Cuppa’s Thoughts on Diabolik Lovers
Diabolik Lovers is probably one of the most controversial reverse harem anime’s I have come across. For those who do not know, Diabolik Lovers is a twelve episode anime adaption of a visual novel by Rejet. The visual novel is an otome game, meaning the game features a heroine whose goal is to win the heart of one of multiple available bachelors. Otome is typically aimed at a female audience, and one of its core genres is romance. Diabolik Lovers is no different from any other otome game in this way.
I want to stress the fact that the majority of my comments, whilst not ignoring the existence of its otome counterpart, will be about the anime. The game does not have an English license, and I have no urge to play the game even with my minor Japanese skills. What comments I do make about the game will be based on various reviews, both positive and negative, I have read online. I cannot form a full opinion on something I have not personally played myself, so I hope readers understand why my focus is primarily on the anime, which has received English subtitles. I want to point out that this is not a review. This article is an opinion piece, so please do not expect me to list every character and write about them in detail, or for me to go over the plot with a fine-tooth comb. I also want to state the fact that I am a huge otome and reverse harem fan, as you will be able to tell from my reviews of Hakuoki, Amnesia: Memories, Code: Realize and Norn9.
I first heard about Diabolik Lovers through social media, back when first impressions of the anime went no further than, ‘it’s a darker version of Twilight’. I am not judging anyone for liking Twilight, but I would be lying if I said I was a fan. I was disappointed at hearing people’s reactions, but since I do love reverse harem anime, and as there were so few of them about, I wanted to try watching it anyway. My response to the first few episodes of the anime went something like this:
Joking aside, it is this kind of content that makes Diabolik Lovers so controversial. The heroine was presented as livestock, as something to throw hot coffee at, as something to drown, to poison, to abuse. Simply put, I did not like what I was watching, so I stopped watching it. The more episodes that came out, the more heated the comments became on my Twitter timeline, but I stayed out of it. I had no interest in Diabolik Lovers, and simply thought of the anime as something that was not to my taste. Perhaps my opinion would change if I sat through every single episode, but I had no motivation to. It was months later when Diabolik Lovers once again proved to be a popular topic of conversation on my timeline. The cause seemed to be due to a variety of things, such as figure releases, companies asking for visual novel licencing suggestions and Diabolik Lovers receiving a second series. I was surprised by how popular Diabolik Lovers had become, and how many people were seemingly ‘in love’ with it. I decided to go back and finish the first series. Perhaps I had missed something. Maybe the anime got better further in?
It did not.
However, after watching all of the first series I did get a better understanding of why so many people were talking about it, both positively and negatively. I found some recurring comments, some opinions that people would reword and restate over and over again in defence of the anime. I found the comments quite interesting, which is why I wrote this article. I want to share with you some of these comments, and by doing so I also want to share with you some of my own opinions on Diabolik Lovers.
It’s for mature anime fans.
My understanding of this comment is that, due to Diabolik Lovers touching on complex psychological issues, those who do not enjoy the anime are dubbed as ‘immature’ for criticising it. If you do not like the anime’s contents, that is simply because you are too naïve to grasp the issues behind a dark mind. Now, if Diabolik Lovers did deal with such emotional complexities, then I may have been inclined to agree. As it stands, Diabolik Lovers deals with parental incest, murder and abuse the same way a toddler deals with their very first conversation. The toddler might think he is providing intelligent banter, but in reality all the adult hears is a mumbling of sounds and sudden high-pitched screeches.
Diabolik Lovers does not provide interesting insights into the human mind. It shows viewers a picture of a mother ignoring her child and then goes, ‘Look! Depth! Plot! We did it!’ Diabolik Lovers brings up topics and then just abandons them. It is shallow, making a joke out of the complexities it claims to take part in. In all honesty, if the anime focused on how the characters dealt with their own mental states, I believe Diabolik Lovers could have been a highly interesting anime. Instead these twelve episodes, each with a length of twelve minutes, focus on shots of fangs sinking into the heroine’s neck. Viewers then, literally, watch these ‘messed up teen vampires’ drink her blood under the façade of ‘erotic’ tension for the entirety of the episode. The length of the episodes may be short, but I assure you, their contents could have been much deeper without any time extensions.
They forget that it’s fiction.
This is probably one of the most common comments, and indeed it is one that is used for various different television shows, video games and books. I think it is quite difficult to watch an anime and not be reminded by the fact that it is fictional. As far as I am aware, no viewer of Diabolik Lovers has watched the heroine, Yui, get knocked to the floor and held captive by six vampires and thought, ‘I need to call the police!’ Yes, it is fictional. The vampires are fictional, that knife the boys fantasise about stabbing Yui with is fictional, that drowning animation is fictional, the suggestive rape of Yui is fictional.
Why does that make it ok? Why does that justify the anime’s contents? I think it would be far stranger for young women to watch such things on their screens with a blank stare and a smile, their only comment being ‘it’s just fiction’, followed by the question, ‘which vampire do you like best?’ The point of such shocking content is, in my experience, to provoke a reaction from the audience, to make a political or societal message about crime or the harrowing human mind. Where are these messages in Diabolik Lovers? Why are fans only reaction to the anime to make a straw poll about which vampire is the best-looking? Maybe I am out of touch with today’s reverse harem fans. I honestly am not sure.
It’s so stupid, it’s funny!
I can understand why some people laugh at Diabolik Lovers. Seeing a teenage boy talking innocently to his teddy bear one moment and then going on a bloodthirsty rampage the next, can inspire some humour, or at the very least, some nervous laughter. If people are not laughing due to enjoyment of the anime however, I do not see how it can be a viable defence. I also do not understand why someone would recommend the anime or the game to licencing companies simply for this one reason. Would you really want to spend your time and money on something because it is ridiculous? I want to be clear when I use the word ‘ridiculous’, because I do not mean it in the same way a ‘ridiculous’, low-budget B-movie might entice enjoyment. I mean it in the most serious way possible, in a way which questions why such an anime was made in the first place. If you want to watch a reverse harem anime for pure silliness, I would suggest watching Dance with Devils instead.
It’s S&M.
Now, I am no expert when it comes to S&M (no matter what you may have heard!), but it is my understanding that sadomasochism is ‘the giving or receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation’. Most importantly, the acts must be between consensual participants. If it is not consensual, the acts are no different from sexual violence or aggression, and can even come under the terms ‘Sexual sadism disorder’ or ‘Sexual masochism disorder’, which are types of psychosocial difficulties. As I see no evidence of Yui giving any of her male ‘suitors’ permission to cause her physical or emotional pain, I believe it is more likely that all six vampire siblings suffer from these disorders rather than sadomasochism, especially when taking into consideration their seemingly fragile mental states. This means that Diabolik Lovers is not S&M. It is abuse. Again, if Diabloik Lovers had focussed on the bachelors and their backgrounds, rather than the tormenting of Yui, this could have been a very different anime.
It’s the heroine’s fault she’s treated this way.
This is a very nostalgic comment for me. It reminds me of the Boys’ Love (BL) fandom, back when almost every female character was hated for being a ‘cockblocker’, weak, or a purposely written villain. It had got so bad that there were literally studies being made about why female BL fans seemingly hated their own gender. Actual books were published about it. I suppose people are making such comments about Yui due to the fact that she is not kicking and screaming at her assaulters. She is viewed as ‘weak’ for not being able to defend herself. I am going to skip all the gender theories from Butler and Mulvey, and simply say this… If you were cornered by six male vampires, all of which were capable of killing you with their little finger, would you not be terrified? Would punching and kicking them even be the intelligent move? Whatever the reasoning behind her behavioural choices, no one deserves this kind of treatment, not least a young, teenage girl who was ripped away from her father and thrown into the lions den.
Those are my thoughts. I am not saying you should not watch Diabolik Lovers, nor am I saying that anyone who likes the anime is any less of a decent human being. Obviously not everyone is going to agree with my views, and that is perfectly fine. Thank you for reading, and I apologise if I have caused anyone any deep offence. Feel free to share your own opinions with me in the comments.
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