Seireitsukai no Blade Dance

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]

Est, Terminus Main

Kakuma, Ai Japanese

Kazehaya, Kamito Main

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Rouge, Claire Main

Kido, Ibuki Japanese

Fahrengart, Ellis Main

Ishigami, Shizuka Japanese

Ray Ordesia, Fianna Main

Oonishi, Saori Japanese

Laurenfrost, Rinslet Main

Yuuki, Kana Japanese

Ashdoll, Restia Supporting

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Inzagi, Jio Supporting

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Eva Fahrengart, Velsaria Supporting

Sakura, Ayane Japanese

Nastassja, Carol Supporting

Tanaka, Manami Japanese

Tanaka, Shou Producer

Hayashi, Youhei Producer

Usui, Hisato Producer

Hatakeyama, Takurou Producer

Reviews

Oct 13, 2014

HaXXspetten

Recommended

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 the ... story. 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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Oct 1, 2014

Mirrored

Mixed Feelings

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 are ... going 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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 2, 2014

BlackPrism

Not Recommended

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) fear80 - Jul 28, 2014	115 replies	by 1List2RuleThemAl »» Aug 6, 5:06 AM
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