"The Reign of the Seven Spellblades" presents a formidable challenge for me to endure. Initially, I found myself captivated by the trailers and intrigued by its synopsis. However, the pilot episode fell considerably short of my expectations, although I believed it warranted further viewing. While the character designs generally met an acceptable standard, the dialogue, already noticeably tedious, failed to consistently engage me. Moreover, the musical accompaniment often failed to sync effectively with the prevailing atmosphere. This departure from ideal harmonization was somewhat anticipated for a debut episode, akin to the early stages of other animes I have come to appreciate, such as "Black Clover,"
...
which exhibited initial roughness. The pacing of the show felt conspicuously irregular, resembling the fluctuating speeds of a child toggling between 2x and 0.5x playback throughout the entirety of the episode. Yet, the animation quality offered a degree of respite from this peculiarity. However, my reservations deepened considerably upon the introduction of the principal character's discourse. This juncture prompted the emergence of significant skepticism regarding the show, as it appeared plagued by glaring plot holes and transgressions against cohesive world-building. Thoughts such as "Why would someone who can't use magic be admitted to a school specifically meant for magic?" "What self-respecting principal of a prestigious school would outright flaunt the death rate of her school?" "why would parents or the government even continue to support such a school?" lingered in my mind. These ruminations persisted throughout the remainder of the episode, prompting an incessant inclination within me to disengage mentally. Despite my initial assessment of the episode as mediocre overall, I committed to persevere and continue watching. Regrettably, as you will subsequently discern, this would prove to be a mistake.
Plot [1.3/10]:
Having watched four episodes from beginning to end, I find myself unable to provide a coherent depiction of the overarching plot's trajectory. The disordered pacing within the narrative serves to obstruct the comprehension of any particular scene. This lack of clarity is further exacerbated by sudden occurrences of events that are devoid of prior buildup and explained poorly, resulting in a profoundly confusing storyline.
For instance, we are abruptly transported from a scene where characters are partaking in a meal at a dining table to an unforeseen entrapment within a labyrinth. In this sequence, an incredibly lust-driven, lunatic senior student is accompanied by a corpse-harvesting senior student, whose appearance resembles that of a middle-aged man, and they proceed to corner the main cast. Bizarrely, a sequence of insults culminates in the improbable emergence of a Kaiju, birthed by the magically aforementioned horny senior, and another one fashioned from dungeon bones created by the senior student who’s appearance contradicted his age.
Moreover, a puzzling inconsistency arises wherein students are expressly prohibited from engaging in fighting each other without the employment of protective spells. Nevertheless, instances materialize where students openly challenge one another to clandestine underground duels or unabashedly launch assaults without apparent repercussions. One of these times, a rather cocky student extends a challenge to the main character, proposing a duel set to unfold within the confines of an underground colosseum. As night descends, the anticipated confrontation without warning, transforms into a hunting competition. But an even more bewildering twist comes in the form of jojo’s part 3 magician’s red cameo, who emerges suddenly and embarks on a spree of indiscriminate student casualties. It is noteworthy that in a prior instance, a student prefect was conveniently present to safeguard students from my prior example. Curiously, this vigilant intervention was conspicuously absent when the student body faced the genocidal bird-man. But In spite of this great tragedy, there were no formal apologies or changes to the school the next day, beyond the students clamoring as if they were wholly unaware that countless students got brutally massacred. Its narrative tries to portray the school as fair and lawful, but somewhat dangerous, but what it shows instead is a hellscape, unfit for study or even living.
Collectively, the plot evokes a semblance akin to that of "Family Guy," characterized by its constant interjection of scenarios, yet lacks the comedic element, instead playing itself completely seriously. It feels like every moment I watch this show, I am met with very slow and arduous scenes that are then abruptly cut to another that is bizarre and edgy to the maximum for just sheer shock value and it seems to have no repercussions to the school setting so it resembles a monster a week type story, well I cant even give it that much credit, as it plays out sort of like the Pokémon anime where there is very little acknowledgment of the prior episode, rather than having a consistent canon.
Setting [2/10]:
In addition to the issues elucidated within the plot section, this section will be a little shorter. There is no effective worldbuilding, foreshadowing, and coherent setup within the narrative. An evident lack of interconnectivity and contextualization pervades the storytelling, resulting in a disjointed portrayal of events. The school's design appears to draw inspiration from Harry Potter's Hogwarts, but it lacks the magical charm and distinctive places that make Hogwarts special. Here, all you have are generic locations you would expect in a magic school but without any lore or interesting features to make it feel lived-in. Instead, we encounter generic magical spots that lack depth or interesting features. Then you have the labyrinth in which the school was unwisely but purposefully built over for unknown reasons that endanger the many students, which calls into question the principals statement of "your life and death are in your hands" when the very building in which they study and sleep in is essentially a death trap, we see bones littered throughout the labyrinth insinuating that no student who had died had ever been ceremoniously buried with respect or even bothered to be recovered despite prefects (senior students, and not specially trained adults) being stationed, the institutions spares no resource to even let the unfortunate families hold a funeral for or even see their child.
The narrative's depiction of these settings is cursory at best, neglecting to furnish pertinent details regarding their interconnectedness, spatial relationships, or navigational logistics. Astonishingly, the student body appears to effortlessly traverse the sprawling expanse of the school without any apparent logistical hindrances, a conspicuous incongruity considering its considerable magnitude.
In summary, the “school” is a morbid and anomalous human meat grinder built upon a glorified mass-grave. The absence of meticulous world-building efforts and the omission of vital particulars, such as geographical orientation and the mechanics of movement, contribute to an overall portrayal that lacks any cohesion and fails to foster an immersive narrative experience.
Characters [1/10]:
Having just described the insanity that is the setting, we rightfully need to populate it with the most perverse, ignorant and unacceptable characters imaginable. To start, the character designs can be deemed passable, without any particularly remarkable or exceptional attributes. While some characters, like Nanao, are more pleasing to the eye, others, including the main character Oliver, are mundane and generic. The crux of the issues, however, resides within the character's writing and portrayal. It can be asserted with certainty that each character within the narrative is either ensnared within a dichotomy of uninspiring banality and clichéd triteness, or they are entangled within an unfortunate embrace of exaggerated edginess and imprudent impracticality.
A recurrent pattern unfolds across episodes, wherein audiences are inundated with introductions to a plethora of nondescript peripheral characters, each flaunting a solitary noteworthy trait engineered either for gratuitous shock value or for the sole purpose of cultivating annoyance. This predicament remains further compounded by the lackluster protagonists themselves. Their motivations for enrolling within such a perilous institution are shrouded in ambiguity, with scant justifications beyond the vague notion of seeking new experiences or acquiring knowledge, often absent in practical execution, in fact, no one seems to realize the dangers they are constantly in, you would expect death-school students to be more competent, hardened and interesting, essentially characters that are just waiting to write themselves into existence, but the author seems more interested in reusing the ignorant and banal mannequins seen in most anime that feature a magic academy.
The dialogue employed within the series is disappointingly bereft of cogency and coherence. The narrative often succumbs to abrupt leaps in logic, inundating viewers with an amalgamation of trite humor, contrived jesting, irksome incongruities, and perhaps the driest and most unmotivated humor that will leave you at your wits end. For instance, a pivotal instance involving Oliver and Nanao partaking in a swordsmanship exercise culminates in an inexplicable shift from mutual respect to an irrationally pronounced intent to lethally engage one another. This unusual character motivation is elucidated by Nanao's perplexing proclivity to associate death with love, which in turn results in her subsequent disposition toward self-destructive tendencies. But this is immediately contradicted by her flashback to a time when she was still in her home country, where that philosophy appears to not exist at all.
Furthermore, the pacing narrative of the show oscillates erratically between sluggish monotony during mundane conversations, emblematic of a snail's languid crawl, and a frenetic, near-breathless tempo during intense combat sequences. A notably vexatious character, Katie, is purportedly an advocate for animal and magical creature rights but she is shown to have no aptitude in anything whatsoever, which subsequently is consistently cast into the role of a distressed damsel, perpetually rescued by her peers. This portrayal, regrettably, undermines her ostensibly compassionate disposition. In a pronounced departure from logical coherence, her presence at a school that openly condones animal subjugation through a conspicuous parade on the inaugural day remains an inexplicably unresolved enigma. This absence of congruence underscores a prevailing tendency wherein characters appear to inhabit their roles merely to fulfill designated slots, devoid of genuine purpose or narrative propulsion.
Each character within the narrative seemingly adheres to rudimentary stereotypes, enshrining them within a rigidly one-dimensional framework. The overarching impression is that of a checklist hastily assembled by the author, failing to furnish characters with any semblance of depth or complexity. Even pivotal figures, such as Guy Greenwood, a central protagonist, are rendered insubstantial, their identity reduced to mere surface-level attributes with a conspicuous dearth of substantive characterization. This narrative impoverishment is further illustrated by the inclusion of psychopathic individuals endowed with the preposterous ability to birth Kaijus, and educators who blatantly inflict torture upon students without incurring any semblance of retribution.
In summation, a pervasive pallor of shallowness, monotony, and banality permeates each character portrayal, collectively yielding a composition rife with generic attributes that ultimately fail to resonate with discerning audiences seeking multifaceted and captivating personas.
Art [6.8/10]:
The artistic direction encompassed by this series exhibits a spectrum ranging from impressive to middling. Particularly commendable is the animation quality evident in the dynamic action sequences, which captivate with their fluidity and precision. Equally noteworthy are the intricately rendered backgrounds, which contribute to the visual depth of each scene. Notably, the fight with the Garuda is strikingly choreographed and effectively captured through thoughtful camerawork, despite facing certain inconsistencies. These deviations are exemplified by Nanao's unexpected ability to decapitate the Garuda, a development that contradicts previous declarations pertaining to her blade's absence of an edge.
The magic although not grounded or explained well, is a common occurrence in the genre but looks stylistically pleasing nonetheless. The series' visual strengths are, however, tempered by interludes of monotony inherent to the storyline, alongside intermittent lapses in meticulous detail.
Taken in totality, the series' artistic direction emerges as respectable, with its laudable components somewhat counterbalanced by the story's inherent limitations. Despite these inherent shortcomings, the series manages to maintain a satisfactory level of visual quality, ultimately contributing to a viewing experience that can be deemed decent in the broader context.
Music [5.7/10]:
The musical accompaniment, while adequately reflective of the narrative's backdrop, regrettably lacks emotional resonance. Although ostensibly aligned with the setting, its utilization often falters, resulting in a disjointed integration within certain segments of each episode. Collectively, the musical score's impact is unremarkable, albeit not egregiously subpar. It would have been apt to categorize it as mediocre, were it not for the frequent misalignment between the music's tonalities and the scenes they underscore. This recurrent misjudgment slightly diminishes its overall quality from middling to a somewhat less favorable evaluation.
Verdict:
Every single episode feels like it's trying to fit a filler story within a bigger filler story, reminiscent of those nested Russian dolls. The result is an incredibly disappointing and cringeworthy watch that leaves you wondering why you invested your time in the first place. This repetitive pattern of unfulfilling content manages to taint the entire viewing experience, evoking a strong sense of repulsion and frustration that's hard to shake off, long after the credits roll. If you have an ounce of self-respect give this show a pass.
Aug 13, 2023
Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru
(Anime)
add
"The Reign of the Seven Spellblades" presents a formidable challenge for me to endure. Initially, I found myself captivated by the trailers and intrigued by its synopsis. However, the pilot episode fell considerably short of my expectations, although I believed it warranted further viewing. While the character designs generally met an acceptable standard, the dialogue, already noticeably tedious, failed to consistently engage me. Moreover, the musical accompaniment often failed to sync effectively with the prevailing atmosphere. This departure from ideal harmonization was somewhat anticipated for a debut episode, akin to the early stages of other animes I have come to appreciate, such as "Black Clover,"
...
Oct 25, 2020
Tsui no Sora
(Anime)
add
This is among the most nauseating things I've ever experienced, the character design resembles that of a 3rd grader's doodles and even that is being generous, the background strains my eyes, the voice acting sounded like it was recorded on a Nokia, in fact, it didn't even sound like the actors are in the same place, several corners were cut in both sound design and animation. The story made absolutely zero sense, the more intimate scenes were simultaneously confusing, sick inducing, and dull, it is an insult to the audience's sight and hearing. Normally hentai is pretty bad where they essentially have sex for no
...
|
