Diabolik Lovers: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Diabolik Lovers: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Nope. Never again. No thank you. Next...

I try to be as objective as possible when approaching a new anime, I do. But sometimes... sometimes a series is so revolting, so devoid of redeeming qualities, so lacking in entertainment value that I feel nothing but a deep, angry loathing. What usually follows is more rant than review, and this is no different. Insight, after all, requires analysis, and analyzing a repetitive one-trick, one-ick series like Diabolik Lovers is damn near impossible. Emotions getting in the way? Hardly. Dissecting Diabolik Lovers is near impossible because there's next to nothing lurking beneath its cold, rape-y exterior. No depth. No greater meaning. No subversion of genre convention. No smartly penned scripts, memorable characters or compelling storylines. Just a teenage girl repeatedly subjected to the overtly sexualized whims of six vampires who take turns drinking her blood and having their way with their young, innocent prisoner. It's horrific, I'll give it that. But not because it's effective horror. It's a bizarrely romanticized (and weirdly PG-13) foray into sexualized vampiric assault; Twilight: Raping Dawn for the victim-fantasy otome of the world. Guilty pleasure? If that makes you feel better, alright. Go with that. Me? All I wanted to do after watching the series was take a shower and scrub away any memory of it. If there's something I "just don't get" about Diabolik Lovers, I'd love to hear what it is. Otherwise, I hope to never have to sit through another episode. Shudder...

• Episode One: Yui finds herself trapped in a house full of bloodthirsty vampires. Unable to escape, and with traditional anti-vampire weapons and wards proving useless, she becomes lost within the labyrinth of hallways of the brothers' mansion.
• Episode Two: Yui awakens in a lovely bed wearing a lovely nightgown, with no memory of how she came to be there dressed that way. As she ponders this, she finds herself suddenly surrounded by the five younger brothers who start to argue over dibs on her. The eldest arrives and curtly informs her she must get ready for night school. She is instructed to behave herself or to face punishment, but she is confused as to what being behaved entails as she is compelled to submit to Ayato's every instruction instead of attending class.
• Episode Three: Life with the six brothers becomes even stranger as Yui loses her appetite and becomes 'marked' as Ayato's possession. She is temporarily released from her duties as his personal plaything and sippy cup so she may get bathed. She enters the enormous bathroom to draw a bath for herself only to find Shu listlessly soaking in it, fully clothed. Then she learns to her sorrow that she doesn't have a single ally in the entire household.
• Episode Four: Yui accidentally displeases teddy bear-holding Kanato by incorrectly guessing what he wants from her, and he punishes her for her lack of comprehension skills by displacing her school bag, which in turn causes her to displease Raito by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Raito proceeds to punish her using decidedly less childish methods, and mocks her for believing in something that can't physically save her from the evil that is him.
• Episode Five: Kanato finds Yui in the rose garden as she tries to sort out the new information about who betrayed her and gave her up as a sacrifice. He beckons her to follow him so he may show off a graveyard containing the grave of his mother. Assuming he would like some time alone, Yui attempts to leave which only infuriates Kanato with misplaced anger. Reeling from this experience, Yui wanders through the estate, and becomes worried when she hears groans coming from Reiji's room. Much to her folly, she enters the room to see if he needs help.
• Episode Six: Yui refuses to accept that she should suddenly stop showing compassion towards her fellow man merely because they are vampires, and allows herself to be led to one of Kanato's most favorite places in his little world. As she views his family's collection of wax figures all in bridal wear, she finds herself eerily aware that things are not as benign as they appear. Kanato confirms her suspicions and gleefully sets to adding her to their collection, until he is interrupted by a summons.
• Episode Seven: A mysterious woman in a purple gown gives Yui a rare opportunity to literally look into the past, to when Ayato and his bloodthirsty brothers were young boys. Entering a door at the end of a strange tunnel, Yui finds herself transported to a different time and place.
• Episode Eight: Yui asks the triplets about the woman in the purple dress who she spotted in the garden, and learns the gruesome truth about what befell their mother. Yui runs out of the house in horror and collapses sobbing in the garden, only to be approached by Subaru, who demands she keep her distance from him, or else. Yui spends a sleepless night in her chamber, made less restful by the arrival of an unwanted guest.
• Episode Nine: Yui experiences more chest pains and leaves the mansion in the middle of the night to seek answers from Shu. At first, he is unhelpful but quickly becomes interested in obliging her request for answers by forcibly tasting her blood to verify that it has indeed changed somehow. As she finally gets an answer to the question most prominent on her mind, whether or not her father knowingly sacrificed his daughter to these monsters, that answer becomes irrelevant in so many ways as the awakening is nigh
• Episode Ten: Cordelia and Richter savor one another's company for the first time in ages until Ayato interrupts them, demanding to know what they've done to Yui. The conflict quickly builds toward a breaking point.
• Episode Eleven: Cordelia flaunts her reanimation amongst the members of the Sakamaki household, who immediately want her and her lover out of their home, once and for all. But as they discuss how to proceed, Cordelia offers Richter a knife and asks him for a dark favor.
• Episode Twelve: The struggle between Yui and Cordelia for control over the body comes to a head as The Awakening begins. The boys, racing to gain the upper hand, hatch a plan to get rid of Cordelia for good.

Diabolik Lovers: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

If there's an upside to Diabolik Lovers it's Studio Zexcs' evocative animation, which uses color and shadow to striking effect. As such, Sentai's 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation is easily the highlight of the disc, and isn't riddled by very many issues. Banding occasionally creeps into the image, several shots are quite soft, and contrast isn't always as vibrant as it could be, but the image holds its own. Colors are strong, black levels are deep, and the animators' line art is (generally) crisp and clean. Aliasing, ringing and macroblocking are kept to the barest of minimums as well, leaving very little to complain about.

Diabolik Lovers: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Diabolik Lovers features a pair of serviceable lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo tracks, English and Japanese, though neither is all that remarkable. Voicework is clear and intelligible, effects are neatly prioritized within the soundscape, and the series' music is neither overpowering nor under-supported. However, for a series that prides itself on gothic atmosphere and skin-crawling visuals, the stereo tracks aren't all that engaging or effective. Flat and forgettable, they get the job done. Nothing more.

Diabolik Lovers: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray release of Diabolik Lovers includes Clean Opening and Closing Animations (HD, 3 minutes).

Diabolik Lovers: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Diabolik Lovers alienated me from the get-go, and I never encountered anything in its twelve episodes that made me even consider giving it a second chance. Sentai's Blu-ray release is a solid one, with a strong video presentation and two decent lossless audio tracks, but it takes a lot more than a respectable AV package to redeem what Zexcs has wrought.