Diabolik Lovers


Diabolik Lovers is a Japanese visual novel franchise by Rejet. Its first entry was released on October 11, 2012 for the PlayStation Portable system. Thus far, the franchise has released six games with the first two having been remastered for the PlayStation Vita and released as "Limited V Editions". The seventh game was released in March 2019 playable on Nintendo Switch. The franchise has brought forth two 12-episode anime television adaptations by Zexcs, which aired from September 16, 2013 to December 9, 2013 and September 23, 2015 to December 9, 2015. The first series was followed by an OVA, which was included in Diabolik Lovers: Dark Fate on February 28, 2015. It has been made into various manga, anime, drama CDs, music CDs and fanbooks. Three well received stage plays also ran in August 2015, August 2016, and January 2018.

Gameplay

Players take on the role as Yui Komori, who can choose from a variety of male characters as her love interest. In Diabolik Lovers, every playable character's route is split into three sections: Dark, Maniac and Ecstasy. Each of these three sections is split into a prologue, ten subsections, and an epilogue. There are three possible endings for each character based in your choices.
The games were first brought out on PSP, by the third game they were continued in PS Vita / PS TV format, the first two games were soon also brought out in this format. In 2017 it was announced the first three games would be brought out on PlayStation 4. In 2018, a new game titled Diabolik Lovers: Chaos Lineage was announced and released in March 2019 on the Nintendo Switch.
Thus far seven games have been released:
Series 1
The main heroine, Yui Komori, was just a normal teenage girl in high school until her father, a priest, went to travel overseas for work. As a result, Yui is sent to a new town and arrives alone at a mansion where she was told will be her new home. At the mansion, no-one greets her; however, the door swings open on its own accord. As she explores the area to find someone to escort her in, Yui then enters to find herself all alone, but before she does, she finds a handsome young man sleeping with no heartbeat on a couch. To her shock, he awakens and five other young men gradually appear. Yui soon notices something different about all of them: she discovers that all six of them are brothers, but by three different mothers, and that they were all vampires from the very beginning.
Series 2
After living with the Sakamakis for a month, Yui starts to have strange dreams and apparitions regarding a mysterious "Eve". One night, on their way to school, the brothers and Yui get involved in an unexplainable fiery car crash. The next day, four vampire brothers come to the house and kidnap her. What will happen with the Sakamakis? Will she come back?

Characters

Main characters

Sakamaki household

Mukami household

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Tsukinami household

Other characters

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Anime

An anime adaptation was first announced at a 2013 event called the "Rejet Fes 2013 Viva La Revolution". During the "Otomate Party 2013" event later that year, it was announced that the adaptation would be directed by Atsushi Matsumoto and produced by the Zexcs studio. It later premiered on AT-X along with online streaming on Niconico between September 16 and December 9, 2013. Crunchyroll also picked the adaptation up for streaming in territories including the United States and Canada. It was subsequently licensed by Sentai Filmworks and was released with an English dub and subtitles by the company on a 2-disc DVD volume set on December 2, 2014. This adaptation features three pieces of theme music. The opening theme is "Mr.SADISTIC NIGHT" performed by Hikaru Midorikawa and Kōsuke Toriumi. The ending theme is "Nightmare" performed by Yuki Hayashi. The second opening is "Kindan no 666" performed by Ryōhei Kimura and Daisuke Kishio. The DVD contained several mini-dramas depicting events that occurred to the Sakamaki's off-screen during the anime. An OVA episode was bundled together with the Diabolik Lovers: Dark Fate game and released on February 28, 2015. The Blu-ray edition of the series was released in 2015.
A second anime adaptation titled Diabolik Lovers More, Blood premiered in September 2015. The anime was directed by Risako Yoshida and written by Hiroko Kusanagi with a returning voice cast. The series comprised 12 episodes and ran from September 23 to December 3, 2015. The Blu-ray DVD edition of the second series was released on January 4, 2017, and the Diabolik Lovers II: More, Blood Complete Collection was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 28, 2017. The second season was also licensed by Sentai Filmworks and received an English dub in March 2017.

Episode list

''Diabolik Lovers''

''Diabolik Lovers More, Blood''

Stage plays

A Diabolik Lovers stage play based on the first series of the anime ran in Rikkokai Theatre in Tokyo's Shinagawa ward from August 26 to August 30, 2015. It featured Japanese actors Taiki Yamazaki, Shohei Hashimoto, Katsuhiko Ibuka, Yūya Asato, Shungo Takasaki, Kazumi Doi, Ayumi Takamura, Yu Amemiya and Takuma Obonro. The stage play received largely positive reviews and was released on DVD on February 24, 2016. Guiya Ōta, the writer of the Amnesia musical script, wrote the script and Yūsei Naruse, the Hetalia~Singin' in the World~ musical's script writer, was the producer of the play.
A second Diabolik Lovers stage play titled Diabolik Lovers~re:requium~ ran in the Shinagawa Prince Hotel's Club eX event hall in Tokyo from August 24 to August 28, 2016. The cast from the original play returned with the exception of Shōhei Hashimoto who was replaced by Kaiki Ōhara and Takuma Obonro who was replaced by Wataru Shiokawa. Guiya Ōta returned as the script writer and Yūsei Naruse returned to produce the play at Office Inveider. The stage play received largely positive reviews and was released on DVD on December 21, 2016.
A third Diabolik Lovers stage play titled Diabolik Lovers More Blood will run at clubeX in Shinagawa, Japan from January 24 to January 28, 2018. The cast largely changed from that of the previous play casting Kazuhara Ara, Yūsaku Satō, Aren Kohatsu, Shin’ichi Wagō and Gaku Takamoto. Only Katsuhiko Ibuka and Ayumi Takamune returned as their original characters. Guiya Ōta returned as the script writer and Yūsei Naruse returned to produce the play. The stage play received largely positive reviews and was released on DVD on July 14, 2018.