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Wandance – 02



It’s a shame the folks behind Wandance made the decision to depict the dance sequences the way they did. Not just because it’s collectively pretty bad (which it is) but also because it seems to be torpedoing the show’s chances to gain an audience before it really even got started. Judging by the public commentary I’m reading it seems like opinion has already pretty much calcified against the series, and that’s too bad. Most people don’t even seem to be looking past that misstep – whatever else Wandance does isn’t even relevant.

As irked as I am about that CGI, this approach doesn’t make sense to me. Important as it is, those sequences were one or two minutes out of this episode. One could argue the most important one or two minutes – certainly if you’re in this for the dancing. But I have to look at the whole picture. I’m still pretty much of the view that everything else Wandance is doing is really good. This episode wasn’t quite as impeccable as the premiere but it was still excellent. Kabo is one of the more interesting and real protagonists in anime this year. There’s just an awful lot here to like.

I tell you what, I sure wouldn’t have had the balls to join a dance club in high school (even if I wasn’t totally disinterested anyway). I’m not a stutterer but I am introverted, and the idea of joining a club that’s 95% girls would have scared me right off. And that’s the average – in this club, in fact, Kabo would be the only boy. There is a second-year who “hardly ever shows up” (that’s a Chekov’s Gun if ever I heard one) but for now Kabo is it. He has Wanda as moral support, else I’m pretty sure he would have bailed almost immediately.

It’s funny but just today I was thinking of the crazy day in Spring 2012 when NoitaminA premiered Sakamichi no Apollon and Tsuritama back to back. Both those shows used the “underwater” device to communicate that sick teenage boy feeling when social awkwardness is drowning you. Wandance throws it out here when Kabo is in the club for the first time, sticking out like a sore thumb in a cluster of scared freshmen girls. The club president, On Miyao (Suwa Ayaka) – she’s a cool cat – breaks him out of his fugue state with a timely clap. And she quickly picks up on the fact that for all his awkward moves, Kabo has a keen ear and a feel for the music.

If there’s a flaw in the writing here for me, it may be that Wanda is just a bit too perfect. Too good a dancer, too understanding about Kabu’s problems. But it’s early days yet, and we don’t know her as well as we know him. As is, she gives Kabu a bit of an anchor to cling to as he sails into uncharted waters. His love of dance – and dance music – is plain to see. Dancing is, as he muses, a chance to express himself without speaking. Without his disability fighting him every step of the way. When On asks him (not unkindly) if he talks the way he does because he’s nervous Kabu replies no, that’s just who he is. And equates it to a DJ scratching vinyl, which certainly brought Scatman John to mind again for me.

It’s worth noting that for a lot of the club scenes and the “casual” dance moments with Wanda and Kabu, conventional animation of a mix of 2D and CGI is used. And obviously that looks a lot better, and is a lot less distracting. It’s quite riveting watching Kabu on his own and he and Wanda together – his intense desire to immerse himself in this process is really palpable. I don’t feel that same passion for this but any sort of passion well-depicted makes for good narrative fiction. As for the matter of Kabu’s “Do you want to go out?” to Wanda, well, I’m still of two minds on that. I’m not sure he didn’t chicken out and pull an audible halfway there – which would be easier to cover up given his disability.
















































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