Reign of the Seven Spellblades

Episodes 1-2

Magic, as we know, is for nerds. But not all stories of spellcraft can devote themselves to gleefully taking the piss as in last season's Mashle, so we can hope they find other ways to jazz up their proceedings instead. In the case of Reign of the Seven Spellblades, its distinguishing element is a classic one: Swords. It's an obvious answer: Those magic dorks would always naturally be in danger of getting beaten by any martial class before they attack before their abra kadabras take off. In this universe of the Kimberly Magic Academy, wizards acknowledged that and developed a distinctive way of fighting with both wands and swords. It's unique and lets us see an anime with cool spellcasting effects and sweet swordfights, so we ought to be in for a fun time.

The thing is, the magical Sword Arts angle is just the functional foundation that Seven Spellblades builds itself on, and being an earnest Harry Potter-like means it is happily heaping an entire pile of mechanical and historical worldbuilding and a whole crowd of characters on top of all that. It's almost overwhelming at the beginning of the show, as characters are throwing out elements and ideas before we even know what any of them are named. Some of it contextualizes structures driving this world, such as the subjugation of magical creatures and how characters like Katie react. But other times, it feels like a shotgun blast of story seasoning, like the presence of mischievous "clocknoks," references to flute spells, or magic customization that we haven't explored yet. I get that it's all supposed to make this world feel more complete and lived-in, but it rarely registers as words whizz by when I want the show to settle down and focus on just one part of its plot.

The setup we have so far is interesting enough, however. Elements like Oliver's shadowy protector or Nanao's bloodstained past lend some mystery to backstories that can be expanded later. Nanao herself is a highlight of the show so far. Playing against her battle-scarred background, she's an earnestly good-natured lovable dope of a warrior who comes off as just happy to be here, so we feel that way as well, regardless of how nerdy all this magic stuff otherwise is. In the second episode, we see that she's carrying psychological baggage from all the combat and killing she saw during the war. Still, even with that, it's refreshing to have a character who's just a genuinely nice goofball.

It's enough that it makes me really wish Nanao was the actual main character since the real occupant of that role, Oliver, has been a mildly damp blanket on the proceedings so far. The main issue with Oliver is how he seems so aware of the narrative's centralization on him, coming off like a busybody taking it upon himself to step in and resolve or manage everyone else's plot problems. This sticks out early in the second episode, where the whole issue of Nanao's challenge against Andrew sees Oliver concerned that the seasoned samurai warrior with the multi-digit body count might have trouble holding her own in a swordfight with a high schooler. It's all a roundabout writing mechanic to have Oliver and Nanao be the ones to showcase the centerpiece duel instead, and the result looks pretty damn slick and also leads to those other interesting asides like Nanao's PTSD. But it's just one example of Oliver's clunky way of butting into things.

This is how the Seven Spellblades narrative is trying to drive home the challenges presented by Kimberly Academy and how students will need to be helped through it. This also manifests in Chela stepping up to help the others alongside Oliver while illustrating everyone's motivational foibles in things like the silkworm class. So it is nice to see characters who care on that level (even as I question how these kids decided they were all friends within their first two days of school), even as there's a clunkiness to Oliver and Chela feeling the need to be the ones who guide everyone through everything.

The presentation compliments the sheer amount of things being introduced as the show gets underway. Seven Spellblades is a colorful, complex anime that can almost look overproduced at times. Bloom and lighting will stream in wherever it can, constantly shifting on the same dimes as the show's dramatic mood. As I said, it does lend itself well to the spectacle of things like the one magic sword fight. I'll be curious to see how consistently the production can keep this up, especially with the sheer amount of everything else happening so far. Episode two had just gotten through the explanations of Sword Arts and its meditation on Katie's empathetic tendencies towards magical animals when suddenly it was also revealed that the academy had a malevolent magical maze that intruded out from under it at night, and some of our heroes got stuck down there with some mysteriously powered upperclassmen that were out for their blood? It's busy and necessitates that episode ending on an askew cliffhanger. This means I'm keenly curious to keep seeing where Seven Spellblades will go, but I can also already tell it will be messy and uneven.

Rating:

Reign of the Seven Spellblades is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Chris is back for another season of calling wizards nerds. Feel free to disagree with him on that on his Twitter (for however much longer that lasts), or check out his irregular musings on other nerdy subjects over on his blog.

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