First Impressions / Sacred Seven

OP1.5 Sequence

OP: 「stone cold」 by FictionJunction
Watch the OP!: Streaming ▼

We have a slightly updated opening sequence this week, featuring a different backdrops for the title screen and the shot at the very end, which now show the symbols of what are presumably the seven sacred elements.

「クレイジーナイト」 (Kureijii Naito)
“Crazy Night”

Much like the preview suggested, the action picked up a fair bit with the formal introduction of Kijima Night (Okamoto Nobuhiko) and Lau Fei Zui (Nomizu Iori). However, the series still seems to lack an ultimate antagonist three episodes in, and I can’t really see Night being it since he hasn’t proven to be calculating enough. Without a villain of sorts, the story’s been unfolding a little too unilaterally for my liking. Most Ashi don’t talk after all (Onigawara being a huge exception), making it somewhat difficult to get a feel for how much Ruri hates them. At best, they come off as some alien species attacking Earth that no one really understands.

I actually thought that Kenmi Yuuji (Konishi Katsuyuki) would turn out to be a complex antagonist to fill in that void, but so far he’s only been shown to be a benevolent researcher who safeguards Sacred Takers so that their powers aren’t abused. Of course, the possibility that he has an ulterior motive is still there, given how easygoing he is about Night trying to kill him and the fact that he’s developed artificial power suits that harness the power of gems, a.k.a. Arti-Gem Suits. It’s one thing for Night and Fei to want to escape his research facility, and another thing altogether for them to want to see Kenmi dead, suggesting that Night harbors a grudge of some sorts against him — beyond just having a bad personality and resenting Kenmi for taking away his freedom anyway. I presume killing Kenmi would put a stop to the production of the medicine that Night’s reliant on for suppressing his Ashi powers too, which puts another perspective on the renegade bearer’s motives.

As for Ruri, her little speech before activating Aruma’s true power includes mention of taking his memories in exchange for her will/stone (both pronounced “ishi” in Japanese). Like some people have already speculated, this may tie into why she appears in Aruma’s memories, rather than the more obvious possibility that they knew each other when they were younger. I still like the idea that they were childhood friends though, simply because it helps explain why Ruri is so concerned about Aruma now. It’s also getting pretty darn expensive to transform Aruma into his stable Sacred Seven form each time, with this latest Eye of Valkyria costing Ruri a whopping 9.9 million pounds, so I’d like to believe there’s a reason besides ridding the world of Ashi and saving Aoi that explains why she’s willing to spend her foundation’s fortune so frivolously on Aruma.

So far, there’s a pretty stark contrast between Aruma and Night’s control over their abilities even though they’re both supposedly high level Sacred Sevens. Our protagonist is uncontrollably engulfed by his dark powers when he comes into close proximity with other Ashi, whereas our antagonist of the moment can transform as he pleases and even summon other Ashi to do his bidding. That difference leaves me wondering if it’s simply because Night’s embraced his dark side or if he’s been experimented on to achieve that level of control. Whatever the case, I’m looking forward to learning more about is Night and Fei’s past to get some answers about that. Assuming everything gets settled relatively peacefully, I can picture the two of them joining up with Aruma and Ruri some time down the road. Since Ruri’s been more or less confirmed to be Yoshi (i.e. the good version of an Ashi), she could very help Night stabilize his powers as well.

* Kenmi’s nameless SP, whom I mistakenly thought was Fei last time, is voiced by Bishoujo Group 31 idol member Takabe Ai. An interesting casting to say the least, since she primarily does TV dramas, variety shows, and gravure photo shoots.
* I can probably listen to FictionJunction’s “stone cold” on endless repeat and still not be sick of it after a few hours. I haven’t posted music PVs lately, but you can see both the OP and ED ones on flying DOG’s YouTube channel. Embedded below for your convenience.

Show Opening/Ending Music PVs ▼

 

Preview

58 Comments

  5. The average cruise missile is worth 500,000 pounds in 2011.

    This means this week, they spent the equivalent of a little under TWENTY cruise missiles to power up the protagonist. It might be cheaper to just blow up the city.

    Vallen Chaos Valiant
    Reply

    1. Yeah, that should’ve been 990 ten thousand pounds like the Japanese subtitles read. Obviously numbers are grouped by the thousands in English and not the tens of thousands like Chinese and Japanese, so he should have been saying “2.5”, “2.6, …, “9.9” with the understanding that bidding is in the millions. Looks like whoever wrote the English lines forgot about that.

      Divine
      Reply

  10. Hooray, an action packed episode with Kijima Night! Can’t wait for Lau Fei Zui to join the fray too. At this point, I think Kijima Night is making more of an impression than Arma who not exactly the most interesting lead.
    I like that we still have no idea who’s good or bad. If I were to guess, I would say Kenmi Yuuji is the ultimate baddie but that might be a bit too easy.
    “Stone Cold” on endless repeat on my end too even though the lyrics are a bit cheesy ;D

    Seishun Otoko
    Reply

  11. so my guess since Aruma need Ruri help to stabilize his stable form…
    isn’t the part where some ppl speculate about Ruri emerges in Aruma memories espcially eps 2…
    where by his original form looks better than this form…
    also not to mention the momento from his mother that was lost due to being gang up by student from his the school…like Divine say also so far cant differentiate the who’s the real bad guy…and yeah like S.D, this anime totally A+ on my list ^^

    crav3
    Reply

  12. Bah, 9.9 mil pounds just to power-up Aruma is fricken ridiculous, but they already bought a school to keep ‘in-touch’ with him so go figure – like they never heard of cell phones. I bet those single use artificial gems the other ashi are using don’t cost 9.9 mil pounds & Night don’t even need those silly gems at all, even though he’s screwing himself in the process. I could see if those gems turned Aruma into an uber-god but right now he’s just a little more than useless, how cliché is that.

    Megas
    Reply

    2. Well, Aruma didn’t actually do much this episode so the 9.9mn pounds has just gone down the drain. Thinking back, I think a couple of precious gems were lost last week while Ruri and Aruma were free falling. I wonder if all of them cost as much. The subsidized steak/caviar lunch set doesn’t seem too extravagant now, does it?

      Seishun Otoko
      Reply

    3. Now I’m really waiting for the realization that “hey, if we just find that stone he had before, he can use his powers at will!” You know, the one that was thrown into the river right before he went darkstone the first time? Coincidence? I think not.

      Aex
      Reply

    4. GG’s got to be the WORST subbing team ever. I can only imagine people getting their subs because they’re the only ones doing it. If Horrible didn’t drop Aoi Ex and S7 then I’d keep it with Horrible.

      Alec is obviously an aspiring hero-of-justice back in the days; then fate trolled him. Now he’s butthurt when animu people succeed in where he failed and get reminded of them “glory days”

      The M0on DOgg
      Reply

  14. Well nothing specifically indicated that each stone is a one-time use. The other stones could’ve been weaker and used up quickly and then this 9.9 million one actually didn’t get exhausted in a single episode. That’s my feeble attempt to rationalize the expenditure heh.

    I am more interested in the fact that Aruma’s Darkstone symbol seems to be the middle symbol in the opening (the red double ring one) and that he appears to be able to use the same ability as Kijima (The embedded symbol was the same as well). Overpowered protagonist gets all of the enemies’ abilities it seems.

    UnknownVoid
    Reply

  15. Kenmi just oozes suspicious-ness. Anyone with a giant organization that wishes to “control” unknown power is completely set up to be the villian.

    Kijima oozes wants-to-be-good-ness. Anyone with a teenage chick caring for him in his secret hideout is completely setup to be the dark hero.

    Couple confusing parts though:
    Why did Kijima summon those random Ashi? It seemed to have no purpose except to give Arma a chance to shine.
    Also, Ruri is inconceivably rich and yet has absolutely no business sense to stay that way. Who the hell bids 3 times the price just to save time! Unless she has a genius hacker in her maid squad who can generate money for her, her fortune will disappear by just funding the caviar lunches at school.

    xcswmboy
    Reply

    1. Yeah, we’re pretty much set-up for an “Oh no! We’ve been helping the bad guy(Kenmi) all along and now he’s kidnapped Ruri for crazy experiments! Help us Kijima!” scenario. You can tell from the way Kenmi was eying Ruri and Tandoji when he transformed, and also it’s kinda obvious that Kenmi’s “help” for Kijima and the girl was probably closer to torture. I’ll laugh if I’m right, because it’s so predictable.

      Aex
      Reply

      3. I’d rather not think about this stuff, it’s hard enough just watching, hoping that GG don’t start trolling at any given point. I’d hate to have to rely on my old broken rusty Japanese mid-way through an episode. Taking in all this wonderful spec. is just fine. Burning brain cells is not what I do in my spare time 😀

        -& I’m not being sarcastic this time

        Megas
        Reply

  17. I’m not liking this series AT ALL. It feels so… lame, ha. I know that’s vague, so forgive me. It’s 4AM. I need a better word. I don’t want to say cliched, but it is – however, if executed properly, even cliched animes can be good, but the execution of this is so poor. I don’t feel anything for the character and why the hell was Alma all, “I don’t want to use my powers” (ghey) and then as soon as he found out about Rumi’s sister, he’s all: OMG I’LL FIGHT. OH MY GOSH, WHY IS THIS ANIME TURNING OUT TO BE SO BAD?

    I’m so depressed. I really had high hopes.
    NO. 6 BETTER not disappoint.

    Denpa Onna
    Reply

    1. What do you expect? They only have 12 episode to work at, if they use few episode to see him get over his hesitation to fight (like in any gundam series) then by the time he decided to fight, it will be the end of the series. They also unlikely to do a following season, judging from thing it goes. It’s more likely this is just some filler anime they come up with to fill the demand for anime.

      Next Sunrise production: GUNDAM AGE

      lkaze
      Reply

  19. I get the impression that Kijima refused to fight Arma directly and Arma seems reluctant to fight Kijima. So far the story has been a little too straight forward. Expecting a twist of some sort to come soon. I’m not holding my breath for it though.

    x
    Reply

  22. I’m going to assume at least one of the antagonist is going to be Kenmi Yuuji. Some sort of twist around those lines. Heck, what I think would be a shocker is if Hellbrick pulled off a betrayal. And for those who are like, it’s sudden that Arma aka good guys just help randomly after saying no the first time. Well people don’t want to be used for the wrong reasons, at least in this case or have trauma with their power, etc… However, of course any hero has to be willing to help, even if he’s an anti-hero, no matter how twisted he is, needs the single trait of wanting/willing to help someone or attempting to protect someone in need. (this is with my case Accelerator as a pretty sick anti-hero). It’s a common trait in the very least.

    Also, my assumption is that her already amazing maid squad plus butler handles her business side. I mean, people even today, get consultants, or other people to do their bidding for them. If she has people generating financial assets every day, I hardly doubt that she needs to worry about the small parts of business unless its something big. Also, she considered 9.9million pounds to be the value of her goal… We may think that it’s absolutely ludicrous, but to her, it’s a means to an end. She was also rich before, so who knows, she may have increased her assets by however much amounts by this time and is now incredibly and ridiculously rich, meaning she did learn about the value of business before she left it for other people to deal with and her to focus on her greater goal. You could say this about other rich girl anime characters as well.

    In fact, it would be interesting if they face a money problem at some point. Either way, this isn’t a show about how to handle money, or bidding, it’s about the Sacred Seven.

    Either way, something seems very off or wrong with picture (as in the new characters introduced). I dunno if it’s on purpose at all, but Kenma and his lackey seemed incredibly un-active, just chilling in the chair. In fact, the knight seems more like a good guy, despite his previous actions breaking into the evil guys lair. It was like the complete opposite of where the Boss and Main character were suppose to be. (I mean there are shows where they have this set up, but usually its stated like oh this is an assassination, the guy in the chair isn’t calm, or that generally, all characters are on the same level of importance like in DMC 4 and it’s a set up to make one character look evil which could be the case here).

    For the lack of fighting, in Arma case, it was that they wanted to take him in unharmed if possible. However, the enemy aka knight left opening as well. Most enemies just don’t go leave an opening on purpose to talk. Like Divine said, knight isn’t as calculating or seem as cunning to be an antagonist. Kenma seems more fit for this role, but who knows. I could be so wrong and we all get tricked by sir Hellbrick lol.

    The phrase Ruri presented when bestowing Arma transformation seems to be taking a way any trauma of using his powers… but I do note that I feel like there some things that don’t click with this theory.

    In the end, yeah, I pretty much do have some high hopes for this anime. I’m sure everything if not most of the things will tie in together at the end. This is after all, only the third episode.

    Sora no Kaze
    Reply

    3. LOLZ a troll! From whence, you came? I do believe trolls are not meant to be here. Especially one with a fake site. And the trolling level, aha! My son, I am disappoint: Thy level to annoy the Divine is too low, just too low.

      The M0on DOgg
      Reply

    4. I think the wrong grammar & spelling are done in purpose. Trolls that write smart things can be easily defeated by responding in a more smart way. Trolls that purposely tries to be dumb, on the other hand, can never be be defeated. They pretty much just respond with nonsensical sentences. Other than paying no heed to a trolls words, there’s pretty much nothing you can do about that.

      Still… it’s kinda rare to see Trolls here in RC. He is probably an anime blogger whose visitors were stolen by RC.

      Alec
      Reply

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