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Blade Dance of the Elementalers Light Novel Series Changes Artists Again for Final 4 Volumes
posted on by Karen Ressler
Kadokawa's MF Bunko J imprint announced on Friday that Yū Shimizu's Blade Dance of Elementalers (Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance) light novel series will change artists again due to the personal circumstances of the current illustrator Yūji Nimura. Kohada Shimesaba (Dragonar Academy) will take over with the series' 17th volume, though Shimesaba already collaborated with Nimura on part of the 16th volume.
The blog post also noted that the 20th volume will be the final volume.
Shimizu launched the "elemental fantasy" series in 2010. The first 13 volumes featured art by Hanpen Sakura, but Nimura took over the illustrations in 2015 due to Sakura's health. Kadokawa published the sixteenth volume on February 25 and a collection of short stories titled Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance: Shōryō Butō Matsuri, also illustrated by Nimura, on October 25.
In the story, only a pure girl may enter into a spirit contract. At Areishia Spirit Academy, the daughters of nobility are assembled to take elite classes and become spirit elementalists. At the beginning of the story, a boy named Kamito happened to be peeping on a student named Claire while she was taking a bath, and he unexpectedly has to make a contract with a spirit instead of Claire.
Artist Issei Hyōju (MM!) drew the manga adaptation in Media Factory's Monthly Comic Alive magazine from 2012 to January 2017. The light novel series inspired a television anime in 2014.
