Sacred Seven

"Haste makes waste."

Entertainment is a cut throat industry, and while every studio and publisher scrabbles around in a desperate search for the next big thing, they must continue to make ends meet in some way. When it comes to anime this is usually achieved by creating a one season adaptation of an existing manga, game or light novel, and the aim of these shows isn't simply to generate revenue, but also to test the market for potential franchises. There are other methods though, one of which is to string together several well known base concepts, add something resembling a story, and release the finished article ... as an "original" work.

Now while the latter method can produce some very good titles, more often than not the results are ... underwhelming.

Sacred Seven follows the exploits of Tandoji Alma, a seventeen year old high school student who leads a solitary life on the outskirts of a port city. One night he sees a ship on fire in the harbour, and whatever has caused the incident also triggers a reaction in him, one that he desperately fights off. The next evening Aiba Ruri, the CEO of the Aiba Foundation, pays him a visit in an attempt to recruit him, and she seems to know more about his secret than he does.

One of the problems with bringing together several "popular" themes is that all too often something fundamental is sacrificed in the process, and that's pretty much what happens here. The plot may initially seem interesting, but once the story gets going it quickly becomes clear just how rushed this show actually is. In addition to this there's a distinct methodology to the composition of the series, almost as if director Ohashi Yoshimitsu and writer Yoshida Shin adopted a "check-box" approach. Unfortunately this brings the major issues to the fore, one of those being the rather obvious drive to include certain scenes and events - some of which have no bearing on the story. There's also an automatic limitation placed on the narrative, and while the lack of imagination and creativity is palpable, it's the knock-on effect on the development of both the plot and the characters that really stands out.

In contrast to the lacklustre storyline Sunrise appear to have done a half-decent job with the visuals, and there's some interesting design work on display - especially where the monsters are concerned. The animation is a little on the utilitarian side, but there's a surprising fluidity and range of movement during many of the action scenes. In addition to this the characters are well realised, but this is tempered by the fact that they're also rather mundane and a little too reliant on certain stereotypes. This is also reflected in the banality of the settings and background imagery, and these factors attest to the speed with which this anime was completed.

Sadly, these aren't the biggest problems with the visuals.

There are several errors that any sort of basic quality control would quickly spot and rectify, one of those occurring at an auction in England where Aiba is bidding on a new gem. The auctioneer clearly states the closing price is £990,000, but the display reads £9,900,000, and while this may seem like nit-picking, it's the ridiculousness of the mistake that lowers the viewer's expectations of the show.

That said, the auctioneer does have one of the best British accents in anime, but that's one of the few high points where the acting is concerned.

No amount of preparation or talent can resolve the problems with a script that, like several other aspects of Sacred Seven, is too reliant on what has gone before. While the actors try to do the best they can, it seems to have been impressed upon them that their characters should speak or behave in certain ways. The dialogue is far too manufactured, and with little in the way of natural flow to balance conversations, this results in some severely wooden performances.

The strange thing is that the music seems to have received more care and attention than any other part of this anime, with much of the background music being well suited and choreographed to the on-screen action.

To many people it can seem as though Sacred Seven features two opening and three ending themes, when in truth all that happens until the end of the final episode is that the first OP and ED swap places. "Stone Cold" by FictionJunction is quite the upbeat techno track, and the opening animated sequence does a good job of introducing the main players whilst being stylized enough to be eye-catching. The second theme, "Kiseki" by Nanri Yuuka, is a more traditional blend of J-pop/rock, and its accompanying animation is well choreographed and suitably heroic. As for the third track, "Tsunagaru Made" by Nakajima Megumi is a much quieter song that plays out at the conclusion of the final episode..

Now some of you may have noticed that there has been no mention of ending sequences. The reason for this is simply because Sunrise, like so many other studios, don't think it's worth the effort of making a decent one, and aside from some spinning jewel thingies in the first ED, both rely on still images.

Strangely enough, this sentiment also appears to ring true where the characters are concerned, although admittedly part of this is due to the check-box approach taken by the director and the series writer. This is a heavily manufactured anime, and this fact becomes very clear when one considers not just the portrayal of each character, but the manner in which they develop as well. While it's true that Alma grows more than anyone else, the simple fact is that he starts the series as nothing more than a blank sheet with little to no personality, and given that situation it's very easy to make the character appear more defined by the end of the story. Sacred Seven uses age old methods to ensure this happens, including Alma's solitary lifestyle, hidden power and traumatic past.

Throw in some alien meteorites and you're supposedly on to a winner.

On the other hand Ruri is rather well defined from the beginning, but alongside this is the fact that she doesn't really change at all over the course of the anime. The only supporting character to receive any kind of back story is her personal butler Kagami Makoto, but aside from giving the viewer a reason for his dedication to the Aiba family, he remains nothing more than a stereotype (you know, the intelligent, dark haired guy with glasses who's always stern and serious).

Everyone else is treated as narrative furniture, and given that Sacred Seven attempts to include some kind of human drama, this is nothing short of wasteful.

Even with its many flaws, Sacred Seven is still a surprisingly watchable series, and Onigawara offers some genuine moments of amusement that break up the monotony. While it falls just short of being "no-brain entertainment", the simple fact is that the heavily manufactured storyline and characters make it both familiar and easy to follow. Unfortunately the price of this is that far too many questions remain unanswered by the end of the anime, which is a shame as there were a few interesting ideas that really should have been given more detail. The sad part is that if more time had been given over to developing the series before it hit production, many of its issues could have been resolved - but as everyone knows, anime is a serious business.

One of the most basic rules of storytelling is that it should never be rushed, but in a world where time is money, such sentiments are normally viewed as idealistic nonsense.

I'm going to keep this review rather short, because frankly, even thinking about this show bores me to death. Writing a review about it is even worse because it makes me think about it harder than watching it.

STORY: 1 (Pathetic)

This show has no direction. Main character automatically has hidden powers from the get-go, of which the origins are glossed over within a few minutes and we are just expected to accept it. He fights to... Fight... And save... Something... Because the Darkstones (the enemies in this show) are... Evil? Because... They just are. Really. There's nothing to this at all. I'm not expecting a deep ... plot out of a show like this, but having a point to fighting is usually pretty important.

ART: 5 (Mediocre)

The art's not bad, but it's far from anything different than the other shows airing around this time. It's just the same plain-Jane stuff we've seen so many times already, and even if it's too high an expectation to expect this show to "break the mold", it certainly isn't beautiful on it's own. Just okay.

SOUND: 3 (Poor)

I'm being nice here. The music is repetitive, and doesn't change much from a slow, relaxing scene to a fast-paced action scene. It lacks real dynamics. For what little it does have, I at least acknowledged it by not rating it "pathetic".

CHARACTER: 2 (Dreadful)

The characters are cookie-cutter and bland, but more-so than your typical shounen. There's been literally no thought put into any of them which is evident even if you give it up to 5 episodes to establish itself like I did. After all, that's one episode shy of the halfway point. They could have done better than this.

ENJOYMENT: 1 (Pathetic)

To me, this is the most important part of watching anime: how much you enjoy it. Watching this show has been a chore. It's been extremely boring, but I kept giving it a chance. After last episode's train-wreck, I'm finally out of second chances. It's actually a relief not to have to subject to myself to this garbage week after week anymore. It's just so boring, and considering they're going for an action anime here, that's just sad.

OVERALL: 3 (Poor)

There's worse anime out there, but only just. This is pretty bad, but I was generous in giving it a 3 rather than a 2, only because gg's "White and Dirty" OP replacement made me chuckle. That's not even a credit to the show itself since the original creators weren't even able to make me chuckle with the original content, but I'm a nice guy, so I'll pretend it was them.

Stay away from this show. It's garbage and a complete waste of time. Bandai and Sunrise should want to wash their hands of this.

Okay kids, time for some more real talk. Scryed came out 10 years ago, that's a whole damn decade. That show was a masterpiece, it took every aspect of its genre and executed them perfectly. The story was straight to the point and didn't have any bullshit to weigh it down. No titties, no robots, no girlymen, no school setting, no overelaborate art direction, no holes, no filler, no extraneous characters, etc; it was a super power fighting show about people who beat the shit out of things and were proud to have that privilege. It was truly Sunrise's greatest work of its kind.

That's one ... reason why they're re-releasing it for its 10th birthday.
The other is to show how secretly ashamed of themselves they are for what they're making nowadays: Sacred Seven.

>>>This is a review of my impressions from the first episode. If you have gripes akin to "oh man, you can't review the merit of a whole show from one episode!", well I say "The hell I can't." First episodes are important. They set the tone for series and generally give a good idea for what you're getting into. Have some great shows had bad first episodes? Yeah, but this show is not Baccano, or DRRR!!, or Gungrave. It's another vapid and shallow merchandising action series by Sunrise.

Sacred Seven is a superpower fightan' series for the new decade, and it's a piece of shit. It takes all of the genre-polish Scryed applied a decade ago and does away with it. The show's about a 10-foot tall, YuGiOh-haired, noodly wuss named Arma, who spends a majority of his day staring out the generic Japanese classroom window from his back-right desk and eating on the school's rooftop. Everyone thinks he's dangerous, because none of the tertiary characters in this show have the perceptive abilities to tell what a loser he is. When he gets all mad he turns into a really lame ripoff of Knight Blazer, and then some loli uses a plot device to turn him into a really lame ripoff of Megaman.

Joining him is the aforementioned otaku hug pillow model Ruri, a mysterious, wealthy, secret organization-leading magical lolita who changes into a new fabulous outfit in every scene. And she's an exchange student who pops up in the student council too, truly a jack of all pandering. She has a generic butler guy with glasses and a clunky mecha who'll gratefully accept the role as the series' jobber. And then there are the copy/pasted worthless schoolgirl characters, the wisecracking mascot thing, the rival that looks like Soul Taker and an army of French maids to increase the show's DVD sales.

Basically the story is "So there's this kid with superpowers that he doesn't want because he's a pussy, so some magic chick makes his powers heroic and then they fight monsters while dealing with school shenanigans on the side." It's really sad how poorly thought out and boring this is, it's like something that a B-company would've released in the 90's that everyone immediately forgot about. There's really no reason for a show this bland to exist today, especially when it's coming off the heels of Tiger&Bunny, a far more refreshing and interesting show by the same studio that's in the same damn genre.

The animation is smooth, but not impressive. There were no particularly memorable or striking scenes, which is horrible for a big budget first episode. The characters are drawn very CLAMPy, and pretty much all of the designs are boring and forgettable. The main girls boobs vary greatly in size depending on the scene, outfit and camera angle, I guess that's Sunrise's way of appealing to all kinds of deviants without introducing more than one important female character.

The OP sucks. The ED sucks. Both are generic-as-hell synthy J-pop tunes that don't bode well for the show ever developing a serious or masculine tone. The opening animation is basically Star Driver's first OP without any decent art direction. The rest of the audio is just as underwhelming, there are no catchy badass action BGMs here, and nothing uses any instruments or sounds that are out of the ordinary. The voices are lame, everyone sounds basically how you'd expect them to, except for Arma who's less intimidating than Star Driver's "GINGA BISHOUNEN!".

To sum it up, Sacred Seven:
-Shits on everything Scryed did for the genre.
-Is basically Code Geass with no hook.
-Is directly competing with Tiger&Bunny, a similar show that's better in every way by the same studio. Not to mention the upcoming Scryed OVAs too.

I don't have much hope for this series. If it turns out better than a unanimous 6/10, I'll be very surprised.

Update of 2014: It should be noted that this series has a median review score of 6/10 and below. Damn I'm good.

Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman star as two detectives who investigate a series of murders relating to the seven deadly sins, like wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. They discover that these series of murders are conducted by Kevin Spacey who plays a hardcore Christian who's only trying to do God's holy work and.....

...wait? This isn't Se7en? You mean, we aren't watching the David Fincher movie? Oh, you want me to review SACRED Seven, not Se7en. Oh, okay.

Alright, let's talk Sacred Seven. Now, let's say you're a producer at Studio Sunrise and you are asked to produce an anime for the Summer of ... 2011 Schedule. What do you do?

Why, remake Scryed of course! With Code Geass visuals!

Now, Sacred Seven is basically that: An updated version of Scryed with the appeal of Code Geass. It's pretty much one of those dumb things you get while you're at a meeting room brainstorming for an idea. It's like a cupcake. It's sweet and might get you fat, but it looks really good.

The story revolves around Squal...i mean Alma Tandoji (voiced by Takuma Terashima), an outcast high schooler who gains the power of the "Sacred Seven", which is used to defeat Darkstones. Darkstones are pretty much the tamer equivalent of Angels, except they have the bodies of rocks. His power is so strong that she is summoned by a socialite named Ruri Alba(voiced by Megumi Nakajima) to help her defeat these Darkstones once and for all.

And while he's not defeating Darkstones, he spends most of his days looking for rocks on a river with the help of The Rock Club, led by a "rock otaku" named Itou.

As the series progresses, Alma & Ruri met with various individuals using these Darkstones like Kenbi Yuuji(voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi), a multi-millionaire and Knight Kijima(voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto), a former lab patient-turned-fugitive. It also delves deeper into Alma and Ruri's relationship as well.

The story is really stupid, and when it has filler episodes, it goes into boring slice of life tropes. It also has the laziest writing in a Sunrise anime, and the fight scenes are filled with bad pacing and thus you are unable to care about what is happening during those scenes. It's weak, and proves how lazy and rushed this series is.

The characters in this series varied from "Boring" to "boring". Seriously, Alma wants "to turn into a rock" because he is one, and he is such a bore in this series, along with almost everyone else in this series. The closest thing we have to interesting characters are SP and Ruri most of the time. And SP is nothing more than Kenbi's subordinate so when a suppoorting character with less than 5 minutes of screen time is more interesting than most of the main characters, then you'll know something is wrong with this series.

And Miyu Irino plays an asshole battle butler who's pretty useless in the "battle" part of it. And he's only there to ramp up the fujoshi potential between him, Knight and Alma for the next Comiket.

But, the good thing about this series is the visuals. They are beautiful, and it pretty much uses Yuriko Chiba's work to it's full potential. It's great to look at and it has elements of scenery porn here and there. Now, i heard that the budget for Tiger & Bunny got halved for the animation of this series which causes lots of controversy, but i'm kind of neutral in this issue so i don't want to go further into that.

The character design is really cool. Alma resembles a certain Final Fantasy character, but he is well-drawn for a character without an interesting personality. But i love how Ruri is drawn. She's a loli, but she is not drawn like one. Instead, she is drawn in a way that she doesn't resemble a loli at all. I like that kind of design, because it's rare since most lolis nowadays look like stock character designs taken from a JC Staff artbook.

And the music in this is what kept me from dropping this show. I love listening to the music, especiallythe OP which sounds like the classy 90's Techno/Trance tunes i used to listen back during my rave days. And it also has amazing orchestra scores which are pretty fitting for this series. The OP is composed by Yuki Kajiura, and the full score is done by Toshihiko Sahashi, so you know that the budget also goes to it's amazing music.

And to be fair, this series manages to be humble with itself and not make it cringeworthy for the viewer. because atleast it doesn't turn into another shallow vanity project like Star Driver. Even with it's flashy visuals, character design and music it's pretty good that SUnrise manages to not make it another Star Driver or Code Geass in both production and marketing aspects, because if it does then it'd suck. It's already low on the character and story aspects so let's not go lower and turn this into another Brain Powered.

Overall, Sacred Seven is a rushed project that was conceived out of Yajime Hatate's ass. It's filled with a stupid story and uninteresting characters but it does have a great score and amazing visuals. Will i recommend it? Well, it's okay but i'd prefer you guys to watch the fansubbed version of this series instead of an official sub/dub release. Fansubbers have done a fun job with this series, like replacing the OP with Gangsta Rap music for example. the fansubs are trolltastic. And if troll fansubs are your thing, then this series might be for you to accompany the great visuals and musical score that comes with it.

Nowadays it has gotten to the point where there is so many action-oriented shows that it is hard to find one that stands out. With its retro-vibe, Sacred Seven tries to stand out from the crowd astedically. However, it also goes to show that it takes more than aesthetics to make a show something truly special.

The story is simple superhero hijinks following one Alma Tandogi, a rather intimidating looking outcast who has inhuman powers, and keeps to himself because of them. He spends most of his free time searching for a purple gemstone in a river, a keepsake of his late mother he had lost ... in a bullying indecent. His life takes a turn when pretty billionaire heiress (and obvious romantic interest) Ruri Alma enters his life. She asks him to lend her his power and fight monsters called Darkstones.

The premise here is pretty basic stuff. The show sets itself up to be exactly what it is, a monster-of-the-week bash 'em up. As the show progresses and new characters are introduced, there is of course a healthy amount of plot twists and developments. Unfortunately, these are wildly predictable and cliche; enemies with less-than-villainous goals, allies with shady intentions, really nothing we haven't seen several times before. Without a doubt, the plot is the weakest aspect of the show. The only saving grace is that the show has no pretenses of being deep or complex. The creative team knew that the plot was run-of-the-mill and did the smart thing; they play plot-twists straightforward, and don't ramp up the melodrama to a ridiculous degree. They made a show that simply strives to be a good blood-pumping action, and didn't try to make it something it is not; there is something admirable about that. Still, that doesn't change the fact that the plot is as cliche and predictable as they come.

The characters are unfortunately as equally unremarkable. Alma is the misunderstood loner with a good heart; Ruri is the good-natured girl who sees Alma for who he is and yearns to be closer to him, and that about sums up their personalities. They're by no means unlikable characters but there is just nothing complex or remarkable about them. The rest of the cast follows suit; a bunch of static stereotypes, from Ruri's butler Makoto Kagami, to Alma's brooding adversary Knight Kinjima. There are bits of character development like Alma opening up to others, and an emotional punch every now and then, but they're not enough to make the characters any more interesting. Oh, and then of course there is the token mascot character Hellbrick, who uses the word 'hell' in every statement he utters.

The main draw here are the shows technical merits, specifically in the action sequences. The animation in the fight scenes is fluid, and exciting to watch. The music pumps up the excitement. Then, of course, there are the retro-tastic character designs for Alma and other combatants, which recall anime action heroes of the 70's like Casshern and Tekkaman. All in all, some very good fight scenes in the show, though outside of that, Sacred Seven isn't all that impressive on the technical-side either. Character designs and backgrounds for Alma and companies everyday lives are pretty standard, not at all bad, but ultimately won't leave a lasting impression, and the same can be said about the music.

In the end, Sacred Seven isn't really a bad show, but it isn't a particularly good show either. It is a fun action show, and that is all it really tries to be. If that is all you need in a show then you might even like this. However, if you are looking for a gripping plot or compelling characters, it is best to look elsewhere.

When I wrote this review originally I only watched three episodes and gave it an 8. I'm going to be honest: it went a little downhill from there. But then I saw the final episode. And I sat back on my chair thinking of the awesomeness I just witnessed. Seriously, if you start this anime you have got to finish it till the end. I mean that.

In the opening we see Tandoji riding his tiny motorcycle in the most badass way possible and FictionJunction singing a fitting song. First impressions are important, and this show managed to give a good one.

About the story; ... very funny, but lacks a little more depth. However, it is still a little too early to say such a thing (who knows what will happen in the next episodes!). Everything is exaggerated to the max, with maid soldiers and a butler in the organization, and a top secret research facility in the mountains. Just to my liking!

Art is the same as Code Geass, and I have absolutely no objections to that. As I said before, the opening is awesome. The music really gives off the feeling that you are watching a superhero movie. Splendid work, also I love how they switched the opening with the ending halfway through the series.

Anyway, people shouldn't get so frustrated over this show. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it in my opinion. Sure, it has a lot of aspects that can be seen in Scryed and Code Geass, but I don't mind that one bit. After all, I loved those aspects in the original anime, and love to see them return in this anime.
Yes, even the ridiculous butler's Knightmare frame is cool.

This is just what one would expect from a Sunrise/Bandai series: action-packed, family-friendly, with pretty solid production values.

The characters will also look familiar: Tandoji, the brooding, self-doubting hero, who is afraid of his own power; Ruri, the absurdly rich and nice girl that needs his help, and her army of combat maids led by the mecha-riding super-efficient butler; the snarky infodumping comic relief; the mysterious black knight; the positive and energetic president of the Rock Club (rock as in pebble, not music), and assorted high school students. As the story progresses, we get to see some character development, specially from the hero, and there's ... plenty of annoying dialog to point it out very explicitly, in case the audience misses it.

The plot isn't specially complex, but the exposition is a bit jumbled, so don't be surprised if you don't quite get why some characters act the way they do, or struggle to remember one of the made-up terms they throw around. And the confusion will last for a while, because the main story advances slowly, frequently interrupted by relationship-building and plain high-school-anime filler.

In spite of its flaws, the show has its good moments. If you are looking for a straight-up, well-produced shounen, you could do worse than give Sacred Seven a try.

Sacred Seven in an rather unique anime, that some will like and some will dislike. If you're intresed in watching it but not sure if you would like this, please read this review and be advised ^^

STORY
As I mentioned before the story is rather unique, the name of the anime stands for the power of 7 mysterious stones that once scattered. Thanks to Ruri's sacred power, Alma is the only person that is able to use all the power of the 7 stones as 1, he fights the other Dark Stones with help of Ruri's maids and Kagami.
The story is as you can see, a ... lil lame and unoriginal. However it's so mysterious after a few episodes that it kept me watching till the end.

ART
I honestly think the art is pretty good, however at some points the characters are drawed totally different, it makes me wonder a little bit why. The eye colours are big + in this anime thought.

SOUND
The opening/ending theme are switched after the first 6 episodes. I honestly think both songs are very good and match the anime. What I absolutely disliked was the eyecatch music thought. It was long and it made it sound like this anime was amazing, this was a big minus for me.

CHARACTER
Well you will either like the characters or absolutely dislike them. Alma's sometimes a bit unreasonable but at the other side he's also pretty cool. Then again he's unreasonable, repeat repeat >_>, Ruri is pretty sweet but especially at the start she seems like a pushy kid that always wants it her way. Kagami... well you like him or you don't he has a rather weird personality in my opinion. The rest of the characters I don't think is worth describing, they all don't make sense.

ENJOYMENT
Well this is probarly one of my only + in this review, even thought the story is weird and the characters can make you incredibely angry at times, this anime kept me watching from episode 4-12 in 1 day. Why you ask? Well it's pretty exciting and you wish at this point to know all the mysteries that are playing. I do gotta say... I was happy when I finished it.

OVERALL
Overall if I count everything together I come at a 6.2, I guess this might be a little to high rating for this anime. As I started my review with, this is indeed something you will either love or hate. I honestly do not recommend it to people that aren't open to try something new.

Here is how I stumbled upon this show. -tries not to spoil-
My brother was watching this anime in full screen and I just happened to walk by him, so I just watched for a minute or two, like any other animefreak would do =D.
I didn't have a clue of what this anime which I was sneakily looking at was.
So, here were my thoughts at the time. Quoted sentences are what I was thinking. (I'm a big fan of Tiger&Bunny and Kuroshitsuji, just saying)
Main character transforms, "Wth since when was there a new episode of Tiger&Bunny?". Then the ass that made me think it was ... a Tiger&Bunny episode used his fking megabuster, "Oh he's just watching Megaman" I thought.... and then it happened... Sebastian michaelis poped out of no where. "WTF IS GOING ON?" Finally, I had a brain blast, and thought of a super smart idea, I asked my brother.

So yea, this show "Sacred Seven" is actually "Megakuro TB" in disguise.

Art: Like Tiger&Bunny and somewhat like Code Geass. 6/10 MINUS 5 BISH

Character: Some of these characters are new, nah just kidding. Totally unoriginal characters, feels like they don't even have a personality. Main character doesn't wanna fight bad guys, magical girl acts all sad and tells Main character her parents death and then he wants to kill the bad guys for this totally random girl! Makes sense..... 0/9000

Story: Asian boy in school, people scared of him, magically he obtians super powers! Bad guys appear randomly with no background info, then hero transforms into Megaman TB and somehow knows how to use all his fighting powas!!!! PEWPEW WINNING

Question Asker Dude: Sir, do you enjoy this show?
Answerer Of Questions Dude: NO SIR I DO NOT!
Question Asker Dude: Then why watch it?
Answerer Of Questions Dude: The same reason for why I watch Pokemon, I wanna see how this sht ends!


Overall: 1+2+3+4+5-5-4-3-1+3-2-1+6-8 = Math Rulez!

This is a review based on the first episode (obviously):

I'm hoping whatever I type here will help people who are in the middle of deciding if this anime is worth it or not. I could just put in "just watch it" and that's it, but I'd rather not. I don't know if this has a manga (it should) and if it does, I haven't read it.... so this is based on the anime only.

I'm leaving out character and enjoyment as both, to me, refer to character development of the whole anime and enjoyment refers to how I enjoyed the anime, both which I won't ... do as it's just the first episode so there are still characters who haven't been introduced and more episodes have a high chance of changing the level of enjoyment.

Story: -
I'm not going to give this any rating as its only the first episode, but just gonna rant on a bit on what I've witnessed.

There's nothing that I haven't seen before. Guy gets power, monster attacks, guy fights monster and defeats it. Though generic, it was pretty cool. It's not as if the action was hesitated for later episodes or anything.

It was pretty much this.... but covered in terminology specific to the anime. But basically.. that's what happened. I do think they may have put a bit too much terminology in for the first episode, and I found it a bit hard to follow. But that could just be me being slow.

When Alma (main protagonist) first showed his powers, I was excited for some story where he has to deal with this insanity or something along those lines... but then it was killed quickly as that power was erased and replaced with something of a digimon/megaman ripoff.

Art: 5
What disappointed me was the art in this anime. I don't know if it was just the style or whatever, but to me it looked like something out of a 2006 anime. Which isn't too bad... but if you compare it to the other eye-candy anime that came out this year... this one is definitely at the bottom. That being said, I still put up with it.
-Edit, this might have just been the quality I watched in, checked up on a better quality one, it does look pretty good, but I've still seen better. Think I'll give it a 6.

Sound: 5
The fact that I didn't notice anything spectacular while watching says something. But it IS just the first episode. So maybe something might catch my attention later. So I'm giving it a 5 as a "default" thing for now.

Overall: 6
The first episode is alright. If you are looking for something promising with a serious and meaningful story, go somewhere else. I watched it out of curiousity and got let down, if you're really itching for a school/action anime, this is perfect.

I didn't think Bancolding$ would do it. (Oh. And "Bancolding$" is the nickname I game Bandai Namco Holdings $unrise after watching those "money-making tragedies" Seed Destiny and Mai Otome.)

I didn't think Bancolding$ would create animu that's not blatantly either "I'LL SHOW YOU HOW TO CAPITALIZE ON A FRANCHISE!!" (Mitsuo Fukuda's Gundam series), "HEY!! WE'RE MOE AS WELL!!" (Mai Hime / Otome), or "Dey See Me Rollin', Dey Hatin'...!" (Code Geass, and more on this when you ask me).

Sacred Seven is (probably one of the more misleading titles for) one of the few shows that are written by thinking human beings; as oppose to (those ... who like taking advantage of) the slobbering otaku-base. Ahem! Let me make a list.

* The male lead (Alma) is ACTUALLY competent despite his issues.
* The females herein aren't complete B####es who'd beat guys up at a drop of hat.
* It's kinda hard to figure out how the main enemy was. (AS IT SHOULD BE.)

Well... It would be nice if the Aiba personnel were young butlers and maids; as oppose to just Makoto and a bunch of maids who are named after their voice actresses. (There Bancolding$ go again, thinkin' dey gangster.)

But atleast the anime is less bad than good. And it's good to know that they're capable of creating something that's not completely for the otaku.

As an avid watcher of Anime, I tend to look into most series with the utmost optimism and confidence that whatever I watch fulfills a certain level of overall enjoyment. The 2011 batch has had it's fair share of hits and misses so far which is understandable. Each Studio has the opportunity and resources to provide the viewers with content that ranges to the appeal of any kind of Anime fan. It's no wonder Sunrise has made it where they are now looking back at previous successes (Wolf's Rain, Cowboy Bebop, Planetes, etc...).

Sacred Seven however, is something Sunrise can learn from in the following ... years. At first, it seemed natural to put faith in something as hyped and worked on with top quality production. Heck, the first episode had enough room to expand the show and give reason to call it above average material. Veterans will immediately acknowledge this as an average, cliche, done to death premise; looking back at every episode, there's plenty to question when it comes to plot/characters.

The best way for me to describe how this turned out, is that this felt like watching James Cameron's Avatar. At least, in the sense that Sunrise's A-team were put to work on Sacred Seven while their B-team put out the more successful Tiger and Bunny. One unnecessary trope that surprisingly managed not to drag this down so much was the maid army seeing as their role under Ruri's command wasn't given focus.

Tandoji fits the role as the protagonist, but doesn't deliver the drive and unique quirks to help him stand out in this moderately bland cast. Looking at him will just remind you of someone out of Code Geass. While the actual show's visuals were pleasant all-around, it doesn't excuse how this story fell short. Questions are left unanswered, characters are motivated under circumstances that aren't logical, and this fails to leave you with a resounding reason to be invested in everything that's happening. There's no over-arcing theme or message that hasn't already been done better before.

Now I'm not upset at Sunrise for the result of Sacred Seven, I don't regret watching it, and from here I can only hope that we can learn that an Anime doesn't need to look pretty to be considered remarkable. By all means, watch it yourself and determine how you feel about it.

While I don't think this anime is going to be a masterpiece, I don't think it's as bad as some of the other reviews I saw.

Overall, the story looks to be a pretty standard story, but personally, I don't mind that. It's the guy who's afraid of his power coming to terms with it and fighting (from what I can tell in one episode). Nothing groundbreaking, but based on what I've seen, it looks like they are going to do it well.

I like the art. It feels very much like Scryed, but hopefully the story will be better (sorry if you liked ... the Scryed anime, but the story went to crap about halfway through...read the manga. It's a hundred times better). Personally, I'm happy with the art and style of this anime. And the fanservice is tasteful (there are girls in maid uniforms, but it's not over the top...I can't believe I just justified a maid uniform).

Can't say much for character since it's just started, but I am genuinely interested in the characters, particularly Arma (or Alma). I like where they've started with him and I like the characters around him.

Overall, I think this looks like an enjoyable series. The style is similar to Scryed, but my fingers are crossed that the story is better.

Now in response to the top 2 reviews I've just seen, which were both putting the anime down, I made this review which will hopefully be up there to replace one of them to show positive/negative aspects of the show.

Story 8:
Alright I will be honest and say that I was not expecting the story to be what it was. It was BETTER than what I expected and if you have read the two and watched it, you will agree with me. The story was honestly good in my opinion especially since it was what I was looking for when I was trying to watch this ... anime - A action focused anime with some romance. Maybe I'm influenced to like this anime by the fact that they used Jewel-like rocks and I'm a sucker for pretty looking gems :D
Also, the story is very good with how it starts out and there is a good rising action to the climax as well as a good resolution although they could've ended the anime with a kiss or something :P
One thing I've noticed for myself while watching this anime is that I've never skipped over a part of felt bored at one part. If I haven't particularly skipped a part, that means there weren't any super cheesy parts, and I hate cheesy parts xD

Art 8:
I honestly have no idea what the art can get below a 8 because I thought it was fantastic. Take Ruri for example, she's hella cute :O The fight scenes look pretty good with nice effects and everything and it's easy to tell what's happening in every scene.

Sound 7:
I'm not counting the OP and ED of course but I will say that they weren't the best, and not the worst. It is true that they use a lot of the same track for the scenes but they match the scenario pretty decently.

Character 9:
Alright honestly, I loved the characters mainly the heroine. She was cute - both in art and the way she acted. The main character, Alma, was pretty decent too. One thing I mainly liked about him is the character development I saw in him - which given a 12 Episode anime, was very good. The butler, meh he's not bad; the maids... they're a bonus :O
Also, all the other characters were decent looking and as for the fights, they had high quality too.
If I had to say something, the antagonist of the story was the worst part I should say.

Enjoyment 9:
I. ENJOYED. IT. PERIOD. and I matter, therefore, it is good.

Overall 9:
Umm It is true that I have never given any anime/manga I've read below the rating of 5~6. Mostly because if I've read it, then I've liked it and I'm quite generous in rating them. But this anime was actually quite good - surpassing my expectations. Depending on what you were expecting when you began the series, it might be a little different, but as for me, I loved it.

Such harsh reviews... Agreed the plot isn't all that but all in all this anime offers some great mindless entertainment. And I have a sneaking suspicion that with some parts they were taking the piss :)
Does every detail really need to be explained and elaborated ? nah....
Sometimes i just want something thats easy to digest and looks good. This is it.
Loved the artwork especially the fight sequences and armours. The characters were cool or cute.
For some light late night entertainment this is great.

I really should have seen the warning signs with this show. I had high hopes for a over-the-top Sunrise action series with faaaaabulous costumes and amazing fights. Sacred Seven delivered all of those things buried inside an insipid high school anime. It had all the theoretical ingredients for a fantastic series, but failed on the execution. For a show that revolves around gemstones and rocks, Sacred Seven has a weak foundation.

The story starts off with a call-to-action for the hero, Alma Tandouj, to fight against the Darkstones that threaten the general population. Alma has the power of the Sacred Seven unlocked when he meets Ruri ... Aiba, a wealthy young girl set out to destroy the Darkstones and save her sister from a state of deep sleep. For now the setup of the series forms a standard formula: hero meets girl, girl unlocks powers, and they go fighting monsters together. There’s additional subplots thrown in about the history of the butler that serves her or how her sister is frozen in a crystal or why Alma has all these anger issues, but I never make any connection to the characters from these side stories.

Bear in mind, the characters are all incredibly shallow. They’re one-dimensional stock characters who motivations and personalities can be summarized in two or three sentences. There’s the main character with the dark past, the forgotten childhood friend who likes the main character and does everything to support him, the butler who was taught to have pledge everlasting loyalty, the ditzy girl who tries to make everyone happy, the brooding antagonist with equally dark past, the ally who’s actually a villain, etc.

Honestly, my favorite character was Hellbrick, and that was because he was the only one to put any emotion into his lines. He was a brick who could talk and that alone served to be more interesting than the rest of the characters. At one point, we find out that there is some suspicious research conducted by the “friendly” scientist guy, and part of the episode develops the ambiguity on whether the patient or the scientist is telling the truth. I got excited at the first possibly of character complexity before the scientist is revealed to be evil and begins doing evil things for evil’s sake. This is not how antagonists are supposed to be created. Sacred Seven isn’t trying particularly hard to come off as a children’s show, but it certainly will rely on the mechanics of one to get through the series.

The pacing of the series was a serious issue as well. Initially, I had the impression that Sacred Seven would fall into the monster-of-the-week routine with a new Sacred Seven power revealed. (I’m assuming there were seven of them.) The first few episodes are packed with action, and all of a sudden, we’re slammed with another school festival or beach episode to break it up. Don’t get me wrong. The fights are gorgeously animated and very well done. The problem is that everything else that surrounds the scene is just boring. Sometimes, I just feel unsympathetic to what the characters are experiencing. Sometimes, I have no idea what they’re doing. The direction of the series just meanders around between a few monsters and encounters before pulling a super-villain card in the end to up the stakes. In the final battle, I got the impression that the writers remember that there were several powers they hadn’t gotten the chance to use yet, so they tacked on layers of scenarios for the hero to use them.

The series is average overall. The story and characters aren’t terribly exciting and full of flaws while the action scenes are visually pleasing. The ingredients to make an excellent series were all here, but Sunrise somehow slipped when putting it all together. And this is baffling when looking at the animation quality of the episodes. Good money was put into animating the fight scenes especially, enough to the point where it makes me wonder how much money was pulled from the other departments to pay for it. For any other studio, I’d consider the series a wash and move on. However, this is Sunrise, as in they-make-the-Gundam-series Sunrise, as in Code-Geass Sunrise, as in Cowboy-freaking-Bebop Sunrise, as in the-studio-that-excels-at-making-excellent-mech-and-fighting-animes Sunrise. I’m not saying I’m mad at the studio for making this. I’m just disappointed.

Honestly this felt so generic and bland that i cant recommend it to anyone, even if its a mindless combat anime with a few jokes here and there the only character i found even remotely interesting was a talking statue.

i was close to dropping it at one point but i wanted to see if the finale would pull it together into something. Honestly this just didn't have any grab or lasting feel to it. Just time wasted despite it looking and sounding on par with most anime. the characters just lack a lot, the plot feels neglected and almost non existent.

Its up to your own ... judgment tho and give it a few episodes and if it takes keep going, if not cut your loses.

THE STAFF
- Animated and planned by studio Sunrise, which means cool robot action.
- Directed by Oohashi Yoshimitsu, who has produced nothing but random bullshit shows in his whole career.

Sacred Seven is to fighting shonen what Star Driver is to mecha. A laid back series, full of stereotypes that tributes various shows of the past. It supposed to be running mostly on nostalgia that anything else, and in all honesty it made a crappy job at it. Everything is completely random and uninspired, plus nothing is focused upon enough for us to care.

PRODUCTION VALUES
It feels like a whole fortune was wasted on making artwork and animation ... as detailed and smooth as a tv series allows. The transformation scenes, and the battle choreographies eat most action shows for breakfast. Sadly that is far from calling the presentation successful, as it is unfocused and messy. The school backgrounds and the character designs feel detrimental and become boring right away. The battles, as spectacular as they may feel, last way too little and you are never meant to feel the hero can lose if he has seven hax powers in his disposal. No matter how many maid suits and silly robot designs they threw on screen, there was simply nothing behind them to excuse the overall randomness. The soundtrack is made up of forgettable pop pieces and voice acting is ok, although there is nothing in it that would allow the actors to perform any better even if they wanted.

SCRIPT
The story is as basic as it gets, and if you happen to have seen a single superhero show while growing up you will know right away how things will play out. Some meteorites drop to Earth and have crystals which create monsters and grant superpowers to humans. Some use them in human experiments, others to protect their loved ones, blah-blah, overused stuff I see no point in elaborating any further. In practice you get the good guys goofing around in their school or mansion, before some monster of the week appears, and the protagonists heads there to defeat it with minimal effort and in less than five minutes. There is absolutely no build up or emotion to all the stuff that happen in the show, and the result is complete apathy even if you stare at monsters blowing up buildings. There is a sort of escalation in the form of the heroine’s twin sister and a villain who wants the ultimate power but they happen in such a blunt way that they fail to mean anything.

CAST
Oh boy, you can’t have a show with more generic characters than these. Some uncaring boy with a secret power, a pretty girl who loves him right away and helps him to unlock it, magical transformations, and predictable shonen battles where the hero wants to protect his friends and wins with hax power ups. There is absolutely no attempt at fleshing them out past the obvious, plus several uniforms are downright retarded. The protagonist’s berserk form is cool but instead he prefers a geek armour with a scarf. The heroine loves to dress like an elegant loli and has an army of fighting maids. She has close to no emotions, yet has the hots for the uncaring protagonist. And so does another girl in his school, for no apparent reason. Add some avenging youths who were used in human experiments and a cardboard villain who want to take over the world and you get a nice Swiss cheese of a cast to fall asleep easier at nights.

LEGACY
It is a very forgettable and passable show. You’ll have more fun rewatching Tekkaman Blade or Guyver than this most uninspired tribute to them. Even minor details, such as horns popping out of foreheads or armoured warrior flying with hoverboards is far more fun to watch in other shows (FLCL and Eureka Seven respectively).

And now for some excused scorings.
ART SECTION: 8/10
General Artwork 2/2 (very good production values)
Character Figures 1/2 (generic)
Backgrounds 1/2 (basic and uninspired)
Animation 2/2 (fluent)
Visual Effects 2/2 (lots of fancy light shows)

SOUND SECTION: 6/10
Voice Acting 2/3 (corny but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Music Themes 2/4 (typical)
Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess)

STORY SECTION: 3/10
Premise 1/2 (typical)
Pacing 1/2 (almost entirely episodic)
Complexity 0/2 (seems complicating at first but it is very simple)
Plausibility 0/2 (none)
Conclusion 1/2 (cheesy)

CHARACTER SECTION: 3/10
Presence 1/2 (generic)
Personality 1/2 (cheesy)
Backdrop 1/2 (generic and simplistic but it’s there)
Development 0/2 (messy)
Catharsis 0/2 (random nonsense)

VALUE SECTION: 1/10
Historical Value 0/3 (none)
Rewatchability 0/3 (no reason to rewatch)
Memorability 1/4 (forgettable)

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 1/10
Art 1/1 (pretty lights)
Sound 0/2 (sounds meh)
Story 0/3 (generic as heck)
Characters 0/4 (generic as heck)

VERDICT: 3.5/10

Overview
Don't by any means be discouraged from watching this anime because it one of the most entatainin anime that came out this year(2011). I wasn't sure what to expect going in the anime but it one of those that i did no skip a second.

Story
Perhaps not the best part of the anime but it was enjoyable. You sort of know what to expect and it was pretty predicatable but having said that the story was thoughly enjoyable that i couldn't wait to see the next episode.

Art
Oustanding- i think it was done by the guy who drew Code Geass but am not sure. The ... art but out brought out human action that i never though was possible.

Sound
The voice actors where petty good. They did thier best to make the anime sound listenable.

Charactor
Well the anime charactors really drew me in. For starters the male lead physique is different from most protagists we are used to seeing. He is really tall for a male lead and is not really a wimp. The female lead is really short for a female lead and the compination of the 2 was really entertaining to watch.

Enjoyment
I thoughoraly enjoyed this anime. Its deffinatly i my top 5 of anime that came out this year. The only thing that disappointaed me was the fight scenes as they were too short in my opinion, like one punch and thats it.

Well, a typical action movie. Drawing recalled the "Code Giass", especially the main character - very similar to Lelouch. Drawing and animation - cool, the plot is likely to be dull and trite, but for the militants is not so critical. Do you like the design of a red suit, but emphatically not like the second suit. Killed the servant-maids - it is beyond insanity, this can come only in the anime. Butler recalled a little girl from a mixture of Isis "Bleach" and the second butler in the glasses of the second season of "Dark butler".
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Ну типичный боевичок. Прорисовка напомнила "Код Гиасс", особенно в ... главном персонаже - очень похож на Лелуша. Прорисовка и анимация - классная, сюжет скорее всего будет туп и банален, хотя для боевиков это не столь критично. Понравился дизайн красного костюма, но зато категорично не понравился второй костюм. Убили прислуги-горничные - это сверх маразма, такое могут придумать только в аниме. Дворецкий маленькой девочки напомнил смесь Исиды из "Блича" и второго дворецкого в очках из второго сезона "Темного дворецкого".