A Look At The Sacred Blacksmith

I’m not too enthusiastic about this new season. I’ll just follow about 3-4 shows and marathon the others when they turn up to be good. On the bright side, I can attack my backlog with more ferocity–there’s Planetes, VOTOMS, and Victory Gundam sitting in my hard drive.

That aside, I decided to check out The Sacred Blacksmith, which wowed me with its PV a few months back. Cecily Cambell (sic) is the main character of this show, a spirited young lass with a headstrong attitude not different from shounen anime protagonists. But she sucks, and the show lets you in that fact in the very first scene. I hope she gets better. Because she’s really cute–check out the scene where she stutters and it’s surprisingly the best-animated part of the first episode. Voiced by Ayumi Fujimura, who plays an adorable brocon in the Kara no Kyoukai movies.

The next character would be Luke Ainsworth, an antisocial man sporting a sword of Eastern make in this quasi-European setting. If that turns you off right now, I suggest you find some other show to watch! He’s also voiced by a guy named Nobuhiko Okamoto, who could give Takahiro Sakurai a run for his money in voicing dickheads. But really, Luke is just a cocksure ass. How come you are so cranky, son? I mean, you have a loli elf waifu who helps you forge swords!

As of now the most compelling character would be Lisa, the aforementioned loli elf waifu. Serves tea, and helps Luke forge swords (the latter being the more important function for that undeserving bastard, hah). Voiced by Aki Toyosaki (Yui from K-ON, and another brocon in Hatsukoi Ltd), in what could be her most fitting role to date. She also does the saccharine-sweet ED, which I can’t stop watching. She has some sort of a height problem, though–her height looks inconsistently portrayed in some shots.

I hope the woman who turns into a sword in the OP appears soon, as our poor Cecily is still without a good blade… She looks extremely hawt, too.

The Yeh
– Appealing character designs
– Impressive animation
– Aki Toyosaki (shut up, I like her)
– Good music

The Eh
– A pretty-boy blacksmith (who seems to have never worked in a forge in his entire life)
– BREASTplate (that is stronger than a katana that slices through blades)
– A long-winded spell with a questionable chant

The Meh
– Luke is an unlikable ass, possibly gay
– Cecily has the GUTS, but she needs more HARD WORK… and a decent sword
– Bad guys look extremely generic

Related posts:
– Ray has some interesting insights, and has read the novels to boot [->]
– FuyuMaiden writes about the show without the vitriol [->]
– RabbitPoets has a different opinion about Cecily and Luke [->]