Anime I’m Ashamed That I Enjoyed (30 Day Anime Challenge, Day 5)

Okay, guys, but really. It’s been so long since I watched it, but…

This one is easy.

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Diabolik Lovers

Oh, oh, dear Internet, I watch a lot of shoujo, but I’m not ashamed of a lick of it, except for this title.

This whole show is sadism/masochism cringe and I STILL know that, if we are lucky enough to get a season 3 (Gah, did I say “lucky?”), I’ll cozy up with a glass of red wine (because honestly, there is no better way to watch this than just a little tipsy) and literally yell out loud at the characters for their poor choices. I mean, the fact that it’s so awful is exactly why I enjoy watching it so much. That, and waiting for some sort of redemption…

It’s a bad otome adaptation, and you know what that means.

Good otome adaptation: You didn’t play this game only available in Japanese? It’s okay, you can still follow the plot completely and you’ll really enjoy the material.

Bad otome adaptation: Lol

Take season one for example. The show goes for like ¾ of it’s run with basically no understandable plot whatsoever as you listen to horny vampires attempt to drink dry this AWOL priest’s totally unresisting daughter (which sounds like breaking the skin of an apple and gulping milk, by the way. Listen to it, it’s really true!). In the last few episodes, its plot picks up quite significantly and then the show EXPLAINS NOTHING. I spend the whole season waiting for something important to happen, and then it does happen, and they don’t explain ANYTHING! No grand revelation whatsoever!

Then you get season two going, and at least it has plot all the way through—at least the heroine has a LITTLE bit fight in her, SOMETIMES, MAYBE, again I say A LITTLE BIT—but no plot from season one carries over and understanding what’s happening is still contingent upon playing this Japanese otome game. (In case you didn’t know, A LOT OF US DON’T SPEAK JAPANESE.)

And, after watching through like a whole season… *cringes at self*… I started like…waiting for the vampires to…change… UGH! No, I mean, only like two of them, but I still want some ACTUAL romance rather than abuse and I’m like… watching to see if it ever comes about? Waiting for some actual substance? For demons to be conquered? For REAL character and plot development? *cringes at self again* I mean, there has been next to no indication that this is even in the cards because, AGAIN, this show seems like it’s an excuse for some unhealthy and abusive sadism/masochism fantasy, but I sank so much time into it that I mean, come on, I can hope, right?

I watched season one in the dub. Season two is only subtitled. I was only a dub girl at the time, and watched it because I was running out of options. I did not make it through season two on my first attempt, but eventually went back when I’d gotten through a little bit of subbed material. Diabolik Lovers season two was the first season of any show that I completely finished in a sub, and that opened some doors for me in a few ways, but LET ME TELL YOU, THIS SHOW IS AWFUL. BAD PLOT, BAD PACING, BAD HEROINE, ABUSIVE HAREM…

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I’m still going to watch season three. *cringe* I should basically slap myself in the face.

 

[EDIT: Yep, I started watching Ep. 1 in the dub again. I still enjoy it. WHY must I enjoy it?? There is so much cringe! BUT IT’S SO FUNNY. AND SO AWFUL.]

[2nd EDIT: I’ve recently discovered that season two is getting a DUB and I’m so a) excited and b) hopeful that this indicates enough interest in DiaLovers to justify a season three. I need to rid myself of this madness, but we all know I’ll be waiting for March 28th, 2017. Gah. It’s so BAD.]

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So tell me, how do you feel about DiaLovers?

 

Until I ramble again,

Shoujothoughts