[Review] Dance with Devils Episode 7: Pas de Deux of Fantasy and Innocence { This is the first time I'm writing a review and I know it's a little late but enjoy!} So we got to know a bit more about Rem's true intentions on getting the grimoire in this episode . I believe that those who have already either downloaded or listened to his Character CD might already know his true feelings ,which isn't really a big spoiler to the plot but it still spoils you more on Rem's character it self . Although this episode didn't really clearly expressed his true feelings or intentions, it still gave you a vague idea on why he is doing this. Apparently, his father is the one who is pulling the strings behind all this,and he's not the least happy to know that Rem doesn't have the Grimoire yet. Like any other abusive parent would behave, he tortures Rem by strangling him and says that if he still wants to carry the status as the heir to the Arlond family ,he would have to make the grimoire his or else death would await him. TBH, I really love Rem the most compared to all the other boys in this series. I mean he and Lindo are my Baes, but somehow, I love Rem in a sense that I really want to give him support and know more about him, so when this scene came up, I was like 'Fuck you' to the his father, lol. Don't worry Ritsuka ,I still ship you with him :3 As for the other three, Mage, Urie and Shiki, It appears that the three of them knew what was going on inside with Rem and his father, so the atmosphere inside the library is quite heavy. Considering that it's probably not the first time Rem's father came to 'visit' him, Urie states that it's at these times that his glad that he isn't the Arlond Heir . I guess Rem's father must be super terrifying for someone like Urie to actually fear him, since Urie has been with Rem for the longest period of time.So they go on with their little chat about Rem's father having a short fuse by Mage and how exciting it would be to see Rem's agonizing expression by Shiki. I admit that I once liked Shiki, mainly for his voice but somehow I don't really like him now, I'm not into Do-M/Do-S guys ,and I think I like him better in the manga. So an argument stirs up between the three about who's actually enjoying this and it ends with Shiki having a wound which he's pleased with and Mage coming up with the idea of them hitting on Ritsuka because Rem is now occupied with his father. I was hoping to see some bromance between Rem and Urie but of course DwD is not that kind of anime . So Urie agrees with it ( have you not the least care for your childhood friend? This is why I hate Urie 😠) and once again says that the butterfly would be his yada yada yada and Mage of course says the same thing about the grimoire and Ritsuka being his. Not realizing how stupid they were as Shiki had already left library while they were busy showing off. For once I know who's the smartest among the three, it was Shiki all along. So the two show offs decide to chase him down and abracadabra teleport themselves out of the room. Of course, the room wasn't left empty, there was still that adorable Pomeranian Loewen. So cute doggy Loewen jumped down from his usual resting position and went to open the window....for no reason(?). At that exact same time, Rem was already done getting tortured by his father and staggers out of a hidden room in the library ( Rem 😰) . Out of exhaustion , he passes out on the sofa. Loewen who was watching him the whole time, decides to carry on with his own plans now that Rem's knocked out cold , so he too abracadabra teleports himself inside the hidden room. Meanwhile,Azuna and Ritsuka were doing some shopping for their school's culture festival at the department store . Wanting to get duct tape from a much further shelf, Ritsuka was just about to wander off alone but was stopped by Azuna, reminding her that she had promised not to wander off alone even to the nearest of places. Ritsuka not wanting to be treated like a baby tries to talk her out of it but Azuna doubts it by saying that the Devils show up like cockroaches (Cockroaches? Lol) so they should always be on guard. Giving up, Ritsuka could only sigh on the fact that there are two Lindos now xDD So the conversation continues about them not being able to carry the huge load of things and that the boys in their class won't even lift a finger in helping for the preparations for the culture festival. Ritsuka suggests that they ship it to the school instead, since preparations are starting the next day and that Japan has a really convenient shipping system XP Azuna proceeds to pay for the things and maybe apply for the shipping stuff? and tells Ritsuka to wait for her and not to wander off alone. This is where I find it weird, can't she just bring Ritsuka with her? Oh well, if it progresses the plot then I'm fine with it. Just as we thought that nothing could make Ritsuka wander off alone, she spots none other than Loewen disguising himself amongst a line of Pomeranian dolls. Wondering if it was really Rem's pet Pomeranian, because you don't get to see a Pomeranian wandering around a department store everyday, she follows him but remembers what Azuna told her and decides to inform her that she was leaving for just a sec. Of course, she does it by shouting not too loudly and Azuna doesn't hear it. She follows the little doggy out of the store and finds him hiding in the bushes in a nearby park. As what a normal person would do, she checks his dog tag and confirms that he is indeed Rem's pet Pomeranian , Loewen. So they had a little cute moment between them going on with Loewen licking the nape of her neck, making her feel ticklish until Poof! A shouta is now sniffing/ kissing(?) her neck. So the shouta was like " Oh, so this is the second time you see me in my human form" and introduces himself as .....Loewen... Since he's not a puppy anymore, Ritsuka freaks out and pushes him away in the most hilarious way possible 😅😅. She was just about to answer an incoming call from Azuna but he shoved his face between her and her phone,LMAO. He then asks her if she wanted to find out more about the forbidden grimoire . She asks him if he was a Devil and he replies by introducing himself as Cerberus aka hell's three headed watchdog. Apparently he's serving a fiend (I see what you did there Rokka 😏)whom he calls lord Maksis. He offers her to follow him if she wanted to know more about the truth. She takes up on the offer and lies to Azuna about her leaving because she had something to do and promised she'd go back home when she's done. Loewen says that she's a naughty girl for lying to her friend but Ritsuka gives him her trademark eyes of determination . Meanwhile, Azuna , still worried about Ritsuka, gets a taste of Ritsuka's harem 😏. First it was Shiki , who fell from the sky and landed right infront of her but instead of confronting Azuna, he cowers behind her as Mage and Urie appear out of thin air. Pissed off that Shiki tried to make a jump on them,Mage punched a nearby telephone pole and it broke into two, almost crushing Azuna and Shiki in the process but they were saved by Urie's whip as he flings the broken pole to the other side of the neighborhood. Got to be honest,I hope that pole didn't crushed someone's house because it certainly sounded bad. So Urie goes on to threathen Shiki with his whip but it came off as more of a temptation to Shiki as he resists it and claims that he was just helping the two. To make it more believable, he shoves Azuna towards them and states that she knows where Ritsuka is . Obviously, Azuna isn't the least pleased with it. Fufu, love that Azuna isn't just a minor character that could be forgotten in a blink of an eye. Back at the third Library, Rem regains his consciousness and wakes up to find that he's the only one in the library (My poor Rem 😢😥) . He senses something strange and turns toward the hidden pathway in the room. Unknown to him, Ritsuka was following Loewen in what looked like an underground hallway. Ritsuka questions Loewen about the grimoire being a book of magic , still believing that it's just a book with magical spells written in it. Loewen of course chuckles at her naivety , but sensed something from the other side of the hall and stops for a moment. Seeing that there isn't anybody there, he urges her to follow him but Ritsuka was already tired of him dragging her around and demanded that he tell her the truth right here right now or she won't follow him to whatever place he wants to take her to. Amused with her response, he says that she is indeed her father's daughter. So he gives up on playing keeping secrets and tells her that the weakened powers of his master is what triggered the war between the Vamps and Devils and he requires the forbidden grimoire to restore that power. He explains that the Grimoire isn't an actual book of magic , rather it's the great power that could grant anyone the ability to rule the world (That explains a lot). He goes on to sexually harass Ritsuka , commenting on her scent and licking her neck, to which she pushes him away and it triggers the anti-devil ring on her finger. It hits him hard against a pillar but didn't do much harm to him. Ritsuka attempts to prevent him from getting closer to her with her ring but it didn't do much work . He reveals to Ritsuka that the sweet scent emitting from her body is indeed proof that she is the grimoire herself, in other words, the power of the grimoire resides in her and that anyone that obtains this power can open the gates of Gehenna and rule the world. He continues on that if he were to extract that power from her and give it to his master, the war between the vamps and Devils would be concluded and Ritsuka could go back to living a normal life with her family. Of course, we all know that things won't be that easy. So Ritsuka was like " Really?" and he starts to sing his song with his choir of singing Pomeranians backing him up. Got to admit, his song was good, even better than Rem's but somehow, I still like all of the songs in DwD, I can't seem to choose which one really is my favourite. So after he was done singing, he tells Ritsuka to hand over the power of the forbidden grimoire to him and the Tachibana family would have nothing do to with any of this shit anymore ( Sounds really convincing but we all know that there must be a price for that). Back at Ritsuka's neighborhood, Azuna was busy warding off the three Devils with her holy water . Though it injured them quite a bit, it still wasn't enough to defeat them and they demand her to tell them where Ritsuka is now that she ran out of holy water. At the exact same time, Lindo arrives to the rescue and the three Devils , knowing how powerful Lindo really is, chose to retreat , not wanting to create a commotion out of school grounds. Azuna ,already weaked in the knees, falls to the ground and heaves a sigh of relief, as Lindo asks her if she's okay and that he came to get them because they were late coming back from the department store and asks where Ritsuka is, to which she responses by saying that she thought Ritsuka was already back home. Is it wrong for me to ship them ? Because Lindo going with Azuna seems more reasonable to me. 😕 The scene comes back to Rem as he wanders into the same hallway Loewen and Ritsuka were in and vaguely hears their conversation. So he hides behind a pillar and eavesdrop on them. Ritsuka refuses to believe that she is the grimoire herself and Loewen states that even if she believes it or not, the power of the grimoire will activate on her seventeenth birthday and will last until the next full moon (how long is that actually?) . Ritsuka recalls the conversation she had with her brother about him and her mum planning to tell her the truth on the day before her seventeenth birthday ,and figured out that that's what her brother meant . Loewen reads her mind and states that both her mother and brother already knew the secret of the grimoire right from the start and calls her brother a liar to which she protests that her brother would never lie to her. Loewen ignores her protest and said that although her brother didn't lie , he still kept quiet about the scent of the grimoire emitting from her body. He tells her to not be afraid as he only desires the power of the grimoire and not her and tells her to play sleeping beauty in a room he prepared until her seventeenth birthday comes to pass so that the power of the grimoire would be given to his beloved lord Maksis. To make it more convincing, he takes advantage of Ritsuka's kind heart by saying that this is the only way to prevent anyone from getting hurt and tells her to get rid of her anti-devil ring. Hesitant at first, Ritsuka was just about to take the ring off her finger when Rem stopped her just in time. Surprised to see him there, she notices that he was covered in bruises and questions him but he refuses to answer. Loewen states that Rem's father would be so dissapointed with him if he ever finds out that Rem was protecting the grimoire all along and might tear him from limb to limb the next time he pays a visit. Ignoring his statement, Rem said that he would never have guessed that Loewen was still working for Maksis and questions him about his obligation to the Arlond Family for taking him in . Loewen laughs and states that the word 'obligation' should not come from the mouth of the Arlond heir ,which pisses Rem off and he attempts to attack Loewen with his iron man powers ,lol 😂😂 I just had to say that, it looked so similiar. His attacked failed to do any damage to Loewen and before he knew it , Ritsuka was already taken hostage, with Loewen threatening to kill her right at the spot if Rem ever makes a single move. He proceeds to tear open her uniform with his sharp claws in attempt to dig out her heart. Due to Ritsuka's strong emotions of fear, her anti devil ring activates and send Loewen flying as she falls to the ground. Just then Lindo magically appears in his exorcist circle and she calls out to him. He immediately spots blood on her uniform and instantly thinks that it's Rem's doing , since he's the only one there and Loewen is in hiding because he's actually a coward 😒. So he goes into beast mode and attempts to attack Rem but Ritsuka stops him. Not in his right mind, he pushes her away and Rem immediately runs to her side as Lindo attempts to attack him the second time. Rem attempts to shield her from the attack but she pushes him aside and got clawed hard on the cheek instead. Not able to control his powers, Lindo was about to attack Ritsuka for the second time but Rem blocks his attack as Lindo's sharp claws dig into his hands, making them bleed. Rem them proceeds to wake Lindo up from his state by asking him if he was also going to destroy his sister to which Lindo finally calms down and realizing what he had done, starts to fear his own power. Ritsuka immediately embraces him and tells him that it's okay. Seeing that everything is back to normal, Rem silently leaves the hallway and vanishes into thin air. The image of the hallway disappears as Ritsuka finds them both back at the park. Loewen, still refusing to give up, promises that they would open the gates of Gehenna together the next time and disappears behind a tree. Back at the Tachibana residence, Ritsuka was still clearing her head on what had happened earlier as Lindo offers her a cup of hot cocoa. She thanks him and he apologizes for hurting her just now , so Ritsuka asks him whether if he knows that she is the grimoire , pleading him to just tell her the truth. He says that he learned about it from their grandfather ,so as their Mother ,and tells her that the potpourri that their mother had placed inside her pendant was holy potpourri which completely masked the scent of the grimoire . Ritsuka asks him that if it had masked the scent completely, how did the Vamps and Devils found out about her scent. He explains that a year ago, when she found out about the death of their grandfather , her keyed up emotions made the grimoire give out a scent that even the potpourri pendant couldn't hide, it was only for a moment but long enough for both the Devils and vampires to notice and within a year, they had already attacked the Tachibana household. Because of this, Ritsuka thinks that her mother's kidnapping was all her fault but Lindo firmly says that it's not and that all he and their mother wanted to do was to protect her. Ritsuka starts tearing up and says that she just wanted all of this to end , and suggests that if she gives her powers to the Devils, everything would be fine but Lindo tells her not to and says that if she does , it would be the end of her. He tells her that this is all he can say for now and promises her that he would protect her wven if it costs his life to ensure that she would always remain safe and sound. The scene cuts off to Ritsuka as she lies in her bed, wondering who could she actually trust now . ( The Feels 😢) Meanwhile, back at Rem's mansion. Sitting beside the fireplace while playing Shogi, Rem ponders over his true feelings for Ritsuka, torn between his duty and his heart. <Personal Opinion> Got to admit, although there are illogical sequences in DwD, I still love this anime really much. Yeah, Ritsuka falling for their tricks over and over again isn't really helping in boosting her popularity but I kind of understand how she feels, if it were me, I would've followed Loewen too, as long as I can get the to know more about the truth, it's just the typical Curiosity all humans have. Plus, if she didn't actually followed them , the series would just go in circles of her not finding out anything each episode and just sitting at home like a good girl , that would make it even more boring. A lot think that Ritsuka is dumb and too trusting but what can she actually do? With all this shit going on and nobody gives a damn to tell me the whole story, I would also be confused AF, and by telling the whole story, I do not mean giving hints here and there , but the actual story of What,Why,When,Where and How, which wouldn't be revealed until..maybe ep 10 or so? So I could say that it would be really a turn off if they just tell her everything and go on with their lives. Another thing about Rem, people may find him boring but strangely I don't. Maybe my insights are different than most people but I feel that there's more to his character and that he just doesn't want to admit what he's really feeling, all thanks to his stubborn attitude as the Arlond heir and his abusive father. Like I had mentioned earlier, his character CD reveals much more about him than in the recent episodes. I'm not gonna spoil but if I could , I would try to ask my Jap friend to help me with the translations and maybe I'll post it here. I won't spoil but I'm just gonna tell you that Urie and Rem are both Childhood friends and they usually played together often when they were kids. Just gonna say that Rem really holds a special place in my heart, a really special one, it's not the feeling of Fangirl love but rather I love him as a character and would really want to give him support if I could 😊 Thoughts on next ep 8 Preview: To those who still don't know why is there a ballroom scene in ep 8, have you already forgotten that culture festivals exist in Japan? Plus, Azuna did mention that they were preparing for the school's culture festival, so since this has a VK vibe to it, the school probably organized a prom night for the students or something. Back to the point, I get to see my OTP next ep >\\\< Rem X Ritsuka FTW <3 I don't know about you all, but I ship Lindo x Azuna, so don't hit me Lintsuka shippers, because I'm going with Remtsuka and Linzuna xDD Next ep seems full of fluff and fillers but I can sense that something would crash the party, since the title is [Waltz of Transience] and the word 'Transience' means it's short lived, so technically, the Waltz isn't going to last for a long time :( Last but not least, The OST for this anime really is amazing! <3 a 100/10 :3