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「ルリ色の絆」 (Ruri-iro no Kizuna)
“Lapis Lazuli-Colored Bond”
Much like I had hoped, this second episode slows the frantic pace down and sets the foundation for the story. It even surprised me a bit with how many different aspects were built up, reaffirming my faith in Sunrise’s staff to put together an original story that has some depth to it. The first episode may not have been all that impressive, but combined with this second one, Sacred Seven is off to a great start. All the added exposition worked well in overshadowing the fact that at its very core, we had another Ashi “monster of the week” type of progression. The battle itself was actually really short-lived despite its flashy aerial nature, and not entirely without purposed either as it depicted Aruma’s acceptance of his powers and desire to help Ruri fight Ashi after learning why she’s desperately seeking his help.
I’ve been wondering about what drove Ruri to invest the Aiba Foundation’s money into an anti-Ashi organization ever since I read about an “incident”, and I quickly got my answer in the form of Ashi killing her parents and leaving her sister and only remaining blood-relative Aoi in a crystal-like prison. That in itself gave enough purpose to her struggle, something that was lacking in the premiere, but the writers decided to add a childhood twist to it by showing that Ruri was saved by Aruma in the past, giving new meaning to why she has so much faith in him — enough to dive out of a plane without a parachute believing that Aruma would activate his Sacred Seven powers in time anyway. I loved seeing the determination in Ruri’s face when she did, simply because I can’t remember the last time that I’ve seen a heroine with such a strong resolve to see things through. I dare say I’ve taken an immediate liking to her character just because of it.
Naturally, Ruri is only one half of the main protagonists, so I was happy to see them flesh out Aruma’s backstory a bit more as well. Namely, we found out that the guys he seriously injured deserved what they got coming to them, after they ganged up on him and threw his precious stone — likely a momento of his own mother — into the river. At the same time, it cleared up any confusion on why he’s constantly searching around in shallow streams, and interestingly enough, tied in his first meeting with Wakana. The series was able to quickly establish the bonds between the characters and give a sense that each of the characters have a reason for doing what they are now. I’m always quick to suspend my disbelief with anime, but when it comes to the characters themselves, I do like it when I can see where they’re coming from.
Last but definitely not least is a quick explanation that the Sacred Seven power is caused by a meteorite that crashed on Earth seventeen years ago, containing seven minerals that can transform the DNA of living creatures and grant them special powers if they come into contact with them. It turns out that Aruma’s mother likely came into contact with one of those foreign substances before giving birth to him. Sounds straightforward enough, much like most of the other plot that was delved into this episode, but works well in laying the foundation to the story like I mentioned above. With all of it in place, I’m most looking forward to seeing other Sacred Seven bearers, a.k.a. Sacred Takers, come into the picture, such as Kijima Night (Okamoto Nobuhiko) who’s still seen sneaking about. Luckily, it looks like I’ll see him in the very next episode, along with a female bearer, Lau Fei Zui (Nomizu Iori). There’s also Kenmi Yuuji (Konishi Katsuyuki), who’s after Sacred Takers in order to study their powers.
* P.S. I wish I had a rich director take over my school back in the day and provide 350 yen (~$3.50) steak lunch sets… with caviar!
* Note: This is one of twelve new titles that Crunchyroll recently announced. Unfortunately, their simulcast appears to be one week behind. See here for the other titles they’ve announced.
ED1.5 Sequence
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ED: 「輝跡 -kiseki-」 by 南里侑香 (Nanri Yuuka)
Watch the ED!: Streaming ▼
Preview
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The hero still hell reminds me of Megaman ZX. Now with those boards he reminds me of Nirvash as well.
D:
Still this is a good shounen action. I hated the BL of Tiger and Bunny. This is a clean slate shounen action anime, yup yup! No BL.
Still that unusual likeness… so disturbingly awesome…
+1 to the ZX vibe… and speaking of which, I still like zero 3 the most for that franchise :3
BL of Tiger and Bunny? What!?
Clearly, whenever there are two men interacting in an anime, it’s BL. I mean, how else could you interpret it?!
Sacred Seven just turned into EUREKA Seven -.-
Lol… just cause there a hover board doesn’t mean it turned into Eureka Seven. Now if he did a cutback dive with that hover board… then it turned into Eureka Seven.
Plus just because two men have a strong friendship with each other doesn’t make it BL. It’s just a strong friendship =.=.
Well with the swimsuit shoot in the latest episode, some yaoi fangirls might still be still recovering from their epic nosebleeds. Personally, I feel like this shows has bits of Kamen Rider Kabuto in it, with the meteor falling giving people super powers, protagonist saving the main girl around the age of 7. Only major difference is that Arma isn’t God Mode Sue like Tendou.
Actually I’m calling that out. Just like Tendou he 1 Is able to control his powers and call on them with zero training just like god has gifted him the abilities. Two his skill in fighting is all god gifted with no training. And Three he just has the same air of “I’m the bad ass who’s cool as shit and know’s what to do” Going on.
I had the same feelings after watching these two episodes. It’s like Kamen Rider MegaMan Zero powered by magic alien crystals of win. I can’t wait to see how this all goes down.
Great episode. Can’t wait to see Kijima Night in action next week!
I’m loving Ruri’s character as well and having Nakajima Megumi voice her is definitely a huge plus.
Lau Fei Zui is a Chinese name but she doesn’t look like one though, with the blond hair and green eyes.
wow. episode 2 already. times sure flies fast.
I agree Divine. I wish every school has canteens like that
they replaced rice with caviar in the menu lol
who would watch @ crunchyroll if they are one week behind usually it takes 3-5 days at most for the subs to be released
Wow, this was a *huge* improvement over the first episode. I was basically ready to give up on the series as completely mediocre last week, but this episode has gone a long way towards restoring my many-times-shattered faith in Sunrise.
The first episode was pretty good in my opinion. I haven’t seen this one yet, but by the looks of it, it is locking everyone in. Can’t wait to get home~
Well, what got to me about the first episode is that it felt really, really, rushed — they were smashing through events at breakneck speed in what seemed like an attempt to force the plot to get to that battle between Aruma and the Medusa. I’m not a big fan of forcing the plot into odd convolutions to follow the monster-of-the-week format (Star driver did this and sucked because of it), so I had a sinking feeling of disappointment after watching the first episode.
Although this episode did have a fight, so I can’t technically say that it’s not MotW, the pacing felt much more natural, and the early addition of at least a hint of background for both a few of the characters and the generic baddies dispelled the sense that everybody was acting in a void (good for good’s sake and evil for evil’s sake).
On a whole, rather than continuing the story at the disastrous pace of the first episode, this episode slowed down and filled in the bare framework of the first episode, giving me hope, as Divine said, that there might actually be some depth to the show.
Err question…sorry if it’s a bit nooby. But how in the world has Divine and any others who have watched episode 2, watched the episode with it not even airing in Japan yet? Since crunchyroll airs it an hour after it’s broadcasted and it’s nowhere near being aired..how in the..IS IT BECAUSE DIVINE HAS HARNESSED THE POWER OF STEINS;GATE!? but no seriously. 😛 fill me in guys..?
And I’m glad the series isn’t taking on that “power rangers” formula with Bad guy appears, hero losses a battle, final battle comes around and he pwns it while learning a lesson. :3
Crunchyroll doesn’t necessarily air episodes within an hour or even a day of when it airs in Japan. For example, their simulcast of Sacred Seven is currently a week behind, just like I noted in this very post. CR simulcasts a series based on the schedule of the broadcaster that they licensed it from, which may not always be the first one to air that series.
Ahhhh. Thanks for the clarification then Divine. Much appreciated.
The link for “Kenmi Yuuji” is showing a picture of Ruri instead, unless I’m missing something.
Fixed. I forgot to add the “Preview” in the link.
the lunch set replacement is hilarious XD
this is definitely the action show to go to this cour =]
That engrish scene… made me happy to be alive. Oh engrish, you brighten everybody’s day!
Can Aruma only activate his powers if Ruri’s there to work her magicks? That could lead to some big problems down the line.
I’m sure it’ll be fine, he just has to yell “It’s Morphin’ time!” and fater will do the rest. :p
They haven’t really explained it yet, but it looks like she has to use one of those gems on him and then he’s all good-to-go. Otherwise he can probably only do Darkstone-mode from first episode.
From the looks of it she has to be their to do it but i’ve noticed that he used to have a stone of his own until it was thrown in the river. My prediction is that he’ll probably find his lost stone and transform into an even stronger form at some point near the end. Sorta like Megaman ZX :D.
What I believe is that originally, his mother memento aka jewel use to bring out his true power as seen in his early days until he lost it. Which is something he can use. Every since he lost the gem though, now he’s forced to rely on Ruri who’s the only one that can unlock the power of her gem stone.
I hope he finds his gem stone soon!
I like the show, but I also find it’s a little bit too silly to be taking itself so seriously lol
Being a Kamen Rider and Super Sentai fanboy, this anime is extremely relevant to my interests!
I think you meant memento, not ‘moment’ right Divine? Other than that, nice post, just as always:D
Odd, I could’ve sworn I typed that. Looks like speeding through these posts is leading to a lot of careless mistakes. Thanks for the correction.
Have anyone notice the size of the jewel that is thrown into the river. Haha, if anyone wear that kind of size of a jewel, it no wonder anyone is going to bully him or steal it from him.
I enjoy the pacing in this episode. They pretty much delivered some quick and straightforward exposition, and established all the characters involved so far. All so we can jump right back to the plot. Its more than enough for an action series.
Another thing I like is the equipment reel. As everyone pointed out its a lot like Megaman ZX, so I can’t wait for whatever bag of tricks Arma can pull during fights.
the scene at the end establishing that the main characters somehow knew each other in the past kinda ruined it for me. i still like the series though.
I just can’t shake the feeling that the flashback with Arma and Ruri didn’t actually happen. Something about when Ruri mentions taking memories when she causes Arma to transform. It makes me feel like she is getting his memories with herself transplanted into them. As such, Ruri wasn’t the person he actually saved, but because she knows about the event she knows he can be trusted. It is also possible I am just reading too much into everything.
This is what really excites me a lot after I watched Tiger & Bunny & some previous SUNRISE shows like Mai HiME & Otome, even the Gundam series like 00. I’m a SUNRISE fanboy & it’s the only show that I really anxiously to watch.
ahh…i really like this megaman zx anime !!
* but come on…the boss fight ends after one shot *
i guess weak points are more episode enders >_<"
is it just me or does it seem like the voice actor for the butler keeps changing voices? Doesn’t seem very consistent.
Is that Ranka’s voice I hear from the heroine?
What happened to the pictures of preview of ep 3 and ending song?
Never mind, it somehow fixed iteself