Dance with Devils

Episode 5

Romance as a genre has a long history of making the hero and the villain the same man, generally “tamed” by the love of the heroine; scholars point to “Beauty and the Beast” as the first version of this plot. Well, Ritsuka's a beauty with what definitely looks like five beasts to potentially tame, and now that she's wise to what's really going on, she's once again showing evidence of actual thought as she continues to be caught up in their machinations, making Dance with Devils' romance roots (rather than reverse harem classification) show up much more starkly.

Not that there's ever been any question about whether or not this was a romance, but with Lindo's reveal last week that all four boys on the student council are actually devils who think they can use Ritsuka to get to the Grimoire, any small subtleties have been thrown to the wind. The action (and song) this week belong to Mage, the guy who is either too sexy for his jacket or too buff for it to fit over his bulging arm muscles. Mage is much less circumspect than Urie, Rem, or Lindo have been – he flat out tells her why he wants and why and commands her to “be his” before whisking her through a hellish otherworld to a lovely Chinese dinner. Whether Mage eschews subtlety because he doesn't like to beat about the bush or because his overweening self-love and confidence preclude all indirect discussions isn't clear, but whenever a guy refers to himself as “ore-sama,” you have to worry. Ritsuka most certainly is when his shadow reveals his true form to her; that she tries to escape at all when she knows that he's a huge horned devil is actually a credit to her courage. And she does persistently try to escape when he's not holding her physically...which, to be fair, he does most of the episode.

Much more interesting than Mage's security in his own awesomeness is Rem and Lindo. While there is something delightful about the moment when Mage falls for Ritsuka – and he falls hard in more ways than one – Rem continues to move towards the less evil side while my confidence in Lindo being a good guy wanes. Rem is clearly upset by Ritsuka being with Mage, although he doesn't seem to know why. When he pries her away while Mage fights some drug dealers speaking what I assume to be terrible Chinese, he just seems to want to get her home to her brother, even telling her to call Lindo to tell him that she's okay. These are not the actions of someone who just wants to use her as a grimoire GPS, and when Ritsuka asks him about his intentions and devilish origins, he seems to stumble over his answer, relying on semi-vague sense-of-duty statements. He seems frozen when Mage pulls her back into the otherworld, as if he can't quite bring himself to help her even though he still wants to. Lindo, on the other hand, is much more devilish in his behavior, despite his vestaments and exorcism spells. Mage seems to recognize something about the way the other boy's eyes glow red, which I can't say is a good sign, and Lindo's possessiveness is definitely crossing a line. I'm also leery of the way Azuna is the only one not caught up in Mage's forgetting spell when he pulls Ritsuka out of class; that and the way she and Lindo communicate behind Ritsuka's back have me really questioning their relationship and just whose side she's on...or, for that matter, if she's even human. Could she be an angel to the devils? A familiar Lindo asked/ordered to befriend Ritsuka so that he could have eyes on her at all times? Whatever the answer, it doesn't look good for Ritsuka's trust in her friend or Lindo's methods. (I also briefly wondered if Lindo is the grimoire. I haven't ruled it out.)

If Dance with Devils can work with this, Rem's leaning towards the good and Lindo's possible association with the evil, this show could take a turn for the much better. Shiki gets his turn at the girl next week, in any event, so we'll see how Rem and Lindo react to his general creepiness. Watch out, Ritsuka – you may be Beauty, but you really ought to consider which Beast you want to tame.

Rating: B

Dance with Devils is currently streaming on Funimation.

Rebecca Silverman is ANN's senior manga critic.