This page lists the characters that appear in the Dance in the Vampire Bund manga and anime series created by Nozomu Tamaki.

Main characters

Wilhelmina Vlad "Mina" Țepeș is the female protagonist of the series and the current ruler of Earth's Vampires. She usually appears in a young and prepubescent state, though she is not shy enough to feel embarrassed when naked and is centuries old. Mina can act aggressive, cocky, arrogant, and naughty, and her high birth often shows through in her sense of entitlement and condescension towards Akira's relative youth and subsequent lack of political savvy when he confronts her on her kidnapping. However, she actually feels vulnerable and lonely. She cares very much for the welfare of her people and does everything in her power, no matter how unscrupulous, to protect and preserve her species and their greater good. Mina sympathizes towards the Fangless, creating a city underneath the Bund where they can live freely and without persecution. It is revealed that she is in love with Akira since first meeting him or related to him in a close fashion, to the point her secret room is covered from floor to ceiling with nothing but pictures of him. Her soul's true form is an adult, voluptuous, nude version of herself with knee-length blonde hair, an ebony structure covering half her body, and black bat-like wings. She wishes to have this form kept a secret, as that form's body is able to give birth while her 'child' form cannot due to her small frame. If the Three Nobles found out, they could force her into marrying one of them and producing a child with the excuse that it's to preserve the Pure Royal Bloodline. She's not supposed to have a child with anyone else as they are the only other "True Bloods" like her. Although the Bloodline is in peril because they not only killed her mother, all the other vampire clans are as well. In the manga it's revealed that their excuse for killing Lucretia was because Mina's father wasn't one of them, and therefore was that of a commoner. Although who the father was is either not known or hasn't been revealed yet. Mina's name can be derived from the Vlad the Impaler story and Count Dracula. Her surname, Țepeș, is the Romanian word for Impaler, the reason Vlad the Impaler is called Vlad Țepeș. Her given name "Mina" is shared by Mina Murray, the woman that Dracula sought to have as his new bride in the original novel. Mina is a terrible cook, as vampires have no sense of taste, and thus has no experience making food. This results in some humorous mishaps during cooking class, as she can't even tell what some of the cooking utensils are for. During the overnight with Yuki, she made Akira a dish, but used too much spice. Mina Țepeș appears in the story "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire" in the series Young Miss Holmes.Young Miss Holmes Casebook 1-2 by Kaoru Shintani

The male protagonist of the series. A young werewolf who is the son of Wolfgang and thus is well trained. He has undergone training to identify almost all explosives, learning how to sniff them out. He cannot however disarm them as he only took the canine part of the program. He is a kind person, determined to protect Mina, with whom he is in love. He first met Mina when he was a baby, but doesn't remember. They meet again in a garden when Akira was 10 years old. He promised to always be by Mina's side and protect her, even at the cost of his life. When his 17th birthday came, he was required to be Mina's servant, thus fulfilling the covenant between werewolves and the Queen of the Vampires. At first he was not really happy about it, but he eventually agreed. Akira and Mina had some problems between them, but they solved it and along the way their love for each other grew. He also cares deeply about Yuki, but rejected her confession due to being a werewolf and his feelings to Mina. Later in the manga, Akira offered his blood to Mina in order to save her, which resulted in him transforming into a stronger werewolf/vampire hybrid. In the anime, he lost all of his memories one year ago, and did not even know he was a werewolf until episode 2. It is later revealed he lost his memory due to extreme psychological trauma. Normally werewolves who are mentally unstable are killed (considering how dangerous an insane human can be, even more so a werewolf) but he was allowed to live because of his importance to Mina.

A human student at the school founded by Princess Mina Țepeș. She is Mina's and Akira's classmate as well as a member of the Student Council. She was for a time being the only member after the vampire attack at the church Nanami Shinonome which resulted in the resignation of all other members shortly thereafter. Nanami returned as Student Council President after the incident with Hysterica. She gave Akira a silver ring (which he wore in a bag around his neck as werewolves are allergic to silver) as a symbol of their relationship, which later she gave to Mina as a symbol of their new friendship. She was at first frightened by vampires, but grows to accept them after spending time with Mina. Through this Yuki appears to gain a very close friendship with Mina patterned after Anne Shirley and Diana Barry in "Anne of Green Gables", even inviting her to spend the night at her house. Yuki's willing loyalty to Mina is later made absolutely clear when Yuki suffers a closed head injury and is left with aphasia (inability to speak) and paralyzed from the waist down, yet risks her life several times in an effort to tell Akira that this Mina is an impostor and that the real one was kidnapped. As a result of her head injury, Yuki has been infected with 'Pied Piper' nanomachines which are slowly repairing or replacing the damaged areas of her brain. As an accommodation for her aphasia, the nanomachines currently also allow her to emit an infrared beam from her right eye allowing her to communicate via a specially-configured laptop she names "Anne" in honor of Anne Frank having convinced Mina to read it. This clues her into the impostor as she had discussed the name with the real Mina who would've known and not needed to guess about which 'Anne' the computer was named after. As of the end of Volume 14, Yuki has been freed by the return of Princess Mina, and regained her ability to speak in time to save the Princess from an attack. Yuki is also an amateur novelist, and has quite a following in the Bund prior to the invasion by Inanovic. It is suggested she writes yaoi with the protagonist based on Akira, much to his horror. She was embarrassed to learn Mina had shared her novel with the bund (the maids are her biggest fans who even faked reasons for having her sign for things to get her autograph) and horrified to learn Mina had translated and shared it with the world. Akira is upset over some of the wild ideas Yuki and Mina came up with in the Chairman's office. After her head injury, the maids make a syllabus to help her write her next novel until she got the computer. Is referred to by the maids as 'Maestro' due to her novels. Yuki is the narrator of the animated story, in which version it is also revealed that she was once Akira's girlfriend, a relationship clearly not part of the manga. In the anime, the relationship between Mina and Yuki grows through teaming up in cooking class rather than a sleepover.

Vampires Vampires can be both born or created from humans. In the former case, 'True Blooded' vampires descended from a progenitor paternal figure continue through the female line, currently represented by Mina. In the latter case, vampirism appears to have an infectious aetiology, possibly a form of retrovirus. Unlike many vampire stories, transformation into a vampire is not a conscious decision but rather is caused by a vampire feeding off of a human. In recent years a "vaccine" has been developed to prevent transformation, but is only effective for up to 48 hours from the time of infection. In all cases a human turned into a vampire who is not cured with the vaccine has a genetically coded mandate to unilaterally and unconditionally obey the person who turned them into vampires. While vampires can be "reprogrammed" using different DNA to allow them to switch allegiances they retain this mandate for absolute obedience, which leaves them entirely at the mercy of the vampire they are currently programmed to obey.

Compared to humans, vampire emotions are significantly more potent, causing many vampires to become violent, gluttonous for blood, and very often sexual deviants, in an effort to satiate those powerful urges; however, there also are vampires – chiefly among them those who were turned against their wills – who instead choose to become "Fangless", pulling their own fangs in order to hold onto their former human values. Such vampires face persecution from both sides, however, human and vampire alike; it is revealed early on that the creation of the Bund was in large part to provide a haven for the Fangless to live peacefully.

All vampires have a 'True Form', which is a physical representation of their innermost self, and is a very similar transformation to that of werewolves. This form can be almost anything, from a giant bat, to a lizard, to a spider, to, in Mina's case, a succubus-like figure. Very few of the vampires in the story have shown their true forms. Similar to other fictional vampires, Dance vampires are considerably more physically powerful than humans in both strength and speed; able to lift heavy objects such as cars as well as overpower and outrun humans with ease. They possess remarkable regenerative abilities to such an extent where they cannot catch common diseases such as the cold and the cells of their bodies remain active even within a part of their body that has been severed; thus, a vampire may reattach a severed limb without so much as a scar. Vampires are also considerably agile, able to leap several feet into the air in a single bound and perform parkour and acrobatic feats with relative ease without tire.

In addition to human-derived vampires, there are also the "True Bloods": vampire families who possess "pure" vampiric ancestry, undiluted by human blood, whether by mating with humans or by being transformed. These are the most powerful of all Vampires in the world, but are restricted by tradition and codes of conduct when it comes to dealing with each other. Vampire blood-purity dilutes over the generations. This has resulted in a strictly hierarchical, almost feudal society where the older, higher vampires of purer-blood reign over the younger, lower vampires of weaker-blood. This has caused great resentment on the part of the weak-blooded vampires, who are often treated as second-class citizens and even slaves, even though they are officially recognized as an essential part of vampire society as laborers, soldiers and servitors. As a result of this class-dynamic, the lower vampires often occupy the ranks of rebels, rogues and murderers within the vampire community as well as a threat to humans.

In the storyline, currently the vampire world is ruled by the royal family, the Țepeș represented now by Mina. There are only three male "true blood" nobles left: Rozenmann, Ivanovic, and Li.

The "Dance" vampires are best classified as "living vampires", sexually reproduce, and are still living despite being able to live with injuries fatal to humans. In one notable instance, a vampire had her organs removed to hide a bomb within her body.

Țepeș Royal Family The Țepeș are the royal family that rules over the Vampire world. Currently, there is only one member of the royal family left.

Lucretia Țepeș was the previous ruler of the Vampire Kingdom and Mina's mother. Not much is known about her, other than that she looks very similar to Mina's true form. She was killed at the hands of the Three Clans.

The Three Clans