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My favorite is the one staring into the clouds. |
I went in with few expectations, and Blade Dance exceeded them comfortably. It’s not a world beater, but it was a fun ride throughout.
As something of a connoisseur of the magical-fantasy-action-harem genre—I’m not the ecchi writer, I swear!—I’ve watched a lot of them. Denizens of this rather crowded genre succeed for a number of reasons, but Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance is actually a good example of the raw elements which, if done well, will make a magical fantasy action harem anime work.
First is a male lead who isn’t a total bitch. Harems live or die by their male leads, who are regularly the weakest character in the cast; that’s why I so regularly heap praise on the rare examples whose male lead actually has some balls. Which is odd, because it’s not that hard to do. Teppei of Princess Lover! and Issei of High School DxD are two of my most oft cited examples, and they’re good leads for different reasons. The key is to actually spend some time giving the male lead a personality, or at least don’t make him a spineless punching bag and make it clear that he’s actually interested in girls. Kamito started off better than he ended—him teasing Claire during episode one was an early highlight—but he was never spineless, and it actually seemed like maybe he deserved some of the love he received. That’s better than a season of Ichika saying “Huh?” by a longshot.
Next are a handful of female characters with varied (and setting-appropriate) personalities, so each viewer can pick their favorite. Blade Dance had that, and though they started (and in some cases, ended) as fairly stereotypical, they were at least endearing. But note that I said “female characters”, not “girls”—I’m not talking just about how to make a harem anime, but how to make a good one. Every haremette needs to be a fully fleshed out character, with more on their minds than just love, and the ladies of Blade Dance were that. In fact, their growing feelings for Kamito frequently seemed to take a back seat to their current goal in life—which is exactly how it should be! From Claire’s quest for power, Rinslet and Claire being tsundere for each other, Ellis’ pride as a knight, and Fianna’s desire to get her spirit back, the girls were all doing other things. They just happened to be fond of Kamito as well.
Next, you actually need a plot. It can’t be all about the girls, otherwise you ought to be writing a visual novel (though the most beloved visual novels have solid plots as well). One-note stories get boring fast, and if you’re going for the magical-fantasy-action-harem thing, you need to justify the action part. Blade Dance did that, and better than I expected. Once again, it wasn’t a world beater, but it did the job, with Restia providing a constant antagonist, and the villains in Inzagi and Velsaria providing satisfying challenges. How the team formed was also organic and appropriately gradual, and I loved the group dynamic of their battles—it was usually all of Team Scarlet charging into the fray, not Kamito alone. Which makes them all stronger characters.
Finally, you need to remember to have fun. Whether you’re banking on ecchi (Kamito waking up to a naked Est, Claire and Fianna washing him in the bath), flirting (meido Ellis, deito Ellis, any time Ellis was on screen in otome mode), action (the team battles, the powerful enemies that they were able to face once they were all together), or some combination of these and more, magical-fantasy-action-harem anime are by their nature not the most serious of creatures. So have fun! And Blade Dance was fun, for all of those reasons and more.
And that’s it. At its bones, it’s a simplistic formula. Not as simplistic as I’ve painted it here, but those are the key points that trip up so many shows, but which Blade Dance managed to do either competently, or pretty darn well. I enjoyed it, and if I believed in guilty pleasures, I wouldn’t feel guilty about liking this one; it’s a story well told, and I bet it only gets better once they get to the titular Blade Dance they were heading to when the final episode ended.
But I don’t like the idea of guilty pleasures. As the Foo Fighter’s Dave Grohl famously said:
“I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If you fucking like something, like it.”
So if you enjoyed Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance, don’t feel guilty. This is a good little harem anime, enjoyable throughout. I don’t feel guilty for liking it, and neither should you. And yes, that includes the pervy kneesocks-tinged ED. Knee! High! Fight!
Check out my blog about storytelling and the novel I’m writing at stiltsoutloud.com. The last four posts: What comes first: world, narrative, or characters?, Comments re-enabled, I’m back!, and Vacation, & a taste of what’s to come.
Pretty Meh series, while not bad forgettable is about the best I can say about it.
Totally Meh series. WTH did I just watch??
The character designs were attractive but I had a lot of other series to watch and the ‘harem’ tag wasn’t something I was craving for at the time. Didn’t it also air its first episode a little later than normal? Anyway, I’ve heard that this series was entertaining from a family member and this post pretty much settles Blade Dance’s position in my backlog. Thanks for writing this up.
aside from character designs (except the red head), everything is just forgettable.
I hope you guys do a final impressions of Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? as well. That was quite the underrated gem last season and has easily become my all-time favorite harem series.
I’m sorry, the ship sailed on that one. Bad luck I’m afraid … both Cherrie and I enjoyed it and would have done an END post on it, but we were both out of town when it aired, and we’re too swamped with the upcoming monthly update to go back and do it. The only reason I was able to do Mahouka and this today was because I needed to watch them for the monthly impressions anyway, lol
Well im glad both of you enjoyed. It caught me off guard on how great the characters were especially Kamito, who in my eyes is another worthy harem lead. I enjoyed both seirei tsukai blade dance and Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?. Both are my favorite shows from the summer season
Oops i meant Koutarou is worthy of being a harem lead. (well kamito is too)
I also liked Rokujouma. I really do wish both shows manages to earn a second season as there are so many volumes left with so little anime can cover with just one cour. Both shows requires long-term investment to start growing up to you and only s2 will do justice to get them to best parts where it can truly shines.
Only interesting characters are Restia n Est. Only later in the LN that it gets more interesting.
Thank you for not slamming it and giving it a chance. I really liked the series too, some points felt they could have been better, although I have read all 13 LNs my expectations were higher. It felt like they had a low budget for most, although last episode was notably higher in quality.
It was also great the series had some lesser known seiyuus, although many were acting to a certain character type.
Most of the episodes were good and they got the Ellis arc right at least which is what they needed to do. Ellis is also my favourite character, although if the series continues there is probably the most reluctant harem member that would be great to see brought to life. Anyway, thanks, if it return I hope it may get weekly coverage.
No problem. I always try to give shows a chance, and it’s often the ones I don’t expect much from which I enjoy the most. I wouldn’t put this one in the “enjoy the most” camp, but it was still a fun one for sure.
Oi Stilts were are the full lengths? 😉 Hahaha jokes aside, this was a fun series. I fell in love with Ellis the last few episodes, while Est remains God-tier. Restia needed more screentime too 😛 I’ve heard it’s pretty crazy in the LNs so I’m off to read those!
I’m feel a bit disappointed that Restia didn’t get much more than being the “unknown”. I was waiting for more exposition regarding Restia and I got none 🙁
Was a fun one, I’m not much of a fan for ecchi/harem but the art lured me in from the get-go, and the story wasn’t bad either!
I’m sure you probably know but if you are still interested, take a look at the translated volumes of Seirei.
It’s nice and simple. No overcomplicated plots and loveable characters. Give the novel a try if you haven’t already, character development and story progression were both nicely written. The story covered in the anime so far is more or less a prologue, get ready for an onslaught of developments and a huge pool of casts.
Huh… Guess I’m the only one who wasn’t enamored of this show. While I agree that there are worse ecchi harem fantasy shows out there (not exactly a high benchmark), IMO this was one of the more mediocre ones. FYI, I’ve read the LNs up through vol. 13 though it took me a couple attempts before I finally was interested enough to continue. Frankly, the story gets more interesting starting in volume 04 once the Blade Dance starts (the anime covered the first three LN volumes and rightfully so). If it didn’t, I most likely would have dropped the series. Overall, I’d say it’s a decent/above average read for the genre once you get to volume 04 and beyond. (YMMV of course).
In terms of adaptation, this was pretty much by the book (literally and figuratively), and unlike some other recent sub-par (or just plain FAIL) adaptations, I thought they did a good job presenting the material. So points for that (seriously). However, that also means that issues I had in the LN are present in the anime as well.
— RE. Male Lead (Kamito)
Yeah, if your benchmark is Ichika then pretty much any male lead, including Kamito, will look good by comparison, but that’s not much of a benchmark. Frankly, IMO there are better male harem leads than Kamito. For example, Issei from HS DxD and Tigre from Vanadis (LN version as my expectations for the anime are LOW given the amount of material it seems will be “covered” in a one-cour run). The biggest problem I have with Kamito is the whole “OK, I’ll be your spirit slave” plot line. O.o… Huh? ‘Cause… he couldn’t just be her friend… maybe some nice guy who’ll help out a damsel in distress… Don’t buy the “he owes her” for “stealing” Est “rationale”. Personally, that plot line undermines a good portion of whatever “balls” he might have, and his character is worse for it. He’s not a bad harem ML, but nothing exceptional IMO.
— Haremettes
Frankly, I think the haremettes are OK, but again there are better ones out there in the genre. Most (key) of the girls are likeable enough I suppose, but certainly stay well within their character stereotypes. No new ground broken here at all. For me, Fianna was the probaly best of the haremettes because she would actually tease Kamito, and didn’t always furiously blush at the merest contact with him (and sometimes even that wasn’t required >_>). Ellis is OK. She reminded me a lot of Houki from IS (Houki’s better IMO). Same for Rinslet (OK). As for Est, I guess it depends how much you like loli’s. I liked her well enough I suppose. Still, at the risk of offending loli fans, while I like ecchi shows, I could do without maybe middle-school age “fan service”. Then there’s Claire. Very much “JMO” type stuff as everyone has their own favorites, but her tsuntsuntsundere insecurity shtick simply annoys the hell out of me. If you don’t like her in the anime, it does NOT get any better in the LN until maybe vol. 11 and even then not by that much.
As much as anything, the biggest issue I have with the series (both anime and LN) is repetition. IMO it just beats to DEATH some of the “jokes”. One example is “Find naked Est in bed with Kamito, cue haremette(s) misunderstanding (usually Claire), and directly proceed to violent retribution* A few times is fine, but it just goes on and on and on. Same goes with Claire’s insecurity, it just…never…ends… I get it, she’s insecure. To its credit, the LN does explain why that’s the case eventually, but you don’t need to beat it to death. Granted some of the above might be due to reading the LN, but then again, the main reason I had trouble sticking with the series in the first place (i.e getting past volume 01) was Claire. TBH, if I hadn’t read the LNs to the extent I did, I probably would have dropped the anime.
Overall, IMO Blade Dance was simply “OK”, “average”, etc. Had the Blade Dance arc been covered (would need 2-cours), then I probably would have enjoyed it more. As it was, for me Blade Dance was something to pass the time, but nothing more.
I totally agree, I’ve read the books and its like ok we have our team now for the main event `End’ And no season 2 announcement. Im just like “eh”
The ending did give a string impression of leading to another season, as they didn’t attempt to give a definite end like Rokujouma did, but I guess that doesn’t mean anything ultimately and it might just be optimistic.
Yeah, I was never really a fan of SO much tsun in tsunderes. Claire is only a step or two behind Louise from Zero no Tsukaima, which isn’t great to me. Sure, she’s cute when she’s dere, but there’s just so much more tsun moments as opposed to the dere moments.
Ellis (best girl to me) is much more the type of tsundere I like. As typical of the type, she can be quick to anger, but at least she stops before actually abusing Kamito and gives him a chance to explain things, allowing her to retract her actions and apologize for them. Not to mention she looked stunningly gorgeous in that dress and she just seemed to mesh better with Kamito than the others.
@ daikama
On Kamito, I guess I have become too used to the regular tsundere haremette’s excuses for keeping the male lead around, so the whole “slave” thing didn’t really bother me. I didn’t like it either, I just kind of glossed over it. Probably I focused a little too much on my initial impressions as opposed to how he developed … but ah well, I enjoyed it so oh well, lol
@ Seraph
I doubt the studio has any idea if it will get another season, or even if they’ll be involved if it does. They were probably just adapting it faithfully and not trying to do a bullshit anime only ending that wouldn’t have worked with everything else (everything was driving to the Blade Dance, so you can’t just end the story without it happening). Seeing the fun stuff that’s supposed to happen once they get there would be cool though.
@Arcad/Seraph: The anime made the right call IMO given a 1-cour run. Maybe not clear in my above post, but I meant a 2-cour run for the Blade Dance Arc itself. Season 1 ran at a 4 episodes per 1 LN volume pace (which is fine for the material). The Blade Dance is covered in 8 volumes, so even with a 2-cour run, now your pacing is 3 episodes per volume. >_> It’s possible you could do a decent job with that pacing, but something is going to give. I suppose they could just split up the Blade Dance if a Season 2 is given a one cour run though a lot of viewers would not be happy with that sort of “ending”. So even if this this season was a 2-cour run, I don’t think it would have turned out all that well having to end in the middle of the Blade Dance. Trying to “adapt” 11 LN volumes in 24-26 episodes is a recipe for a train wreck IMO.
——————————
@HalfDemonInuyasha: Yeah, I’m with you on tsuntsuntsundere characters. Frankly, I’m starting to get a little burned out on the whole tsundere character type which bodes ill for anime watching. :/ Without question, Claire reminds me of Louise from Zero no Tsukaima. TBH, I’m not even sure if Claire is only a step or two behind Louise. For me, she matches Louise stride for stride in the tsuntsuntsundere insecurity department. Totally agree with you about Ellis being a much better tsundere (only one “tsun”) character. She’s a close 2nd for me in terms of the haremettes.
Yep, for one of the usual harem RomComs many of us go in usually expecting to be moderately entertained at best and I’d say this one did just that for me. Surprisingly, I found Kamito to actually be my favorite character here and even more surprisingly for me, a character I found rather annoying at first, namely Claire, proved to be more likeable as she received some development. Fianna was probably my favorite girl as I liked her playful teasing, followed by Elis as she received some character development of her own later on. Rinslet kind of got the short end of the stick as she hardly received any development. Est was funny but we hardly saw much of her(unless you count her sword form too). But back to Kamito, I really liked how he was neither useless and the girls did all the work, nor overpowered and did everything alone. Competent yet still flawed & not OP is a protagonist I’d like to see in harems more often. I would’ve liked if they would’ve explored that teasing attitude of his that we with Claire in ep 1 more though.
I’d want to see more Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance in the future but hearing that it’ll sell about 1000 copies at best and that the anime didn’t boost LN sales by much doesn’t make me very hopeful 🙁
Rinslet really never receives all that much character development, often due to her development being tied in with Claire’s so I don’t think it’s a priority of author compared to other 3 girls. I hope it gets another season too, the ending at least showed the makers being optimistic about it.
Rinslett only received a proper character focus arc on herself, in Volume 13. Before that, it was all it bits and pieces, and really, the first season barely scratches the surface of her character.
I’ve read 13 too, but it doesn’t feel very much to me even then. Ellis and Claire in particular get more substantial coverage and Fianna has a role that builds on her character in actual Blade Dance and events before it. While we just find out the surface motivation for her (which ties into an existing long running plot), I suppose it may just be my opinion, but we still know very little about her comparatively. It’s arguable the reader has almost as much understanding of Rinslet as they of Leonora who we know for substantially less and Show Spoiler ▼
You cannot forget about volume 8 which is pretty much full of background information ranging from Rinslet to Greyworth. It is also my personal favorite volume. And of course my favorite part it that date.
Yeah, it’s kinda sad. Both this series and Chrome Shelled Regios are actually pretty good light novel series. They just need plenty of love and attention.
In stark contrast, while To Aru Majutsu no Index gets plenty of sales, the anime hasn’t advanced much…
Anyway, I might have been expecting too much since I read the LN but thinking about the show as a whole and what was done with it, I rather liked it. It’s enjoyable and that is simple enough.
What’s with the sci-fi literary references. Ice-nine? Terminus Est? And that Thermal Shock!!!
Hope the studio makes alot of money from this so that can channel all that funds to the new season of Highschool DxD :3
I lost it when she called that attack Ice Nine, in the best of ways. I wonder how many viewers actually got the reference, but I thought it was hilarious!
They had the Cat but where was it’s Cradle?
There is something wrong in the post here and that is ack of Est coverage in the post.
I liked this anime.
And personally, I liked Claire a lot.
So now excuse me while I claim her… you guys just fight over your Fianna and Ellis and whoever…
But I do hope they somehow (if unlikely) manage to make a S2… All I hear is the story will get a lot better from here on.
Whenever the series made me think that it was doing good, the biggest harem anime tropes suddenly jumped in. Like Ellis who suddenly decided to wear that maid outfit even though she’s a ‘proud knight’. In my opinion, those kind of shenanigans really broke her character. I do like her voice actress in general, but in my opinion she went from one mood to the other way too fast, which made her personality a little unlikely at times.
That aside, looking at the general plot here should be enough of an indicator of what you’re getting (only male user of whatever power is important in the series, all female school, master-servant setting, we’ve been there), so I’m not too serious about it myself.
Also, I forgot to ask in my original comment, but are you a fan of Dave/ The Foo Fighters, Stilts? FF is my favorite band so it’s a pleasant surprise to see that quote pop up on RC.
I like the Foo Fighters fine, though honestly I’m not too much of a music guy myself. I’m very story driven, so unless I can link a song to some event (whether personal or in a show or movie I liked), then it usually doesn’t stick for me. That’s why I like anime music—they always remind me of the show they come from.
I very much respect Dave Grohl as a person though, from everything I’ve seen of him and every time I’ve heard him give an interview. He seems like one of those artists who thinks about what he’s doing at a deeper level, not just winging it and leaving it up to talent or fate. I respect that a lot.
Heh, now I wonder if Dave Grohl watches anime. It’d be amazing if that quote was actually him talking about anime.
Ahaha, maybe he does, but the quote comes from him talking about music—Britney Spears, to be exact. (Or at least that was the example he gave.) Full quote here and below:
I expected it be at least 24 episodes. But how it ended I am guessing there will be a season two. His teachers isn’t exactly what she seems to be, Restia isn’t exactly what she seems to be, and there seems to be still something about Claire’s sister.
I’m happy that some people enjoyed this, but I certainly didn’t. My expectations were low at the start, and while the first couple episodes gave me some hope by the fifth episode I just gave up and dropped it. It was somewhat better than the bog standard harem (which isn’t really saying much), but there were certain elements to the show which just irritated the hell out of me. Kamito was a better than average lead, but as Daikama pointed out above that’s not saying much, and his weird master/slave relationship with Claire undermined his character and was reeealy awkward. Dressing up the relationship between the lead and the main girl in a master/slave outfit is not something that most people can relate to (I hope), and has some unfortunate undertones. The other thing that got to me was the sheer volume of tsun. While I don’t hate tsunderes, neither am I particularly fond of them, and with three primarily tsundere characters and two minor tsunderes Blade Dance was oozing more tsun than the Familiar of Zero. The harem was not balanced in terms of personalities or who was in the lead. The show also over-relied on the typical harem tropes (boob grab, awkward moments, etc…), which got very tiresome after a while.
This could all have been bearable if it looked good (like Samurai Girls for instance), but the animation was distinctly sub-par. My standards for animation are typically appallingly low, but even I was really bothered by the poor quality in this one. The character designs were in a sort of uncanny valley between traditional 2D art and 3D design a’la Sidonia which somehow bothered me more than either, and the overuse of luminescence everywhere made the whole world look very surreal in a bad way. The action scenes were OK, but not strategic enough or flashy enough to maintain my interest. All in all, Blade Dance was a very frustrating show for me; just good enough to raise my expectations and prevent me from outright laughing at it, but too bad and formulaic for me to enjoy. 3/10, would not recommend unless you really like tsunderes.
@Hochmeister: “The other thing that got to me was the sheer volume of tsun. While I don’t hate tsunderes, neither am I particularly fond of them, and with three primarily tsundere characters and two minor tsunderes Blade Dance was oozing more tsun than the Familiar of Zero. The harem was not balanced in terms of personalities or who was in the lead.”
That’s an interesting comment for me because I wondered why Claire’s antics irritated me faster than Louise’s from Zero no Tsukaima. I think the answer is just what you said – harem personality balance. This is a heavy tsun weighted harem now that I think about it, and I agree the balance could/should be better.
— The action scenes were OK, but not strategic enough or flashy enough to maintain my interest.
The tactical/strategy stuff does improve a little IMO once the Blade Dance starts, but yeah, it’s not a tactically strong/heavy series. OTOH, at least there’s some effort towards that end vs. “Go defeat the bad guys.” Whether that’s meaningful or not – YMMV. IDK if you’re familiar with Madan no Ou to Vanadis, but that series has quite a bit of tactics/strategy for the battles which can be as large as modern corps size (I’ve read all the LN’s FWIW). However, while there is certainly no reason not to try out the show if you’re interested in it, I strongly recommend tempering expectations for the anime due to anticipated source material coverage pacing which, barring a substantial rewrite, should be around TWO episodes per LN volume. >_<
I think the master/servant relationship in Familiar of Zero was much more understandable too. Louse literally summoned Saito as a familiar, which was an infinitely more “realistic” foundation for that relationship than “you took the spirit I wanted!” Plus, a big part of the series was them moving beyond the master/servant dichotomy.
The fights weren’t bad, just not good enough to maintain my interest. I’d actually planned on watching Madan this Fall; as with every harem adaption my expectations are low but that sounds like it could be good. I wish more series had realistic fights with actual strategy from the army level on down, just without making it boring as hell like Argevollen.
Seirei is an underdog and will always be an underdog.
To put it in a cynical manner, Seirei was enjoyable on its own, but was actually allowed to shine a little more when supposed big hits like Glasslip and Ald.noah started off strong but became very underwhelming.
I’d disagree with the majority and say Kamito is a decent male lead here, despite the weird master-slave spirit relation with Claire. The dude’s got chops, and he doesn’t go all ‘weak-male lead nervous’ when his harem comes onto him.
Another one of my issues lie with some of the girls in the harem. To be honest, I still don’t quite like Claire. Extremely insecure, needy and spoilt is NOT adorable, period. She did redeem herself a little in those episodes where she takes the initiative to fight. Rinslet was horribly left out, it seems, considering we’ve went through ALL the pasts of the other girls but not really hers. The Princess was fun, but the scenes with her seducing Kamito got a little awkward when they kept repeating. Ellis was probably my favorite and despite the overwhelming levels of tsundere every episode, hers seem to sit fine with me.
What I do like is that the pacing was actually decent for most part, and the entire series keeps a sense of mystery about it by not revealing what kind of monster Greyworth is as well as how Restia ends up on the other side.
On the whole, the series was enjoyable, but had other fantasy series come in with better character development and plot arrangement, I probably wouldn’t have stuck with Seirei all the way.
Might still consider the second season though, especially if the producers make some improvements on how things go.
On a sidenote, I agree with iYarashi on Rokujou. It’s surprisingly good despite some obvious flaws, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly watching that wacky series. Here’s hoping you guys do a Final Impressions/Snapshots kind of post for that. 🙂
I dropped it around episode 10 because I got tired of Claire’s bitching, whining (same thing? Lol), and crying to Kamito. I liked the other girls a lot better, especially Est. Wish I could spoil her too ;p.
Kamito gets my seal of approval for good male lead. If they do another season, I would like to see less Claire and more of every other girl.
You’ll see more of Restia and Est 😀
Restia has the best legs! Screw high knee socks! Those bare lolita legs are the stuff fantasies are made of!
What!? Knee socks are the best! FIGHT ME BRO!
“The best,” you say? HA! Consider the fight brought.
Okay, well I’m not going to argue with that. That’s also the best.
Ni Sokkususu 4 lyfe!
A song about Knee Socks…. Japan truly is a country of inovation
I do like Restia’s, but Ellis’ lovely pantyhose legs slightly take it for me. XD
Can’t we all just agree that what’s really the best is when we get teamwork?
I totally agree on this one.
I watched the popular shows, some of them were good (Prisma Ilya, aldnoah Zero, Zankyou no Terror, Agame ga kill …) and some turned out bad (Mahouka, Tokyo ESP), but I’m really surprised I ended up watching and enjoying these other ones:
– Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance, started watching it because I can’t resist nice shaped legs, ended up interested in the characters and the main story.
– Rokujouma no Shinryakusha – I want a personal ghost now damnit.
– Locodol – and a personal blue mascot and a nanyako
– Sabagebu! – This can’t be a shoujo anime, it even has better fanservice than most shows. I’m sure my neighbour could hear me laughing hard.
– Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun – This can’t be a shounen anime, but it’s tasteful and lot of fun. Thanks Stilts for introducing (and covering) it for us.
– Baby Steps – I swear, I never watch sports animes. Someone said this was different and may appeal to boys and girls as well, and got me curious. It was one of my favourite shows this season. Focus on the people, their thoughts, their choices and reasons (all of them, protagonists and adversaries), the matches were very exciting but surprisingly realistic (and there is some romance too). I’ve been an amateur tennis player so I’m biased, but maybe give this a try.
– Barakamon – people that stay true to themselves are the best. Also, Naru. Her voice actor is actually seven year old and did an outstanding performance.
– Majimoji Rurumo – man I have actually no reason to give for liking this. But not a f@ck either, no guilty pleasure, just pleasure ;). And moe. And pervert male lead that is actually a super nice and caring guy.
See you all in the next season’s posts. Can’t wait fol Log Horizon 2 🙂
For what it is and what it set out to accomplish, Seirei Tsukai did about as good a job as it could’ve. A tip of my hat to the fine people at TNK for not screwing it up.
I really enjoyed this series. In fact, I hope it gets a sequel, because I picked up the light novels half-way through and am now probably where a third cour would be sitting. Of course, the girls are a bit more fleshed out in the novel (expected) but I think the adaptation is pretty close to home. I’m really enjoying the novels, have just finished the fighting part of the Blade Dance.
Rinslet’s imouto is soooo cute!
If you have time, Stilts (:p – who does?) I recommend reading the LNs. Baka-Tsuki has them all translated. They saeem to have a pretty dedicated team that knocks them out whenever they release, too.
Am I the only one who kinda got a Magic Knight Rayearth vibe from this show? I mean the color-coded, magical element users. Along with them having specific weapons to represent their differences. Not to mention their hair also representing their elements and differences.
Ummm I’m not sure about how accurate the statement of Kamito not being a bitch is Stilts as he constantly gets embarrassed, beaten and abused by Claire among other girls for that typical “it’s not what you think!” situation. I’m suing for false advertising you crook! >:/
Kamito was only respectable in the first few episodes but after that they turn him right back into the punching bag I thought he would be. It’s times like this that make me sometimes love Tatsuya since he never got flustered over girls teasing him (nah i still hate hime). I mean the first few times would be one thing but damn it this shit happens so much in harem shows you’d think the guy would get USED to accidentally seeing cleavage or waking up in bed with his naked sword next to him. Gah……
I mean I don’t want a guy who isn’t interested in girls or a total rapist (cough Akatsuki) but for ONCE having a guy who had some damn self respect not to get punched around all the time but however was still interested in the girls would be awesome. Kamito sadly didn’t fill that role. And the abundance of generic tsunderes along with the choppy animation made me ragequit this. I’ll probably finish it later but it certainly wasn’t anything special imo.
The more I’ve thought about it, the more I think I might have fixated on early Kamito and ignored some of later Kamito.
Ah well. Wait until next season. We might be lucky and get one harem protagonist who can hack it. Maybe even two. We’ll see…
If you read the novels, he actually does manage to hold his own even when he’s about to get pounded. Around volume 5 I believe, he learns he can defend himself by embarrassing the girls by acting like he’s taking initiative. Also, while they do seem like generic tsunderes, the novels flesh them out over time and it’s because they’re tsunderes that you’ll eventually see the differences between them. Rinslet’s more of a true oujo, Claire is a Shana Expy, and Ellis is Mikoto-like. Trust me, you’ll find your opinion changing when you start reading ahead past the anime
Kamito’s tie bothered me so much. Didn’t really like this one since the MC started off strong, but got pussy whipped.
For those who are interested enough to read LN here is a brief summary of Kamito background. Spoiler up to volume six. This also some background info for Restia.
Show Spoiler ▼
Liked the anime, although I thought the first episode seemed a bit rushed. The first season might be meh, but that’s only because it covers the first three volumes. It’s when the Blade Dance actually begins that it gets really, REALLY interesting and we see more of Restia and Est.
The love triangle is pretty well-balanced too. While Claire seems to hold a good chance with all the attention she gets, her immature accusations might push Kamito away eventually, as she does it more than anyone else; so unless she shapes up like Louise Valliere or Shana did, I won’t accept her as an actual candidate. Rinslet seems to get the least focus, at least until Volume 13, but I’m not that far yet. Fianna, well, she’s cute, and seems to hold a pretty good chance considering she holds one of Kamito’s secrets early on, and I don’t doubt she’d probably be the first to confess. As for Ellis, she’s definitely one of my favorites; while she was my least favorite alongside Claire at first, she’s showed plenty of charm akin to what Mikoto Misaka would display.
But undoubtedly, the real battle between Restia and Est. I actually found myself rooting for both of them equally, although it was mainly Est at first for her adorableness. Man, Kamito’s got it tough, doesn’t he?
Frankly, I haven’t seen a story, characters, and love triangle this well done since Chrome Shelled Regios. And hope to keep reading more of the novels.