#it's either in vandead carnival or lunatic parade

[dialovers-lover-xoxo]

[uzi-boozii]

DIABOLIK LOVERS SCAN COLLECTION

This post is a collection of scans I have taken from some of Diabolik Lovers art/Illustration books I own! The books I have scanned that are in this post are: -Illustrations X -Illustrations II -DIABOLIK LOVERS 公式設定集 -Vandead Carnival Official Visual Fan Book -Lunatic Parade Official Visual Fan Book Note: These are not my proudest scans. I tried hard to get them as clean and as close to how they look IRL as possible, but it seems as if the App I use to scan has either dipped in quality or the scans simply weren't too kind to these pages in particular (either that or I've become rusty after so little posts these past few years). I hope people enjoy these scans nonetheless! Enjoy!

[yuikomorii]

I got a question but I need an objective answer please. So I saw a lot of people complain about Yui being written in a very bad way in Ayato’s routes starting with More Blood and was curious if you think that she became a bad girlfriend as the story progressed?

// I will analyze Yui’s versions from Ayato’s routes and provide an answer at the end of this post.

More Blood:

Even from the first two chapters we are aware of the fact that Yui got a big crush on Ayato merely because of his looks and pleasure he gave her. At first sight, these reasons seem very superficial, but at the same time you can’t blame her completely for that. Yui went to a normal school and used to read magazines for teens, therefore it’s obvious she would have hormones and fall in love with someone who got features portrayed as the beauty standard.

It's understandable why some found her annoying, as she repeatedly cried for Ayato's love without making any real effort to earn it. Apart from giving him her blood, she didn't try to understand what he was going through, even when she noticed changes in him that made him crave so much blood.

Nevertheless, I believe that she did redeem herself in the last chapters, where she admitted being selfish and only thinking about her own desires, instead of focusing on Ayato’s struggles too. I know she paralyzed him out of jealousy and cheated on him in the bad endings, but in the good one, she’s actually a really loyal person. Yui waited years for Ayato to wake up from the coma and Ayato searched for Yui for years in his dream until he finally woke up. This ending confirmed the genuineness of their love.

In the After Story, Ayato planned to attend university for Yui's sake, aiming to get a job and buy a house. Yui helped Ayato with his studies and praised his skills. Initially, she fell for his looks, but in the After Story, she mentioned falling in love with him again because of his caring, determined, and hardworking personality.

Vandead Carnival & Lunatic Parade:

I really liked Yui in both of Ayato's routes and honestly, I can't find anything to criticize about her behavior.

It's not that Yui was a bad partner; it's just that Ayato was portrayed as too good, such as when he ran through flames for her or protected her from a bomb explosion. But that's likely because these are fan service games, where the love interests are designed to be your knights in shining armor. xD

Dark Fate:

I absolutely loved Yui’s portrayal in that route. It was the sweetest version of Yui I’ve ever seen, and I really enjoyed seeing her so happy and soft. Regarding her relationship with Ayato, he was truly the apple of her eye, lol.

The only problematic thing she did was pushing Ayato to face his abuser, Cordelia, even though he didn’t want to. I honestly don’t care if a character does something to another character, as long as it doesn’t affect them and the story, so since Ayato didn’t get mad at her for that, I didn’t mind it much either. However, from an objective point of view, I agree that doing such a thing is quite bad. Being in the presence of someone who ruined your life can trigger intense memories and forcing a confrontation removes the victim's agency in deciding how to cope with their trauma. Ayato might not have been mad at Yui for planning that, but if it had been Laito, I’m sure he would have shown why Yui was in the wrong.

Other than that, she was a kind and supportive girlfriend throughout the whole route, clearly having no ill intent, and I appreciate that she had an actual important role in the route.

Lost Eden:

Ok, I really can’t defend her anymore there. She literally had no redeeming qualities, no matter how many times she got the chance to fix herself. I discussed my thoughts about LE Yui in this post, but I’ll sum it up.

She tried to convince Ayato that despite Cordelia abusing him, she actually did it because she “cared about his future”, and then acted surprised when Ayato started feeling uncomfortable because of her words.

Yui knew the reasons behind Ayato’s behavior, yet when his brothers started mocking him, she didn’t even try to defend him. Everyone ganged up on Ayato, and he was on the verge of a panic attack, yet she remained silent.

Another terrible scene was in one of the last chapters, when Ruki admitted to turning the Vibora Clan and Church organization against Ayato out of envy, aiming to kill him. Instead of criticizing Ruki’s actions, Yui justified them and spoke ill of Ayato behind his back. I wouldn’t like to date someone who claims to love me but keeps hurting me without learning anything… It felt as if Ayato only continued being together with her because he had no one else. No wonder he didn’t marry her there.

Chaos Lineage:

I found Yui quite boring in CL in general, but she started off as determined and sweet in his route, so I liked that.

For most of the route, Yui’s entire personality seemed to revolve around Ayato, and she didn’t do much. There were many cheesy moments between them that made me cringe. Still, I’m sure a certain audience enjoyed those.

My only complaint is that when his brothers started treating Ayato unfairly, despite the fact that he came up with the idea of breaking the glass floor of the church, Yui did nothing to defend him, again.

However, I do appreciate that she gave him that adorable monologue. I just wish she had done it in front of others instead of only acting when Ayato was already insecure and sad.

Now… let’s see what kind of girlfriend Yui was in each route by judging her progress:

MB: Good

VC: Good

DF: Very good

LP: Good

LE: Very bad

CL: Decent

[karleksmumskladdkaka]

I promised that I'd show you guys what my package of DL goods actually contained.

So...

Behold my treasures╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

(Please be forewarned that the quality of the photos are shit. They were taken by an idiot with no real photography experience whatsoever. Added to that I'm not fully recovered yet and honestly didn't have the energy to do multiple takes I'm also a lazy bitch at the best of times so there's that. But to compensate I have added a list below each picture to make it fully clear what exactly is depicted in them.)

Booklets ⋆⋅☆⋆⋅

From upper left to bottom right:

More, Blood Stellaworth Special Tokuten Booklet

Vandead Carnival Special Booklet

Vandead Carnival Animate Limited Set Booklet

Vandead Carnival Stellaworth Special Tokuten Booklet

More, Blood Limited V Edition Animate Limited Set Booklet

More, Blood Limited V Edition Stellaworth Special Tokuten Booklet

Dark Fate Stellaworth Special Tokuten Booklet

Lunatic Parade Stellaworth Special Tokuten Booklet

Grand Edition Stellaworth Special Tokuten Booklet

Lost Eden Special Booklet

Grand Edition Special Booklet

Chaos Lineage Special Stellaworth Tokuten Booklet

Daylight Special Stellaworth Complete Set Purchase Tokuten Booklet

All of these booklets contain short stories, either individual ones for each diaboy or just a singular one that involves Yui and all the diaboys from the associated game (though the stories do not necessarily have anything to do with the plot of said game. Like at all. One story is literally a Mafia AU. I'm not making this up I swear.)

There are a few booklets that I'm missing, namely the HDB ones and most of the Drama CD ones. I'm on active lookout for the latter while the former... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I honestly don't care about. No Ruki = none of my money. I'm a Ruki fan first and foremost, if that's not abundantly clear lol.

Drama CDs ⋆⋅✮⋅⋆

From upper left to bottom right:

Vandead Carnival Stella Set Tokuten: Special Voice CD

More, Blood Limited V Edition Stella Set Tokuten: Special Voice CD

Dark Fate Stella Set Tokuten: Special Voice CD

More, Blood B-2 Price Drama CD (Mukami Ver.)

Lost Eden Vol.4: Mukami Saga

Lost Eden Stella Set Bonus: Special Voice CD

Chaos Lineage Vol.3: Orange

Sadistic Night 2017 Event Pamphlet CD

Versus IV Vol.2 Shuu vs Ruki Stellaworth Tokuten Drama CD: "The Vampires got a Part-time Job: Ruki"

Eternal Blood 5th Eternal Blood Vol.1 & Vol.2 Animate Tokuten Drama CD: "A Certain Day at the Mukami Household" (Ruki & Yuma)

Chaos Lineage Ebten/WonderGoo Tokuten Drama CD: “The Vampire’s Every Day: Board Game Edition ~ Ruki VS Azusa VS Kino ~”

Grand Edition Animate Situation CD

More, More Blood Vol.12 Mukami Ruki Animate Tokuten Drama CD: "Monopolizing Her"

More, More Blood Vol.12 Mukami Ruki Animate Tokuten Drama CD: "Living a Normal School Life For Once!"

Daylight Vol.7 Mukami Ruki Stellaworth Tokuten Drama CD: "Sadistic �� Date"

Do you notice the common thread running across all these CDs?

I remember mentioning a while back that there were only two Ruki CDs I had yet to listen to. Well, turns out I'm a fucking fool and forgot about the existence of most of the CDs on this list. I have no idea whether the majority of these are any good but my hopes are high! In any case I am very excited to give them all a listen! Or more like multiple. I'm addicted to Ruki's sexy voice what can I say.

Miscellaneous ⋆⋅☽⋅⋆

From upper left to bottom right:

More, Blood Ebten After Story Card: Shuu

More, Blood Ebten After Story Card: Ruki

More, More Blood Vol.12 Mukami Ruki Deluxe Edition Message Card

More, More Blood Vol.12 Mukami Ruki Mini Story Card (which ties into his Another Story CD).

In addition to these items I have three other message cards from Ruki and two of his short story papers (his More, Blood and Bloody Bouquet ones) in storage, which I'll also share in the future.

That's all I got at the moment. Again, sorry for the piss-poor quality of the photos. I'll strive to do better with the next scans I upload.

- _(´ω`_)⌒)_

[chestnut-trotter]

Diabolik Lovers PSVita Emulation

This is a tutorial on how to emulate and play on your own the following Diabolik Lovers titles:

Diabolik Lovers Haunted Dark Bridal - Limited V Edition (with fan-translated english patch)

Diabolik Lovers More Blood - Limited V Edition (with fan-translated english patch)

Diabolik Lovers Vandead Carnival

Diabolik Lovers Dark Fate

Diabolik Lovers Lunatic Parade

Diabolik Lovers Lost Eden

Before we start, the first thing you'll need is something to emulate these games on. If you have one already, great!! For those who don't, I reccomend you use Vita3k. Download it here: https://vita3k.org

Unzip the vita3k folder you just downloaded (If you don't have a program to do this, I reccommend WinRAR. [just download it, no need to buy it] But I'm sure any will do)

Open the Vita3k.exe file to install it

Follow the installation instructions

When prompted to install firmware and font files please do so, don't skip by pressing next. You can find them here: firmware and font.

Select the install button for each, and then select said files from your downloads when prompted.

Click next when you have installed both. On the next page, click next again after selecting settings and preferences.

Now close Vita3k down and reopen it again.

You are ready to install some Dialover games XD

(if you run into any issues just DM me via either tumblr or discord)

NoPayStation has the PKG for all the above games.

Select the game you wish to download (click the name, it should open a pop-up window)

Then download the PKG file

Keep this pop-up window open, you'll need it for later.

Once done, in Vita3k, click file > install .pkg. Then select it what you just downloaded.

It will ask to verfiy the PKG, so you can select either work.bin OR zRIF.

If you chose work.bin: download the work.bin file from the game's pop-up in NoPayStation. then select it when prompted in Vita3k.

If you chose zRIF: copy the zRIF key from the popup window from before. (make sure you select the whole thing, it's quite long). Paste the key where prompted to in Vita3k.

The game should now install (if it hovers around 60-70% for a while don't stress)

Now, if you're installing either HDB or MB, keep reading, otherwise, you should be good to play the game :)

Here are the english patch links for both games: HDB english patch link MB english patch link

Inside Vita3k, right-click on the game you just installed, press Open folder > Application > data. Now replace the GAME.cpk with the one you just downloaded. (it has the english translation in it)

Close Vita3k again, then reopen it.

You are now ready to play Diabolik Lovers

Gatekeepers of the english fan-translation patch be damned. If Daisuke Iwasaki won't release an offical english version of Diabolik Lovers (and a Chinese one instead apparently 😭) then I'm emulating his damn game. I've bought a bunch of offical merch anyway, not like I haven't supported the company lol.

Happy gaming my fellow vampire enthusiasts :3

[diabolikpersonals]

Hey! I wanted to ask how you've gotten to play the actual games, if that's alright? What platform do you use, have you bought them all? Do you need translations when playing?

I got a PS Vita from a friend a couple years ago in hopes of starting to play them too when I could fully understand the language, and now I'm looking for references in other people dgshsbs

hdb and mb: I'm not gonna lie, I play these on an emulator :') someday I'd like to buy them to complete my physical collection though. the quality with emulators is definitely a lot worse.

df: I've straight up never played this one, I've only read translations of the routes. but I'm missing out!! the voice acting is so important in these games! so I need to get my hands on df as soon as I can :( ah, I don't have lunatic parade or vandead carnival either.

le and cl: I've properly bought these and I play LE on my ps vita and CL on my switch! sorry but I really don't remember what site I bought them from, it's been too long.

I don't use translations when playing because I don't really need them. My Japanese isn't suuuuper great but if I just have a dictionary nearby and I look up any words I don't know, there's no big problems! I purposefully try to avoid translations until after I've played the route myself because this is how I practice. Afterwards, I might read a translation in case there was something I misunderstood.

[obsessedwvampbois]

𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐋 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐬

Oh boy so this is gonna make people really mad. I have listened to a total of 52 songs from the Diabolik Lovers franchise (that I could find) and ranked them for the hell of it. For this ranking I will be including all character songs, openings (both anime and game) along with the remixes. I will not be counting solo versions of songs (eg. Gin no bara), soundtrack bgm or the endings themes.

My ranking is based on these things:

how well does the song fit the character/s or game, both in lyrics and aesthetic

the overall production and performance of the song

is the song a bop? would I willingly listen to it again?

Couple of disclaimers: I do not speak Japanese so I will be crediting the translations of each song as I go through them along with any think pieces / essays that I come across. If there is any song I missed, please let me know and I’ll slot it into the rankings, its hard to find one source that has all the songs recorded. Finally, just a reminder because I know I'm gonna make someone mad, this is my list! If you don't like it make your own or ignore mine, I'm only one person and my opinion is not final!

With that in mind, my rankings are below the cut

*Least Best*

These are the songs I will probably never listen to again. I have a few gripes with them that I'll talk about in my explanation.

52. 誓いのカンパネラ (Chikai no Campanella)

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

This song is just super underwhelming overall. The guitar is my favourite thing about the song but that's it. There is so much build up for a boring chorus. The lyrics don't have much for me either.

51. 血戦のDies irae (Kessen no Dies irae)

Tsukinami Brothers

~translation~

On the opposite end, this song is so overwhelming. There are so many elements to follow and its hard to keep up. This is the first time I'll bring it up but the volume of the voices is so quiet compared to the backing track, its frustrating. The lyrics is what brings it up a notch as it talks about the day of wrath (dies irae) as the day the founders take over. I was also low key hoping to hear some version of the dies irae song hidden in the background but I couldn't hear any.

50. S.O.S-ΑtoΩ-

Tsukinami Brothers

~translation~

This song just feels so forgettable, I just feel like there isn't much to comment on. There are some interesting lyrics sprinkled out like comparing literal self mutilation to abstinence. Also the actual delivery of 'S ah O ah S ah', I can't take it seriously.

49. Dystopia

Kino

~translation~

This had an interesting start because I hadn't heard anything similar for DL but then after a few lines the tone change was just a nope for me. Again, Kino's voice is super quiet and the constant barrage of all these instruments that don't really gel together its confusing. Overall, it didn't leave much of an impression and I couldn't really visualised DL in the song.

48. 吸愛ラビリンス (Kyūai Labyrinth)

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

Praise for the saxophone! Props to that because it shines here and is really the only memorable thing besides that final line of the chorus. The song does give the vibe of the Vandead Carnival with its more playful energy though. The lyrics feel really typical, like there are so many times I read lyrics about drinking blood before I get bored.

47. 極限(UNLIMITED) BLOOD -Remix ver.-

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation w/ original ver.~

I don't think I really need to hear EDM/dubstep and Diabolik Lovers again thanks. It feels super dated and the vocoded singing is a little much for my taste. Good source material and the stripped back vocals at some points is quite nice.

46. 愛しきPain (Itoshiki Pein)

Subaru

~translation~

First off please never let me see Subaru near a fedora again thanks. Overall I felt bored with this song, like its nice, but that it. There are similar sounding songs that just hit home similar themes a lot stronger later on. The best part of this song is the spoken word but it feels weird for Subaru to be singing such a slow song.

45. Luv Apple Juice

Ruki & Azusa

~translation~

Yes, I am counting Ruki's spoken word, its my list. Lyrics are a must read with references to Adam, Eve and Eden throughout. Again, the voices are super quiet and with how fast paced the instrumentals are its annoying. The tempo also backfires because these are two of the more 'chill' characters. The last complaint is that the speed of Ruki's speaking compared to Azusa's singing just isn't right.

44. DIE IS CAST

Kou & Yuma

~translation~

This has to be my least favourite opening to a song, the staccato is just really grating to me. The way I'd describe the chorus is loud, the same note over and over again isn't appealing. The lyrics are an interesting read but nothing feels super important. The highlight of the song is the pre-chorus, thanks production!

43. カレイドナイト (Kaleido Night)

Kanato & Subaru

~translation~

This song is just generic, like overall. The sound, the lyrics, the production. There just wasn't must for me to listen to without zoning out.

*Average*

These songs don't leave too much of a lasting impression on me, but I still enjoy them.

42. 苺の罪 (Ichigo no Tsumi) (strawberry sin)

Reiji

~translation~

First of the generic rock songs! I couldn't really find much in the lyrics of note I think the actual performance of the song is my favourite element here.

41. 真夜中の饗宴( MIDNIGHT PLEASURE) -Remix ver.

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation w/ original~

One the best part of the original is that opening section with the steps, it creates some nice anticipation for the coming song. The chorus this time round feels a little low energy after the hype of the pre-chorus. After watching the actual opening with the remix, I kind of wish they had the voice over, the song is so chill the last chorus could have it to make it feel more grandiose.

40. ZERO

Subaru

~translation~

Second generic rock song, this time it actually suits Subaru's brand! The lyrics do have some hints to Subaru as a character which is better. My sustaining thought is that this sounds like an off brand Arcadia.

39. Bloody★Mayim★Mayim

Sakamaki Brothers

~translation~

This has to have one of the strongest hooks for DL. For how many people sing in the song, it's easy to keep track of and the chemistry between them all is in sync. The main issue is that it feels like its missing some element to make it shine, the lyrics aren't in-depth too which brings it down another peg. The bridge/interlude is the best part though as I can visualise some mini story within the song here.

38. ADDICTED (2) PHANTOM

Ayato

~translation~

This song would be so much higher if I felt like it was more memorable cuz the lyrics here really shine. My interpretation is that this is Ayato questioning where his love stops and his sadistic nature to satiate his desires begin, can he separate the two? He both loves and despises the idea of draining his s/o dry. Another gripe with the song is that its not quite Ayato's aesthetic sonically.

37. Kindan no 666 (Three Six)

Kou & Azusa

~translation~

What puts this song so low is the majority of the instrumental, it takes a backseat here when I feel there could be more added. Props to percussion, drums are great though. After watching the MB opening so many times its hard to not see DL. Lyrics match with this one line here describing Kou in a nutshell:

"Sin spread from mouth to mouth, saying 'I’ll be gentle' pulls the trigger on a casual disaster!"

36. Iolite (アイオライト )

Shu

~translation~

I don't know why the producers associate electro-pop with Shu, I can't really see it much. I think they should have gone full glitch-pop instead considering how the song does a deep dive into his mind and thought process. Again, I think the voice is also quiet here but the instrumentals have some great moments, especially the strings.

35. 常夜KNOW UNDERSKIN

Sakamaki

~translation~

Well this gives Sakamaki vibes, nice guitar! Again, I like how it isn't overwhelming despite the amount of people involved. Lyrics aren't super impactful but super catchy.

34. 冷たい血 (Tsumetai Chi)

Ruki

~translation~

You have to read the lyrics while reading this, please! Its surprisingly wholesome and emotional overall. Again, there is the issue of the voice being way to quiet as the instrumentals swallow him whole after the second clock tick. The delivery is really well timed and production does a great job adding elements that works with the lyrics. There is a subtle echo to the voice that feels super enchanting as he comes to terms with the fact that he has fallen in love. Biggest drawback obviously is that this is just spoken word.

33. KISS♥MARK

Shu

~translation~

This song delves into the more perverse side of Shu, but we haven't really reached the level of Laito (we'll get there). The phone feels a little out of character but it suits that narrative. The straight cut out of music for the intermission was a bit abrasive but the transition back to music makes me forget about that with how slick it is. At least its better than a generic rock song.

32. カモフラージュ (Camouflage)

Shu & Laito

~translation~

What a great match up for subject matter, my interpretation is a denial and inability to accept oneself, ultimately using a mask to hide. So please look up the lyrics for some gems. However, after the 'against the blood' nothing really hit that same point sonically, furthermore its not the most aesthetically fitting for the two characters.

*Great*

These songs I actively enjoy, think about and do listen to occasionally and would recommend you check it out too.

31. >REDRUM<-

Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

This song is full of anagrams in the lyrics, I mean look at the song title. Its super catchy and is hard to forget about. The bridge is the weakest part of this song but it is made up by the distortion of vocals after the final chorus.

30. Fanatic of Night

Sakamaki Brothers

~translation~

Well time to party, talk about a bop and a half! Its just so fun, even though its to exactly DL to me, but that's Lunatic Parade for you. Shout out to the guitarist and percussion once again.

29. Bad Howling

Shu, Ayato & Kou

~translation~

This is super catchy, its nice to hear Kou in the opening song this time round, it spices things up. Theres some really nice elements played with the vocals as they sing over one another that is really well balanced. The biggest peg down is that I don't get super DL vibes and the lyrics aren't the deepest.

28. I.M.I.T.A.T.I.O.N. G.A.M.E

Kino

~translation~

Overall this song is a little generic and doesn't sound like DL but! There is a lot to love here too. Starting off with the performance, I really like the vibrato in his voice and the decent of notes at the end of the chorus is just, yes. It a nice hook and the lyrics are pretty good too. My only other complaint is that the drums mask some smaller elements in the background of the song which would have been nice to hear more in the forefront.

27. 極限(UNLIMITED) BLOOD

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

This is where the rankings get pretty hard cuz I wish this was higher but oh well. the dramatic shift from the opening piano to the song is so abrupt but it gets you pumped. The intermission does a good job of changing things up without cutting tension. The lyrics themselves seem to be from the view of the Adam project during more blood and the unquenchable thirst they get in the story.

26. アルカディア (Arcadia)

Ayato

~translation~

Immediately I get Ayato vibes from this song and the rapping does help too with a nice flow that isn't too jarring from the rest of the song. These lyrics are basically Addicted2Phantom on steroids, I can't see anyone else other than Ayato in them.

25. Kekkyoku Night

Ayato

~translation~

Don't know why but the guitar melody just seems like I had heard it before but I can't put my finger on it. The bass is super slick here and I really enjoy it. The vocal distortion at the start of the verse sets a scene for him to hunt down this person and its a narrative choice. The main issue is that I wish there was a little more pizzaz to the chorus.

24. Kaikan DEATH-TRUCTION

Kanato

~translation~

Spoilers but I have placed both a Kanato's songs pretty high up so this was a little bit of a let down after the other two. The main issues here is that I don't really get too much of Kanato in the song and the yelling before the chorus is a little much. This, to me, is a self reflection from Kanato which is a good switch up from his last two songs. Overall, the song is abrasive in a good way that isn't overwhelming and the 8-bit section is my fave.

23. 血濡れた密会 (BLOODY SABBATH)

Laito

~translation~

Oh boy, look these lyrics up for a good time. This song is about his hook up with a women with the song getting progressively darker as it goes on. Nice psycho reference but I don't know if it does much in the end. Really catchy hook and the escalation of the final chorus is just so good. Also I'm just going to leave this line from the song here:

“You wend all out with the rodeo girl play? So then, let’s grind!!!”

22. 幻日理論-Parhelion Logic

Ayato

~translation~

This song is meant to be kind of an open letter to Cordelia and my word these lyrics are haunting. It fits the vibe of Haunted Dark Bridal so well, super strong overall. I just wish there was a stronger performance vocally.

21. 暴言シンドローム (Seiron Syndrome)

Yuma

~translation~

Yuma, to me has some pretty good observation skills and its really highlighted here. The first line just hits the nail on the head in terms of how rough he is both in and out of the bedroom. This song is the best of the 'generic rock' with production being really smooth despite the high energy, it matches him really well. First line:

The pain of your sprained neck won’t subside

20. 蠱惑のParade (Kowaku no Parade)

Reiji & Kanato

~translation~

We got another catchy banger here! This song just screams 'the two of us are here to hunt you down and we won't stop till we get a taste.' I mean this song is super pleasing aesthetically and great lyrics to boot!

19. KILLYOU,AGAIN

Azusa

~translation~

The strings are an immediate attention grabber and its hold it throughout the whole song. Super catchy, and these lyrics are Azusa, especially this chorus. Id be interested to hear what people think about the second verse in particular cuz there's a lot to read into:

"In a worn out state of mind, no matter how many nights we question it... We’ve idealised too much."

18. SQueeze…

Subaru

~translation~

Okay before anything else, the squeeze at the start is goofy, I can't take it seriously. Anyway, I can't help but tap my foot to this song. Third times the charm, finally hitting Subaru's aesthetic to a T. The voice is a little quiet on the track but what takes over just sounds so good. The contrast of the bell and the guitar is just, yes thank you. The pre-chorus is a nice mix up to the status quo and these lyrics are great too.

17. 愛の檻 (Ai no Ori)

Ayato & Laito

~translation~

The opening is a nice tone setter for a haunting head bopper. These voices work together so well, just like how the sirens work with the strings. The singular violin during the bridge is great, praise to anyone who can do that my god. The string motif climaxes at the final chorus and it creates an awesome song!

16. 月蝕(Eclipse)

Kou, Yuma & Azusa

~translation~

Well we have a nice build up ballad here. The opening is a little out of place but I forget about it as it builds to this final chorus with the tempo getting faster and faster. The stripped back production also ends up aiding the song in the end with its punches and message. Speaking of which; I get the idea this is about watching some either currently or in retrospective how their personality changes after turning into a vampire; a loss of innocence. How fitting for the Mukami's.

“Despising the sunlight that filters through the blinds is only inevitable, I suppose”

*Faves*

This is what I think the best of the best is. It reflects the themes, ideas and characters of Diabolik Lovers in the best way possible. When people ask me what music from the franchise to listen to, I point to these songs.

15. Count off

Kino

~translation~

There is so much to talk about here, this is a mix of singing and spoken piece and it works so well for me. The delivery over this contagious beat I can't help but get hints of a k-pop vibe here. The movement to singing then vocoded voice are interesting and fun. The bridge switch up too is great, my only wish is that the choir hand a little more presence in the final chorus cuz its fun the first times round, it would be a nice call back.

14. A Certain Prophet's Fate [とある預言者の、運命 Toaru Yogensha no Unmei]

Reiji

~translation~

I can visualise a Nutella Kookie moodboard with this opening alone. To me, this is Reiji explain his views on women with allusions to Faust too, not the Ikemen version relax. there are some cool allusions to his mother in the lyrics too. The bass is so cool to listen out for and the guitar nodding to the chorus at the end is a nice way to end. I was just hoping for a little continuation to the opening like Reiji finding this person escaping on horseback.

13. CHAOS☆PARTY

Laito

~translation~

Aaaaaand another innuendo song from Laito, what a surprise! The jazzy, circus-pop vibes are super fun and catchy, I love it. It's like an upgraded version of Bloody Sabbath to me. The distortion on the guitar is also great to listen out for.

"Don’t decide where’s the critical point, grind as you feel it,

Till the moon oh, mockingly"

12. Mr.ButterflyMask

Reiji

~translation~

The opening may be cliche but it works so well, this is such a deep dive into Reiji's psyche; his mother, inferiority complex and village burning to name a few. The actual song is easy to remember which makes it even better here, the descending notes at the end of the chorus is a highlight.

"Burnt black, that awful land mark"

11. 真夜中の饗宴 (MIDNIGHT PLEASURE)

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

The song to start it all, thank god it's such a highlight. I get so hyped from hearing the opening footsteps; mirroring the prologue with You stepping into the mansion for the first time. I feel so nostalgic for this and I'm hyped to play the game every time I hear this. The spoken section is the high point in terms of the HDB aesthetic but these lyrics maaaannn:

"With a scream that shatters the moon itself I’ll give you this extraordinary pain called “love”!"

10. Guilty×Guilty!!!

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

I'm gonna get crucified for putting this above midnight pleasure but my list and this is my fave game op. The only peg down is the lyrics but it makes up so much for the actual sound variation. The unnerving energy from this scifi-y noise, it screams danger with the Tsunami arrival. The variation between the two verses in robs what places it high and the bridge is excellent to boot.

9. Farewell Song

Shu

~translation~

If I had to make one song recommendation outside of DL with this list it is this song here. The lyrics and melody match up the same way and both are strong in their own right. Onto the song, these lyrics really shine wrangling with ideas and the thought process of depression; something that hits close to home for me. With the inclusion of the destructive nature vampires its truely impactful. The sound of the song aids these lyrics too while all sounding like Shu.

Without pause, the drops of a drizzle had begun to weep...

...Comforting the screams of the things you’ve touched"

8. Mr.SADISTIC NIGHT

Shu, Ayato & Subaru

~translation~

This is my favourite opening of all the games and anime and it is the most on theme with the DL franchise, not just the one game. The guitar rifts at the start are just sooooo iconic. The actual line "Mr Sadistic Night" is delivered so well too. I mean the song speaks for itself. I will make the observation though that this song is the epitome of kids unknowingly singing a song with dirty lyrics.

"If I’m so aroused by the snare of your enticing blood

Tonight, as I thrust deep into you, a lust for death awakens from within you!"

7. 悪魔的（Devil's）Spire!!!!

Kou

~translation~

This song is just Kou at his best, I can imagine him singing this at a concert as a debut single. It has all the elements of a catchy pop song with some sinister elements that just reflects his personality. Production has my praise here too. The song seems to be a friends with benefits situation Kou has as he recounts the tale. Also, more innuendos:

"In the deep red velvet sheets, Do you want to taste my forbidden syrup?"

6. Operation X

Tsukinami Brothers

~translation~

Haven't seen these guys in a while! You can tell production had fun adding all these medical sounds in the back like the sirens and heart monitor. The song itself is super catchy too, that bass just hits you at the core! The lyrics look like the Tsukinami's observation of You as she has become entangled with all these vampires and the situation just seems to spiral even more out of control.

"The risk spreads further the deeper you get involved...

...The more you give up, the more that guy mocks you"

5. GRATEFUL★DEAD★MARCH

Kanato

~translation~

Production had fun again, you can tell. It's more upbeat there is still a sinister vibe here. The constant switch ups within the song all flow so well. I feel genuine despair listening to this chorus, like Kanato is mocking or toying with me before going in for the kill. My only complaint is that the slowing down at the end is a bit of a mood killer.

4. 切断★舞踏会 (KIRISAKI CARNIVAL)

Kanato

~translation~

In terms of character aesthetic, this is sheer perfection. There is a narrative within this song that you need to look at the lyrics for the best experience. The sound effects act as a good way to heighten the story as they match the lyrics. One moment to note it both the chorus and pre-chorus as they act as the extreme ends on Kanato's personality and it creates a great dichotomy when placed together.

3. Q.E.D.

laito

~translation~

My favourite solo song, and the one I constantly visit the most. Laito is a complex character and this song does a self reflection in the best way possible.I would also recommend reading this great analysis by everything laito because I can't do a proper analysis justice. For the song itself, the piano is a great mood setter as it acts as if we are approaching Laito as he plays the piano about to go into one of his many monologues to himself. The intercut from the piano to the guitar is abrupt but it works so well as if there are crack in his facade showing through. The change back to the piano is great too and isn't distracting in any way. I also think this is such an emotional performance, like I can feel the sadness and despair along with almost a self deprecating humour to the delivery. Top notch stuff

2. 罠-If You’re Diablo- (Wana -If You’re Diablo-)

Mukami Brothers

~translation~

I want mention first off that the spoken word from Ruki is such an aid here, the pace is slower, more haunting and despair-inducing in tone. The speaking adds a nice break to the vocals. The chorus in particular packs such a punch its kind of nice to lie on the ground and just let the song envelop you. The lyrics give the impression that there is a mutually destructive relationship here with the Mukami's mentioning of betrayal yet they suck the blood of this person. There is also a feeling of hopelessness that the Mukami's know they can never achieve their goal of becoming Adam.

"I'd been resigned to become Adam since who-knows-when...

I continue to hate this fate, my prayers in zero"

1. Gin no Bara

Sakamaki Brothers

~translation~

And we're finally at the end! This song encapsulates everything that Diabolik Lovers is. Vocally, it's really catchy with such a somber vibe, because that's what DL is. It's a dark series but you can see that darkness with each backstory, the actions these characters take and just the overall hopelessness in this one song. The Sakamaki's all singing together packs such a punch too. There are so many gems in these lyrics, to literally acknowledging the pain and suffering their mothers' caused and coming to terms with the actions they have committed as they fall in love.

"The proof remains on your neck while you sleep quietly Even if an eternal curse awaits me beyond those overflowing tears

I now hold this love and pain in my chest"

*SHOUTOUTS*

I want to give a huge shout out to the following people. They have helped immensely with translation and just overall accessibility to the songs because they would be 1000 times more harder to find without them.

Silvermoon249 (Live Journal)

Asyqin98 Creator (YouTube)

S I s o v o l i (Youtube)

DIABOLIK LOVERS (YouTube)

Dialovers otaka (Tumblr)

Starlight voices (Tumblr)

Cannonette (Tumblr) @canonette

The Precious Sugar Chan (Tumblr)

One final note, I would recommend listening to these with headphones because the audio sometimes does that thing where it jumps from ear to ear and it creates the best effect to be more involved in the atmosphere.

[aquariaries]

Hello Haley, I am new to Diabolik Lovers. Is there anything I need to know about Diabolik Lovers?

Hi! I'm not the best at describing things, but I'll try my hardest!

Well, that depends on which media you are consuming. Whether it be the anime, games, drama cds ect.

Most people find the series through the anime, but the games are faaaaar more detailed and expansive of the series as a whole.

DL is basically about a young woman named Yui that gets sent to live with 6 vampire brothers by her adoptive priest father under the guise that they're "distant relatives" while he is called to work overseas in Eastern Europe.

Turns out that they are not relatives, and the church actually just abandoned her as a sacrificial bride to the vampires and she's stuck there. Yui is pretty much tormented and preyed upon by the brothers and treated like a blood bag on a daily basis because she happens to have special blood as her heart belonged to a notorious demon before her.

The brothers as sadistic as hell, and the themes in DL are not for everyone. There is heavy themes of abuse both physical and mental, so that's understandably a major turn off point to a lot of people. Yui is basically a pure cinnamon roll that treats the vampires with kindness regardless of how she is treated and this in turn helps the vampires heal from their traumas and become better people over time, and eventually fall in love with her.

Over the course of time, more vampires end up appearing and try to take Yui as their own over her blood because it's revealed she is what's called "Eve". A man named Karlheinz, which is the father of the main 6 Sakamaki brothers and king of Vampires has a grand master plan called "The Apple of Adam Plan" which basically comprises of having one of his sons "awaken" as Adam by falling in love with Eve and in turn, his goal is to have Adam and Eve create a new race and wipe out/replace the current demon species as a whole. The criteria to become Adam is to be a full blood vampire that learns how to love and feel emotions like a human, and the criteria for Eve is to be a human with demon blood, in this case, Yui.

Make sense? No? Don't worry it's kinda wonky. The anime does not do a good job at explaining any of this so if you actually want to enjoy any plot, you need to play the games. The anime is a good "oooh vampire fanservice!" Thing to watch.

The games unfortunately are not in English so you'll have to play them in Japanese, but I believe the first game or 2 have English patches that you can download online! The way I play them is buy a psvita and get the actual copy of the game and use online translation guides and most games and character routes are fully translated.

Dark Fate is by far the best game, but is 3rd in order of mainline games. Haunted Dark Bridal is first, followed by More Blood.

There's main games that are longer and follow the actual plot line of DL, then there's side games which are what they sound like. Not as plot focused, but more fluffy and shorter.

The actual order of games is as follows:

- Haunted Dark Bridal (main game)

- More Blood (main game)

- Vandead Carnival (side game)

- Dark Fate (main game)

- Lunatic Parade (side game)

- Chaos Lineage (main and side)

All in all, there are 13 vampires (two are technically a different species called Founders but that's not important atm) that are all after Yui's blood for either their own selfish reasons, just for food, or love. Depends on who's route you play and what game you play it in.

I hope that helped a little bit! Once again I am reallllyyyy bad at explaining things and I know there's stuff I'm forgetting to mention, but if you need anything else clarified please don't hesitate to ask!

[carlatsukinamistolemyhamsandwich]

Diabolik Lovers Survey 2020 Results

This year I got 138 responses in total, which is close to double the number I got in 2019 (74 responses) so a big thank you to all of you for taking part and for those who helped to promote it! Now onto the results:

Question 1. Who is your favorite DL character?

1. Subaru Sakamaki (18 votes) (3rd in CL poll, joint 4th in 2019 survey) 2. Shu Sakamaki (16 votes) (1st in CL poll, 1st in 2019 survey) 3. Ruki Mukami (13 votes) (4th in CL poll, joint 6th in 2019 survey) 4. Laito Sakamaki (12 votes) (8th in CL poll, 10th in 2019 survey) 5. Ayato Sakamaki (11 votes) (2nd in CL poll, 3rd in 2019 survey) 6. Reiji Sakamaki (10 votes) (9th in CL poll, 2nd in 2019 survey) 6. Carla Tsukinami (10 votes) (11th in CL poll, 4th in 2019 survey) 6. Kanato Sakamaki (10 votes) (6th in CL poll, joint 6th in 2019 survey) 9. Azusa Mukami  (8 votes) (12th in CL poll, 13th in 2019 survey) 9. Yui Komori (8 votes) (7th in CL poll, no votes in 2019 survey) 11. Yuma Mukami (7 votes) (10th in CL poll, joint 6th in 2019 survey) 12. Shin Tsukinami (6 votes) (14th in CL poll, joint 11th in 2019 survey) 13. Kino (3 votes) (13th in CL poll, joint 11th in 2019 survey) 14. Kou Mukami (1 vote) (5th in CL poll, joint 6th in 2019 survey) 14. Richter (1 votes) (did not feature in CL poll, no votes in 2019 survey)

Note: 3 people said they didn’t have a favorite character and 1 person skipped the question. Karlheinz, Beatrix, Cordelia, Christa and Yuri were all available options but they did not receive any votes. I’ve included where they came in the CL poll (the most recent official popularity poll) to show how the results compare. Below you can also see how the voting breaks down compared to the 2019 survey.

While I was a little surprised that Subaru managed to dethrone Shu as the fandom’s overall favorite, I was not surprised by him, Shu, Ruki and Ayato all featuring in the top 5 considering their rankings in the CL poll. Laito also managed to sneak his way in there but considering that he was the winner of the 2018 survey, that wasn��t much of a surprise to me either.

The thing that I really don’t understand is what on Earth happened with Kou. Up until 24 hours before the survey closed, he didn’t have a single vote (lone Kou fan, thank you for stepping up), despite doing pretty well in the CL poll and the 2019 survey. If anyone has any theories on where all the Kou fans have gone then let me know because I am baffled.

Anyway, onto the rest of the survey, because this post is extremely long, I’ve put the rest below the cut.

Question 2. Who is your least favorite diaboy?

1. Kanato Sakamaki (42 votes) (1st in 2019 survey) 2. No least favorite (15 votes) (2nd option in 2019 survey) 3. Kino (14 votes) (3rd in 2019 survey) 4. Ruki Mukami (12 votes) (joint 6th in 2019 survey) 5. Ayato Sakamaki (10 votes) (4th in 2019 survey) 6. Carla Tsukinami  (9 votes) (no votes in 2019 survey) 7. Reiji Sakamaki (7 votes) (joint 6th in 2019 survey) 8. Shin Tsukinami (6 votes) (joint 6th in the 2019 survey) 8. Azusa Mukami (6 votes) (joint 10th in 2019 survey) 10. Shu Sakamaki (5 votes) (no votes in 2019 survey) 11. Kou Mukami (3 votes) (5th in 2019 survey) 11. Laito Sakamaki (3 votes) (9th in 2019 survey) 11. Yuma Mukami (3 votes) (joint 10th in 2019 survey) 14. Subaru Sakamaki (2 votes) (no votes in 2019 survey)

Note: I discounted one vote for Subaru on this question, as the participant had also voted for him as their favorite character so I assumed they misunderstood this question.

Every single year I’ve done this, Kanato has come first in this category by a massive margin and (while I will admit he’s my own least favorite) I am still no closer to understanding why he gets so many votes. If anyone does have any theories then do let me know.

Other than that, Kino’s placement certainly isn’t a surprise given his place in the 2019 survey and that he was the villain in all of the other characters LE routes, which I suspect has not endeared him to many. I do find it interesting that Ruki and Ayato (who did well in the popularity poll) were also in the top 5 for this question. 

I also wasn’t expecting Shu, golden boy of the fandom, to actually rank higher than some of the other characters in this question and to only have one less vote than Shin (who is considerably less popular and did some fairly deplorable things in the other character’s DF routes). 

Question 3. What is your favorite type of DL media?

1. The games 60 votes (1st in 2019 survey) 2. The drama CDs 46 votes (2nd in 2019 survey) 3. The character songs 9 votes (3rd in 2019 survey) 3. The merch (e.g. plushies, badges, straps etc) 9 votes (4th in 2019 survey) 5. The anime 8 votes (5th in 2019 survey) 5. The manga 6 votes (6th in 2019 survey)

I don’t really think there’s much to comment on with this one, the results are pretty similar to last year and given that the drama CDs and the games collectively provide most of the story content for DL, it’s not at all surprising that they’re the fan favorites.

Question 4. If you have played and/or read translations for the games, which is your favorite?

1. Dark Fate (39 votes) (1st in 2019 survey) 2. Haunted Dark Bridal (27 votes) (2nd in 2019 survey) 3. More Blood (13 votes) (3rd in 2019 survey) 4. Vandead Carnival  (10 votes) (7th in 2019 survey)  5. Lost Eden 8 votes (5th in 2019 survey) 6. Chaos Lineage 8 votes (4th in 2019 survey) 7. Lunatic Parade 6 votes (6th in 2019 survey) Note: 20 people said they had not played the games or read translations of them.

DF, HDB and MB all remain as the top 3 games of franchise. I was a bit surprised to see VC jump up so much though, although I know some more translations for it have been posted recently, and a game being translated will always help to boost it’s popularity within the fandom.

Question 5. If you have listened to and/or read translations of the drama CDs, which set of CDs includes your favorite?

1. Bonus CDs (19 votes) (4th in 2019 survey) 2. Para-Selene (18 votes) (2nd in 2019 survey) 3. Bloody Bouquet (14 votes) (1st in 2019 survey) 4. Zero (13 votes) (joint 5th in 2019 survey) 5. The original do-s vampire CDs (11 votes) (3rd in 2019 survey) 6. More Blood do-s vampire (8 votes) (joint 5th in 2019 survey) 7. Verus II (7 votes) (joint 5th in 2019 survey) 8. More, More Blood (6 votes) (not an option in the 2019 survey) 9. Dark Fate (4 votes) (no votes in 2019 survey) 9. Born To Die (4 votes) (joint 9th in 2019 survey) 11. Verus I (3 votes) (joint 9th in 2019 survey) 12. Eternal Blood (2 votes) (no votes in 2019 survey) 13. Versus III  (1 vote) (joint 8th in 2019 survey) 13. Versus IV (1 vote) (no votes in 2019 survey) 13. Chaos Lineage  (1 vote) (joint 8th in 2019 survey) Note: the Lost Eden CDs (joint 8th in the 2019 survey) did not receive any votes and 26 people said they had not listened to or read translations of the drama CDs, 6 more than those who had not played or read translations of the games. 

I was pretty surprised to see the Bloody Bouquet CDs bumped down to third place considering that they won far and away in the 2018 and 2019 surveys, especially with the Zero CDs coming so close behind them. Para-Selene (my own personal favorite set of drama CDs) is still a fan favorite, and while I know many people enjoy the bonus CDs, I certainly wasn’t expecting to see them take the top spot.

In terms of other things to note, I do find it interesting that the Eternal Blood CDs (which feature the Mukamis) are less popular than the Born To Die CDs (which feature the Tsukinamis and Kino), considering that in this survey, the Mukami brothers got more votes combined than the Tsukinamis + Kino, and I’m pretty sure all of the Eternal Blood CDs have been translated, while to my knowledge, no English translations exist for the BTD CDs (although you can find a summary of Shin’s on this blog), so I would have expected this to be the other way around.

Question 6. How long have you been interested in DL?

1. More than 4 years but less than 6 years (55 votes)�� 2. More than 2 years but less than 4 years (26 votes)  3. More than 6 years but less than 8 years (15 votes)  4. Up to six months (9 votes)  5. Over 8 years (7 votes) 6. More than 6 months but less than 1 year (6 votes) 7. Less than 1 month (2 votes) Note: 6 people said they couldn’t remember how long they’d been interested in DL for.

It seems the majority of us have been here for years (truly, there is no escaping diahell) but it was nice to see so many newcomers to the fandom take part this year, especially as we haven’t really had that much new content. 

I mentioned this in the 2019 survey results post but I do wonder whether the release of the MB anime (a little over 5 years ago), may have some correlation with a large chunk of the fandom (or at least the portion that took part in this survey) being into the series for between 4-6 years.

Question 7. If you answered the survey I did last year, have any of your choices changed since then?

Note: Multiple options could be selected here.

My favorite character has changed: 21 votes

My least favorite diaboy has changed: 17 votes

My favorite DL game has changed: 9 votes

My favorite drama CD has changed: 18 votes

There were definitely more changes this year compared to last year (although given the much larger sample size, that’s to be expected), but it does seem most are fairly firm in their favorites. 

Question 8. If you purchased one of the More, More Blood CDs, which version did you get? 

Deluxe edition: 7 votes (5.22%)

Regular edition: 4 votes (2.99%)

Deluxe edition from Animate: 7 votes (5.22%)

Deluxe edition from Stellaworth: 2 votes (1.49%)

Deluxe edition of the same CD from Animate & Stellaworth: 3 votes (2.24%)

Multiple MMB CDs (some regular, some deluxe): 5 votes (3.73%)

Did not buy any of the MMB CDs: 106 votes (79.10%)

Note: 4 people skipped this question.

I mostly asked this question because I was curious as to how many people bought the deluxe edition versus the normal edition, especially as after listening to Shin’s (and from the comments I saw online) I feel like you really need the bonus CD you get with the deluxe edition to nicely wrap up the story.

I was sort of expecting most people to go for the deluxe edition, as I think if you’re ordering your favorite's CD, you’re going to want the maximum content with them possible, even if it does come with a bigger price tag.

As for why so many people went for the Animate bonus over the Stellaworth bonus, I imagine this was because Animate has an international online store (although I think whether you can actually get the bonus drama CDs from them is variable) while Stellaworth only ships in Japan, which means if you order from them, you have to use a proxy service which really hikes up the price.

Question 9. Out of the following things released within the last year, which has been your favorite?

1. 4-panel More, More Blood comics (28 votes) 1. Winter of Lovers merch (28 votes) 3. More, More Blood CDs (24 votes) 4. Masquerade Jewel merch (18 votes) 5. My Melody collaboration merch (15 votes) 6. Other (14 votes) 7. Merch from Rejet 2020 Fes (10 votes) Note: 1 person skipped this question.

I thought for sure the More, More Blood CDs would win this one but I seriously underestimated just how popular the More, More Blood comics and merch lines were. I suppose given that the bonus drama CDs came first in the Drama CD category and the MMB comics are much in the same vein (as in they both contain humorous content), it isn’t that much of a surprise, especially as the comics are posted online and are therefore much more accessible to international fans than the drama CDs.

As for the merch lines, Winter of Lovers is the most recently released set, so it may be possible that this is partially responsible for it’s popularity (i.e. it’s the merch line freshest in people’s minds).

Question 10. Which of the upcoming DL releases are you the most excited for?

1. Young Blood manga (64 votes) 2. Daylight CDs (25 votes) 3. Releases that have yet to be announced (20 votes) 4. Count Off (9th anniversary song) (7 votes) Note: 22 people went for the “Can’t choose/ Not excited for any of these” option.

The Young Blood manga won here by a massive margin, which is pretty interesting considering that the DL manga ranked lowest in question 3. That being said though I suspect this manga will be more popular than the others as it should give us more of the boys’ backstories.

I’ve seen several people hoping for the unannounced release (that we should find out more about April) to be a new game. Personally I’m not super convinced that’s going to be the case as new game announcements tend to be done at Otomate party (as was the case with CL in 2018), which is scheduled for July. However, I do admit that I think a new game would be a really good way to celebrate DL’s tenth anniversary (which is coming up December next year), so I don’t think it’s completely outside of the realms of possibility that we may get another game at some point. 

Either way I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in April.

And that’s it for the 2020 survey. Again, thanks to everyone who took part, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the results, was there anything that surprised you?

[dialovers-translations]

Blog Survey Results + The Future of my Translations

As promised, I will be posting a compilation of the results from the blog survey I did through Google forms these past couple of days. Funnily enough, I actually finished my translation of More, Blood (and therefore the Grand Edition for Switch as well) on this exact day too. I started my game translations December 2019, so it took me approximately one year and 3 months to complete a full English translation of both games.

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who took the time out of their day to fill out the survey! I got a total of 171 responses, which is way more than I ever expected! It definitely gave me a better picture of what you guys enjoy about this blog and what you want to see in the future. ^^

I also received a lot of sweet and supportive personal messages but this post would get way too long if I were to include them all, so I will simply highlight some at the very end and give my response.

Well then, let’s get straight into it!

Through Tumblr recommendations ー 34.7%

Through Google search ー 31.2%

Through a Masterlist (either mine or made by someone else) ー 17.6%

Through seeing my post(s) reblogged on your dash ー 12.4%

Other ー 3.5%

Through a friend ー 0.6%

Seems like most of you guys found me either through Tumblr recommendations or through a simple Google search! I honestly expected reblogs to have a bigger impact, as well as ‘through a friend’ is much lower than what I expected. Although I suppose Diabolik Lovers isn’t always the franchise you want to mention to your friends, haha.

More than a year ー 27.5%

Between 1~3 months ー 19.3%

Between 6~8 months ー 16.4%

Between 9~11 months ー 15.2%

Between 4~6 months ー 13.5%

Less than a month ー 5.8%

I don’t follow your blog ー 2.3%

Wow! A lot of you guys have really been around for a while, huh? Thank you so much for sticking with me and still being an active follower of this blog! ^^ I hope you guys don’t regret clicking the ‘follow’ button back then.

I think it is just right ー 88.2%

I think it is too little, I want more ー 6.5%

I think it is too much, I can’t keep up ー 5.3%

I am definitely glad that most of you enjoy the current schedule. This convinced me to keep the current schedule for now, which Dark Fate eventually replacing More, Blood during the week and Lunatic Parade taking Vandead Carnival’s slot(s) in the weekend.

All of the above ー 55.6%

Drama CDs ー 44.4%

Game content ー 42.1%

Manga/comics ー 27.5%

Short Stories ー 22.8%

Fanbooks ー 16.4%

Tweets ー 15.2%

Drama CDs ー 51.5%

I enjoy everything ー 46.2%

Game content ー 42.7%

Short Stories ー 20.5%

Manga/comics ー 19.3%

Fanbooks ー 9.4%

Tweets ー 9.4%

I grouped these two together because they obviously have very similar results. I was quite surprised by them though! For one, I did not expect so many of you to read and enjoy the game translations!

I actually made this survey because I was having doubts whether people were actually interested in them, since most of the content has been translated at least once more. In that regard, it is not surprise that ‘drama CDs’ ranked the highest because there’s considerably less translators for those.

I also did not expect the Short Stories & Manga to rank higher than the Tweets, but I guess I’m the only one who is such a huge fan of the official DL Twitter accounts? :p

I read content of all characters ー 63.7%

Only of my favorites ー 36.3%

Another shocking result! I was convinced most people only read the stuff of their bias/biases, but I was wrong! I’m definitely happy about this result though! I’m personally super grateful for this blog because it pushes me to listen to content of all characters and get to know them better, which is something I wouldn’t do otherwise!

Drama CDs ー 49.7%%

Game content ー 35.1%

I want to see more of everything ー 32.2%

Manga/comics ー 31%

Short Stories ー 23.4%

Fanbooks ー 17.5%

Tweets ー 9.9%

I enjoy everything ー 81.9%

Tweets ー 7%

Manga/comics ー 4.1%

Fanbooks ー 3.5%

Short Stories ー 2.3%

Game content ー 2.3%

Drama CDs ー 1.2%

Grouping these two together as well since it also just makes sense. First of all, I’m very glad that more than 80% of you guys enjoy all content on this blog! As a creator, I couldn’t ask for more. ^^ Once again, also very relieved knowing that the posts about the games don’t go unnoticed! 

As for the drama CDs, I did expect those to rank first in terms of what people want to see more of, but they’re also the most exhausting for me to translate. > < It takes much longer because I often have to rewind or listen to some phrases multiple times until I can pick up on everything. Therefore I don’t think I can handle posting more than one multi-track CD a week, sorry!

All of the above ー 54.4%

Diabolik Lovers Daylight ー 39.8%

Dark Fate ー 21.6%

Lunatic Parade ー 15.8%

Last but not least, what can you expect on this blog in the future? It was pretty obvious that the Daylight series would rank first here (at least in terms of individual results) because it’s 100% new content. I really do wish I will be able to get my hands on the audio as they come out, but I also hope you guys understand that I can’t purchase every CD myself so I will be relying on the community for this.

Afterwards I realized that I completely forgot to add the upcoming manga series to the list as well but don’t worry, I will definitely translate the chapters if somebody passes me the RAW scans!

To finish, I would like to add a few of the comments which were left for me. I received tons of super sweet messages from you guys and I really wish I had the space to put them all. <3

PERSONAL MESSAGES

As I stated before, somebody did confirm my fear of some of my translations being ‘redundant’ because most of the games have been translated/have parts of them translated already. While it is totally valid to want me to focus on content which has not been translated yet, the games are just a personal passion project of me as well. It may just be the perfectionist in me talking, but I like the idea of having an entire game translated by the same person, all in the same writing style and with the same formatting, rather than having to browse through three or four different blogs.

Thankfully, some of you guys did pick up on this and even mentioned the little translation notes I put at the bottom of each posts. This is definitely one of the ways in which I attempt to make my translations ‘unique’ and have them stand out from the existing ones. ^^ Japanese is also an extremely vague language with very little context clues, so it isn’t strange for multiple people to emphasize on different elements when translating the same sentence.

As a teacher, these messages made very happy! I actually am working on a DL-themed Japanese learning side-blog at present! However, I want to fine-tune it just a little more and have a few lessons prepared and ready to be published before I officially announce the blog to the public. However, it is coming in the (near) future so please stay tuned! ^^

The only way for me to do this would be to record the game audio from my console as I am letting the game play IRL but I can’t guarantee the audio quality AND it would take an immense amount of time. ;; If you want to watch the video/audio simultaneously with my translation, your best bet would be @maimaiotome​’s YouTube channel. The two of us are collaborating for More, Blood and some parts of Vandead Carnival (Sleeping Vampire) so please check out her videos! ^^

I received tons of sweet messages like these, but I wanted to highlight the following two in particular because they really brought a smile to my face! <3 First of all, if I’m Yui...where’s my harem of sexy 2D Vampire boys?? Jk jk.

Also thank you to everyone who voiced their concern about my health and wellbeing. Don’t worry, I am not overworking myself! I generally translate about 3 to 4 hours a day and enjoy every single minute of it! I’m also way ahead of schedule so I should be fine even if I have to take a couple of days off! ^^

[everything-laito]

Laito Sakamaki and His Relationships with the Sakamaki Family: an Anthology (more like biggo rant)

DaYUM; I’ve accidentally let these pile up in my ask box, so I will answer all of these in one post… Prepare for a huuuuge rant under the cut! Also thank you so much @hotline-to-hell​, you’re so lovely and supportive as usual, and thanks sm for contributing, same goes for you, anons!! Let’s break this up into parts tho… and start with the biggest one yet: Laito and Ayato’s relationship. 

I swear this is like an anthology,,,,, biggo rant under the cut!

Laito’s relationships with Ayato

I regularly call Ayato and Laito “double trouble.” This is because they’re usually found as a pair when some ultra-harassing is being planned. Despite Ayato sometimes visibly being uncomfortable as a result of Laito’s antics, he’s the one that gets along with him the most. The reason why Ayato has resentment for Laito seems to be that Laito wouldn’t help Ayato when they were kids; and Laito would be a bystander. Ayato was also a bystander in the Laito situation too. A very heartfelt moment occurs at the end of Ayato and Laito’s VS CD: [9/28/21: UPDATED TRANSLATION; THIS ONE’S MORE CORRECT]

Laito: You see, I often thought about why I was the person I was. Or why I couldn’t be like you or Kanato-kun instead? That’s why I hate you…I loathe how you feign ignorance when you actually know exactly what’s going on. And above all…I’m envious of how you can be so honest and upright about everything. …I know I can never be like that. I’ve been ruined by that woman. I’m not hiding my feelings either. They’ve simply been erased from within me. …Haha. Ayato: I hate you too. You’re never honest…I mean, if only you had asked for my help at some point, I would haveーーI knew you were putting up a tough facade the whole time. …However, as much as I admired you for your strength, it also pissed me off at the same time. I couldn’t forgive you.

(First of all this confirms that Laito didn’t like what Cordelia did to him; it was forced emotion on this end, thus creating a facade. I think I went over this in my Hilde analysis a little bit through the context of Hilde’s situation). Laito feels like he is permanently soiled and cannot move past this situation, and that’s terrible. However I should do a separate analysis on this drama CD. (I was going to put this in another analysis I think but then took it out last minute) 

Second of all, I believe that what Ayato means by that Laito’s “not honest” is that he knows Laito has a facade [with updated translation: this is confirmed]. Aka having a facade does not make you honest. I mean, he’s known Laito throughout his whole life; and Ayato is decently observant. He also obviously hangs around with Laito more often than his other brothers, (and vise versa) so it makes sense that Ayato would know something was up. He just has a vendetta against Laito because Laito would avoid conflict [UPDATED:] and the fact that Laito didn’t come to him. 

----------------UPDATED ANALYSIS 9/28/21----------------

The fact that Ayato sees Laito being strong is,,,,, so sweet and very accurate. Laito is defnitely strong and Ayato being like “if only you’d ask for my help”––GOD THIS BREAKS MY HEART AAAAA but Laito wasn’t honest with Ayato especially when they were kids because Laito probably didn’t know how to vocalize what was happening between him and Cordelia. And on top of that, there was no emotional stability in the triplet’s lives, so Laito felt like he needed to take it upon himself in order to to try his best to protect Ayato and Kanato. Obviously, this made Ayato feel bad because he wanted Laito to come to him too, and be there for Laito like how Laito was there for him. Sure Laito couldn’t do much when they were children, but he tried his best with what he was able to do. Ayato can’t forgive Laito for doing this to himself and pushing all his emotions down just so he could be there for Ayato and Kanato. It makes sense why Ayato was pissed off by this, yet grateful at the same time.

And Laito being absolutely self aware with his own lack of honesty just,,,, gives me the feels. But Laito calling out Ayato for feigning ignorance also makes sense too. Ayato knew about the whole Cordelia thing with Laito, and yet never reached out with that. I mean, I’m not sure what Ayato could have done at that point since it happened when they were older (at least the first time Cordelia sexually abused him––I know things happened when Laito was a child but I think he was more groomed as a kid in my opinion and from my deductions) and Ayato and Laito were drifting at this point.

Ok now that’s my updated part of this analysis, this was a pretty old one and I just had new thoughts and found a better translation.

---------------------------UPDATE END-------------------

Remember the whole thing I said in Laito and Shin’s VERSUS CD analysis was that Laito hates conflict and runs from his problems. It’s probably a defense mechanism of his but it’s honestly done more harm than solve it. This caused Ayato to kind of be stronger for himself, since he couldn’t get that strength from Laito. So that’s really sad, and answers the question whether or not any of his brothers know about his mask. But I believe it might just be Ayato, and I will get to that in a minute. It also answers Laito and Ayato’s love/hate relationship. 

I think that Ayato is more scared of Laito in the sense that he’s concerned about what’s he’s become. Like Ayato is always down to clown with Laito, and then Laito says some really weird shit sometimes that makes Ayato be like “oh god why”. I know I mentioned this but it is something to emphasize. I do think that Ayato knows that Laito is calculating, cunning, and manipulative as all hell. I don’t think he’s scared of him, or else why would he choose to hang out with Laito? Laito has nothing to gain by forcing Ayato to clown with him.  Ayato usually doesn’t let Laito mess around with him if Ayato’s already got it going with another person; in this case, Yui. Their interactions within Vandead Carnival and Lunatic Parade is more like “omg Laito don’t embarrass me in front of Yui” (which,,, Laito does, and tells Yui that he’s so superstitious that he sleeps with a belly warmer lol just so Ayato can exchange something embarrassing too). I’d say they have the most “brotherly” relationship out of all the Sakamakis (rivals Subaru’s and Shuu’s relationship but that’s really an unspoken one).

Despite them being closer than the rest, that doesn’t mean they’re the closest pair. Laito still feels the need to prove himself that he doesn’t have his emotional problems in front of Ayato still, which is also probably why it drives Ayato away. Ayato can’t comfort Laito usually considering his facade builds a wall. And it’s hard to get to someone’s heart when it’s reinforced with steel, basically. So yes, he still wears his facade around Ayato; considering it only seems that they hang out when they’re horny and want some fun lol. I haven’t seen another instance where they do, or at least that’s the most common one. 

Laito’s relationship with Kanato

I finished Kanato’s HDB route a while back, and I just gotta say,,,, man,,,,, wow,,,,, that was quite the doozy. As for him and Laito? It’s quite hard to tell, but, Laito is still there for Kanato. Sure Laito’s there when Ayato harasses him and calls him “hysteric” but Laito never insults him. There’s even a point where Laito plays a “big brother” role and gives Kanato advice: 

Laito: Fufu~ Kanato-kun, shall I give you a little warning? Kanato: I don’t need such a thing. Laito: Don’t say that and just listen~ …If you take your sweet time, she’ll get snatched away from underneath your eyes, you know? Kanato: …

Sure it’s kinda…. morbid advice, but it is advice that helps Kanato regardless. And Kanato takes it! He listened to Laito! It’s obvious that Kanato is really annoyed by Laito (which gives me a reason why he doesn’t know about Laito’s situation with Cordelia on top of Laito’s facade) and doesn’t want anything to do with him (or Ayato, for that matter). I believe he says at one point in his route how he was isolated from the other siblings, mainly due to Cordelia. However, since Kanato listened to Laito despite him saying “I don’t need such a thing” kinda implies some kind of respect for Laito. He might know that Laito is calculating and smart in that manner. But do I think that he caught on to Laito wearing a facade all the time? Nah, he cares about himself too much and also just does his own stuff most of the time. 

This quote I’m adding also happens in Kanato’s route; it doesn’t add much but I did laugh a little reading this: 

Ayato: Does she like Kanato that much? That’s impossible. She’s heading down a path of despair for sure. Laito: Fufu…That’s something you could say about any one of us though~ Ayato: …Che.

It’s just a well crafted meta joke from Laito; he says it in such a cheerful way but man, that’s sad.

That’s about it for Laito and Kanato; I don’t think Laito says much about Kanato and vise versa. They really stay out of each others’ business, mainly because Kanato isolates himself out of spite, really. 

---------------------------------INTERMISSION------------------------------------

Before I move onto the other ones, just a little shoutout to my inspiration for this blog: @/akai-anemone 

I read her analyses on Laito about five years ago, and unfortunately, she has stopped. But, she has some really good stuff and I definitely recommend checking it out. Here’s some big bro Laito moments she’s brought up too: 

https://akai-anemone.tumblr.com/post/68549708275/heres-one-of-my-favorite-big-bro-laito-moments

https://akai-anemone.tumblr.com/post/68539626117/on-the-subject-of-the-relationship-between-the

https://akai-anemone.tumblr.com/post/65005954447/narihira-ayato-tells-laito-that-hes-building-a 

https://akai-anemone.tumblr.com/post/64621970821/big-bro-laito 

Please check her out!! She’s so lovely and although she’s not active anymore, I want to pay tribute to her too. I really hope I can be a good successor of her’s for the DL/Laito community. 

------------------------------INTERMISSION END---------------------------------

Laito’s relationship with Subaru

Honestly probably one of my favorite Sakamaki brother dynamics aside from Ayato and Laito. If you haven’t heard of the Laito vs Subaru, here it is for your listening pleasure (LINK). It’s probably one of my favorite fanservicey CDs, because Laito really just is getting the most out of the situation. 

Laito and Subaru are quite the dynamic duo. Subaru doesn’t have an affinity for Laito and man, it shows. He’s always telling Laito to shut up, and similarly to his other brothers, he’s always like “wtf” when Laito says something wack. Laito’s absolutely entertained by this though, and since he’s older than Subaru, he definitely uses it to his advantage to mess with him. Since Subaru’s your “tsundere” part of the group (more than Ayato), and easily read more than Ayato is, Laito has so much fun teasing him and calling him out in front of Yui. Here’s one of my favorite interactions from the CD:

L: Ehe~.. I’ll be taking those words as a compliment. Your jealousy is really a pleasant thing to me, ahaha. S: Ah?! JEALOUSY?! L: Oh? Aren’t you jealous? Extremely? Ufu, the reason Subaru-kun is so annoyed is that.. S: Fuck that! There’s no way it’s that! Don’t make me laugh!! It’s not like I… to this girl… L: Mm, tsk tsk tsk. Subaru-kun isn’t very honest, is he. What I said is the truth. You’re– S: SHUT UP! *breaks something* L: Woah! Geez… when I hit the nail on the head every time I’d like it if you didn’t break the things around us. Look, bitch-chan is also scared, isn’t she? Am I right? 

Laito, the perceptive motherfucker (,,,,dark joke im sorry), is back at it again, but terrorizing Subaru (and indirectly terrorizing the infrastructure of the house lol). I think it’s another brotherly moment of him to kind of make Subaru realize his feelings too. I don’t know too much about Subaru (although his MB route made me cry lol) but I do know that he’s just a fiercely independent guy that also kinda self isolated himself similarly to Kanato; but doesn’t nearly have as much built up hatred to his siblings. 

 Here’s some more Laito messing with Subaru quotes from that CD. Mainly because I find it so entertaining. 

L: Uwa.. Subaru-kun is scary~ dragging along a senseless girl by her hair. S: SHUT UP PERVERT!.. Right now as you wish.. I’ll make this girl crumble… everything is working out like you desired, right? L: Ufu, really? I did it! In that case, why don’t I stay here and watch your excellent ideas slowly and carefully?

Laito: Fufufu~ You just don’t understand the depths of love yet, Subaru-kun~ Laito: …Well then, Bitch-chan…Doesn’t seem like anyone will come and save us any time soon, so let’s have lots and lots more fun, okay? Haahn…Mm… Subaru: The fuck’s the ‘depths of love’!? I don’t care if I don’t understand that crap. I’ll love you…in my own way. So brace yourself, okay? …Mmh!

That’s so damn rich coming from Laito. This is just Laito’s version of a “haha virgin” joke (which I don’t think Subaru is lol). However, it seems that Laito considers Subaru “pure,” similar in Ayato’s fashion. Maybe this statement is a little jealous quip at that. Who knows!

Laito’s relationship with Reiji

Laito and Reiji…. Man, this is an entertaining relationship. They’re seemingly opposites: agent of chaos and agent of order. (However, Subaru is more physically chaotic lol). Although Laito does kind of fill the “big bro” position for most of his brothers, Reiji is definitely more of a “parental” figure. Laito knows how to get under Reiji’s skin and just does it for fun. I just find it really entertaining. Sure I’m not the biggest Reiji fan like I’ve said before, but wow I love their interactions. Reiji can be a buzzkill for Laito, which certainly annoys him as well. Their relationships in the tokuten CDs are my favorite; especially when Kou and Laito pester Reiji to make them food. However, Reiji treats Laito like a nuisance as well, especially during his MB out when a desperate Laito comes to Reiji begging for help. Reiji’s extremely blunt in that situation and basically is like “why don’t you just kill her” and doesn’t attempt to comfort Laito when he’s crying when Yui kills herself in MB. I feel like Reiji is a nice foil for Laito’s character in their interactions, especially during that scene:

Reiji: Oh… …Are you crying? Laito: Eh, this… …is what you call tears? Reiji: The water that flows from the eyes are tears. Laito: Why am I crying for? Reiji: … … Are you happy or sad, it can be either. Laito: I’m… … Reiji: Well, please leave quickly and carry the corpse out with you. Laito: It’s cold… …I’m shedding so many tears, why are they coming out so fast… … Reiji: … … It would be the result of which you invited.

They don’t interact often, and when they do, it’s either entertaining or meaningful, it seems. At least in my opinion.

Laito’s relationship with Shuu

Now this one’s interesting. Exaggerated “pervert” vs actual pervert. Putting it out there, I don’t think Shuu’s a closet pervert as most say; he’s just quiet in general, but his perverse remarks are incredibly obvious. These two don’t interact often (although Shuu interacts with his brothers less than Kanato) but WOW can they freaking duet!! I love their song Camouflage. But, that aside, their reactions are limited to Shuu making quips at Laito; either telling him to shut up or like “wtf Laito” (similarly to his other brothers). My favorite scene of them both is when Shuu calls Laito a “wannabe pervert”. 

Laito: Haha. Shu, isn’t it unusual for you to feel uneasy? Are you jealous? Fufu… … Shu: Bothersome… …I’m in a bad mood now. My music is spoiled because of your useless chattering. … … As for the concept of jealousy, it’s impossible for me to express… …you imitated pervert. Laito: … … Do you want to be killed? Shu: Hmph… …whatever you like?

This sets Laito off a bit, and Shuu definitely knows what he’s doing. Laito’s even taken aback, given his pause and the lack of a retort. It’s uncertain to see if Shuu actually knows what’s up with Laito or not, but I do think that Shuu is more perceptive than what he lets on. This also just reinforces the fact that Laito wants to meticulously build his character/facade as the perverted type, and doesn’t want it to be broken down; which is why he gets mad at Shuu. 

Well that’s all of Laito’s relationships with his brothers! Now onto the bigger picture.

Laito’s overall relationship with the Sakamakis and their implications + conclusions

This one’s gonna be a bit all over the place, so I apologize for that. 

Have you ever noticed that Laito doesn’t resort to name calling like the rest of his brothers? Even Reiji, the more “””refined””” brother calls Shuu a good for nothing. He only resorts to name-calling women. This, I find very intriguing. He usually has more indirect comments at his brothers, but they’re not nearly as malicious as the others. Or they’re insightful or just him teasing them; I don’t believe he has malicious intent towards his brothers like he says he does. Unless if he says he does; Laito doesn’t get actually LEGIT mad that easily. 

Also, yes, Laito does keep his mask on around his siblings. He’s just not as pervy when Yui’s not there because,,,, Yui’s not there, or if she’s not the topic of the conversation (or any woman for that matter), he has no reason to be pervy unless if something comes up. He always feels the need to be pervy though; Shuu straight up calls him a “wannabe pervert,” since Laito heavily exerts it to the point where it’s probably a joke. 

However, there’s something that’s been bothering me. I did mention it in this (https://everything-laito.tumblr.com/post/624910343406256128/impromptu-analysis-more-of-this-coming-soon) analysis, but TLDR; Nobody interacts with you or Laito in Laito’s HDB route. I could even say the same with his MB route, but that highlights his rivalry with Kou. In HDB, there is rarely any interaction with other brothers or even implied interaction with them. Subaru doesn’t even show up in the entirety of Laito’s route from what I can remember. In Kanato’s route, (which Kanato is the most overtly possessive/yandere of them all imo) Laito and Ayato still interact with him when you’re around, or even when he’s not around. But nobody dares to interact with you in Laito’s route much when you’re alone. Its bone chilling isolation. If there is interaction with the other brothers, it’s very limited and very quick. They’re very careful about what they say to you, when Laito’s around or not. They know he’s always watching, and we know he’s always watching. 

But, Kanato’s the one that spits out death threats all the time and is definitely like “Yui’s mine” in his route. But, it seems that he’s not much of a threat to the other brothers; and like I mentioned, Laito even gives him advice, which he listens to. However, nobody dares to get under Laito’s radar, because it seems that he can turn into an actual threat to the others. I mean, Laito probably has killed as many people as Kanato, if not more. Laito is no stranger to killing in cold blood. He’s killed so many suitors under Cordelia. This is beyond the other brothers being disgusted with Laito’s actions. This is the other brothers not wanting to mess with Pandora’s Box. 

Sure, we know that Laito dislikes outward violence, but he’s a master at manipulation and gaslighting, and doing stuff sneakily. They don’t know what to expect because of his mask being on at all times; they can’t get an efficient read on him, and even if they were “plotting” something against him or wanting to take Yui, they couldn’t. He has eyes everywhere. So instead, the other brothers avoid him in the sacrificial bride situation. He’s a force to be reckoned with, and they seem to know that he’s smarter than what he lets on. 

Well, if you’re still here, thanks for reading as always! So sorry this has been so delayed! (And Hotline, I will get to your other part of your ask in another post, I didn’t forget about it!!)

Hope you all are doing well!

-Corn

[mukami-kou]

Admin! how would you personally rank the Dialovers games???

Admin: I’m going to go keep this short, but either way, DL fans please don’t burn me to the stake for this, I’ve been in this fanbase for 5 years, I’m old and exhausted lol

1. (Best) More Blood (I loved this game so much it was actually very hard to chose between this and Dark Fate?)

2. Dark Fate

3. Chaos Lineage

4. Lunatic Parade

5. Vandead Carnival

6. Lost Eden

7. (Worst) Haunted Dark Bridal (I hated this game so much, I literally have my own physically and emotionally abusive childhood to look back on if I wanted torture like this, but unlike this game, I discovered therapy -sigh-)

[kouei116]

Diabolik lovers Lunatic Parade: Kanato Sakamaki

Earl Walter stole Yui's heart and replaced it with Kleinod. Yui and Kanato went to the earl's castle to ask for it back, but he wasn't there. They were advised to try find the butler to ask where his master was. Kanato wanted to get some rest first so they headed to a hotel. Due to the parade, the hotel was fully booked, Kanato demanded to see the manager - who recognized Kanato was Karlheinz's son and ordered staff to prepare the best room for him. While they filled in the accommodation card, the receptionist asked if Y was his friend, and Kanato replied: “She is my wife" (♡´艸`)

K: Hey Y, do you hate becoming a vampire that much?

Kanato told Y if Kleinod broke, it'd still be fine because he'd turn her into a vampire and they could be together forever. Y couldn't make a decision abt becoming vampires yet, Kanato got upset that she didn't understand his feelings and ran out of the hotel room. Y ran around town shouting his name looking for him. Seeing her desperately trying to find him, eventually Kanato came out in front of her. She must be tired from all the running so he suggested going to eat. While eating, Y suddenly fainted. Kanato brought her back to the hotel, he apologized it was his fault causing Y to run around earlier, he was very worried that if she remained human and someday she will die, he'd really hate it, he wanted her to stay with him forever. Y told him again that she wanted to find her heart first before making a decision. Kanato respected her decision and agreed to help get her heart back. 

K: If you don't use cunning/dishonest means, you won't get the things you truly want.

They went to Reine de Aji general good store (Aji the lady owner here is the younger sister of Saba - the shop owner in Vandead Carnival game) to ask abt the butler. Aji asked them to get her the forbidden apple pie before answering. This forbidden apple pie was extremely popular and too many people queuing to buy, Y said this couldn't be helped and was drinking smoothie talking to Kanato in this CG. He wanted to use his dad’s power to get the pie but Y wanted to find other ways. 

A boy bumped into Y, spilling smoothie all over her clothes. Kanato was angry demanding the boy to apologize to Yui properly and the boy started crying. Y told the boy she didn't mind, it's alright. The boy apologized to both of them and ran away, then came back with his Dad - who was the forbidden apple pie shop owner. The Dad said Y forgave his son with a smile, she was a kind vampire (Y noticed that he mistook her as a vampire) so he wanted to gift Y a forbidden apple pie. Kanato accepted it but Y wanted to return the pie bc she didn't treat the boy kindly to receive rewards. Kanato got mad (bc he wanted the pie to exchange for the butler's info) and ran off. Y tried to follow him, she bumped into the boy and he said his Dad was testing Y, it was actually a poisoned apple pie; if Y was a genuinely kind person, she'd return the pie.

Kanato arrived at the shop, giving the pie to Aji, but now she said she didn't remember any promises with Kanato?! She was happily having the first bite when Y rushed in and warned her abt the poison. Aji was skeptical but Yui's face didn't look like lying. Aji thanked Y, said from the start she didn't plan to tell Kanato the butler's whereabouts, but for Y, she'd help. The butler liked medicine herbs so when the Earl was away, very likely the butler would be at the Smaragd volcano to gather them.

Kanato told Y he found it strange why the Earl still put the Kleinod inside her after stealing her heart, and he felt like everybody they met in town today were testing them. He worried abt Y's health and suggested returning to the hotel to rest. Y slept and had a dream abt a mysterious man telling her: he granted her wish, since he took the heart away, she didn't get into any troubles with the vampires; the Kleinod can work forever, the Sakamaki lied to her abt it being temporary because they want to suck her special blood. Y woke up to a worried Kanato but she lied that she didn't remember this nightmare well enough to tell him. She trusted Kanato but she got anxious if he would still love her without the special heart. 

Y and Kanato went on a gondola to get to Tirkiss waterfall near the volcano. The scenery was very pretty, Kanato said in town they couldn't enjoy the parade so they should take a break now, they know the butler is here, no need to worry. A fortune-teller lady invited them to try her shop that was famous for accurate love fortune. She gave Y a cup of tea to drink up then looked at the remaining tea leaves to predict that Y was having doubts abt Kanato. Y denied this but suddenly her body felt hot, her consciousness started fading and she fell into the water. Kanato jumped straight into the water to save her but the water was strong, she realized if going on like this, he’d drown...

K: ... Quiet! Only I can decide your fate. Don't die without my permission, I won't forgive you!

Y got drifted away and couldn't see Kanato anymore. She woke up in a cave with Kanato collapsed nearby. She was very happy he was still alive. She apolozied and told him the truth abt the dream. He said he only knew those kleinod to work temporarily, and:

K: Besides ... Even if the heart disappears, I will always love you. It's more important to me that you are alive than being able to suck your blood. I thought even if I don't say it in words, you already understood ... but seems like I was wrong. I ... love you *kiss*

Suddenly lots of bats appeared <Minigame Whack a Bat>

K (patting her head): It's a reward for your working hard (fighting the bats in the minigame). I’m praising you. 

After beating the bats, it wasn't likely that the butler was here so they should return to the hotel. Y sneezed, Kanato asked if she was cold, checked her forehead and sensed a bit fever, told her to give him her hand bc it'd be troublesome if Y collapsed (aweee) Y saw somebody collapsed and ran over to check even when Kanato didn't want them to get involved. This man woke up and explained he was picking up a rare moss growing inside a cave that has poisonous gas even to vampire. He bowed his head to thanks Y and Kanato for saving him. They noticed he had a red granite stone on his forehead and they realized he was the butler! Y explained her situation, the butler could only give them the card written by the Earl hinting the location: On the full moon night, when it raises the crown at the very high peak, I'll return. (sorwy, I don't understand what this means TwT)

Y thought the Earl could be either at the tower or the mountain. Unexpectedly she overheard the girls nearby talking about the Zatan's mouth at Diamante fountain: if you put your hand inside the mouth, it will tell you the truth, but no one have tried yet because it's said that a disaster may occur to you e.g. splitting up with your lover. Kanato was very cool put his hand right in and got the answer: The Earl will appear at Onyx tower. Y asked if he wasn't scared of losing her, but he said: “If that happens, I will take you back. It's not likely that you belong to anyone else but me...”

They came to the tower and Earl Walter was there. He said he’d return Y's heart with a condition that she vowed to part from Kanato forever. She replied that he was wrong, he didn't take her most important thing. There's no way she'd exchange the 2nd most important thing (her heart) for the most important thing (Kanato). Kanato was very happy to hear her feelings. Suddenly the tower started to crumble and they got thrown outside, Kanato managed to catch her and said: 

K: Y! Don't leave my side. Hold on more tightly. Please don't let go no matter what. I will definitely protect you, now and ...in the future. You can stop worrying, it'll definitely be alright. I love you... I love you.

When Y woke up, she and Kanato were in the Earl's castle. He said he did want her heart but he realized that Y and Kanato were worthy of keeping such a treasure hence he returned it. Kanato demanded him to show his face but he refused. He hoped they would enjoy the festival and he needed to leave for his next target to steal.

Y had fun at the parade because Kanato was at her side. The forbidden apple pie shop owner gave them an apple pie (not poisoned one this time yay) and Kanato fed Y from his fork

Y: ... It’s extremely delicious! Just like you said Kanato!

K: That's good. You can eat the rest.

Y: Eh, is it ok for you Kanato? Does it not suit your taste?

K: No, it's not that. Because, as expected, I like this better *kiss*... Fufu, thanks to you eating the apple pie, this feels sweeter than usual *Nnn....n...Nnn.....*. You're a special. Y, to me you're probably the forbidden fruit. I love you ... From now on, you're mine and mine alone, forever ....

Care for Vampire:

K: ... Thank you. Thanks to you, Y, I've felt much better. Let's sleep together like this. If you sleep with me, I will get well. (...) From today, you will be my personal pillow. ... Are you happy? ... Fufu, me too. Please let me hug you like this forever...

---

I really like Kanato's sub scenario with Carla. Kanato requested room service to hold a sweet party just for the two of them in the hotel's guest room aaaand Carla was eating their sweets there. Kanato was getting grumpy but Carla complimented Kanato's taste in choosing sweets - esp the religieuses that have high artistic value and sweeter than anything he has eaten, he’d ask Shin to get it for him - making Kanato smile again. Then Carla, Kanato, and Yui ate religieuses happily ever after hahaha. Just like my sis-in-law said, it's nice to see my old man and little boy getting along (人´∀`) The route is sweet, Kanato always worried abt Y’s health, he jumped straight into the water to save her, I squeaked for 15′ when he said Y is his wife haaa（˶′◡‵˶）It's just... I guess bc Yui's heart was missing, there wasn't any sucking blood scenes, only a few kissing scenes at the end, my ears starved playing this oughhh ;u;

[yuikomorii]

How would you rank each Yui from all of the game's?

// LET’S GO!

1. Dark Fate: Wasn't the sharpest, but was generally proactive, sometimes even more than certain Diaboys. I really enjoyed how she was supportive and generally very lovely. :3

2. More Blood: Dumb bitch (in the cute way). I believe her strongest version was there. I liked how we saw a different side of Yui. Even if said side was flawed, that made her more relatable imo. I was proud of her for fighting for the Diaboys' hearts. The dedication was admirable.

3. Lunatic Parade: It's been a while since I've gone through LP, but I remember her being such a sweetheart and adorable. ;w;

4. HDB: I liked how she was a bit sassy, which made her funny, yet kept being really kind and caring. However, she’s so low because I didn’t really like what she became in Laito’s and Kanato’s routes. I know this wasn’t her fault but seeing characters break makes me sad.

5. Vandead Carnival: I found her a little bit too stiff in most routes… Maybe that was because some Diaboys didn’t really allow her to make her own decisions. Regardless, I enjoyed her.

6. Lost Eden: Dumb bitch (in the bad way). Justified Karl’s actions, tried to convince Ayato that his abuser cared for him, revealed Carla’s secret to the antagonist, talked ill behind her lover’s back more than once, justified Ruki planning Ayato’s murder, knew Seiji wanted to annihilate all demons but still thought of choosing him over Subaru, and more. All she did in that game was either make matters worse or act like an emotional support.

7. Chaos Lineage: I feel bad for ranking this version the lowest, but I can’t imagine her being more boring than that. At the very least, in LE she was somehow entertaining to watch, but in CL she’s just even more predictable than usual.

[mythicamagic]

Who do you think would most likely win a game of arm wrestle? (In my opinion I think Yuma)

I’m pretty sure this happens in either Vandead Carnival or Lunatic Parade. Subaru and Yuma try to have an arm wrestle while Yui watches. Unfortunately the table they use breaks because they use too much strength lol It’s unclear who the victor is, I think Rejet doesn’t want to tell us who’s the stronger of the two.

Yuma is very strong to say he’s a turned vampire, but Subaru is a Pure blood. I can’t honestly choose who would win XD sorry for the lacklustre answer.

[cannonette]

Hi Cannonette, I just wanted to ask about Diabolik Lovers. I've wanted to play the game for a while now, but many people have expressed disgust at the level of abuse and somewhat sadist vibes. I wanted to know to how much extent this is actually a part of the game, or if it was just the result of a badly made anime. Also, how would you describe the plot/romance of the game, compared to other otome? Thanks Cannonette!

(≡ﾟ∀ﾟ≡) Hey hey!! 

The game series is set with the genre ドS吸血恋愛ADV, which is translates into Sadistic Blood-sucking Love Adventure Game. 

Of course, with having Sadistic in the genre does hint that the game has some sort of sadistic vibes, whether it is physical abuse or emotional. The level of abuse really depends on the games you pick up on. But the abuse/sadistic vibes are in all games except the variety type games like Vandead Carnival, or Lunatic Parade. 

The abuse/sadistic vibes comes from when Yui encounters the boys for the first time, but it starts to tone down a little as Yui and the boys develops feelings for each other. But recently, as new character additions have come in smaller entries, the abuse/sadistic vibes seems to have dropped. But it still doesn’t mean that there isn’t ANY moments like those, it’s just lowered to where it’s mostly focused on the new characters. 

There are sort of, well kind of, sadistic moments when you choose a Sadistic Choice during the Situation parts of the game, but I don’t feel that it’s really that much of a big deal. Or maybe I’ve come to accepted the genre of the game... who knows? 

I don’t feel like the sadistic vibes are too heavily focused recently, but it is still there. And those kind of moments are mostly in the plot based games and not the variety type fandisk games.

As for the plot, I think it’s alright, it’s not the best thing I’ve read but it’s also not the worse thing either. I like some bits and pieces here and there, and sometimes the background stories answers a few thing that I had questioned, but other than that I feel quite neutral about it.

And Romance wise I’m really playing this game for the Situation parts at the moment, so the romance in the Situation parts where Yui had already developed a bond with the boys just... instantly melts my heart. Those sweet and adorable moments, my heart, it’s already just melting in sweetness...

TL;DR

Not much abuse/sadistic vibes are focused in recent games, anything that I think is really sadistic comes from earlier games when Yui and the boys had not much of a bond. 

Plot wise it’s alright I don’t love it but I don’t hate it either. As for romance, the adorable moments with the boys is just melt worthy sweet.

Sorry for the lateness, I checked my inbox a day late, but thanks for asking, and I hope you have a wonderful day!!