Hutai

This review does include SPOILERS!

Intro and Story -  Welcome to the ballroom is based on a manga. The story is about a teenage guy who'sa  pretty typical character nowadays - no purpose in life, quite weak, shy, doesn't trust himself etc. And it makes most of younger audience feel connection with the protagonist ( assuming that their lives aren't that great either)  

So our hero is on his way home, when he get's bullied, later saved and invited to check out the dance studio. There he meets a pretty girl from school and gets to watch several couples dancing - plastic and profesional dancing moves gets our hero interested and blushing  (for a  guy who never had a girl or a good experience with it, plus being total failure in life that must be pretty rough)

Of course there's some more typical things - protagonist has lots of hidden talents for dancing, so it's super easy for him to see pro's doing some fancy moves and then he can copy and do it as well.  Funny though - he seems to lose it after 7-9 episodes and the rest is him trying to dance and failing over and over again.   

Personally for me this anime lacks training in dancing. We get to see very few flashy moves, very little training and mostly it's loss, emotions all over the place and people who're looking down and beginners.  MC's knew only waltz basic steps, watched some pro's dance and was able to copy some moves, he knew a little bit of quickstep and then ends up in a competition that also has slow foxtrot and tango. I think it would have been better if they showed us some more how he trains and gets better.   But oh well... 

Second half of this anime seems to get worse IMO. More drama, more loss, our MC barely gets any better.  OR he gets motivated, wants to change a lot and then fails again and has a hard time. Again and again... Kinda annoying.   But maybe better than having 12 episode anime with a guy who learns to dance in few episodes and then becomes the best.  Quite likely we'll see 2nd season if this anime follows the same phase. 

Animation - All depends how you look at it.  Many will say that the long necks and body is quite messed up. On the other hand I think that's done on purpose, because if any of you tried real dancing - not just shaking like a monkey in a pub place, but dancing in a real ballroom, you know that you need to keep your body straight, head up and every cell feels intense, because you're doing your best to get the right pose.   (But really some poses are overdone) 

It's easy to get used to it though - plastic body and longer necks than usual.   At the same time we have great details in animation, especialy shadows and the atmosphere, which I truly like. 

Sound - Music is done by the same guy who created soundtracks for Haikyuu, Death Parade and Boku no Hero Academia. That alone should be enough for the fans of those anime to notice the similarities.  Yet it keeps the great atmosphere and allows us to feel the dancing floor much better.  Though some soundtracks are too repetitive. 

Character -  Like I've mentioned previously our protagonist is more than a typical hero, so younger audience should like him, but for people who have seen mature anime it he might look quite annoying.  

There's also usual  assholes who try to ruin it for others and do things only for themselves,  that one OP guy who's a pro, but then gets injured and gives a quest to a protagonist, making him more dependant on new activity and giving him more screen time :D 

And a few girls.  A pretty looking one, who doesn't give a shit about guys that care for her a lot,  and that one super shy who gets to be a compation of our sensitive and fragile protagonist. 



Anyway, I've seen just a few episodes so far, so as I keep watching, I will update this review. 

But all in all - Even though this anime is about dancing, there's more characters expressions  and talking rather than dancing itself. And even if they dance there's just a few moves we get to see.