Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well it’s been a while since I reviewed a harem anime so let’s review one today. The question is which one? Chibi, please bring out the Wheel of Harem. *Chibi Isis brings out the Wheel of Harem* Thank you. Care to give it a spin?
(Chibi Isis): Sure.
Chibi Isis spins the wheel
(Nitsuj): Wheel of Harem. Turn. Turn. Turn. Show me the harem that I should review.
The Wheel of Harem stops on Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance
(Nitsuj): The wheel has spoken. Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance when translated means Blade Dance of Elementalers and often shorten to just Blade Dance is a fantasy light novel series written by Yū Shimizu in 2010 and still ongoing to this day. There’s also a manga version but the light novel is far better. If you’re familiar with Infinite Stratos you’ll have a good idea on what the story and concept is about. The only difference is instead of mechs and a futuristic world it’s spirits and a world of magic where technology doesn’t exist. In 2014 the anime studio TNK (Highschool DxD and School Days) turned the series into an anime hoping that the series would take off like their other popular harem anime Highschool DxD. As well as hold fans over until 2015 when they would release the third season of Highschool DxD. Does the series fill our needs like Highschool DxD. No, not by a long shot. But let’s look at this anime anyway. This is Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “Kyōmei no True Force” by Hitomi Harada. It’s an electric rock song and for the most part it’s pretty good. The melody’s not bad and Hitomi’s rapping is good as well although it can be hard to understand what she’s saying at a few parts. The ending is “Blade Dance” by Knee-Socks which is a group made up of the main female cast in the anime. This song is catchy and I can’t get it out of my head. Seriously, this song will get stuck in your head all day and you’ll be humming it without realizing it. On top of the VAs having good singing voices the melody in this song sounds like something out of an Irish song and just makes you want to get up and dance.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts off in an arena with two cute girls fighting each other (okay so far the anime is off to a good start in my book). This fight is a part of the Blade Dance tournament a tournament where females who have formed contracts with spirits fight each other to determine who’s the strongest in the world (and their reward, saying that they beat everybody and that they’re better than them). These female spirit tamers are known as elemantalers and all come from noble families (oh great, get ready for the tsundere parade folks. I’m calling it right now). After the fight we cut to the present where our leading character Kamito voiced by Makoto Furukawa is traveling through the forest to reach Areishia Spirit Academy a prestigious academy that trains females to become elemantalers and give them a good education (and in return the school sucks the money out of these wealthy families). As he’s traveling he comes to a lake where he sees a young girl bathing (scene here: //youtu.be/ceEGnviuqsg, man first a fight scene and now fanservice. It’s like this anime was created with me in mind). The young girl bathing is Claire voiced by Ibuki Kido a red-haired beauty who specializes in fire magic and her weapon of choice is a fire whip in the form of a red fire cat (and this girl just screams tsundere). She accuses Kamito of being a peeping tom and attacks him (Women. Attack first ask questions later) and after Kamito saves her from a falling tree she calms down a bit (scene here: //youtu.be/MJoxVqQrg3w) and the two have a ceasefire where Kamito explains that he’s here to meet Greyworth the headmaster of the academy and Claire explains that her fanservice (I mean bathing) was a purification ceremony because she’s going to tame a sealed spirit which is dangerous because sealed spirits are not only powerful and rare but they have a habit of trying to attack their masters any chance they get (had the same problem with Isis when I first created her. (Isis): I kept attacking you because you kept trying to grope my body. (Nitsuj): I keep telling you I was doing a physical checkup on your body to make sure everything was normal. (Isis): Even when I was in the middle of bathing? (Nitsuj): It just seemed like the right time to do the checkup). They go down into the sealed temple where we see the sealed spirit named Terminus Est (The demon slayer) in the form of a sword (why must it always be a sword? Why not a knife, spear, or staff? I don’t know, I’m just tired of every main character using a sword as their main weapon). Claire tries to tame it but Terminus proves too much for her and is about to get killed by it until Kamito steps in and saves her sealing the sword into his hand and making the spirit his. This comes as a shock to Claire because only females can form contracts with spirits (they said the same thing in IS and look what happened. Oh please for the love of God don’t turn the main character into Ichika). After making the spirit his, Claire demands compensation (alright, we doing it in the temple, the forest, or your dorm room?) for Kamito stealing her spirit so she demands that Kamito become her spirit (oh so you’re in to that kind of play. I’m game, although we might have to reverse the roles). They reach the academy where Kamito ditches her (scene here: //youtu.be/fKE-yModrJk) and goes to meet Greyworth where we find out the reason Greyworth called him here is because she has Kamito’s first spirit Restia and he wants it back but Greyworth said she’ll only give it back to him if he wins the Blade Dance festival which takes place in two months from now and defeats Ren Ashbell who’s said to be the strongest elementaler in the world. He agrees to do it and gets enrolled into the school where the tsundere president of the discipline committee Ellis voiced by Shizuka Ishigami shows him around school as well as his sleeping quarters which is a shed behind the horse stables (classy). Right away we can tell that Ellis doesn’t like Kamito being at the academy because she thinks all men are perverts and the last male who was an elementalist was a demon lord who tried to destroy the world. After the tour Ellis takes Kamito to his class the Raven class, home of the troublemakers (he’ll fit right in) where Claire tries once again to get Kamito to be her slave and he decides to play around with her (scene here: //youtu.be/6XvbJobf69c, wow, she was like pudding in his hands). After that scene they go into class where another girl named Rinslet voiced by newcomer Kana Yuki takes an interest in him and tries to make him her slave but Claire stops her (let’s see, small-breasted red-haired girl or normal breasted blonde girl. Who to choose who to choose).
At the start episode 2 Claire and Rinslet try to get Kamito to be their slave once again. They go to his shed at night (scene here://youtu.be/8Z3kQj373MY) where they get into a fight and we see that Rinslet’s family’s power is ice (well this explains why the two don’t get along with each other). During their fight they accidently burn down Kamito’s shed alerting Ellis and the discipline committee where one of the members insults Claire’s older sister and she challenges them to a duel later that night. Claire brings Kamito back to her place (wooooooooooah~) where we see she likes to read ecchi novels where the female is the servant/slave and the male is the master (so wait, if she’s into that sort of thing why is she trying to make Kamito her slave?). She feeds him (well technically she just gives him canned food and he makes a good meal out of it) and we find out a little more about her family situation (initiate cliché tragic backstory in 3…2…1). It turns out that Claire is the second daughter of a much respected noble family. Or at least they were well respected. 4 years ago Claire’s older sister Rubia unleashed a huge fire in the empire and ran away never to be seen again. Because of this incident everyone thinks of Rubia as a traitor and now Claire wants to win the Blade Dance so that she can have her wish granted to see her sister again, find out what really happened, and hopefully redeem her family name (and this is why she’s so obsessed with getting strong spirits. End cliché tragic backstory). So after that exposition we go to the duel which takes place in an alternate dimension where the lighting is different and wild spirits roam freely. The fight begins where we see Ellis is a wind user and her spirit takes the form of a bird/spear. Claire and Rinslet (whose spirit is a fenrir wolf who turns into a bow and arrow) take down the two no-name discipline committee members but Kamito has trouble taken down Ellis not because he’s weak but because Ellis is quite strong and he doesn’t quite know how to fully use his new spirit yet since it’s been 3 years since he’s used one (man you’ve been out of the game for some time then). But he better learn quickly because a demon spirit has showed up out of nowhere to attack them courtesy of Restia, Kamito’s first spirit who takes the form of beautiful girl (scene here://youtu.be/7d22VdhuUvI, and apparently she’s quite yandere).
In episode 3 the demon spirit attacks the group where Claire in her thirst for power tries to make a contract with the spirit (now is not the time girl. Plus why do you want a demon as your spirit?). Claire fights the spirit but it’s just too powerful for her and in order to protect her from dying Scarlet her fire cat spirit sacrifices itself to protect Claire (too bad, I kinda liked her. That cat was scrappy). Kamito jumps in and uses the full power of Terminus Est to destroy the demon spirit and he passes out from using too much energy (scene here: //youtu.be/mPcRpoY_NTg, he had a badass start but a weak ass ending). While he’s knocked out we see that when he was a child he was the chosen one selected to become the next demon lord with Restia as his spirit (let’s see rule the world with a beautiful girl by your side, this sounds like a sweet deal why pass it up?). We also see that Ren Ashbell was really Kamito in drag (wow, so all the women in the world are praising a boy in drag without knowing. This is the most hilarious thing ever). He finally wakes in Rinslet’s room with a cute white-haired girl wearing nothing but high kneesocks (//youtu.be/cjdDoWtsOU8?t=15s) sleeping beside him (just a normal everyday scene in a harem anime nothing to worry about folks). This cute little girl is actually Terminus Est in human form named Est voiced by Ai Kakuma. It turns out that after Kamito unleashed all of his power against the demon spirit it allowed Est to take human form and now he can’t change her back (of course why would you wanna get rid of the cute loli character is beyond me). On top of being a cute loli we find out that other spirits bend to her will out of fear for her (scenes here: //youtu.be/VPcR-PYaXaw,//youtu.be/AKlDvxIQxyA, and //youtu.be/pFJxA2Ihqfs. Wow, so even the spirits realize they’re no match for the power of a loli). After leaving Rinslet’s room Kamito and Est travel the campus looking for Claire where they run into Ellis who finally apologizes for being a sexist bitch and shows a little affection towards Kamito (two new members for the harem in one episode. Not bad). Ellis tells them that Claire has most likely gone to participate in a military sponsored blade dance where the winner will be allowed to make a contract with a powerful military spirit. Kamito realizing that Claire is doomed to fail because she has no spirit (this is like going to a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament with a deck filled with random monsters, no magic/trap cards and telling everyone you’re gonna win. It’s not gonna happen) rushes off to stop her. As Claire is walking to the blade dance still depressed about losing Scarlet (well maybe if you weren’t such a spoiled brat and got your head out of your ass than maybe we could of saved her), she gets approached by Restia who offers Claire a powerful spirit for the blade dance and Claire not wanting to feel powerless again and acting like an idiot accepts Restia’s gift (girl is stupid).
Episode 4 can be split into 2 parts. In the first part Claire goes to the military blade dance where the powerful spirit activates by itself and we find out that the spirit is actually a mad spirit in the form of Scarlet (//youtu.be/qxqm6htwcwk). Yeah, apparently Scarlet was still alive. They don’t explain it very well they just say that she used up all of her spirit energy and was just resting inside of Claire to get it back. Okay, I can get behind that idea but then why didn’t Claire sense this? Shouldn’t she be able to sense or at least feel the presence of her spirit no matter how weak it is? If the spirit was far away I could understand not being able to sense it but Scarlet was still beside Claire and everything. Anyway Scarlet starts going berserk fusing the other spirits with her madness (everybody get crazy) until Kamito and Est show up to save the day where we get the cliché I’m all alone and have to become stronger bullshit speech we’ve heard a million times followed by the you’re not alone and I’ll be by your side speech (God, why do these speeches always pop up in harem animes?). Claire and Kamito work together and save Scarlet where she turns back to normal in the form of an even cuter hellcat (I’m normally a dog person but I have to admit, I want to hold Scarlet). In the second half Restia shows up to take back the mad spirit she gave Claire (geez, only one episode rental. Well at least she doesn’t charge like Redbox) and infuses it with the military spirit which is a golem (IT’S A GOLEM). As Restia flies away Kamito asks her why she’s doing this and she replies it’s what he wanted (yes, he wanted you to run away and commit acts of evil all for his sake. Makes total sense when you say it out loud doesn’t it Restia?). The golem (or Mad Golem as I like to call him) begins tearing up the empty stadium (oh nooooo~. Wait I just realized something. Where are the guards? We got this big event going on right in the middle of the city and we don’t see a single guard trying to take down this golem. What the hell?). Kamito is still shocked by Restia’s actions so Claire does the only logical thing to snap a boy out of a trance, she kisses him (scene here: //youtu.be/PZj1DE27x7c, the best way to get a boy back in the game is to attack his hormones). With that kiss Kamito is back in the game and defeats the Mad Golem with ease (military grade spirit? That thing wouldn’t even pass as an enemy encounter in a Tales game). The episode ends the next morning with Kamito waking up to a naked Est and all of the main girls so far in the series wanting to know what’s going on (well if I had to guess a cute white-haired loli is stealing a march on all of you)?
Episodes 5-8
Not a whole lot happens in episode 5. We start off with Est a little jealous that Claire kissed Kamito and wants a kiss as well (scenes here: //youtu.be/yGMgeqTDNfE and //youtu.be/inliW6ODZV8). We see a team battle between Claire, Kamito, and some other girls where Claire and Kamito get beaten quite easily (you have the strongest elementaler on your side how are you losing?). This is bad because it drops their ranking as a team and in order to make it to the Blade Dance they need to have be high ranking and have a team of 5 people (I can understand the ranking part but why a team? I thought the Blade Dance was a singles competition. Did the sponsors decide to change the rules and make it a gang war instead?). Kamito suggest that Claire invite Rinslet to join her since she’s also looking to form one but Claire says no because of her pride (scene here: //youtu.be/Cx_q-rIsU7s) and Rinslet also says no because her pride won’t allow her to be controlled by Claire (what the hell do you girls have to be proud of? You’re both pretty flat-chested, have nothing going for you right now, and you’re both in the failing class. The only thing that’s outstanding about you two is your stubbornness). Ellis approaches Kamito herself and ask him if he would like to join her team (better team and fighters I say go for it man) but he refuses because he can’t bring himself to leave Claire’s side and while Ellis is sadden by this she understands and takes her leave. After that Kamito is called to the principal’s office to meet our new heroine Fianna second princess of the Ordesia Empire voiced by Saori Ōnishi who has big breast and isn’t a tsundere (oh thank God. Scene here: //youtu.be/7rLA7TKnJAs). We find out that she knows about Kamito being Ren Ashbell because in the past he saved her life from evil spirits developing a crush on him and waiting for the day to meet him again. The principal has a mission for her and she wants Kamito’s team to be her bodyguards (hello new teammate).
In episode 6 Kamito agrees to be Fianna’s bodyguard who we find out has a connection to Claire’s sister (well then Claire and her will have a lot to talk about). Greyworth than gives Kamito an S-rank mission to investigate an abandoned mining town that has been experiencing earthquakes caused by a decommissioned military spirit (you know for things designed to help people they sure are causing a lot of trouble). Kamito decides he needs to talk the mission over with Claire before he can make a decision (just do it) and as he’s walking through the hallway with Fianna by his side (like a boss) we see that she’s a rather dirty girl who doesn’t mind displaying public affection (scene here: //youtu.be/ZZg1tTUrR_M, glad to see someone being honest with their feelings in this anime). Claire sees the PDA and as you would expect gets jealous and mad over it. Once Fianna finds out that Kamito is Claire’s spirit she challenges Claire to a cook off where if Claire wins she’ll leave Claire’s dorm room and let her have sex with Kamito all she wants but if Fianna wins she gets to stay and have Kamito all to herself (so in the end Kamito wins either way). They have their cook off which would have gone well if both of the girls could cook (scene here: //youtu.be/K2tqU4ifGJU, how did these two survive on their own?). Declaring the match a draw they move on to the next event, washing Kamito’s back in the shower (one takes the back the other takes the front. Scenes here: //youtu.be/VLu-evE7y3I and //youtu.be/Sp-TvJTMBvc). While that’s going on a mysterious cloaked figure who looks like Kamito if he was dark-skinned , had red-hair, and decided to get bondage tattoos (either this guy is emo or he is desperate for attention) sneaks into the academy to steal some spirit documents (look, just because you add the word spirit to everything doesn’t make it sound cool). Est senses the intruder and the group goes to fight him where we see that he has a contract with 4 different spirits (big deal. So you’re a spirit swinger) and is a strong fighter. The mysterious figure reveals himself to be Jio voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Kirito from SAO) who says he’s the true heir of the demon lord and wants to defeat Kamito to prove it (someone’s trying to compensate for something). Kamito fights Jio where he’s disappointed in how weak Kamito is and during the fight Fianna throws a light grenade (or crystal in this case) at Jio to temporarily blind him since she doesn’t have a spirit to summon (she has no spirit? You’re lucky you’re not a tsundere otherwise I would have been very pissed). Jio tries to take her out but Kamito comes in to save her and he retreats with the spirit documents. Kamito injures his shoulder protecting Fianna and she faints (standing there and doing nothing must of really took a lot out of her).
We start episode 7 by seeing how Fianna lost her spirit. When she was younger she came across Rubia and used her knight spirit to fight her (big mistake). Her spirit was no match for her and got destroyed which is why she has no spirit and buckles under pressure when facing them. While out walking and talking to Fianna, Kamito finally remembers who she is (about bloody time) and she tells him that the reason she came to this academy was to win the blade dance and reclaim her throne and honor (and that’s gonna be hard seeing as how you lack a spirit but hey with that body I’m sure the spirits will be too distracted to fight). Claire starts to feel lonely thinking that Kamito likes Fianna more because she has bigger boobs (she’s not far from the truth) so she swallows her pride and ask Rinslet for advice on how to get her boobs bigger an exchange for allowing her to go with Claire’s group to the mining town. Rinslet tells Claire that the sure fire way to get bigger boobs is to have them be rubbed by a guy she likes (I could of told you that for free. Scene here: //youtu.be/yihWODpxJf0). Too embarrass to ask Kamito to do it she decides to rub them herself to see if it’ll work where we get the funniest scene in the episode and possibly the series (scene here: //youtu.be/1kfEgdPMX8U, best reaction ever). They go to the mining town (but not before some hijinks. Scenes here: //youtu.be/vMhq4KMu79Q, //youtu.be/ajuiWF08fh0, and//youtu.be/4eYLAcMvK98) where they find Ellis and other members of the discipline squad fighting against Jio and his many spirits once again (man Jio is a spirit whore or junkie). Kamito comes to the rescue of Ellis once again (Kamito: I must protect my harem) and fights against Jio where this time Kamito manages to destroy 2 of Jio’s spirits but he uses up too much power. Jio tells Kamito that he’s too weak and will never be able to defeat him because he cares about others (hey you try being surrounded by 5 girls who want to get inside your pants and not care about it). Jio fires a lightning arrow at Fianna and Ellis and the episode ends on a cliffhanger with Kamito using his body as a shield to protect them (damn cliffhanger).
So in episode 8 Kamito takes the hit protecting Fianna. Jio moves in for the kill but Fianna uses what’s known as a blood stone a stone that contains the blood of a spirit god that she had hidden in her breast (what else are you hiding in there?). The stone blows Jio away and collapses the mine a little where we find out that Fianna has been using pads to make her breast look bigger (scene here: //youtu.be/jdT-NgteTQU, oh you just lost some of my respect points lady). She tells Kamito and Claire about how she wants to win the blade dance to regain her royal title and they officially induct her into the team (Fianna has joined your party *Nitsuj does the new member has joined the party pose. Which is just throwing his hands in the air*). Since Rinslet and Ellis are still too injured to fight they stay behind to tend to the others while Est leads Kamito, Claire, and Fianna to the true alter (scene here: //youtu.be/dPRDrC1ep2M, Est just keeps proving to be the best sword in anime history). She leads them to the alter where Fianna and Claire bathe in the holy water to re-energize their spirit powers (yeah because that’s exactly what I would do when a psychopath is coming after us. Bathe in holy water). Jio shows up and faces Kamito where Kamito figures out that Jio isn’t really an elementaler, he has blood stones that allows him to control the spirits against their will. In other words, he’s a fake (can no one be honest this episode?). Fianna appears and does a spirit dance which causes all the sprits inside Jio’s body to go berserk and hurt him greatly. Restia appears and tells him to give up saying he’ll never be able to defeat Kamito and become demon lord (wow you suck at pep talks Restia) but Jio refuses to listen and uses her to fight against Kamito where he fires a spirit beam at Fianna (well it worked the first time so why not again) and Kamito absorbs the blast with his body (wow 3 times in 3 episodes. Maybe Kamito really is a masochist). Fianna wanting to protect Kamito (which is something she should have been doing like 2 episodes ago) releases her spirit Georgios a huge holy knight spirit (so he’s a paladin) which absorbs Jio’s attack allowing Kamito to strike Jio and defeat him (scene here: //youtu.be/zlVh5RUEdU8). Jio is handed over to the military, Restia escapes, and the spirit in the mines is resealed thus making their mission a success. Once they return Fianna steals a march on Claire and kisses Kamito (scene here: //youtu.be/FLl9G0btu48).
Episodes 9-12
Not a whole lot happens in episode 9. It’s Valentine’s Day and the girls want to give chocolate to the boy they like (and since Kamito is the only guy around he’ll have to do. Scenes here: //youtu.be/Bzy4BZXmxkM and//youtu.be/Vzx0P05UyH0). After that misunderstanding Kamito, Claire, and Fianna go to have a battle with another team trying to enter the Blade Dance. They win the fight making it their third victory in a roll so they decide to go out and celebrate with Rinslet accompany them because she’s too stubborn to say she wants to eat with them (so cute and tsun). But before they can go out to eat Kamito has to take extra classes because he’s failing and meets up with Ellis who’s also taking extra classes. We have a sweet moment between the two where Kamito tutors her a little bit and she asks if he’ll tutor her again sometime which he agrees to do (scenes here: //youtu.be/A1UY9kkFukk and //youtu.be/053yBQ6A3uU, the next lesson, sex 101). Kamito meets up with the others and goes out to eat at a family restaurant (scenes here: //youtu.be/9Na_hy4r07E and //youtu.be/unQa2YKgxxE) where he sees Ellis patrolling the streets because a group known as Murder merchants have been selling cursed seals to students. We also get this funny scene: //youtu.be/RXv6X85HBZI.
Episode 10 starts off with Kamito waiting in town for Ellis for their tutoring section. Rather than go to the library they go back to her room (woah I was just joking about sex 101 lessons but I’m glad this is the direction we’re going in). Once inside her room she changes into a maid outfit and begins to serve Kamito food and stuff not studying at all (scenes here: //youtu.be/-q1J9qpuc2c and //youtu.be/TBG5YMk7zMk. Man, this must have been a request or something. I haven’t seen such obvious fanservice since Queen’s Blade). Before Kamito leaves Ellis asks Kamito if he’ll help her and the other knights guard the city during the Valentine’s Day festival happening in town tomorrow since they’re short on hands and he agrees to help out. When he returns to Claire that night she gets mad over Kamito visiting Ellis’ room and agreeing to help her without her permission or telling her (what is he a dog? Last I checked you two aren’t dating and Kamito isn’t some house pet he’s a grown man who can make his own decisions and do whatever the hell he wants) and kicks him out where he leaves peacefully not arguing with her (good, he’s done nothing wrong. As far as I can tell Claire is just being a bitch). The next day as the knights are preparing to head out (some of them not really respecting Ellis) Ellis’ older sister Velsaria (not related by blood) comes in. Considered to be the strongest elementaler in the school, 3 years ago Velsaria entered the Blade Dance tournament where she faced off against Kamito in the first round and lost amazingly bad (like straight up pwnage). Because of this she developed a more ruthless and cold personality treating people like pawns and determined to get her revenge against Ren someday (than look no further because she’s right in front of you). Velsaria mocks Ellis calling her a weak leader and uses her powers to destroy the hall and having those who survived her blast join her team (man she is ruthless. So when does she fall for Kamito?). Despite this bump in the road the knights go out and patrol the city breaking up fights, settling disputes, and taking down rogue spirits giving Kamito and Ellis a chance to get closer together. As the two take a break to have lunch Kamito sees Scarlet and runs after her where he gets led to Claire who seems to have calmed down from yesterday. Kamito invites her to come have lunch with him and the other knights but she refuses because they’ve made fun of her in the past but Kamito says those were the old knights and that she should try to make friends with the new ones. Claire refuses to listen and they get into a fight about how Kamito is always siding with Ellis and not Claire (because she usually does the right thing while you just act like a child and keep screwing up). Finally reaching her boiling point Claire says she hates Kamito and runs away with tears in her eyes feeling alone in the world (I’m sorry, I know I should feel sad for her but I can’t because her getting angry and mad at Kamito is baseless. Kamito has done nothing wrong here if anything he’s trying to help her by trying to get her to meet different people, make friends, and possibly get a few candidates to join her team. This whole situation is just Claire getting jealous over Kamito spending time with other girls and her acting childish over it. It’s like watching a kid on a playground destroy another kid’s sand castle out of jealousy).
At the start of episode 11 Claire runs into the forest near the city where she gets attacked by Vivian a trader who’s been handing out cursed seals to everyone (curse seals~ get your curse seals~. They’re like steroids except they’ll drive you crazy instead of shrinking your penis). She wants to use Claire in her curse seal experiment but Claire fights back and escapes her clutches only to run into two spirits who have gone berserk from their owners using the curse seals. While that’s going on Kamito and Ellis are searching the city looking for Claire where they hold hands (scene here: //youtu.be/bKpC6AxcD9Q, wooooooh~) and Kamito buys Claire a birthday gift with the money he earned from helping out the knights. After getting her gift they see the two rogue spirits causing havoc in the town square and go to handle them. Kamito gets injured protecting a child (dude you are the strongest blade dancer stop acting like a pansy and go all badass on us) leaving Claire and Ellis to battle the spirits themselves. As the two are about to fight the spirits Velsaria comes in piloting her silent fortress golem mech (it’s a GUNDAM) and destroys the spirits with one blast while also endangering the civilians in the area. She then proceeds to badmouth Ellis for being an incompetent knight for being weak which angers Kamito so he tries to fight her but gets taken down from his injury. He wakes up in a bed a whole day later where he gives his birthday gift to Claire and she apologizes for being an immature bitch (scene here: //youtu.be/t9w50W0YfpU). Fianna comes in and tells them that there next opponent in the blade dance qualifying match is against Velsaria and Kamito is determined to beat her and prove her wrong once and for all (I am all for this). However, Kamito says they’re gonna need some help in this match so he convinces Rinslet to join the team (scene here: //youtu.be/dq49xKOi8Vg), and gets Claire to pep talk Ellis into joining their team (okay why don’t we just change the team name to Kamito’s harem. It’s fitting and we can have the theme from Charlie’s Angel as their theme song).
The final episode starts off with Team Scarlet (aka Kamito’s harem) minus Kamito since he’s still on the injured list fighting against Velsaria and her team in a blade dance where Velsaria takes on Team Scarlet single-handedly giving us the best fight in the anime so far. The teamwork between the girls is good, they’re making good use of all of their talents and elements, they’re striking all the right areas, and Claire is a pretty good squad leader giving orders while also staying on the offense. I gotta say I’m pretty impressed. Just when it seems that Team Scarlet has Velsaria down for the count she activates her curse seal which is implanted on her heart (well this explains why she’s been such a bitch) and starts going on a rampage attacking everyone on the field including her teammates. Kamito enters the match with Est (scene here: //youtu.be/uxv6oMtcy5g) taking off his shirt (oh shit Velsaria is done for. Its shonen logic, when a shonen hero takes his shirt off his power grows exponentially and he becomes a badass. Velsaria is doomed) and begins unleashing a barrage of quick blade slashes on Velsaria’s golem (he’s like a less faster but still cool Kirito). After a quick heal from Fianna and some help from the harem Kamito is able to beat Velsaria and remove the seal on her heart (scene here: //youtu.be/UVTUby-Mark). With the seal removed Velsaria returns to her senses and apologizes to Ellis for acting the way she was and gets carted away in a carriage. Meanwhile, Vivian was watching the match from afar and gets confronted by Greyworth where we find out Vivian used to be a student of Greyworth who failed out of school (rich girl dropout). Greyworth kills Vivian easily for messing with her students by having her spirit devour her (scene here: //youtu.be/xabrLGNyYYE, damn). So with the girls’ victory they have a chocolate party in the dorms (that’s a new one for me. I’ve seen beer parties but I’ve never seen chocolate parties. Scenes here: //youtu.be/jKMSdPKsAA0,//youtu.be/8tc2qpo0wQM, and //youtu.be/FVTFKUsMbQg) and we end with them leaving the school for the blade dance (which will lead to hopefully a second season).
Final Thoughts
So that was Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance and yeah it’s not really all that special. While not necessarily a bad anime it’s not one that wows the audience or reaches the level of storytelling and fanservice like Highschool DxD. Like I said before the story and concept are very similar to Infinite Stratos just done slightly better. I do like how Kamito isn’t a dense main character like we see in a lot of harem animes. He’s pretty smart and has a good tactical mind but they really downplay his strength quite a bit and make him come across as weak in his fights. I do wish they would have explored more of his past such as why he dressed as a girl to win the blade dance and the possibility that he might become a demon lord. It doesn’t seem like he’s interested in becoming one but still it would be like to get a little insight into that from him. A majority of the girls are all tsundere but they vary. Claire is a hardcore tsundere who only shows her emotions to Kamito when they’re alone. Stubborn and full of pride but at the same time willing to listen to others. At first she starts off as a reckless girl obsessed with finding strong spirits but she starts to calm down as the anime goes on. She can get annoy at times because of her stubbornness. Rinslet is similar to Claire but not as tsundere as her or as reckless as her. She’s a girl who doesn’t like to make the first move until she knows who all the players are and what they’re doing. Fianna is the only girl who isn’t tsundere and instead acts dirty and more direct with Kamito giving a breath of fresh air in an anime full of tsunderes. Ellis is the second best girl in this anime as she’s more dere than tsun and is just so cute in her scenes. But hands down the best girl is Est. If you need a reason to watch this anime this is the reason. You will love this girl and everything she does. Restia is quite the femme fatale in that she’s up to something but we really have no idea what her plan is or why she left Kamito. Again, a little insight would have been nice.
As far as animation goes it’s nothing special. It looks good with a few impressive character designs here and there but nothing that really stands out. The action is mediocre for most of the anime up until the last fight which was a good fight. Most of the time fights are one-sided with our main characters overwhelmed at first but winning in the end. Music is also alright and sounds like something out of folklore Europe. We also never really get a chance to explore the world of this anime or get any history into it such as where do these spirits come from? Who created the blade dance and what is the kingdom or empire like in this anime? One thing I will say this anime does well then most harem animes is that it keeps progressing the story. Most harem animes stop the story in order to establish characters but this anime continues to keep progressing while at the same time establishing its characters. Other than that the anime pretty much follows the basic tropes of harem animes while adding nothing new to the genre. We
Final Score
The final score for Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance is a 6/10. It’s an okay series that’s nothing special but still a decent watch if you like fantasy and harem animes. Will we get a second season? I don’t know, I heard the anime didn’t sale all that well. If we don’t get a second season I highly recommend checking out the light novels which are a great read (link here: //www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Seirei_Tsukai_no_Blade_Dance). While the manga isn’t bad the light novel is far better and where the series creator is focusing all of his attention on. In the end this is a series I enjoy reading but as an anime it’s just okay. Well with this anime out of the way I can now focus on something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time *holds up a copy of Attack on Titan*. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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