Diabolik Lovers - First Impressions

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Diabolik Lovers kicks things off with a short fifteen-minute episode that introduces us to the main characters.

And that’s really all that happens in this episode, to be honest.  We meet the main characters, most of whom are vampires and brothers.  The outlier is Yui: the center of attention, the “prospective bride” (whatever that means; I’m sure we’ll find out in the future).  Each of the brothers fits a character type: the indifferent eldest son, the cool megane second son, the over-confident third son, the kawaii fourth son, the bishonen fifth son, and the easily-angered youngest son.  Yui, on the other hand, seems so far to be innocent and naïve.

With such a short episode, it’s a bit difficult to judge the direction the series will be going.  However, I think we can all agree that it’s going to be a mixture of a reverse harem and perhaps a tiny bit of horror.  I say horror because, from a woman’s perspective, this entire episode was pretty horrifying.  Not only is Yui given demeaning nicknames right from the start by the six brothers, but a number of them literally lick her, which is an incredible invasion of space and is pretty much downright creepy.  I understand that they’re all vampires, but this wasn’t entirely what I was expecting out of this anime.  (My bad, I guess.)

Creepiness aside, the soundtrack so far for Diabolik Lovers also leads me to believe it might involve some horror aspects.  At least while Yui is at the Sakamaki brothers’ house, the soundtrack seems reminiscent of music from anime such as Umineko no Naku Koro ni or Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, both of which have (mainly) horror elements to them.  If the assumption that horror aspects might be incorporated into this series is correct, I think it will definitely add to the potentially bland “reverse harem of vampires” it might otherwise become.

All in all, I’m not quite sure what to make of Diabolik Lovers quite yet.  I’ll need a few more episodes to form a real opinion about it beyond these brief first impressions.  The shorter-than-average fifteen-minute run time per episode may prove detrimental to curbing these impressions, though.

Diabolik Lovers Episode 2 Preview

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