Anime Doesn’t Need a Reason to Dance!

Some anime series are so excited to start their story that the characters just can’t help but break out into a dance! Likewise, there are nearly as many that say a cheerful farewell to the viewers by the characters finishing off each episode with a chipper little dance number. Whether they are coming or going, some anime just love to dance. To be clear, there are plenty of anime that are specifically about dancing, as a sport, as an art form, as a tradition, and even as an expression. The anime dancing that I’m referring to is completely unexpected at the beginning or end of an anime which is totally unrelated to dancing. From the Hare Hare Dance at the end of the sci-fi anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya to the stiff robot like dance at the beginning of the children’s history adventure anime Flint The Time Detective, there is just so many anime that might not have a reason to dance, yet still do with flare! Of course, there are just too many anime to cover in one little blog post, but here are some of the anime who’s unexpected dances were a happy surprise and put a smile on my face!

Boys over flowers

This is an older anime about a spunky “No Brand” girl named Tsukushi Makino. She’s a high school student from a middle class family going to an ultra elite school for the kids of the rich and powerful. Vowing to keep her head down until she can graduate, she is invisible to most people at her school. That is until the elite rich boys group known as the “Four Flowers” picks on one of her friends. That’s when she decides that she’s not going to put up with it and she reveals her fearless and resilient true personality! She’s even willing to take on the head of the Four Flowers himself! For this rather serious school drama that is packed full of teen angst and harsh bullying, you wouldn’t expect each episode start with a lively dance number very similar to a Broadway musical, complete with matching costumes and jumps in unison yet that’s exactly what you will find!

Skip and loafer

Skip and Loafer is a cute Slice of Life anime that was just released in the Spring of 2023, about the top student of a tiny rural village who moves to Tokyo to go to an elite school so she can pursue her dream to become a local politician to help her community. Like many high school Slice of Life anime there is inter-friendship drama, some light romance, and some wonderful character development. What is very unlike the standard school anime is that the whole cute story starts with a very cheerful dance by the two main characters. It even has flower petals fluttering from the sky! If this doesn’t get a smile on your face and ready for a happy story, I don’t know what would.

Pretty Boy Detective Club

Pretty Boy Detective Club is about Mayumi Dojima, who has been searching for a certain star every night for the past ten years. It was on one of these nightly searches the she encounters Manabu Sotoin, younger male student that is over the top flamboyant, blue haired, very eager to help Dojima on her search. Oh yeah, and he just happens to be the leader of the “Pretty Boy Detective Club” at their school. For the first few episodes Dojima has the strong impression that this “Detective Club” is kind of sketchy, but she skeptically follows along anyway. After her case is completed, Dojima kind of gets drawn into the club and starts attending school as a boy so she can fit the four rule criteria of the club. 1. Must Be Pretty, 2. Must Be a Boy, 3. Must Be a Detective, and 4. Must Be a Club Member! For this flamoiant and extra sparkly school detective anime it maybe isn’t that surprising that the characters would break out into dance, but it certainly is a fun way to start each episode!

Blood Blockade Battlefront

This is probably the most surprising of all the anime mentioned on this post. Blood Blockade Battlefront is an action packed anime about a city that lives on the edge of a portal to another world filled with monstrous beings and yet somehow manages to make everyone get along and work together with some help from the crime fighting group called Libra, and the newest member of this group is a boy that gained the eyes of a deity at the cost of his sister’s sight. And with all the seriousness and action that is blended into this story, each episode ends with the characters on a little stage entertaining an unseen audience with a variety of dances with each other.