OP Sequence

OP: 「JUSTICE of LIGHT」 by 五條真由美 (Gojou Mayumi)
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼

Summary:

In the Independent Trade City Housman, order is maintained by a corps of knights, and one such knight is Cecily Cambell. She’s a relatively new though, and when an armored man goes berserk in town, she struggles to stop him. Unfortunately for her, he cuts through her family sword, leaving her defenseless. She’s saved only when a mysterious guy with a katana appears and cuts through her opponent’s sword. This puts an end to the battle, and the man is taken away. In the aftermath, Cecily’s savior looks down on her as she falls trying to thank him, and he walks away. Through the guy’s assistant, Cecily learns that his name is Luke, and his katana made such an impression on her that when she learns that the town blacksmith can’t repair her family sword, she decides to go look for him.

Cecily finds him living with his assistant Lisa outside of town and tries to get him to make her a katana like his own, but he refuses. She doesn’t give up though and tells him of the history of knights in her family and how much her sword means to her. Their conversation, however, is interrupted by an alarm bell signaling trouble. As it turns out, a nearby convoy is being attacked by monsters, and Cecily borrows the sword of a fallen knight. In order to prove herself to Luke, she charges ahead, but she’s easily swatted aside by the monster. Luke has to save her again, and he’s able to single-handedly defeat all the monsters. However, an ice demon then appears, and it’s able to break Luke’s katana. This time, Cecily steps in to protect him, and Luke decides to have her occupy the demon while he makes another katana. Via a magical process with Lisa, Luke is able to forge a katana from raw materials in just a minute, and he steps in to save Cecily a third time.

ED Sequence

ED: 「みらくるハッピーディ」 (Miracle Happy Day) by 豊崎愛生 (Toyosaki Aki)
Watch the ED! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼

Well, I like the beginning and chorus of the opening song, but the rest of it wasn’t that great. The ending, on the other hand, oozes cuteness with Toyosaki Aki singing as Lisa.

In the blurb I wrote about this series in the fall preview, I noted that I was cautiously optimistic about it mainly because the studio manglobe was working on it but that it otherwise looked pretty standard fantasy action. After having seen this first episode, my feelings about the series haven’t changed much other than the fact that I’m slightly less optimistic. The production quality was fairly good, and the fights were decent, but it was still pretty standard fantasy fare with big monsters and shadowy villains. In fact, Cecily got a tad annoying with how preachy she became on the whole knight and protecting thing, especially considering that she was fairly worthless in an actual fight.

The saving grace of the episode came at the very end when Luke showed the technique he uses to forge swords on the fly. That was actually pretty cool to see and hear, and I’ll probably watch the second episode just to see how they explain that. If the plot doesn’t start to show more promise though, I’m not going to be very keen on blogging this.

On a random side note, every time I hear Luke’s name, I get bad memories of the Tales of the Abyss series. The Luke here is not a bad character though; I just wished they named him something else.

55 Comments

  1. How in the world did Luke managed to forge a new blade after asking Cecily to buy him time, when the monster should’ve been attacking?
    i’m still going to watch this series, since its a bit interesting.

    Karis
  2. “On a random side note, every time I hear Luke’s name, I get bad memories of the Tales of the Abyss series. The Luke here is not a bad character though; I just wished they named him something else.”

    Felt the same way about him. Good thing he isn’t annoying, this would have ruined the show.

  3. I actually liked this episode, more so than the Armed Librarians. Had a decent premise, likeable characters and good animation. Though I hate how Luke bears a bit of a resemblance to Sasuke from Nauto. Even sounds a bit like him. *shudders*

    damian
  4. Good first episode, my only problem with it was the last few minutes…

    He told her to buy him some time so he can forge a new katana…but all she did was watch in awe…and wth was the monster doing? taking a bathroom break or something?

    dmo
  5. Luke is played by Okamoto Nobuhiko, so he should sound more like Yoichi (Asu no Yoichi!), Accelerator (To Aru no Majutsu no Index), Layfon Alseif (Chrome Shelled Regios), and Kanzato Shin (Persona -trinity soul-). Nobuhiko was pretty blah in Regios, but entertaining in Asu no Yoichi, so I hope there will be more glimpses of comedy here in Blacksmith.

    Aside from Letter Bee, this is the other new series this season starring Fujimura Ayumi, so here’s to hoping that it won’t go down the drain like Tales of the Abyss either.

  6. I really like the part when it focused on his footwork to dodge the attacks <3

    Looking forward to next episode

    And also… the boss is really kind, waited until Luke was done XD

    Fayt
  7. While I can understand why people think this is generic, but I still find it fairly entertaining to watch mainly cause I read a bit of manga and I know there will be some comedy.

    The story will probably not improve much, but the animation should be consistent and I think you should blog this until the 4th main character’s story (which should be fairly quick). If by that point it’s still no good then you can drop it.

    Moocow
  8. I wouldn’t go comparing this to anything yet. Although the lead guy is cold as hell, he still shows the immaturity of most half-ass male leads w/o being a half-ass. Its backwards. But Yoichi, Leyfon, Accelerator, & Shin were the same way so you know what kind of roles that Nobuhiko prefer: Cold-ass males with incomplete characters. The lead female is a no-count with a stumbling-but-true-&-upright-personality. Side main character like a loli-elf & the fourth chick don’t hurt the mix either.

    The comedy in this is completely cliché but most would say its the overused “refleshing” type. I don’t really care about the Luke crap. Although TotA Luke up an angsty fuck-up, its still just a name. Besides, I have a cousin named Luke – so not all Lukes are angsty fuck-ups. But I get those memories too, but my wish for an awesome male lead supersedes any name or personality.

    In all, the show has some promise – but I wouldn’t get my hopes up either. This is a show that can bury itself at anytime just with Luke’s reactions or Cecilly’s mouth – but that preachiness of her’s is her character in general & as long as it doesn’t get as bad as Touma’s it’ll be OK.

    Megas
  9. Is it just me, or is Lisa a total rip-off of Yui from K-ON? Her face looks the same ’cause of the blush and more importantly the mouth that is consistently drawn with only upper teeth… Even the same voice actress, and they got her to sing the ED.

    I’m going to find it hard to get immersed in this show when every time this popularity-grab takes the screen, the image of her, in my head, turns into a large dollar sign (like something out of a Looney Tunes show).

    null
  10. Stuff that get me into watching a series is the art and premise. Right now, this show’s got my attention, so I’ll being watching it. If it starts to suck, then I’ll just drop it (as I did with many series).

    paulrenzo
  11. I actually liked the show, the animation style is alright and the opening was good. So I will continue watching the show just because Luke is my favorite character. But, I agree that Cecily was too preachy and it annoyed me.

    Phoenix
  12. Actually this is one of the few show that actually surprise me this season, at first i thought it was goner be boring and average, but now for some reason I really enjoy it and can’t wait till more episodes.
    I agree the animation quality look like some 80’s anime but I somehow enjoy the storyline.
    But if I have to say the part that got me totally hook was when luke killing those three monster, some of you should watch again during the scene when he kill that second monster, his foot work and movement totally got me hook. I would follow this serie just to see more of those footwork.

    mike
  13. I found the first episode a mixed result.

    Kinda slow and mediocre, and aside from the sword forging this has so far been stereotypical fantasy stuff. But it’s only early days so I’ll watch a few more episodes to see how it goes. Anime that start slow may end up great later like Gundam 00.

    Cecily though looks like a character who will get on my nerves. She preaches a lot like Touma from Majutsu no Index, but unlike him doesn’t have the strength to back up her rhetoric. And it’s extremely dumb that she and the monster stops to watch the male lead charge up his big attack, Shock and Awe? 😛

    The 2 saving graces were the sword forge sequence, and Lisa the Loli elf. 🙂

    Ninja Penguin
  14. Yeah! The sword forge scene and watching Luke fight was great. Though Luke’s character design reminds me of Akira Nikaido form Monochrome Factor. I’m really looking forward to the next episode.

    Phoenix
  15. Yeah! The sword forge scene and watching Luke fight was great. Though Luke’s character design really reminds me of Akira Nikaido from Monochrome Factor. I’m really looking forward to the next episode.

    Phoenix
  16. Anyone else notice something weird about Luke’s left eye. It’s got this horizontal line across it. Even though it’s subtle, i can’t help but look at it lol. I think it has something to do with the story.

    pong
  17. This shit is ridiculous. Boob plate, swords being cut through like they’re butter. Just you wait, there is going to be an episode where a sword breaks just because it was swung, air resistance and all. Forging swords by pouring steel in a mold = retarded. But then again, this is just Japan performing auto-fellatio over their own sword-making skills.

    Anon
  18. Just finished it, and my first thought is the characters are very annoying.

    The guy is a rude and selfish brat.

    While the girl knight is a stupid Darwin award nominee who is begging for her stupid death.

    I’ve make a decision to stop watching at episode 1 so that these two characters won’t annoy me anymore.

    PS: Nice artwork though. Very well drawn and very beautiful colored.

    gatariboi
  19. my god.. she repeated her name like 100 times in this episode, most of them were just to herself to remind her of her status. what a weak anime, action sucks, plot predictable, from this episode you can tell that luke will take her as his apprentice and some elf chick joins the group and that naraku type character is the arch nemesis and it will be like every episode a demon attacks and luke’s group will fight it. can’t wait for next episode though!

    fapping god
  20. Hm…. I don’t know about you guys… but I really really hope she gets new armor soon, because that plate wonder bra she’s wearing looks really dumb >_>. Crappy heroine outfit aside. The transmutation circle thingy scene bit looks pretty cool.

    Azuma

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