Seireitsukai no Blade Dance

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.

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 of ... different 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

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)

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 the ... way, 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.

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 can ... become 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.

Seireri Tsukai no Blade Dance (Bladedance of Elementalers) is about females born of noble families that go to a school to become elementalers that form contracts with different kinds of spirits. Only females have really been known to do this and it changes things up for them when Kamito Kazehaya, a male elementaler, start going to the school. Kamito first meets Claire Rouge, who is attempting to form a contract with a powerful spirit. Kamito controls the spirit in order to save Claire's life and she forces him to become her slave for "stealing" her spirit.

Right from the beginning, the story is incredibly confusing, I ... had no idea what was really going on until the 3rd of 4th episode. Like I said before, only females are known to attend this school, so the entire series is about Kamito Kazehaya surrounded by loli looking girls. There are a total of 2 guys that appear throughout this anime, one of them being Kamito. The rest of girls. Needless to say, it is a Harem anime. Aside from the story being confusing right from the beginning, I can't knock it entirely because it is a Fantasy anime and there's a lot of plot points that the viewer needs to understand. I can say thought that the anime does get better as you watch it and start understanding what's going on. I didn't start enjoying it until about halfway through.

All this anime is about is these students learn to control and make contract with spirits in order to use them in fights against other students in duels. They fight to earn their spot in a prestigious tournament called a Blade Dance, with the winner granted any wish they desire (I think?). The story is rather vague as a whole and leads me to believe the Manga is infinitely better than the Anime. I was left with a lot of questions at the end. There was a lot left to show by the end of the anime but to me it seems this anime wasn't popular enough to get a sequel season or that maybe it's just not a priority.

There wasn't anything particularly special about the characters. They all seemed pretty generic and cliche. None of them were by any means bad but I feel like I've seen these exact same characters in other anime. The art was bright and fine, pretty much just your average anime girls running around using spirits to do their bidding. Although the spirits weren't exactly exciting to see, there was a lot of variety in each girls spirit, which is nice to see. The one other guy besides Kamito in particular is actually pretty cool to see.

All and all, there wasn't anything special about this anime, it wasn't bad but it wasn't really good either, it was pretty average and fine. There are better anime to watch out there but if this one catches your eye, don't turn away from it. Judge it for yourself but I do believe the Manga would be better.

Likes:
-All of the girls at the school call Kamito a "Lewd Beast" and "Demon Lord of the Bedroom" and it's hilarious because he's literally done nothing and always been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
-The spirits aren't really exciting but it's still cool to see. Also, Est gets a human form, is it because she's overpowered or can other spirits look human too?

Dislikes:
-So many cliches, it's hard to handle
-SPOILERS
They beat Jio midway through the season and then he just disappears, they didn't kill him or anything (as far as I know), what happened to him?

Unlike most reviewers, I'll put the "overall" of my review first so those who don't wanna scroll for very long can read what I have to say.. This is a spoiler-free review.

Summary-6
This is not a bad anime by any stretch. There is nothing truly awful about it. Its just lacking everything that makes an anime great. It lacks any dynamic story elements or characters, and just falls into enjoyable mediocrity. Basically, its better than your average school fan-service harem anime, and the fight scenes are actually pretty good, but it is still very lacking. Remember, 5 is the "average" score, so a 6 is still ... okay. Now, on to the more detailed portions of the review!

Story-7
This setting is pretty common in anime. Put simply, its a magical academy. The students here can tame elemental spirits and use them as partners in battle. The catch is that only females are known to be able to use these spirits. That's where the HAREM tag falls into place. Our main character is a male who can use a spirit elemental, therefore is inducted into our academy of only female spirit users.. While the story does follow the typical, "boy surrounded by girls and misunderstandings ensue" format, there are a few interesting elements that I don't want to spoil here. The problem is that those interesting elements are never expounded upon, and it ends up just being good instead of great. 7 of 10

Art-8
The art is pretty nice. Its not outstanding but it is great. the character designs are pretty good and the battle scenes are animated well. The elemental spirits also look pretty cool. The fan-service, while abundant, is still pleasing to look at. 8 of 10

Sound-6
The sound is decent. The OP and ED are typical, and the rest of the OST does its job, but nothing stands out or is spectacular. 6 of 10

Characters-4
This is the series' biggest downfall. there are MAYBE three decent characters. The rest are incredibly average harem tropes, some well below average in fact. Nobody sticks out at all. And most of all, these characters are very annoying. Most characters are very unintelligent, and are uninteresting. Its sad to see the few interesting characters overshadowed by the mass of largely boring characters.

Enjoyment-7
In spite of fairly uninteresting and annoying characters, this anime was enjoyable. It entertained me, the comedy based around fan service was pretty decent (even though I never really laughed hard), and the fighting was pretty good. while I won't remember this anime for very long, it was a decent distraction from the heavier stuff I usually watch. I'd recommend it to people who like typical harems, but don't expect this anime to blow you away.

tl; dr
This is my very first anime review so it might not be good for other people to read, in that case, you have my apology. This review is based only on the anime since I haven't read the light novel. As a result, I will not discuss any point regarding the completeness as well as consistency between different media.

Story: 6/10

At first glance, the story development is no different than other anime from the same genre. You have a bunch of elementalers (some sorts of wizards, witch but with fighting skills like swords, spear, bows, you name it) attending a magic academy and aiming ... to win a tournament for certain goal (since I dont want to spoil anything, I will not say the detail specificly) While that is not anything bad, the anime itself has little to offer in terms of its own characteristic. The setting can be found in various anime. Part of the reason is the first season didn't explain well the idea, story behind the MC. Yes the motives of the anime is justifiable but anyone who watch can agree that it is there not be be questioned, because there is little to non original idea or development relating to the "goal" of the MC (it is simply there, it is not like you have different plots with overcoming one opening the others). Overall, I feel dissatisfied in the way the story developed. That being said, the anime still offer a solid "average" story to consider acceptable.

Art: 8/10

First of all, it is an ecchi genre, so you got what I want to tell. The fanservice is there for good reason even though it might not have anything to do with the story. Besides that, in my opinion, the art has been executed well. Not the best, scintillating anime I have ever seen, but definitely not any where considered bad. the color is bright, the scenery is very good. Not only does it suit the anime theme and story but the details are pretty great as well. For example the food, the weapons, the blushes, the ecchi scenes. Since I am not any art expert, that is all I can tell.

Sound: 6/10

music, soundtrack ratings are purely personal opinions. That being said, you know they are good when you experience your mood change. For this anime, I can only say that the music did its job just fine with no annoyance. But there is hardly any scene I feel compassionate with the overall scene+music effect. As a result, I can only give 6/10.

Character: 3/10

This is where the anime fails to deliver the most. I would never say tsundere is a bad type, in fact, I am a tsundere fan. However, 3 tsundere girls are too much. Did I enjoy those tsundere? Yes, I did. But it doesn't mean we need 3 of them to make the anime good. I feel there exists lack of variation in characteristics. It makes all the awkward situations feel the same. Moreover, we understand little to nothing the reason why those characters act like that, interestingly with an admittedly not bad back story of each one of them, I expect more "personality" from each character than it is shown. That is to say nothing of the character development.

Enjoyment: 7/10

I give it 7/10 even with the previous criticism simply because I enjoy this genre. Rom-com ecchi mixing with action, and supernatural is what I am looking for (didn't I say I am a tsundere fan already) At the very least, the anime is among the average of what the genre can offer.

Overall: 6/10

anime with a pretty good opening to watch At the beginning of the story I was presented with a good character and presentation To be honest I like it.

The cute character design makes me smile to myself when I see it and when I saw the studio that made it was TNK I really commend him for creating this cute and beautiful character.

But unfortunately that was the first time I saw it, when it reached episode 7 I started to feel bored, the storyline that is not clear is said to be a sword duel competition between groups but as if it just passed by ... and suddenly is in another storyline and after that suddenly back to the competition, here I'm a little disappointed because of the lack of information between stories, so where do you want to focus on this anime?

The thing that bored me when watching this anime was the conflict that always happened between Claire and Kamito as if stuck in the same circulation a scene like this is always repeated with the same words "Wait you misunderstood, let me explain" said Kamito and Claire replied with almost the same answer which was to give Kamito 2 choices, after that it screamed and started an explosion. And that's the circulation that I see in this anime which if you often see and hear it will become boring.

I'm not saying this anime is bad, it's just boring to watch, I watched it for about 2017 and rewatch in the year 2023, when I rewatch it I get that boring point, so in my opinion a good anime is an anime that can be watched no matter how many times it won't be boring instead you will get more information about the storyline that you watch, that's according to my experience, which has re-watched anime quite a lot.

As another addition, I'm rewatching this anime in 2024, I'm really bored of listening to the sighing sound of Rouge Claire's character, who almost every time she keeps sighing with the same sound.
Therefore, I only held off until episode 2, because there wasn't anything else interesting to see.

I'm not going to say this is a recommendation or not a recommendation either, because everyone has their own taste So if you like cute characters and spoil your eyes, please watch anime.

Blade Dance of the elementalers is a action fiction, harem romcom, ecchi anime, to its very core its lacking in story departments, plus it is the definition of a standard fantasy harem romcom, while it is funny at times, it uses the same troupes and cliches for its characters, and has no romantic development, or any development at all for its characters, it also realies a lot on ecchi scenes and comedy to be effective. Despite how standard this anime is I did find it very enjoyable despite it being the most generic Val Harem romcom ever. It tells the story of Kazehaya Kamito, a ... male elementalist that enters a all girl elementalist school, he then meets and befriends Claire Rogue the younger sister of the calamity queen and many more problem students as well , he then helps them will all their struggles and eventually helps them form a team for the upcoming blade dance, all of this while Kamito keeps his secret of being Ren Ashbell to all of them.

Pros:
-Is entertaining
-Decent enough animation
-Great soundtrack

Cons:
-Generic af, uses the same cliches and troupes for characters
-Main character is op
-Has no character development nor romantic development at all
-Focuses a lot more on ecchi and comedy than story elements and character development
-Mans spends most times building his harem

Overall Blade Dance of the elementalers is your generic standard Val harem romcom that uses all the overused elements and formula that the harem genre utilizes, it lacks in story elements, has lackluster hollow characters, and relies on ecchi and comedy in order to flourish, which it didn't since there is no season 2 despite being based on a light novel of multiple volumes it was not well received by fans, it was made to appeal to audiences back and because the Val Harem genre was a popular thing back then, its where a boy moves into a all girls school thus getting a harem. I did thoroughly enjoy this show tho despite its many problems, so I will give it a 6/10 for my personal anime score.

A decent enough series. Although the art overall is average, the character designs are nicely distinctive. The chief characteristic of the girls is hair long enough to strategically cover them up in ecchi shots and advantage is frequently taken of this fact. Indeed sometimes the hair is forgone as well and we have e.g. strategically placed chocolate (spelling 'eat me' no less) or oppai that are definitely not H because the nipples have not been drawn.

Music and voice acting is up to usual anime standards, although I did think sometimes that I found it hard to tell which of the girls was talking as they ... are not always on-screen when speaking or shown at a distance.

The story is a super-generic lone-male-at-a-hero-academy-full-of-girls type setup, which could be a complete yawn-fest, however it all holds together surprisingly well. It is definitely a bit juvenile as well as generic as all hell, but all the characters have decent screen time, they have plenty of banter with each other; past relationships, rivalries and backstory are all handled neatly and the plot is paced well with regular fights and a bit of drama.

The fights themselves are a bit of a let-down, there is no sense that there is a well worked out magic or power system, simply this move works because the plot says, that one doesn't because likewise. Plus there is a lot of standing around having a chat in the middle of the fights, even for an anime. It's a bit SAO in this regard, minus the effort that A1 puts into the SAO animations, so nothing really exceptional here.

Only 1 season was made so the plot is not all resolved and not everything is explained, but I did find the season conclusion satisfying, it brings together the squabbling 'party' nicely as well as providing a bit of closure to some of the personal conflicts.

Characterisations are probably the weakest element in the series. Although we do get a lot of interaction etc, there is a clear over-reliance on harem & fanservice behaviour in what is otherwise a fairly solid series. We have just a bit too much ecchi, too much tsundere-ing, too many blushes and too much hapless MC getting into 'misunderstandings' - it brings an otherwise above-average series down a little in my estimation, but overall i'd still say to give it a go if ecchi doesn't put you off.

Addendum - no-one else has mentioned this so i'll show my age a bit:

Terminus Est is from Gene Wolfe's old sci-fi/fantasy tetralogy 'The Book of the New Sun', and is a huge black executioner's greatsword carried by the protagonist, the torturer Severian to Behead people (which is his job, basically). These novels are considered classics of the genre if you want to try them out.