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EP. REVIEW: Bladedance of Elementalers




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ishmael



Joined: 21 Jul 2006
Posts: 128
PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 5:38 am Reply with quote
Just watched the first episode of the series. I gotta say, in 22 minutes, it managed to include so many clichés. Tsundere main female character, male lead accused of being a pervert for just everything he does, small boobs gag (and obligatory overreaction), accidental boob grabbing, magic academy with schoolgirl uniforms, "only man who can"...

You gotta like how the MC manages to randomly acquire a magic sword in the first few minutes...

I don't think I'll reach episode 8 or even half that. Too bad - I don't mind Shana clones, in fact my first reaction was a mix of Shana+Familiar of Zero with a bit more fanservice, I thought this might be good, but the clichés killed it.
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Bulldrek



Joined: 08 Sep 2014
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 5:47 pm Reply with quote
Having read the Light Novels, I will say that the show is butchering them pretty badly. It's rushing through things very fast, it's truncating a LOT of background and explanation in favor of showcasing the fanservice (Which, to be fair, even the novels have a ton of), and unfortunately the animation is pretty weak overall. I've been very disappointed in the series since I enjoyed the novels a lot.

That said, as for this review of Episode 9? Prepare to be disappointed. Unless the anime does something drastic to change up the storyline and massively rushes things, we're not getting much more of Restia's (the darkness spirit) story. We also won't get anymore of Est's. We're not even going to get to the actual Blade Dance, I don't think. The headmaster in this episode mentions casually that only three teams from the school will get to go to the Blade Dance (I don't remember if it had been covered prior to that), so I suspect that the season will end with Team Scarlet "ranking up" enough to qualify to be one of the three school teams. Plus, we still have 2 more characters to officially make members of Team Scarlet (Rinslet is a given, I won't spoil the 5th but it should be obvious by now).

If the show manages to limp it's way to a second season (I hope it does get one, but I'm not holding my breath since the quality of this has been pretty sub-par) and season 2 is also a 1 cour, 12 episode season then it will spend the entire season covering the Blade Dance itself (There's some important stuff prior to the Blade Dance and the Blade Dance itself is a pretty massive story with a lot happening, because it's not just a duel in an arena). We find out a bit more about Restia there, but even then a lot is left till even further down the line.
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Animelover12313



Joined: 07 May 2014
Posts: 278
PostPosted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 5:31 pm Reply with quote
Sorry but can you be more clear and clarify the part where you said "lazy writing"? And I think you're kinda missing the point at why Claire is pretty mad at Kamito. Claire hated the Sylphid for always talk bad about her sister. And since it was already hinted times and times again that even though Claire's sister did something bad, she still respects her and wanted to ask the reasons behind them. I'm kinda leaning toward thinking that Claire has a sister complex so..... But back to the point, since Sylphid always say bad things about her sister, of course she would hate the leader of that group. And having the man she is in love with hanging out with her, these types of tsundere characters tend to be the jealous type.
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Vaisaga



Joined: 07 Oct 2011
Posts: 13224
PostPosted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 6:00 pm Reply with quote
More than that, Claire has already lost her sister, her parents, and her status. Of course she's going to react badly when faced with the possibility of losing Kamito too.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 6:54 pm Reply with quote
Animelover12313 wrote:
And I think you're kinda missing the point at why Claire is pretty mad at Kamito. Claire hated the Sylphid for always talk bad about her sister.


No, I think you're missing it. Maybe it wasn't as clear in the anime, but Claire basically has abandonment trauma. She is afraid of losing Kamito like she lost her parents and her sister.

Yes, Claire has issues with the knights as a whole because of that. But that isn't why she has an issue with Kamito spending time with Ellis, who never said anything about her sister.

Bulldrek wrote:
Plus, we still have 2 more characters to officially make members of Team Scarlet (Rinslet is a given, I won't spoil the 5th but it should be obvious by now).


Oh please, the 4th and 5th member should have been incredibly obvious the very second they mentioned it was a 5 member team and you have seen the OP, or by the end of the second arc / novel (I was going to say first but Fianna isn't in the first arc).

I agree with you though about them rushing and butchering the novels. I only started reading them after episode 4 or 5, and while they novels aren't super deep or super original, they do manage to do a decent job with development, explanation, and foreshadowing.
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Animelover12313



Joined: 07 May 2014
Posts: 278
PostPosted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 7:26 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Animelover12313 wrote:
And I think you're kinda missing the point at why Claire is pretty mad at Kamito. Claire hated the Sylphid for always talk bad about her sister.


No, I think you're missing it. Maybe it wasn't as clear in the anime, but Claire basically has abandonment trauma. She is afraid of losing Kamito like she lost her parents and her sister.

Yes, Claire has issues with the knights as a whole because of that. But that isn't why she has an issue with Kamito spending time with Ellis, who never said anything about her sister.


Um, if that was true, why wasn't she as mad when Kamito were with the other girls then? She was pretty okay with Rinslet and even Fianna. Yes she was jealous and raged all over him but she was never this mad that she wouldn't forgive him. She even did take on the other girls as challenge unlike this situation between her and Eliis.
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Bulldrek



Joined: 08 Sep 2014
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 9:08 pm Reply with quote
SilverTalon01 wrote:

Oh please, the 4th and 5th member should have been incredibly obvious the very second they mentioned it was a 5 member team and you have seen the OP, or by the end of the second arc / novel (I was going to say first but Fianna isn't in the first arc).


Oh, agreed it's obvious. I'm just on enough message boards where folks get touchy about spoilers that I'm careful not to say too much Smile

And yeah, the Light Novels for these epitomize to me what I imagine from the term "Light Novel". Not incredibly deep, but decently written and a fun read.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 12:43 am Reply with quote
Animelover12313 wrote:
Um, if that was true, why wasn't she as mad when Kamito were with the other girls then? She was pretty okay with Rinslet and even Fianna. Yes she was jealous and raged all over him but she was never this mad that she wouldn't forgive him. She even did take on the other girls as challenge unlike this situation between her and Eliis.


Because he never agreed to go work for Rinslet or Fianna. She probably would only have been the usual jealous mad if Kamito said he refused. She only flipped out after he told her that he agreed.

And again when they met back up in town. It isn't just that he was with Ellis, it is that he is following her (and of course she doesn't know why because he is trying to surprise her). She is afraid Kamito is going to leave her for Ellis.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 8:09 am Reply with quote
Weird; What most irks me about this series isn't the writing or the characterization, it's the animation and design that takes the show back to the early computer animation days.

Bland, static, blocky. It's all just "bleh" when it could be more like...

No, it doesn't even have to be something actually good, I'd settle for competent.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 7:25 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
This final episode elects to skip straight to the last round of the school tournament, where the protagonists square off against Velsaria and her lackeys. In the absence of any other teams worth fighting, it's a good decision that allows plenty of time for the final showdown to play out.


Nothing was skipped and it wasn't really a tournament. Blade dance participation is based on the teams points which you can get from matches, but you can also get from missions.

As for the cursed seal distributor, if you're wanting this season to be self-contained because there probably won't be more (or are dvd/bluray sales for this actually doing well?) then I can see your point that she was unnecessary. But the series is clearly leading up to something, and she drops hints and is related to a bunch of stuff. She was dispatched easily because Greyworth is ridiculously powerful which I'm pretty sure was mentioned. Without saying anything, Restia couldn't have been used instead, though I agree both served the same purpose.

Have to agree that the last part of the anime doesn't make up for the slow and fairly generic start. Really I would say it doesn't truly pick up until the blade dance arc which is basically twice as much material as this season covered... and even then is far from being some super amazing masterpiece.
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