kanna-chan's cafe

Now before you ask, let me answer the question that's probably on everyone's mind: why is Diabolik Lovers spelled the way it is? And the answer is...I have no idea.

Diabolik Lovers started out as a visual novel franchise by Rejet. It was first released for the PSP in October 2012. As of now, five games have been released, and the first two have been remastered for the PS Vita. Those were released as "limited V editions."

Apparently, the games were so popular that it got an anime adaptation. Two, actually: Diabolik Lovers and Diabolik Lovers, More Blood. The first series aired from September 16, 2013 to December 9, 2013, and the second series aired from September 23, 2015 to December 9, 2015. I've heard rumors about a third season, but as far as I know, nothing has been confirmed.

Now keep in mind I've only seen the first season. This anime was so...I can't even. Let's just get started.

The series revolves around a girl named Yui Komori, a nice 17-year-old girl whose father, a priest, owns his own church. Once her father travels overseas for work, she gets sent to a mansion to live with six mysterious brothers. The twist: they're all vampires.

The first episode of the anime reveals that Yui is actually adopted and she starts to investigate into her past amidst all the supernatural stuff going on and struggling to survive among six vampires who hunger for her blood.

Let's move on to characters. I'll talk briefly about Yui, and then move on to the brothers.

Yui Komori: The "heroine" of the series. Please note I'm using this term as loosely as humanly possible. I'll have a tangent on it later.

The vampire brothers all have the same father, Karlheinz, but they're from different mothers. 

The oldest sons, Shu and Reiji, were born to Karlheinz's second wife, Beatrix. The triplets, Ayato, Kanato, and Laito, were born to Karlheinz's first wife, Cordelia. 

The youngest son, Subaru, was from Karlheinz's third wife, Christa. Clearly, Karlheinz got around. 

Even though they're all brothers, they don't really get along with each other and seem quite distant from each other. Their personalities are all basically the same...with a few tiny differences, so they're not worth their own paragraphs.

Now, rating: 1/10

Why: Dear G-d, where do I begin? Let's start with Yui. I have four words for you about her: BIGGEST MARY-SUE EVER. 

Seriously, this girl is worse than BELLA SWAN, from Twilight. Heck, I think this series is actually WORSE than Twilight. And I never thought I'd say that. I honestly never thought that anyone could top Bella in Mary-Sue-ness, but congratulations, Yui, you win. She is the most helpless, whiny, annoying character I have ever seen. More than Bella. And that's saying a lot.

The animation isn't that great, each episode is only about fifteen minutes long, and they try to pack so much into each episode that it gets confusing. This series is just hard to follow, especially when the characters all have similar personalities.

The brothers are too similar to each other, with only a few teeny, tiny differentiating characteristics, but you still have difficulty trying to figure out which one is which. There's no humor, no plot twists, no...nothing.

The ONE redeeming quality about this series is the opening theme, "Mr. Sadistic Night," sung by Kosuke Toriumi (you might recognize him from his role as Cecil Aijima in UtaPri) and Hikaru Midorikawa (you might recognize him from his role as Softon in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo). It's pretty catchy, and while the meaning of the song is kind of dark (what else would you expect from a song called "Mr. Sadistic Night"?), it's still a pretty good song. I'm actually listening to it while I write this. It's kind of a heavy rock song, but I wouldn't necessarily call it metal. I definitely recommend giving it a listen.

So, if I was on a deserted island, and the only way to get off was watching all the Twilight movies or all the episodes of both seasons of Diabolik Lovers (or get eaten by flesh-eating piranhas), I'd have to say...Twilight. It's bad (understatement), but nowhere near as bad as Diabolik Lovers.