Kabo’s freshman year of high school is just beginning, and for him, that means figuring out a way to just get by, to disappear into the crowd and blend in. Maybe that means spending time with his basketball teammates from middle school—after all, Kabo is tall and a good passer. But when he sees a classmate, Wanda, dancing, it changes his perspective. She’s quiet like him, but doesn’t struggle to speak, unlike Kabo with his stutter. Wanda has a passion for dance and is seemingly unafraid of others seeing her practice, or of being in the spotlight. Could dance hold the answers? Could it be what Kabo is meant to do—even as worried and inexperienced as he is?
At one time, I was really into the Wandance manga—and hearing that Madhouse was animating the series stirred that excitement back up in me again. What would this famed studio do with a series that has entire chapters focused mostly on dancing? Episode one drops some hints about this, but mostly, it just establishes Kabo as a kind-hearted and authentic character; he struggles in ways that a lot of us have: with the fear of being in the spotlight, of having all eyes on us, or with the anxiety that comes when we’re not confident in who we are. But episode one also shows some growth in his character already, and it feels realistic. He’s a teenager figuring himself out, and his attraction to Wanda, who has this passion for dance and is striving for excellence in it, starts to open up his world. There’s a comparison to be made here with My Dress-Up Darling, although the tones of the two series are disparate, with Wandance being a little more serious and cool, while My Dress-Up Darling is sillier and more ecchi. But there are certain similarities in the characters, and in the sexualization of the love interest, with episode one walking that weird line where an anime sexualizes the female lead, but then tells us it’s not okay to do so. Apart from that, the episode was warm and really drew me in.
That is, aside from the dancing itself. I wondered how Madhouse would animate the dancing, which is illustrated surprisingly well in the manga, conveying movement through brush strokes, and by giving titles to famous tracks (I think I joined lots of others by playing those songs while “reading” the pages showing the dances). Those well-known songs couldn’t be used in the anime, of course, so instead the adaptation features a vast soundtrack of what seems to be mostly original music.* That part is fine. But what isn’t fine is the terrible CGI. It looks so awful that I can barely explain how awful it is, especially because there’s some blending with the 2D immediately going into the 3D, and the difference in quality between the two is starkly shown. It feels like a Vtuber dance, which isn’t what you want when you’re trying to give the dancing an urban, gritty quality. Maybe fans of Vtubers are used to this style enough to accept the dancing, but I found it downright awful; I assume this part of the series will get worse as more dancing is incorporated in future episodes. I also have to say that I was disappointed in how the series progressed after the first couple of manga volumes, so I’m not sure I’ll stick with it, despite the lovely characterization in this opening.
Wandance can be streamed on Disney+ and Hulu.
*Showing a considerable portion of the live-action “Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)” music video from the 90s was unexpected and quite fun!
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