***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Daughters from the noblest of families attend the prestigious Areishia Spirt Academy. There they train to be elementalist; spirit summoners. Throughout history, women were the only ones capable of this ability.
Thus, causing quite the stir when Kamito Kazehaya (voiced by Makoto Furukawa) demonstrates the unimaginable. A male who could contract spirits. The last man who could so was the Demon King one thousand years ago.
Kamito has come to Areishia Academy to take part in the sacred tournament known as Blade Dance. The victor not only brings honor to their homeland, but they’re granted a single wish.
During his stay, Kamito meets Claire Rouge (voiced by Ibuki Kido). He manages to anger her by making a contract with a spirit Claire had been hunting. Kamito soon garners the attention of several other powerful elementalist. And the spirit he contracted manifests itself as a young girl named Est (voiced by Ai Kakuma).
Kamito, Claire, and Est try to gather the allies needed to participate in the upcoming Blade Dance.
Series Positives
There’s no denying this show got me pumped. Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance was great.
A Good Action Series
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| Kamito |
I prefer marathoning a series. You won’t see me do episode recaps. Still, I think it is good to build a little hype for the future. I have it for Attack on Titan, Assassination Classroom, and now Blade Dance. Why?
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| Claire |
There was enough here to be satisfying, but leaving plenty of room for more. We never see the Blade Dance. Only glimpses of what might be in store. If what’s coming is even half as intense as I hope it’s going to be, we’ll be in good shape.
The fights in this show are solid. They were big, fast paced, and were as long as they need to be. They never dragged out or were oversaturated with dialogue. Characters did things. It’s amazing to think how some other action shows fail to do this.
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| Est |
Other anime focus on gaining power. Characters are always getting stronger. This works and to some extent Blade Dance did the same thing. Just not to the full extent.
What made Blade Dance exciting were the reasons behind fights. People weren’t getting physically stronger because everyone was strong already. You could even argue Kamito was a tad overpowered. Instead, characters had to overcome a mental block.
By saying that, it makes it sound as though Blade Dance dealt with some heavy material. It didn’t. This show was neither deep nor groundbreaking. It was as standard as you can get. Yet still effective.
There weren’t any weak links here. Only egos. This presented more opportunity for engagement and growth rather than getting strong.
Kamito
I like a lot of things about this show and Kamito was the best of them all. He was a fantastic lead. What made him stand out the most was the character he wasn’t.
Kamito wasn’t the unlikely wimp. He wasn’t the stereotypical nobody protagonist that other anime try to do. Instead, he knew what he was doing. Kamito was cool and calculating. He took things slow and was rational. He understood when it was time to be the hero. But he also realized when to stay back so someone else can have their moment.
Though formidable, Kamito wasn’t infallible. He made mistakes, he got flustered. He acknowledged when he was in the wrong and was proactive in fixing situations. Instead of relying on saying the right thing at the right time. He did that, only it felt more consistent. Rather than a happenstantial fluke.
Plus, Kamito got extra brownie points for not being the perv either. Surprise, this trope gets annoying after the hundredth time you’ve seen it. Granted he fell into predicaments. But he didn’t try to do or say anything to exacerbate things.
If there’s something to remember about Blade Dance it’s Kamito.
Series Negatives
Episode one was heavy with the exposition. There were a ton of details that made up this world. So, the time needed to be set aside to cover it all. This was a little much though.
Blade Dance could’ve spread this across the entire series, but I’m kind of glad it didn’t. The setup was only in that first episode. The positive side of doing that was more time got devoted for things getting done. The downside, it was a weak start.
I don’t want to spend too much time on this. There is something more negative I want to highlight.
The Girls
Excluding Est, who did have some of these problems, the females in this show were bland. Est was at least cute.
Blade Dance got Kamito right. The same wasn't true for anyone else. There was nothing special about the main female characters. Nothing let them stand apart. They were my least favorite thing about this series.
In comparison to the rest of Blade Dance, the girls were boring. A lot of that had to do with how good Kamito was. Since he was his own personality, it was disappointing not to have a female counterpart. For the majority of this story, the girls were nothing more than plot points used to better Kamito.
This was about ninety percent of the show. That last ten percent is where a second season could see great benefit.
The final battle of the series was the girls’ moment. During this fight, they demonstrated their abilities went beyond talk. Their skill was only hearsay. At this final moment, though, the girls got their chance to rely on themselves and not Kamito.
Do more of this. Have more fights with only the girl characters. Develop their personalities. Build a persona around them. Make them memorable. Do what this season failed to do.
Final Thoughts
Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance should get checked out.
It’s an entertaining action series, with tons of exciting moments. It makes it hard to not watch the entire thing in one sitting. Along with that, Kamito is a fantastic protagonist. One who makes the show worth watching.
Unfortunately, none of the other characters leave any sort of impact.
In the end, though, I want there to be another season. This is a story I want to see continued. So much can still be done. And the problems with this series are fixable.
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