn't really anything to spoil since the plot is so thin you could spread it on toast and you'd still be eating dry toast. The story follows Yui Komori a young innocent school girl around 17(virgin) who totally isn't Bella Swan, honest. No really she isn't, because Bella Swan can't show any sort of facial expression other than brooding, but I digress. Yui finds herself at the front door of a fancy mansion in the middle of horror film street 475 with just a bag and her pretty face to keep her company. Upon entering the mansion without invitation the story begins, involving lewd scenes for those ladies looking for some good old honest vampire love and about seven minutes of brooding by the male cast for the rest. Did I mention each episode is only fifteen minutes including the introduction and end credits? Yes apparently this series was considered so hot and steamy that the creators didn't dare make it an extra five minutes longer out of fear of mass murder by girls ovaries exploding. The story is simple enough that I could literally use words, these words in fact and in any order. Vampires, Biting, Brothers, Mystery, Power Struggles, Biting, Vampires. In fact the whole story aspect of the show is summed up in the last episode with a few minor scenes in maybe three other episodes, otherwise its just lets see who can bite ms Yui is the most kinky way. Its best I don’t go into what little story there is and allow you lovely viewers to enjoy its splendour for yourself.
Characters: Like before, there is a minor SPOILER WARNING here as well but thats only if you lose your head to even the most minor leak of information, but if thats the case stop reading reviews you lemmon. Now in most cases you would review characters by explaining their backstory and their personality in a short line before moving on to the next while also mentioning their role. But in this case I shall be summing up each character while also informing you how they would decide the best way of courting a female companion, now I must warn I will be using profanity to describe them so please be warned.
Shū Sakamaki) Show absolutely no fucks for the girl. Completely ignore her. But after long break periods when she finally comes crawling after you, notice her for a brief moment long enough to stick yourself inside of her and finish after a few minutes before dumping that bitch again. Then repeat,
Reiji Sakamaki) Inform the girl that you are both smarter and better in every way and that she is little more than the trash of trash. Then while adjusting your glasses everything new frame inform she is little more than a guinea pig for experimenting on, that said do whatever you wish with her before throwing her out of your room and returning to work.
Subaru Sakamaki) Tell her to fuck off. She has no place by your side for you are simply too dangerous and wild, a rebel without a cause! Yes you have mommy issues but that sensitive side is buried by your urge to smash random defenceless objects! Be Brash! Be Broody! Then give her a knife and tell her to kill you or your family if they ever try to rape her.
Ayato Sakamaki) Treat them like a toy while abusing them in whatever way you please, BUT remind them that they are yours and only yours and if anyone else touches them they suffer from your almost unmatched level of brooding! Also never fix up the buttons on your shirt because you are too busy brooding to waste time with that..
Laito Sakamaki) Call the girl a bitch, never her name or anything else, just bitch. Then tell her you want to fuck her in a series of very kinky ways. Its important to realize you are one of the few characters who doesn't brood, isn't technically insane and generally seems to enjoy life. This either makes you the weakness or the strongest character, hard to tell. But regardless you hold a mighty power which must be contained.
Kanato Sakamaki) Be a creepy bastard. Like holy shit, be as creepy as you fucking can. Stare wide eyed at every moment without blinking all the time while telling her how much you want to see her in pain and crying and how that really turns you on. Then offer to murder her and turn her into a doll so she'll be pretty forever and store her in the basement. This is probably the most sure fired way to get a girl, even if it is against her will.
While there are a few other characters their value is little more than filler for the weak attempt of a plot they tried to finish by the end. In short, all you need to know is that teenage girls love this kind of rubbish and if you really want to get with one all you need is a box set of twilight and a few strong bottles of alcohol, but before you do that older men please call 111(911) and inform them that you are indeed a paedophile.
Music:
Little can be said about the music to be honest as it does it job, its neither bad nor outstanding and it didn't help distract me from the story so I can’t say its much to listen too.
Conclusion:
Watch it, this is not a roller-coaster of exciting plot twists nor intense action, in fact a total of a single punch is thrown in entire series! You have no idea how disappointed I was to realize that there wasn't going to be a single shirtless fist fight amongst the brothers and that is without a doubt the biggest flaw to this anime! Like come on guys! If you really are going to give the plot to a retarded monkey going through puberty you could at least tear off a guys shirt once and awhile and let the ladies have a look that those firm abs and tight bodies... uh sorry, did I mention I totally heterosexual? Yes well, the point is that if you are going to take a mile walk down a road of shards of glass in the hopes of having the perfect pair of bleached bone heels, then you might as well take the shoes off and get the job done quick!
