On his way to Areishia Spirit Academy, Kamito Kazehaya runs into a naked Claire Rouge, a student who had been bathing as part of a purification ceremony. She had been preparing to form a contract with a powerful spirit in order to acquire more power as an "elementalist." Her efforts are wasted, however, when Kamito ends up with the spirit despite the fact that only shrine maidens can become elementalists. Yet to be discouraged, Claire then announces that Kamito must become her contracted spirit instead!
After reaching the school grounds, Kamito escapes from Claire and meets Headmaster Greyworth Ciel Mais, who invites him to enroll at the academy. Although his life at Areishia will be far from easy as the only male student among the shrine princesses-in-training, he begrudgingly accepts in exchange for information about his former contracted spirit, Restia Ashdoll. Adding on to that, he also must fulfill Greyworth's main request: to win in the Blade Dance, a battle festival occurring in two months, where he will face the strongest elementalist rumored to be contracted with a darkness spirit.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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HaXXspetten
About half a year ago I had the absolute pleasure of reading through the Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance light novels, and after having caught up with them I consider it one of my favourite series to date. Consequently I was of course very much looking forward to this anime adaptation; however I still felt a bit awkward about it because as it is, Blade Dance is not really an amazing series from the very beginning. It isn't until a few volumes of content down the road that it starts getting exponentially better; however this mere 1-cour adaptation doesn't even reach that far into thestory. As a result, people watching this anime will most likely think of it as just yet another cliché harem series, which by itself isn't wrong but it's only scratching the surface of what Blade Dance truly is deep down.
In short, Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance takes place in a fantasy world where magicians called Elementalers (or Elementalists if you prefer) form sacred contacts with elemental spirits in order to be allowed to wield their powers. However this privilege is only given to pure maidens of noble families who undergo training in order to become spirit contractors. This means that there are no male Elementalers... or at least there shouldn't be but *as it happens*, there is one exception to that, namely the story's protagonist Kazehaya Kamito. Consequently he's transferred to the rich girls' classy school as the only man in an ocean of girls. Sounds cliché and overused as hell I know, but I think it utilizes that premise better than most other such cases out there.
Now undoubtedly the most important part of a harem series is the characters themselves, as if they're not likable then it will suck no matter what, so here's a rough draft of the most important ones:
Name: Kazehaya Kamito
Role: Protagonist
Description: Good natured, dark history, strong fighter
Comment: Not a pervert, not a wimp, not dense. Actually a competent harem protag for once
Name: Terminus Est
Role: Contracted spirit, bEst girl
Colour: White
Description: Ancient legendary sword spirit, expressionless, snarky
Comment: One of the most nosebleed-inducing characters in existence, total moe overdose and perhaps the main reason to watch this series. Don't you dare drop this anime before she makes her first appearance (episode 3)
Name: Restia Ashdoll
Role: Former contracted spirit
Colour: Black
Description: Antagonist(ish), motives surrounded in mystery
Comment: Cute yet seductive character design, hard to figure out for sure what she's thinking or what her personal goals are most of the time
Name: Claire Rouge
Role: Tsundere Ojou-sama #1, emphasis on the tsun
Colour: Red
Description: 95% tsun, 5% dere, Kamito's self-proclaimed "Master"
Comment: Imagine Louise de la Vallière except without Kugimiya Rie and you won't be too far off the mark. Also a closet pervert though
Name: Rinslet Laurenfrost
Role: Tsundere Ojou-sama #2, emphasis on the Ojou
Colour: Yellow
Description: 50% tsun, 50% dere, extreme rich-girl aura, Claire's childhood friend
Comment: Without a doubt one of the most strikingly Ojou-esque characters out there
Name: Ellis Fahrengart
Role: Tsundere Ojou-sama #3, emphasis on the... creative ways of insulting people
Colour: Blue
Description: 33% tsun, 66% dere, captain of the Sylphid Knights
Comment: Strong sense of justice and a quite straightforward personality, but on the inside she really only wants to be treated like a girl
Name: Fianna Ray Ordesia
Role: Perverted Ojou-sama
Colour: Purple
Description: Playful and teasing personality, frighteningly bad at cooking
Comment: Aggressively seeks to seduce Kamito for her own reasons. She's good at teasing people but not so much at being teased herself. Also somewhat naïve
Short version would be that some characters are more likable than others, but there's bound to be at least *someone* everyone would like from the cast. Est is by far the most popular but Restia and Ellis have some sizable fanbases as well.
As far as the production value goes, the art style looks mostly like how I imagined it would and is quite pleasing for the eyes overall. The animation quality however is uneven at best. For panoramic sceneries and close-up character shots everything looks fine, but every so often during more distant shots the characters' faces will look completely distorted and just plain weird. It really feels like they skimped on the budget in that area and sadly it drags down the overall impression of the visuals quite a lot as it'll constantly nag you in the back of your mind.
The soundtrack however, the only aspect I had absolutely no expectations on whatsoever coming into this as a LN reader, sure as hell was the real surprise of this show. The OST is just soooooo catchy, I was so impressed with it and it really has its own feel to it. It's not particularly J-pop-esque, but rather gave me some East European or tribal vibes... I think "wild" might be a good word to describe it. Note that I'm not just talking about the OP (though this one is a bit more "normal" than the others) and the ED with this, but the soundtrack as a whole including the CD-only tracks (like Shukusai no Elementalia for example) that aren't in the anime itself are also fantastic and I'd recommend you to run to your nearest YouTube and check them out if you haven't. Also one does not simply mess with a group name as legit as Ni-Sokkususu (pronounced Knee Sockss) >.>
Moving on, overall this is definitely not a show that would ever be labelled as "deep" or "intelligent" or "artistic" etcetera, but that's not what an ecchi harem show needs anyway. What it needs is cute girls and mindless fun, and as far as that part goes at least there's not much to complain about. Some people might get annoyed at Claire but she's only one among many, and there's bound to be at least someone that can carry the show for every viewer specifically. In the end, anime is simply entertainment media and for that purpose alone, Blade Dance does its job. That's all there is to it really.
However as a final note, as someone who's read the novels I really want to get this message across: since no second season has yet been announced despite the anime being finished airing, combined with the fact that (to my knowledge) it didn't have the best BD sales in Japan, it’s worryingly likely that no more content will ever be adapted for this series. If that really does seem to be the case however, then I really recommend you to at least try out the LNs instead. I'm not going to be one of those hypocrites who keep yelling stuff like "the source material is so much better, don't judge it by this anime" etcetera, because that is definitely not the case. In fact I think this is a quite respectable adaptation as a whole; not perfect but good enough. Rather it's simply that the story improves immensely pretty much from the very moment at which the anime ends, and thus judging the full story merely from what these twelve episodes cover alone will give a quite unfair image for the series as a whole. This is essentially just the prologue. The main arc of the novels begins literally the second the last episode of the anime ends.
Though if you're not quite that hardcore and simply want to watch a show casually for plain fun, then this adaptation on its own still does a good job at doing just that, and arguably that's really all you ever need to ask for when it comes to anime.
Mirrored
The best way to describe Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance is that it is basically a remake of Zero no Tsukaima with a few additional archetypes thrown in and a few intricacies removed. The show is a very standard harem, somewhat in the vein of Infinite Stratos, where the main character is the only male elementaler in a school for female elementalers. Predictably, he quickly runs into a cast of about 5 girls who all have affections for him. What the show does well is pacing. Most harem shows have a few episodes of pointless stalling to focus on one individual girl and pretend that they aregoing to offer some romantic development. While some girls are more or less prominent in Blade Dance episodes, the story does continue to move forward each episode and there is very little in the way of wasted time (other than fight scenes that are perhaps too lengthy).
What the show does poorly is originality. This is either going to comfort you if you like seeing the tropes that it will cascade one after the other or it is going to seriously annoy you if you were hoping to see something new here. We have "you're not yet ready to fight me" bosses, an average of two people fainting per episode, a main character that is constantly jumping into the paths of projectiles to save people, no developed male characters in the story, and girls who you've all seen before if you've watched one harem and played one or two JRPGs.
For me, I found it sort of disappointing. However, if you're looking for a story with a fantasy setting and can ignore its faults, this is a viable option.
NeoAnkara
Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance or Blade dance for short is one of five anime adaptation of LN that simultaneously announced by MF Bunko J. For you who have watch many anime by synopsis alone you can see which direction this series will take. Yes this is harem romance comedy with fantasy setting and dash of action. Nothing new here but it's not like being unoriginal equal boring. Blade Dance is type of series that not try to hard to be deep or complicated series. Instead it achieve what it is trying to do becoming simple yet enjoyable series. Now we are talking about animation andart that is used here. Nothing groundbreaking or spectacular but it still have it's up and down. The best aspect here must be character design an important part on harem genre. Every character is drawn very attractive and very pleasing to the eyes. The downside here sometimes the background is not moving. But overall it is still good.
About sound even though most of main cast played by rookie seiyuu but every one of them play good job and match the character they are playing. The best must be Yuuki Kana VA of Rinslet which bough up her ojou aura more than her LN counterpart. And about soundtrack it is decent but I still disappointed that Shukasai no Elementia the one used for PV is not used as ED or OP instead.
Now the most important part of harem anime is character. We are starting with our main character first Kazehaya Kamito. As the only male spirit contractor in the series people are wary about him because in history the only male spirit contractor Demon King and as you can guess it create chaos in the past. He have good nature personality but is not above teasing his harem member. He is also competent fighter and neither wimp nor (really) dense character. Now move on to Claire. She is tsundere with heavy dose on tsun than dere. Thoughit can be annoying sometimes but over the time she really grow and become more likable. She also have rival and childhood friend named Rinslet. Rinslet like Claire is also tsundere but instead of tsundere to our male lead she is mostly tsundere to Claire. She is also have the most ojou appearance and voice in the series. Move to another character we have Ellis who is also tsundere who lean more on dere than tsun. She is serious and upstanding person. She is also act according to knight honor. We also have Fianna. She is princess also she is the tease on the series. As one of a few character that know Kamito secret she always take advantage on it. Next we have Est. The best character on the series. Bold, cute and charming. She is also very powerful spirit and Kamito trusted partner. The most defining trait of her character is that she like to wear nothing aside for knee socks. Now for the last we have Restia another spirit character. The most mysterious character on the series and the driving force behind the series. What she think and what she do is always mysterious.
This is relaxing and enjoyable series overall but since I've read the LN I know very well that Blade Dance haven't reach it's full potential yet. I'm definitely recommending this to you who like harem fantasy or who like lighthearted series in general.
On a side note the main story start right after anime end so for those who like this adaptation enough I'm strongly recommending read the LN. You can start at volume 4 where anime left off but I think it's better to read it from the start.
PyraXadon
In every anime season there are always the usual category of shows that we expect. There are those hyped shows that everyone wants to watch, there are the romance shows that prove to be either promising or not, and finally, we have that one show every season that you can tell, you can tell will be bad. Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance. Story (4.99/10): The story of Tsukai no Blade Dance revolves around a magical world. In this world, there are spirits in which only women or girls, are able to make contracts with these spirits and use them as different weapons ofdifferent varieties and uses, better known as elemental waffes. (Basically, Zanpaktou). It is here where the only male elementaler (the term used to call the people who use the spirits) in the enrolls in the noble school of using learning how to use elemental spirits, so that he can finish a task in which the headmistress of the school has assigned.
To be completely 100% honest, this story is absolutely horrible in every way shape or form. Tsukai is filled with so many plot holes that it makes SAO's two year timeskip seem minuscule, there is absolutely no focus on plot, pacing is a rushed nightmare, nothing is ever explained, and the ending is so unsatisfying that this show deserves to be shunned from anime history. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but to say that this show has problems is an understatement.
One of the biggest flaws of the series I feel is its lack of explanation. From episode one, Tsukai gives you its world, just straight up gives it to you without any backstory or explanation. Kinda like getting a 2000 piece lego without any instructions on how to build it. It basically expects you to already know what this world is and has to offer before minute one of the first episode is up, which is a very big no no if you want to get any sort of audience engaged with your plot. As the series progresses, you do get some semblance as to what this magical world is, but it's so minuscule that it feels as though they shouldn't have even bothered at all. They mention events within this world that apparently are very significant but are just so glossed over that it's really more of a fact than having really any effect on the plot in general.
Another big flaw of the series is how there is really little to no focus on plot. Many ecchi shows have this flaw where the series tries to go all serious and explain something that's actually relevant and important, before switching gears completely and throwing a pair of breasts or pantsu at the screen to show that this guy is getting more attention than he should. It's a really jarring transition because the show at some very rare points, actually makes itself sound interesting before going the complete opposite and talking about a loli with a bust complex. The series mostly focuses on an extremely clunky TWGOK style story where every "arc" features one of the main girls, solves their "issue", then absorbs them into the almighty harem of ever growing group of bitches.
In addition, the pacing of the show is quite unbalanced as they mainly spend their runtime giving this one magical Infinite Stratos MC copycat five girls that literally throw themselves at them, whilst trying to "maintain" a serious sounding plot. If you're going to make a show, go one way and not the other. You can't do both.
And then we have the ending of the show. Oh boy, was this a mess. I'm that kind of person that always likes a satisfying ending to stuff. Even if the plot itself isn't complete, as long as it resolves itself with at the minimum, most of the stuff getting wrapped up, I'm decently satisfied. The main focus of this show was revolved around something called a blade dance, which is basically a teamfight between teams of people with contracted spirits. They series ends literally right before the long awaited climax, which to be honest, is the worst way to end any series, period. There is no resolution at all as it is all open to hell, they build all this "tension" of the importance of the blade dance in the twelve episode runtime just to shoot it all down with the credits rolling at the run to the what I assume to be the most critical part of the story, thus destroying whatever sort of credibility this show had because of just how much bullshit there was at the end. And with that, it really just puts the nail in the coffin of just how bad this show is.
Overview:
- Swiss cheese story (cause of all the holes, get it?)
- No focus on plot
- Awful pacing
- Worst...ending...ever.
Characters (5.00/10): If the story is any indication as to how bad this series was, the characters will more or less reflect the same sort of detail and quality.
Up first is our main protagonist, Kazahaya Kamito. As most harem MC's, you get your standard "bread and butter" copycat harem leader who is nice to everyone and gets all the bitches. Aside from a few fairly decent traits such as not being reluctant to see girls naked, be a generic pervert, and having some actually good funny moments, he's not really much in terms of actual character. He does have some good wit to him, but really, he's just your average harem protagonist. This however gets much worse in terms of overall characters as he is the most detailed and most well-rounded character in this entire cast, which really isn't much.
And then we have Claire Rouge, our token flat-chested, fiery, and tiny main female. Plain and simple, this girl is your basic cardboard cutout tsundere who feels as though she "needs to get stronger." Literally, that's it. There's nothing more to her character aside from saying her catchphrase "burn in cinders!" over and over again till is gets old like a broken record. (You can get sick and tired of it from episode 1, I guarantee you.)
And then we have the rest of the female harem involving Rinslet and Ellis, both tsunderes (seriously, three tsunderes in one series?), Fianna, the walking pair of breasts with a pension to get Kamito's D, and Est, the kuudere sword spirit who will sleep beside you with practically no clothes on and follow your EVERY command despite looking like an 11 year old. And then we have Carol, the maid who's only purpose is to act as Rinslet's dere side.
Apart from them, you have the supporting cast of random characters that I won't even bother mentioning since their appearances are so scarce and so varying (in addition, their names are freaking long), that I feel as though there is no point to them even being mentioned. There are however a couple special cases in this cast that I feel deserve a little bit more insight on.
The first is the Calamity Queen. This character just feels so useless to me as a character just in general. For one thing, she never shows up in the series. Not in person, only in flashbacks. She's a part of Claire's character development (as small as that is), and is only ever really mentioned. To me, this seems like a big waste considering how much they talked about her in the series, and never even did anything to make her seem any more important since the character apparently had some motivations to do what she did, but was never explored.
And finally, what I feel was the biggest waste in the series was the character known as Restia. This girl was by far the most mysterious character and was legitimately the most interesting character in this entire series. It's shown in this series that she has a connection to Kamito and I felt as though that was the most defining moment this series had as it delved a bit more into the story and it really made something in this series, regardless of how small it was, shine. I feel as though she was the most underused character in the series and it was really a shame since her motives were nicely shrouded and gave something nice that this series was seriously lacking. In the end though, we got a character that basically appears out of nowhere, titters, then leaves mysteriously. There was a lot of underused qualities that Restia had, and it's a shame she wasn't explored or used more than she was.
Overview:
+/- Meh MC
- 3 tsunderes
- Completely forgettable supporting cast
- Very underused character
Art and Sound (7.11/10 and 6.06/10): The art of the series is actual a rather nice and aesthetically pleasing style. There's no real standout moments for the actual animation as it's pretty standard/consistent all the way through, but the color scheme and the overall look of the show is rather nice. (However, if you don't greatly dislike moe style characters, I suggest you stay away from this.)
While the art in general is nicely detailed and very nice-looking, there is one very big flaw that this series has, and that is its ecchi. This show is very big on ecchi and basically strips its girls naked just to reveal to you that "it's this kind of show." (Hell, the opening scene for Claire is a scene of her bathing in a lake with Kamito "peeping" in.) The ecchi for this show is quite extreme and they really don't hold back on flaunting their girls. They even go to the extent of doing a close up shot of any single girl's chest or lower torso region during any transition between the first half and the second half of the show meaning, you're basically forced to watch an ecchi scene. So if you really don't like eechi, this show is not for you.
The music for this series is meh. There's nothing really noteworthy about it. I don't like the opening, the ending is ok, there's nothing really much to say. It's generic, it's ok to listen to, but it's not really a memorable track.
Overview:
+ Decent looking art
+/- "Ok" music
- Ecchi get in the way of a lot of things
Personal Enjoyment (5.49/10): To be honest, I expected this show to be bad. From the very beginning before it even aired, reading the synopsis, I knew that this series would be disappointing and basically, bad. However, there was something that always pulled me to watch the next episode. An almost unexplainable force pulling me back to watch more and more of this awfully created series. Strange. Anyway, off to the three questions.
Did I like this series?
No. Just straight up, no. There were too many plot holes, there was absolutely no background explanation to give some semblance of what this magic world was, and to top it off, the characters were beyond bland and overused. Not to mention the ending being one of the single worst endings I have ever seen. But somehow, regardless of the horrendous amount of flaws, I continued watching with slight eager anticipation. (I don't know why I did.)
What didn't I like about this series?
Apart from the rather decent looking art and fluid action, everything.
Would I recommend this series?
Honestly, no. There are so many flaws with this show that it doesn't even make it a good fluff show. In my opinion, there is nothing about this series that makes it stand out in any way, and I wouldn't recommend this to be put on anyone's list. It's poorly written, there are no good characters (except the mysterious and underused Restia), and the plot points of this series were incredibly rushed and overall, just very jarring to watch.
Overall Score: 5.01/10
elementkg
It's been awhile I haven't done a review so I decided why not, fair warning this review is only for the anime I won't included aspect from the LN. I know alot of you won't like it, but stick with me ok, I'm a bit rusty. Anyways Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance doesn't seem like an all out series, but for those who don't know this is all just the prologue, the actual story doesn't happen until a bit further on. But again I won't be getting into that, just saying for those who came from the LN and starting to watch this, don't expect anythingto great from it, anyways I'm prolonging now let me just get started, cause no one cares about introduction.
Story: 6
So this story is obviously that of a fantasy, includes magic, Demon Lords (Maou), and knights. These "magicians" aren't refer to mages like most magical anime, they are called "elementalers". Each Elementaler controls an element in the form of a contracted spirit. These elements as seen in the anime are in form of fire, water, wind, earth, and ice. One of these Elementalers is known as Kamito Kazehaya who meets a girl bathing in the forest, she is known as Claire Rouge a fire elementaler, from this they join into a team to compete in a tournament known as The Blade Dance. Without going into much summary, this story is pretty bland, Kamito is the only boy elementaler in the school, surrounded by a sea of girls. His goal is to win the Blade Dance to get his wish granted and to chase down his former contract spirit Restia. It's not a touchy story, it's more of an underdog type of story, those who come from troubled past with no power try to go against odd to achieve strength and victory.
Art: 8
The art was pretty good in this series, well drawn, the key animator of this series should give themselves a pat on the back for this. Background was aesthetically beautiful, and the characters were so well made, you can see that they aren't just based with model with different color hair and eyes, they put some effort into making each character structurally different, with no disproportional body parts. Hats off to you animators, job well done.
Sound: 5
Sound pretty generic nothing very memorable as per say, the opening was ok and ending was decent but nothing that you will download into your mp3 of course. As for the voice actors, the main characters voices were well picked but Restia's voice (even though she wasn't a main) just was too kiddish, I understand they were aiming for a bit of a seductress voice, but it's a bit let down.
Character: 8
I'll list each of the main characters so you guys have a generic idea of each of them:
Claire Rouge- A tsundere Flame Elementaler, her contrated spirit is a flame cat name Scarlett. As stated she is a heavy Tsundere, instead of seeing Kamito as her crush/friend she keeps stating that he is her "slave spirit" and like most tsundere out there she's flat chested and very insecure about it. Typical right?
Rinslet Laurenfrost- Also a tsundere, but an Ice Elementaler user, her contracted spirit is a ice wolf name Fenrir. She's a girl who never truly say what she means/want, so usually her maid translate for her. She is a very prideful noble, and a close friend of Claire, even if the 2 don't admit it.
Ellis Fahrengart- Another but yet very soft tsundere, she is a Wind Elementaler, her spirit is that of a Eagle name Simorgh. She is a knight who gets flustered around Kamito easily, a good cook too, and very impressionable too, she doesn't have a bad past like the others, but her present was getting a bit muggy
Fianna Ray Ordesia- No worries she's not a tsundere, she's just a playful teaser, even though she has meaning behind her flirts. She is a Light Elementaler her spirit is like a huge knight known as Georgios. She is a "Lost Queen" a forgotten princess due to the events before the series, She knows Kamito secret alias and sometimes use that as leverage against him.
Terminus Est- The best girl in the series, ok personal opinion aside she is a spirit herself, a powerful sword spirit known as a demon slayer. She is more comedic relief and a bit of a fan service type character, suggested to have chocolate licked off of her, or having Kamito "Eat her" and always appearing naked, yet draws the line when asked about her kneesocks, which she refuses to remove. She is an ecchi but moe loli, and that's a win, I kidded of course.
Kamito Kazehaya- The main guy and one of those rare harem MC who isn't useless, not much to explain but to say this guy pretends to be dense, he just rubs off the girls antics. He is both a Dark and Light Elemantaler, Dark as for the event before the series, Light during the show, he controls Est. He's also known as a Demon Lord successor and a Demon Lord of the Bedroom.
Too many tsundere characters however, so far warning, if you don't like that character trope, you'll get a little ticked off.
Enjoyement: 7
It was good, the ecchiness was pretty soft compare to most out there, because well that wasn't the focal point and they made sure to incorporate those moments at reasonable moments, same for the comedy. They kept the action with the action, kept comedy with the comedy, they rarely ever tried to intertwine with each other, giving each scene its own focus without taking anything away from that plot use. So very well balanced, and seeing that was a bliss to enjoy.
Overall: 7
Wow usually my personal rating and my review rating ever match but it seems this time it did. Again like I said at the beginning this story is just basically the "prequel" sort to say, so for those coming from the LN to watch it will probably be boring to you, but if you came to see Est animated than by all mean have fun. I don't really have a closing statement for this, but hope you guys got something out of this, and it was helpful. As always enjoy!
Guru93
This show is what i would call the ultimate surprise. This show is something that comes out of no where. You just have to get through the cliche infested first episode Story wise the story itself is good, What makes this story great in my opinion is the back stories of every character and how they all seem to come together with each other. That is the main reason i personally love this story. Ren Ashebell win the blade dance years ago greatly influences all the female maidens at the school. Restias actions greatly influences Kamito and Greyworth. That to me is a great story, wheneverything connects with each other.
Character wise i find this show to be fantastic. While the characters themselves may be a little cliche, i find that this show has some of the most intriguing back stories to date. Almost every character that we see has this back story that is full of depth and completely drives them towards their goal of the blade dance or their goals outside of blade dance. A person favourite thing about the characters are the female characters. You see this school teaches elementers the ways to use their powers, but all the elementers are female. So they haven't been around boys their age that much so when Kamito comes in it just brings up the funniest situations like when Ellis says in public that Kamito is her first yet by first she meant first boy she held hands with. It honestly was a shining part of the show.
Art style is something i pride myself on. I take a huge look into art style i find this show to have one of my personal favourite. I like color and this show is full of it and there are some moments that just leave you in awe.
Music is bloody great. While the songs in the show are pretty good i find the OP to be amazing and the ED to be catchy as all hell.
Ok im going to be honest. You have more then likely read most of this already. So im guessing that you should already know i enjoyed the hell out of this anime
Overall this show came the hell out of no where. One reason i choose it was because of the art design and that it resembled Dragonar academy. I thought this anime would fall around the same score a 7 or 8. NOPE! This show has amazing characters, pretty damn good story and pretty damn good visuals and music
So it says ten because honestly id give it a ten
Is it a little over board? maybe
But when i grade animes i grade heavily on enjoyment because in the end that is what matters the most
BlackPrism
Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance: light novel adaptation! Yeah! You know what that means? Deep, meaningful themes? Character Development? Great Dialogue? Hahahaha, hell no. As with most (if not all) light novel adaptations, Blade Dance is a romance/comedy/harem/fantasy anime catered to the otaku audience. My expectations for this anime were insanely low and all I expected was nothing but a generic, mindless fanservice anime and that's exactly what I got. Story (25%) - 2/10 The story is as generic as it can be. It's nothing but an obvious setup for a harem and there isn't much thought put into the setting. Now you may be thinking "Sure,it's generic but 2 out of 10?? That's a bit harsh, don't you think?" so allow me a chance to explain why. Usually, shows with no plot (i.e. slice of life) get an automatic 5 from me, a well-handled plot always scores higher; however, stories that have plots which only exist for empowerment fantasy/wish fulfillment and nothing else get a 1 point deduction. Blade Dance gets another point deduction for not doing a good job of explaining its setting or conflict. Restia's back-story and motives are never explained so she falls flat as a villain. It is also never explained why Kamito is the only boy with powers, which actually makes this show really weak as empowerment fantasy. Since the viewer is expected to step into the shoes of the MC, if it is never explained why the MC is special, then the viewer will not feel special (or "empowered") either. From a story-telling perspective, I see no reason why any random boy couldn't also gain powers and get chicks, it's not like anything is stopping them; thereby making Kamito look ordinary and not unique. Hell, even Infinite Stratos gave a reason as to why the MC is special. Sure, it makes no sense and is never explored, but at least it was there! Another point gets deducted for the fact that the sub-plots are so poorly managed. We are told that Claire's sister went rouge for some reason and Claire wants to get stronger to bring her back or something, but we are never told why. No flashbacks about their memories together, no reason to believe her sister is innocent, there is absolutely no motivation for the audience to care about her; simply telling us they're sisters isn't enough, you know. Have the writers never heard of Fullmetal Alchemist?
Art (20%) - 6/10
The art style is also very generic, it is extremely easy to confuse it with a hundred other shows. The animation is pretty decent, with the show being rather action-oriented. The CGI isn't bad at all, but nothing stands out in terms of art. It's only slightly better from what you would expect from modern anime.
Sound (20%) - 6/10
The OP is sung in TERIBORU ENGURISU (yeah, it's really that bad) which drags the rest of the soundtrack down. It's a shame actually, the other songs weren't half bad and some pieces, particularly those that used the violin, were actually pretty good. Oh, well.
Characters (25%) - 3/10
I already mentioned the worst aspects of the characters in the Story section, so I won't bother to repeat them. Aside from those, the side characters are just so predictable and generic that I can't really find a reason to care about them. Their personalities can basically be described by their hair colour.
Red=Tsundere; Blonde=Arrogant Ojou-sama; Blue=Cool Beauty; Light Blue=Quiet Stoic; Oh the originality!
Enjoyment (10%) - 5/10
Since I am a male teenager, I can't exactly say I was bashing my head on the table while I was watching. It's enjoyable for what it is and as long as you keep your expectations low, you won't be disappointed. My main problem with it is that it's just so generic and predictable. I can hardly tell it apart from Seikoku no Dragonar and that only came out one season before this! Just watch Trinity Seven when it airs this fall. I read the manga and it's the same thing as this but better in every way. It has a better plot, a more OP protagonist, a bigger harem and after you watch it, I'm sure you'll forget all about Blade Dance. Don't waste your time with this anime and instead watch something meaningful like Ping Pong or whatever.
Baddie007
Ok, so what we've got was another one of those harem based fantasy anime, where it was some sort of "Infinite Stratos" kinda of thing where a school for girls was suddenly been invaded by a guy who can do what them girls can do kind of thing, soooooooooo, generally there is no story except a plot where a red head bitch was trying to have the guy all for herself because of what he can do and what he has so that she can win in the so called "Blade Dance" and the rest was the usual them girls competing for the guy's affection,which btw make the story "Poor." ( Should I explain more? Mr. Mod) The art, well, what do I like about it.......FANSERVICE!!!!!!!Yep, seeing Claire and Fianna's pantyshot was good, there were also the moe that come with it when it comes to the girls attire that I find very cute, although, Claire and Fianna's naked scene were at bit regulated, seeing them in such naked glory was enough for me to give this anime's art a "Good." The sound was good since I kinda like the opening theme and I also like the VA's who did Claire, Fianna, Rinslet and Est's voices, however Ellis and Velsaria's voices were a bit too matured, in fact it would have been better if Ellis's voice would have been better if done by Itou Kanade and Velsaria's voice should have been done by Hikasa Yoko. Character, I gave it a "fair' co'z even though the characters where the usual cast that one would find in a usual harem theme anime, them characters had somehow proven to be different from the rest, co'z all four of the harem member where portrayed as fighters and needless to say there isn't that usual bimbo and one who has stays on the sides that come with every harem based genre, in fact everyone were competing for the guy's affection, also there is the part where I really hate Claire for being this bitchy lass that she is somewhat of a possessive girl who claims ownership of Kamito, I'm also disappointed of Kamito for not only being this usual harem guy, but being forgetful of Fianna whom he save a couple of years back, but then again him getting cake on his face was pretty funny which was the enjoyable part where I give it a 'Good" coupled with the fanservice and moe, but overall imo this anime deserves a 6 though it was enjoyable it was still the usual and that all I have to say.
My ratings:
Story: Poor 3.
Co'z it was the usual harem based fantasy anime.
Art: Good 7.
The score was for the moe, fanservice and Claire's panty shot.
Sound: Good 7.
Its for the opening and the VA's who did Claire, Fianna, Rinslet and Est's voices.
Character: Fair 6.
Since the harem members even though they're the usual harem, they were portrayed differently, but still imo it deserves a 6.
Enjoyment: Good 7.
Same explanation as the anime's art category.
Overall : Fair 6.
As I've said, it maybe enjoyable, but it was still the usual. (Do I need to explain more? Mr/Miss Mod)
AnimeFan48
Story: so the story is pretty much like that this guy was in a blade dance 3 years ago as a girl he ends up meeting a girl named claire who he ends up meeting when she is bathing and than they get a seal wont spoil the rest Art: the art is pretty good nothing bad about it Sound: the sound was very good also had a very nice ending theme song i liked Character: now the characters kinda are freaking good you do get a different variety of characters to this anime Enjoyment: now i freaking enjoyed the hell out of this anime for the ecchi toothe harem too all the comedic stuff that would end up happening to kamito just a funny as hell and the action was pretty decent
Overall: im giving this a 9 for like what my enjoyment says just the comedy was over the top funny for me and everything else was aswell id so recommend this anime
STIDDmuffin
Story: Where to start with this story... Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance tells the story of a special young man named Kazehaya Kamito (the only reason I know his name is because every freaking character whines his name at least a dozen times every episode). Kamito lives in a magical world where wealthy members of society send their daughters to some school with other girls to master the art of contracting spirits for some reason. These spirits are used to fight each other for no particular purpose. The contracted spirits come in many forms, from elemental spirits to golems to even the MC, who, by theway, also happens to be the successor to the demon lord, because of course he is.
Long story short, and without going into any potential spoilers, a kawaii red-headed animu grill for some reason manages to bind Kamito as her contracted spirit, cuz reasons, and takes him as a kind of servant. The MC is also sent to this special school, because obviously he's the only man with the ability to contract a spirit, i mean he is the successor to the demon lord, after all. Basically, it's zero no tsukaima meets infinite stratos, but with less fan service than the latter and somehow more shit than both.
Anyways, every few years there's an event called the blade dance where all the pretty anime girls take their spirits and battle each other, the winner getting a wish of theirs granted or some shit somehow. Also there's this mystery girl that is shown throughout who seems kind of like an antagonist. The only problem is that for there to be a true antagonist, there has to be an actual story.
In summary, there is basically zero action and literally no plot progression, aside from a rushed and out of the blue conclusion that didn't even address the main plot element that was being built up for the entirety of this slog-fest of a show. Surely this show was made with a season two in mind.
Edit: Oh yeah, and MC also manages to contract the spirit of a sword, who of course is also a small, cute anime girl who appears to be about 8. She obviously is completely subservient to her master and insists on sleeping with her master in the nude, because of course she does.
Art:
The art in this show was pretty solid. The animation was smooth and the picture was strong overall, even great at some points. The backgrounds and background characters were relatively well-done, as has come to be expected of Kadokawa (along with poor plots). The major characters were well-drawn and pretty kawaii imo, but their art styles made them appear to be a little young for my taste. All in all, the art looks quite nice, but it is nothing particularly memorable or that would stand out compared to other shows known for nice artistic flair.
Note: If you are watching this show for the anime nips this is not the show for you. There is not a single nip shown, and i can probably count the number of panty-shots on one hand. This was the biggest letdown of the show, and what I was looking forward to the most when watching.
Sound:
On first hearing the OP, I quite literally wanted to vomit. The song starts with a few English lines that were horrifically distorted by an exaggerated Japanese accent. By the end of the show, however, I had come around to it and actually enjoyed it quite a lot.
The ED wasn't bad, and it contained a multitude of shots of cute anime booties, which is one of my favorite things, second only to cute anime nips. Because of this, I was more than able to enjoy and watch most of the ending without skipping it throughout the show. It wasn't horribly revealing, but hey I'm not complaining, I guess.
Characters:
The show consists of a number of stereotypical anime girls, all vying for the love of the MC.
Clair Rouge - red-headed girl who contracted MC to him for some reason. Sloppy noble who sees MC as a servant. She pretends not to like him, but gets defensive. She is cautious with flirty stuff, but she follows the lead of the bolder characters, because this is anime and of course she does.
Blonde Chick- Sorry I don't remember the names, but I just finished the show last night. She is an upright and proper noble who pretends not to like the MC. Blonde chick is objectively best grill, and I will personally fite anyone who says otherwise. The stereotypes don't stop here.
Blue Hair Chick- Noble with a firm sense of justice, basically the stereotypical equivalent of the "leader of the disciplinary committee" from so many other shows.
White Hair Chick- A girl who is also a sword and is contracted to the MC. She appears to be in about the fourth grade.
Enjoyment:
Despite all my complaints, I was able to watch the show in its entirety. There were times when I didn't want to continue. It's the kind of show that you don't pause when you get up to get dinner from the microwave, and the kind that doesn't really need to be actively watched. I still didn't hate it, but it's not like I enjoyed it or anything... baka.
hilvisa
Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance This anime wasn't have a fantastic story that can make you hold breath during the show, but what makes me can still enjoy this anime..??. First character, character development in this anime is very nice, indeed not too influential to story, and so many tsundere character in this anime, but character in this anime have a charm of its own. and my favorite is Terminus Est and Ellis Fahrengart. Terminus Est is the best girl in this anime, loli who always melting situation, she is reported as a powerful sword spirit known as a demon slayer, she sometimes put a chocolate in herbody and ask Kamito to lick it, and she is always naked but she doesn't want to take off her kneesocks, pervert indeed but her childish personality which makes she is interesting.
Ellis a soft tsundere girl, and wind elementalers that have a eagle spirit named Simorgh, she is always shame and became awkward especially when it concerned with Kamito, but that's sweet side from Ellis.
Second music, i love music in this anime, moreover ending in this anime i love it.
Third atmosphere, i don't know why but i comfy with atmosphere in this anime, and last art, art in this anime is pretty good.
Maybe just that much i can give about what make this anime can enjoy by you, i tell you this anime wasn't have a fantastic story but you can still enjoy this anime.
Doubleagent
I was pleasantly surprised by this one and it's quite a shame that it seems like it won't be getting a second season as lots of plot points are left unresolved. If you really value having closure and you are not willing to read on I would avoid this one, you will find no closure here. What we have seen so far of the plot is not particularly complicated. Kamito Kazehaya is a boy who can utilise magical powers that usually only girls can use. He attends an otherwise all female school and has a shady past. This one is another good example of how to properlyexecute having a story alongside being an ecchi show. Lots of shows usually can’t get the balance between these factors down and end up being heavily weighted in one direction or another. This is not the case here and I can safely say that it's got the mix of Comedy, Action and Ecchi down almost perfectly as none of the aforementioned elements spent long enough in the spotlight for me to tire of them.
I'm aware that there has been a little disagreement over the quality of the characterisation and voice acting when it comes to certain characters but as someone who has not read the LN, I feel as if they pull it off. I personally don't particularly enjoy fanservice of characters I'm not invested in but as far as I am concerned Blade Dance succeeds in giving the cast proper backstories / does not fall into the trap of having them be cutouts with slightly different bust sizes. A clear victory for those who like a little plot to go along with the 'plot'.
As far as characters go, special mention must be made to Ai Kakuma as Terminus Est who was just perfect / really stole the show. Easily my favourite character from this as nearly every moment Est was on screen was comedy gold. Having long silver hair, knee socks and that amazing voice helped a little as well.
It's not all roses however as certain sections of exposition can get a little cliché at times. I'd like to spotlight the scenes with the headmistress as these where about as subtle as a chainsaw. I was half expecting her to break out the Dr Evil pinky laugh whenever the show sloppily attempted to foreshadow her 'mysterious' plans. Keep in mind however that this is an action-comedy harem; cheesy moments and unintentional comedy are part of what you are signing up for!
The actual world that the story is set in could have done with a bit of fleshing out but it's sufficient. The majority of the story takes place in a small number of locations that, while nothing new, are well drawn and detailed.
The music compliments the show well, the incidentals are a little forgettable but they work well in context and the fight music is usually intense. (You get a pass despite blatantly ripping off the Pirates of the Caribbean theme for your main battle theme.)
Speaking of, the action scenes are really impressive when you take into account the budget. They aren’t treading any new ground with the effects or battle style but it executes all the old tropes well enough that you should still enjoy it.
Overall this is a short, enjoyable romp through a rather basic setting with funny and interesting characters. Yes, it's walking the path well travelled as far as the plot goes but it walks it well.
Notshane
Here, we face your typical harem anime. Normally, I put them down the moment I notice it's barely going very far from the genre, but I had faith. The first episode of this anime opened alright, with our male lead being pretty confident through the typical "accidental" situations you're used to in these anime. Take those quotations strongly, because every veteran harem fan knows why I put them there. Nothing is ever an accident in harems to the females. Because of how rough this anime is to me, I don't even want to talk about it very much, because it barely does anything different from anotherharem, but I am a bit upset it has such a high score on this website, so I want to make sure it gets a strong amount of negativity somewhere for the more innocent anime viewer who will believe it is good. Normally, I want to start with positives since that's the part you are curious about, but sadly, they will be spaced as I go on. Most of this will be negative and I have no way to really make a separate positive section.
Lastly, I will only really go over all of the "harem" aspects, not the story. I feel sad to say, the story barely interested me because of how overshadowed it was by the genre it is in. If you want a review that covers it more, read one of the more positive ones. Then after you're done, come back here to read why the comedy rarely funny.
With all due respect, I know a lot of people enjoy abuse humor, but I do not know why you do. It's funny to me whenever there's a cause for it. Despite ironically enjoying random comedy a lot, where absurd things happen to even the most innocent characters, I never can bring myself to smile whenever an innocent character gets punished, though due to how often it happens to male characters, I actually do, darkly enough, laugh at innocent female characters getting punished. They deserve it way more in my book, so even if they're innocent, I usually get a laugh out of it since I'm not used to them being in trouble. I have special exceptions, though, if it's a female character with a very good personality.
So, let us begin. If you are a fan of the anime already reading more reviews to see how other people feel, please avoid mine. You will only get mad at me after you read it.
(SPOILER WARNING)
The first episode opens very abruptly. Out of nowhere, we are immediately treated to a generic harem scene without any context. I am excluding the pre-opening part showcasing the battle since it's so subtle it's not worth mentioning at this point. But, anyway, you are thrown immediately into a standard harem scene, where the male happened to walk by a female bathing. I am fully aware I'm a broken record at this point, so I try to keep any discussion about these scenes brief, so I will get to the point. He stares, clearly not his fault, she gets angry and tries to punish him. Hahahah- not really.
What is the standout for this particular scene, however, that made me feel the need to talk about it fairly long? Well she is trying to punish him, she accidentally breaks a tree behind her, which would have literally flattened her. After finishing this whole anime, I wish that tree killed her. But sadly, our male lead decided to save her. So, now you're expecting me to bring up how she's suddenly "appreciative" of him, right? No, it was apparently his fault for pouncing on her well she was naked and he is still punished. Yeah.
Remember earlier, I said I had high expectations because the male lead was confident, which starts around here. He mentions she is wearing panties of a particular color (became a brief running gag during early episodes) and she corrects him, only to feel bashful. From there, he got a bit cockier and provoked her in adequately funny ways. It gave me hope this would be a harem more toward KonoSuba where the male lead has a bit of a backbone. Sadly, it dries out pretty quickly going forward.
I am not even kidding, this anime feels the need to add a ton of these "accidental" scenes way more than it should, given the "elaborate" nature of its story. You can't take most of it seriously because it truly doesn't feel like there's any character development that is worthwhile besides the male lead's struggles. Most of the females introduced almost always find some way to "have enough" with the male character the moment they're even remotely confused. Please, don't think I'm exaggerating here, I do try to see the best in every anime I watch, but I could not with this one and its female characters.
I will try to bring out the positives one first before I really get into this. Yes, positive "one, you did read that as singular. Ellis Fahrengart, a female character who still fell victim to the "I do not want to hear it" harem trope of punishing the male lead, almost always apologized every time she did it, and whenever she did walk in, the situations actually were fairly worthy of being judged negatively. I mildly enjoyed her development, going off what this anime calls "development" that is, and I really wanted her to be the one to kiss Kamito. Er, more on that later. But, overall, she was the best female out of the entire cast. Her voice actor is talented at changing her tone though, as she has two unique tones in the anime for being serious and bashful. Had Est had more development, I would have talked about her as well, but she is probably the only other tolerable female character due to her stubbornness being more adorable than aggravating.
The other female characters aren't very lovable, but not horrible. Rinslet is just your typical pompous aristocrat who feels the need to talk down on everyone and gloat at how superior she is. Occasionally, she has pretty good lines of dialogue, such as when she was talking down on other nobles at one point, but overall, she's average. You can't like her very much, but also can't hate her.
Fianna is the female character designed to tease Kamito, and as you can expect, that means she has blackmail on him. She is the only one who knows of his former identity, "Ren Ashbell" which is the character seen fighting an unknown female combatant from the first scene of the anime and winning that takes place before the "comical" harem shenanigans began later. That was actually just Kamito in disguise. He met Fianna as a child, defeating an enemy that was about to kill her, but Fianna recognized the swordplay at work and figured out that Ren Ashbell was the alias for Kamito Kazehaya. So, they both made a promise that he would see her again in a few years. Needless to say, he never did that and also forgot about her, so she held it against him and decided to pick on him for the rest of the anime. Naturally, meaning anytime Kamito wanted to backtalk her, she threatened his identity. Claire never finds out he is Ren Ashbell, so yeah, you can just assume the worst in that she holds him on a leash for the rest of the series whenever there's "comedy" with her.
Here we go, I can finally let loose with the female lead. Claire Rouge sucks. I really dislike this character and have no sympathy for her at all, no matter how "tragic" it is that she wants to find her sister. She is picked on a lot by other students of the school, but I enjoy these scenes because of how obnoxious her character is. The whole point of a "warn down, depressed" character is they get bullied, they feel sad and our male lead is here to comfort them. You feel for them when they don't have the strength to fight back anymore, but not when they let out their anger on other people. Now, I do know this is how some people handle this, but it bothers me when she gets mad at the people who do care for her. So, let's bring up that other scene I mentioned earlier.
The most positive scene I know of from this anime with Claire is when she is fighting Restia's creature from the netherworld. Kamito, the male lead, feels anxious to fight the creature due to facing negativity over seeing Restia again, his former contracted spirit. Claire, amazingly, felt bad for him during this and noticed that he was sad. Not knowing him very well, she only thought of one way to raise his spirits, though definitely in a way that I didn't expect. I assumed it was just going to be some positive reinforcement, or her apologizing for calling him a slave so often, but instead she just makes out with him for a bit. This is the only action Kamito gets in the whole anime and I actually admired how quickly she was to do this, as I expected her to be far more bashful about it due to the way she treated any "intentional" moment he shared with another female character. I expected a hug, if anything, when she approached him, but instead it was a full on kiss. It raised his spirits, and he was ready to fight. From here, I was a bit more optimistic about Claire and assumed she was now dating Kamito going forward.
So, they do fight the creature, and another surprising development occurred immediately. The characters have contracted spirits and Claire's is Scarlet, a "fire-cat" that can turn into a whip as a weapon for her, or "elemental waffe" as the anime calls it. The fire-cat is capable of fighting outside weapon form and attempted to save Claire from dying, only to be eaten alive by the demon in front of Claire's eyes. From here, well you know, I'm not completely heartless. Now, Claire has gone through hell by the school, wants to know the origin of her hated sister and has now lost her closest companion. I felt sad here for the first time in the whole anime, though also the only time. I was ready to believe her character would finally have some notable development right here, as Kamito now had a reason to be a spirit for her. Oh, but of course, it was wiped way not that long after as we found out Scarlet was still alive, albeit drained of power. And just like that, my old thoughts of Claire immediately came back.
Despite the "bonding" moment she had with Kamito, she was very quick to go back to their old ways after that fight, as she once again wants to "burn him to cinders" whenever she misinterprets a situation. I told you before about Est briefly, how I considered her my second favorite female character as far as development goes. Earlier in the anime, she always sleeps in Kamito's bed with him. Kamito acquired her as a contracted spirit after saving Claire (yes, saves her twice in the same episode, many more times too, but she never respects him enough to not assume the worst of an accidental situation), but her non-elemental waffe form debuted a bit later. She is the youngest of the female characters, as far as appearance goes anyway, and is introduced being fully nude in Kamito's bed. She insists that her "thighs" are the most lewd part about her body and gets offended whenever Kamito brings up why she still wears thigh-highs, saying it is not as lewd as her being entirely naked above them. Mildly comical.
So, yeah, Claire walks in when this first happens, misinterprets "I am going to burn you to cinders" whatever. This same sequence happens a bit more than I wanted it to, with the only comical one being when Kamito wakes up and immediately opens his blanket to see Est is not there and sighs in relief. I actually mildly enjoyed this scene. I brought up the entire story of him meeting Est as the main point of the "harem" humor, usually being whenever a girl walks in on him in the bedroom and Claire, every single time, misinterprets it and punishes him with her power.
Honestly, I knew this was standard already, but what really bothered me was one particular scene. Sadly, Ellis, despite the positive marks I gave her, has the worst one in the anime, even worse than all of Claire's combined, and that is why she is still not really a character I "like" a lot in the anime, but just appreciated she had some development. At one point, she invites Kamito over to her house, easily her worst scene in the whole anime. And the scene with her in the maid outfit really, really, really bothered me more than any other harem scene has in a while. She tells him that her friends told her men like maid outfits. He says that not all of them do, so...ugh. I really hate having to remember this again, give me a moment here before I type the rest of it. But, she actually manages to turn this into a negative scene. Without him saying anything else, she immediately judges him and assumes he wants her to wear something even worse, and is quick to put a sword to his neck for it and forces him to accept her maid outfit. Unlike the other scenes in the anime with threatened sword violence, she was not too slow to put the blade directly on his neck, implying he was literally going to die for this. This alone is why I can say I do not like her as a character. She did apologize for misinterpreting situations he was in, but keep in mind she still did the whole "punishment" thing every time, and this one was just the worst. Despite how much I hate it, however, I can't bring myself to give Claire a higher rank than her. Claire did this garbage the whole series, well Ellis did it a few times, I believe. I do say "quality over quantity" though, but most of what Claire did still barely outranks what Ellis did.
Whoever wrote the humor in this anime, I want them fired for this scene alone, or at the very least, thrown into an anime where the goal is to displease the viewer, because they could easily write some dark humor. I try to see the best in a lot of people and respect their tastes, but if you enjoyed this scene, do not ever tell me. I will judge you for it subconsciously for a very long time, but at the same time, would be all the more curious as to how you could laugh at it. I don't want to sound antagonizing here, so if your really did enjoy this scene and want to tell me why, don't be afraid to approach me, despite what I said, with a PM explaining why. I am not completely heartless, I just had some rage venting right there well I was talking about it.
So, let's see. I brought up some of the worst negatives and, pretty much, the entire series' dynamic. As I said, didn't have much interest in the story itself. Restia showed up solely to laugh at everyone and never lifted a finger. Barely had enough deveopment for me to talk about her for longer than a few sentences. Oh yeah, there was another male character, Jio Inzagi. I like saying the name, but his role was just to be reminded that Kamito is the true demon lord, though Kamito himself doesn't defeat him, so this destroyed the whole context of that. Fianna did most of the work. I liked all of the abilities he had, though, and one of the strong moves hitting him had some of the best still frames in the anime, as I thought it looked pretty cool, and his scream was pretty exhilarating to listen to. The voice actor did a good job overall, but the anime itself is what made the character feel worthless. There was some other stuff too, like this elf-looking woman who was giving people curse seals near the end, but it was rushed. Greyworth was pretty attractive and had some comical banter with Kamito a few times. Yeah, I believe I ironed out most of my final thoughts. Ellis had an older sister, Velsaria, who was hyped up just to be disappointing at the end. I enjoyed her voice, though. She was the one fighting Ren Ashbell during the first scene of the anime. They actually bring this scene up quite a few times.
Oh, I almost forgot. Carol Nastassja is the best female in the anime. Her minor appearances made me scoff her because I had so much negativity welt up that I suppose it only made sense she wasn't in my mind earlier. She is the only one who did not negatively judge Kamito and was also the only one with the balls to mock the other females who were bashful toward him. There was one scene where the other females were upset over Est holding Kamito's arm, visibly glaring. Carol mentions his other arm is free, but then they tsundere-esquely say it's childish to do. She acknowledges it and immediately grabs his other arm, making them angrier, and I actually laughed at this. Not mildly, but almost loudly. It caught me off guard for an otherwise mediocre anime and I held very high respect for Carol ever since. The most notable scene she had in the anime besides this was when she accidentally fell on Kamito and his hands ended up in the wrong area. She felt a bit violated by it, but was simply scared and was actually apologizing for falling on him since she actually acknowledged it was her fault. She is a normal female character. A real shame that, at this time of writing, only one user has favorited her on MAL. Whoever you are, thank you. You have good taste in anime women.
This review is all over the place. Was more of me talking about the characters again. Sorry if it wasn't informative, but I mainly wrote it to let out my frustrations about the anime and how, amazingly, a few characters could negatively kill the whole experience for me. It is the first anime I have given the second-to-lowest score on this site, since it managed to have barely just a bit of comedy in it to make me laugh a literal few times throughout the entire thing, meaning I didn't think it was one of the worst things I ever saw. If the manga really is a lot better than this, I am sure as hell curious to give it a read. Maybe Carol has more appearances in it.
Appilesh
Describing this one of many shows that "the anime industry spits out every season" is somewhat of an injustice. You will find there is a lot more to Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance than your everyday harem series. Plot: This is an anime primarily about fighting and magic-wielding, which is nothing new, but it is more than enough to keep you interested for 12 episodes. The other main theme is harem/romance. What this show does well is prevent the two themes from conflicting with each other and therefore the plot feels serious yet the romance is sweet and entertaining, and compliments the story well as a formof comic relief. However, I feel like a lot of important plot elements involving the characters' pasts are poorly explained, possibly due to being only 12 episodes long. This is the type of series that could really do with a prequel more than a sequel. 7/10 for plot.
Art:
Crisp, colourful candy for the eyes. The fluorescent artwork is what will keep you watching if nothing else does. The motion is smooth and the drawing is detailed. The characters themselves all look extremely cute and a joy to watch, all having distinctly coloured hair and eyes as standard. The uniform design is actually interesting for once which compensates for the fact that that is what they constantly wear (which unfortunately alludes to 90% of anime). The setting gives off a medieval vibe which suits the story well. All of the battles are well animated and feel intense - a 10/10 for art.
Sound:
The soundtrack for Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance is spot-on and fits the medieval setting perfectly. If the music is not stuck in your head, then at least it enhances your experience of every scene. The ED is undeniably catchy as well and not once have I skipped past it. On the other hand, the OP falls short and makes the show feel like low budget trash before it's even started. 9/10 for sound.
Character:
For a series that does declare itself a harem, you would expect a bit more in the character department.
Kazehaya Kamito is a strong fighter with a troubled past that we know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT (can we at least have an OVA to explain what's up with him?). A solid personality but annoyingly helpless when faced with any awkward situation.
Claire Rouge is a short-tempered tsundere who can be undeniably cute during her soft moments. You are made to feel sorry for her as society shuns her for being the sister of the notorious Calamity Queen, but the intended sense of pity doesn't really reach the viewer. Sorry, Claire.
Rinslet Laurenfrost is from a family of nobles, and certainly does give off that aura. However, encounters with her are so infrequent that you either forget about her or don't care about her. Hardly worth a mention. Sorry, Rinslet.
Fianna Ray Ordesia is a "perverted princess" and is the only character in the series who openly epresses her feelings towards Kamito, which is rather refreshing compared to all those tsunderes. Again, we are made to feel sorry for her, having been unable to become a queen. Again, I couldn't care less.
Ellis Fahrengart... what a delightful character. A knight with a strong sense of justice, yet at heart she is just a normal girl and scenes with her and Kamito are heartwarming.
Est. Every time she says "Praise me more"; every time she gets patted on the head and says "That feels good"; every time she says "I want parfait"; every time Kamito wakes up to find her in his bed; every time words leave her lips as a soft monotonous lullaby... I feel at peace.
As for the interaction between the characters, real feelings are seldom shown (the exception being Fianna, but this is presented in a comedic way). The the pairing with the most romantic value is without a doubt Kamito and Ellis: you will enjoy the bond that develops between these two. 7/10 for character.
Conclusion:
While Blade Dance is by no means a technical masterpiece worthy of a 10/10, it is one of my favourite anime that I have had the delight to watch. Why? The fights are intense, the romance is sweet and fun to watch, Est is a bundle of joy, and all the way through the art and music are beautiful and a real treat for the senses. It alternates between plot and romance perfectly, not allowing either to drag on for too long and provides the right kind of entertainment at the right time. 10/10 for enjoyment and a 8/10 overall. I would recommend this anime to anyone.
daimonfo
This is like a small remake of Zero no Tsukaima in a different time. The anime overall is good, though its not because the story is so amazingly captivating. I feel that the story is the weakest part of the series. Its kind of meh, girls with magical powers that summon stuff that fights for them. Unique isn't it? The most I like from this anime is how similar Claire is to Louise. But this requires you to have already watched or watching Zero no Tsukaima and also like it in order to like this one. IMO, this is the good part of the anime with thebitchy-spoiled girls that act like they own the world, but are all in denial and love about the "special guy".
I kind of dig the male lead. More or less. He isn't weak in character and he doesn't get trashed by stupidity or sheer embarrassment. There is a decent amount of ecchi, but nothing too big or too great to call this amazing.
The anime is hilarious. The whole "I'll burn you to cinders" is the best catch phrase. And it happens quite often, so I got a good laugh.
I recommend it, but only if you watched or like Zero no Tsukaima.
Otherwise, try it and see if you like it.
Todokete
Light novel adaptions are a weird thing. Sometimes they’re incredibly rushed by trying to put so much information into so little time. Sometimes they're incredibly slow and take their time, doing absolutely nothing interesting in their time span. I came into Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance knowing this, without having any high expectations for the show. Did my moderate expectations bring disappointment? No, not quite, but Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance certainly didn’t completely live up to them. Blade Dance takes place in a world where humans can become spirit contractors that use “spirits” for things such as battling. However, only young girls canbecome spirit contractors. As such, an academy exists for these young, special ojousamas to train and sharpen their abilities as a spirit contractor. One day, our typical male protagonist, Kamito, meets with a naked young girl who he assumes is a loli at first, but is later shocked to find out that she’s 16. This naked young girl proudly declares herself as Claire Rouge and states that she’s looking around to find a stronger spirit to form a contract with. Kamito decides to follow along with Claire, but “accidentally” forms a contract with her intended spirit instead. Kamito must now attend the all girls academy with his supposed new attribute of being the only male spirit contractor in a while.
So basically your typical setup for a harem anime.
But is this necessarily bad? No, not always. In the case of Blade Dance, however, it never really makes a stance of itself. Blade Dance never evolves as something more than average, but it never deteriorates itself into something remarkably offensive, or into something that’s bottom of the barrel.
Blade Dance has something going for it, and that’s it’s world-building, but it never managed to catch my complete interest. Blade Dance throws around some past events. which most characters seem to be connected to, and various concepts of the act of being a spirit contractor as well as some shady antagonists who do seem to have an end goal and motivation, but that’s all it does. It just throws them around, it never really expands on any of this, essentially serving the purpose of just filling up some empty space that might be in the world-building. Which is a shame, since if expanded upon and executed wisely, it would have been a pretty good anime.
Instead of ever elaborating on some plot points, Blade Dance instead primarily focuses characterization of its main character, several harem members, and a few minor characters who play some roles behind the scenes, and to be honest, it actually does a pretty decent job. Most notably, Claire Rouge, the main girl of the anime, starts off as a typical tsundere archetype only for the anime to later delve deeper into her character, showing her motivations and thought process, and finally develops her into a decent character who actually learns from her mistakes. Kamito, the main protagonist, doesn’t really change much during the duration of episode 1 to 12, but we do learn that this man has some regrets in his life that he definitely wants to either forget or fix. Other characters start similarly as archetypes like Claire and change a little to stand out more than tsundere #142, and others simply stay as archetypes and nothing more.
This isn’t to say Blade Dance doesn’t have one big narrative because it does. And it goes back to the world-building. Our main character wants a wish granted for whatever reason, whether it’s to fix something in the past or gain some new desires. To get this wish granted, he must participate in a tournament known as the “Blade Dance” (hence the title of the anime)
The Blade Dance itself, however, doesn’t really ever become relevant until the near end of the anime.The entire anime itself feels like an entire set up for the rest of the story, even ending a rather large opening ending that feels like the beginning of something greater. The 12 episodes of Blade Dance are, essentially, a blueprint for the rest of the events that lead up after the anime, basically screaming out “Want to join these characters’ adventures more? Buy the light novels now!”
So, does Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance work as an advertisement for the light novels? It does a rather decent job, I’d say.
Yuu_Masuhara
Already imagine how this anime turns into? Well if you guess it will be a harem, yeah it is, with lolis and kawaii characters everywhere. But don't worry for the ecchi-ness contents, it isn't too much and this anime is not a waste for your time. The story centers around Kazehaya Kamito--the hero-who is the candidate of The Demon Lord in a world where spirit can only controlled by pure maidens. Those maidens are studying at Areishia Spirit Academy which purpose is to educate them to be an Elementalist. The storyline is quite difficult to resume and if I try to resume it,I'm afraid that it'll be just a spoiler for those who haven't watched it yet. So this far my brief explanation for the story.
Next, I will start to give my interpretation. According to somewhat complicated storyline, the anime doesn't rush its story. It goes gently so we won't get upset for the first time. It brings cute dokidoki battle feeling. By those words, I mean, since the characters are all girls except the hero, we can get attracted by female elementalists who specialist and elements are vary.
The colouring for this series is not too eyesore eventho' it's using bright colours--well it's fantasy surely. The detailed movements are showing us how the battle goes. The characters aren't so new, there are lolis, aggresive, tsundere, and ojou-sama type. Still it's fun how each characters got their portion fairly, and damn fit the seiyuus voice w/ the personality of those maidens.
For the themes, I both like it but my favorite is no doubt the opening theme. Sang by Hitomi Harada, the title is Kyoumei no True Force. Energetic and fascinating. For the ending theme, in my point of view, the genre is quite cute, I rarely attached to those genre.
Good work, 8 rate! <3
Pros:
Storyline and how it goes
Nice artwork
Energetic OP theme and unique ED theme
Cons:
Quite bright colours
Common characters personality
TwofastSenpai
This review will not have any spoilers(I'll try not too) and will just be me explaining on how I like/dislike the anime. The first thing I will talk about is the story. It is in the supernatural genre with the character controlling spirits with a contract. The story is good, but I did not like the ending as much since it left me on a cliffhanger. If you would want to see what happens next, you would have to read the manga or hope that they will make another season at some point, which isn't a high probability since it has been out for awhile.The art style was great, which bright colors and good backgrounds as well. The anime is only in japanese, but you would probably still like it even if you only watch animes in dubbed. The character developments are kind of wonky. One of the girls that is introduced mid-story shows to be part of the main characters past. For awhile, she is shown to be a big character, then she is not shown much afterwards. Another character at the beginning was not shown much until the end, where she was shown every other scene. Still, I liked the characters and how they interacted with each other. Overall, I enjoyed the anime and i wish that it would have continued longer, but I guess I can sit back and read some manga. The anime is 12 episodes long, so it will go by quick, so try to enjoy it as you watch. I would give the anime a 8 out of 10.
xgunawan
Zero no Tsukaima can be called as the first series which success the fantasy harem genre series. And now every series with the same genre in each season try to follow its success. One of them is Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance (Blade Dance) for Summer 2014. Blade Dance is just your typical harem series. The MC is the only boy with the ability whose only girl can only wield, just like IS. And the story went as oh I found an enemy, let's the girls fight and I will help too. Oh, don't forget some unnatural ecchi scene. It's the same recipe. Even there aresome unfinished business at the end. Overall, the story is bad.
The art itself, though it's not really good. There are some blurry detail there. The animation isn't really good too, but it's still can be enjoyed. I won't bother with character design because it's your usual character design. I love the design of the monster though, it feels quite cool. (Edited) I find it's quite disappointing as they didn't use the 3DCG for all of their monster action. It's quite good to see the only 3DCG in the last episode.
I like the OP and ED. They did a good job to bring the OP and ED song to be a quite easily remembered. The background song is quite matched with the daily day scene as well as the battle.
For the character, I love them though it's the usual recipe. The tsukomi MC and the innocent ladies. The antagonist girl in every episode but shrouded in mystery. Oh, and don't forget the Sword loli. She's the star. ;)
As the enjoyment, I found it's quite disturbing too see the art and ruin the enjoyment the most. As I reach the last episode, there are too many unfinished business. What a let down.
As I love the fantasy harem series, Blade Dance is your usual fantasy harem without any great difference between another series with the same genres. There are too many unfinished business which make the series need another season, but I'm pessimist if it's good enough to make one.
Thanks for your time to read this review.
