I needed a few minutes to gather myself after that one.  Dance Dance Danseur is a great series, and spring has been a good season.  But that – that was the best anime episode not of the series or the season, but the year so far.  We have some huge names to follow (Samidare, Made in Abyss, Chainsaw Man, very likely Vinland Saga and Mob Psycho 100 – and oh, I forgot Golden Kamuy) so who knows if it can keep that title.  But this series keeps blowing expectations to smithereens, so it’s probably about time to stop doubting it.  This is greatness on display.

Who could have seen this coming, honestly?  As the show has played out it’s started to look like getting a director with some very old-school experience (One Piece, Sailor Moon, even Dr. Slump) in Sakai Munehisa was brilliant.  That retro tone and style fits like a glove, and this week was a showcase for key animator Ohtani Hajime (who’s mostly known for SHAFT works, actually) who directed and storyboarded.  And he seems to generally be in charge of the ballet sequences, which just keep getting better.  What’s amazing is that there are much bigger names on this season’s schedule and they’ve basically all met expectations (which were high), and Dance Dance Danseur has just blown right past them.  I never would have predicted that.

The hard part with eps like this is, of course, not gushing.  Because it’s going to be nothing but praise, I’ll warn you.  I love where things are going with Junpei’s character, because the writing captures that age so perfectly.  He’s a Kubrick fan, fascinatingly – it so happens I was a huge fan myself at 14 (and still am), so that definitely endears him (and the mangaka) to me.  Of course he thinks the plot of Swan Lake sounds dumb – he’s a 14 year-old boy.  But he still wraps himself up in the moment – hell, throws himself into it with utter abandon.  He loves dancing that much, and he’s a natural actor.

That’s both exhilarating and exasperating for Chizuru-san, who has to try and both unleash and contain him.  Their moments together this week were wonderful, as were all the scenes with the Goudai troupe.  These are all kids, even the big kids.  And Junpei is a force of nature, a tornado of charisma and idiocy and sheer energy.  His performance is fueled by imagination and energy and hormones and attraction, and despite Chizuru’s constant haranguing she knows that Junpei will fall back on his acting, because that’s the part of this he understands on the DNA level.

It was a bit worrying that Hyouta would be in the audience, but – apart from some impromptu laughter at the wrong moment – the only impact was that he was amazed by what he saw.  As was the audience – “boys’ ballet is intense” indeed.  The hardcore ballet mom may have tittered at Junpei’s technical glitches but the rest of audience gets him, just as Chizuru does – this boy has presence that just won’t quit.  He’s in love with Miyako of course – “my first girl” – and he takes all the pain that Odette and the Prince are subjected to by Rothbart, internalizes it, and spits it out as a raw, impassioned performance that leaves the audience a little stunned.  And that’s before he starts improvising.

I don’t know much about ballet, but I don’t think improv in Swan Lake is done.  Like, ever – and certainly not by a youth company.  But Junpei just can’t help himself – the fire is burning too brightly in his gut.  Poor Miyako has to play dead through all of it, but the Prince’s refusal to stay dead throws everything into chaos.  A furious Chizuru sends Luou out to re-kill him but he just won’t stay dead, and Luou finds himself drawn into his rival’s passionate orbit.  Soon enough the two are engaged in an aerial duel that’s not really Swan Lake but leaves the audience stunned and (eventually) enthralled – so much so that they demand an encore, a first for the festival in question.

Junpei’s dancing may have been lowbrow, and his going off-script unheard of.  The judges will surely punish it – but for most in the audience, it was a magical moment.  It certainly brought out a fire and intensity in Luou’s dancing that I doubt he’s ever approached before.  If he’s going to seriously pursue this as a career of course Junpei is going to have to change, to tighten up the fundamentals and stick to the script more.  But at the moment he’s 14 and full of life and illogic and raw emotion and by God, I say let the boy dance like his soul demands he dance.  He can learn to do the things he’s not yet good at – but you can’t teach what makes him so special.

When Junpei – basically in awe of himself as much as the situation – marvels at how much fun he’s having, how can you not be caught up in it?  This is art, this is youth, this is the magic of being 14 and being a natural at something you love.  He knows his ass it toast and Chizuru is going to end him, but in that moment Junpei just doesn’t care.  It’s simply a great moment – and the stunning way in which the entire ballet sequence was drawn and animated adds immeasurably to it.  I was prepared for Dance Dance Danseur to be good, but not for to be transcendently brilliant in all aspects the way it’s been so far.  It’s doing for ballet what Shouwa Genroku did for rakugo, and there’s not much higher praise than that.