Bienvenue au bal

Despite holding out until the very end of the first season, I only saw hints of what I expected from this anime series in the last episode. This is an anime series about dancing and everything that goes with it. Dancing is said to have many expressions and forms; some dances are sublime, subdued, and beautiful; others are lively and sexy. However, in this show, all the dances look the same most of the time, lacking expression, movement, or any emotion. All we get are the barest amounts of dance sequences and then lots of slow-motion and dramatic expressions. The ​​dynamics are only illustrated, not demonstrated in most cases. In other words, the biggest problem with anime series about dancing is the performance of the dance itself most of the time, and I did not feel anything. The only way I learned anything was through the comments of others who were watching but not actually dancing. This felt weird because I did not notice and could not see the dancing the others were talking about at all. During practically every episode, the show reminded me of sports anime like Kuroko's Basketball and Haikyu!! etc., and of the fact that this concept does not really suit dancing at all. The dramatic expressions of the main protagonists and the insane (even though only illustrated) drive killed any elegance that I think dancing should have. If they had taken inspiration from Yuri!!! On ICE, where most of the figure skating numbers were engaging, magical, full of movement, emotion, and elegance, then it would have been an excellent anime series (even though they probably would not have been able to pull it off production-wise, because the animators would have been really incredibly busy). I would have then been satisfied at the very least. After all, even anime series like Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul had much (VERY MUCH) better, more heartfelt, and beautiful dance scenes. This is why I am at a loss; I have just watched a decent sports anime with a pretty average narrative and the main protagonist who visibly develops. Despite this, at the same time, I have also seen an anime series about dancing whose most significant weakness is dancing. So even though I finished the season, I did not feel anything except for a bit of a shiver at the very end (the last episode is quite good, in my opinion)! 5/10. (19/12/2017)

Considering it's an anime about dancing,I was expecting a lot more dynamics, swing, movement; instead I got a lot of static images and a bunch of garbage about nothing. I admit that I didn't watch it properly after the initial disappointment (first 10 episodes or so), I was doing other things on my computer, but I didn't miss anything. You just can't find depth in a puddle (to be clear, I mean an ordinary puddle on a sidewalk that isn't riddled with two-foot holes). Tatara always had that weird expression of his, always hesitating and not knowing, but constantly surprising someone (either pleasantly or rather unpleasantly), his first partner was bland, the second her opposite, but the anime couldn't make anything more out of her, basically the two characters blended together motion-wise. The Standard was great, the Latin American even more so, during the anime I kept thinking of my friend who made it to Stardance, and also of my own dancing. That was probably the most intense thing the anime gave me. Which is not enough. I absolutely didn't care who won, or how they danced, because I found the characters strangely unrealistic – they were flat; as if they had a single characteristic they built them on. Too bad. Dancing is great, just not in this anime. There's a lot more sweat moving around than the dancers themselves. (26/03/2021)