Anime 50582 Nanatsu No Maken Ga Shihai Suru Reviews

4/10- Would give 5-6 if all the things below are intentionally done like Eminence in Shadow
This anime offends me with its averageness like Saiki K loves staring at that most average guy in his school. Everything this show does, it does by the book, as if it aims to be the middest of mid consciously. Good to know the technology is there now to input some character archetypes, plot skeleton, color filter and a Computer will massvomit such generic content. Finally able to finish till ep3 on my fourth attempt. Before this, my brain made me wash dishes, clean my room walls instead, rather than ... watch this. So much unnecessary verbose while completely void when needed. The plot is bad, the production follows Tokyo revengers style adaption, doing no creative interpolation for the plot.

(Made things as abstract as possible to prevent spoiling. Find TLDR at the bottom)

Plot or the lack of it, Plotholes, Inconsistencies:
At 2minutes in, 6 random characters walking by the street on their way to school orientation become great friends just like that. Big Monsta at 4th minute, these not-even-first-year group up and tackle it while some 70 people watch and do nothing. Oh, they are already proficient in kinetic spells but later on why attends class on basic magic? All mob characters are static, the FMC is in a silent crowd in small ass room, talking to MC yet her facial expression looks like she is shouting. 2nd episode ends with a cliffhanger of a fight only to have nothingburgers in the 3rd episode.
There's a 20% fatality rate for the students, because too much magic is dangerous and imploding of character, but it appears that all danger so far originates from students maliciously attacking each other hunger games style, sounds like edgy survival fight plot, but why at school? We are told that fights without safety spells are strictly forbidden, but then they are attacked with killing intent by older students. Except that for some reason this aggressive behaviour is perfectly normal and they could have gotten in trouble for fighting back? Later a teacher uses illegal torture magic on a student, in front of other students and another teacher but there are no consequences. he even admits to ignoring the law and says he'll do it again.
Safety rules only apply to swordfights, but in another class a teacher was expecting the students to get injured and did nothing. Well, that fits the narrative with the fatality rate, but why such double standards? Characters with little importance or mobby choosing a 20% fatal murder school is ridiculous. There are two AnimalLifeMatters characters which while not wrong, why would they join a murder school lol?

That reminds me, there is no reward mentioned for surviving the school. Do they get a plum civil position, do they get infinite god powers, do they get pensions, or do they just get a piece of paper. Whats the reward, why people especially those can't even hurt a fly want to join this school?

This show can’t decide whether the school is hunger games no holes barred, or it has some law and order. Person gets hexed into a deadly situation, survives and reports to the authorities, then no action. So, there is a reporting process in school yet a hunger game situation is also present and punishments are little to nothing for hunting noob’s spines and dicks? Headmaster even talks about being independent and free and that life and death is in the individual’s hands, legitimizing violence. How does it even make sense?


Environment:
There is no worldbuilding and foreshadowing, nor any real setup, everything is so disconnected, isolated and contextualized. The plot is so random and all over the place. They are doing too many things at once. And all this in the midst of continuous barrage of useless convos either explaining dumb basic stuff, or just fillery talk and sequences like putting a blanket on a sleeping roomie. Instead of fillers there could have been some creative sequences connecting isolated contexts by detailing useful info.

Character:
With such a big cast they should have focused on 1-2 character per episode instead of all at once like Monogatari. The MC is especially boring but somehow I feel like MC+FMC going to spellblades just because they look the complementary pair and the others will also be paired up for no reason.
Can't even figure out whether it is a school college or university. On one hand people already know spells so they must be teens or adults but then FMC claims "she was in a war" just before. What war, woman? The war does not have a name?? You were there last week!! Teens and Adults would know of some war going on by name even if its overseas, c'mon. Such a dumb script.


Art: generic/10
Main Character: Kirito/10
Characters: forgettable mass isekai/fantasy shounen characters/10
Music: Japanese dubchestral you decide/10
Story: Negative/10

Conclusion:
Initial Impression was it is Shikimori isn't just a cutie level of blandness, now my impression is it’s on the level of SAO. Production did no creative interpolation and much like Tokyo Revengers, just feels copied frame by frame from manga. I know source is LN but that’s how the adaptation feels, 1:1 inappropriate copy. Combining how bad and generic each and everything was, I am vociferously offended, maybe not to the level of animes that exploit blindness, cardiac, pancreas issues in FMC or animes that exist to promote idols and figurines but this show is somewhere up there.

'Reign of the Seven Spellblades' is a fantasy action series about teenage wizards at boarding school. It has a lot of ideas and it tries to do a lot of things, many of which could have worked: after all, it's basically 'Harry Potter', only darker and more violent. Unfortunately, every part of it is rushed, forced, and underdeveloped, practically perfunctory: watching an episode feels like reading a plot synopsis. It's an awkward mess from start to finish, entertainingly bad at times, but mostly just boring.

It is immediately clear that the series is drastically abbreviating its written source material, and whatever appeal the original may possess, ... little has survived this brutal treatment. It's like ordering a pizza and receiving a ball of dough, a slice of processed cheese, and a squashed tomato. Scenes play out as if the writer or the director were checking off plot points scribbled on a sticky note, with no added detail or depth.

It's difficult to discuss 'Spellblades' without rewriting it scene by scene, because it does practically everything wrong. I will try to avoid doing that, but — well, for example, if you want to establish that a magic school is dangerous, you can introduce what we think is the protagonist of what appears to be a general fantasy action series, then subvert our expectations by having a magical plant devour him five minutes in. It's a bit more entertaining than having someone state that magic school is dangerous.

A relatable protagonist is a solid foundation for a story, which is why 'Harry Potter' begins at home with Harry Potter. 'Spellblades' begins by rushing no fewer than six main characters into a fight scene. It makes the most important character less relatable by relegating much of his personality to a mysterious backstory to be revealed at some later date, which is problematic in a point-of-view character. Also, it's difficult to create a sense of mystery when the setting is so underdeveloped: we can't tell if a scene is intentionally confusing because of a mystery that hasn't been solved yet, or unintentionally confusing because the adaptation is missing some important detail.

Having met on the first day of school, the main characters quickly become close friends. Anyone who ever lived in a college dorm can understand this formative experience of young adulthood and how the series has failed to capture it. I am not asking for literary realism: I am asking that they bond in a way that feels credible. Real life is often unrealistic. Real students can build a close friendship on a chance encounter in a stairwell at one in the morning, because real students are notoriously stupid. Wizarding students, on the other hand, are too busy self-seriously collecting plot points to have any formative experiences at all. I think one night of bad behaviour would go a long way toward humanizing them. Didn't Harry Potter use a cloak of invisibility to sneak his friends into bars? Let the edgy wizard boy date the goldfish-brained samurai girl. It doesn't have to be dark and mysterious: it can just be fun.

As it stands, the tone is inconsistent: the series often attempts to be whimsical — easily detected in the soundtrack — but the characters, the setting, and the plot are really too dark for that. 'Harry Potter' meets the minimum threshold for whimsy because Harry Potter and friends are basically normal kids, not child soldiers; none of them has a death wish, not even Ron; and the Slytherins are bullies, not murderers.

As for the violence, action scenes are fundamentally about character conflict; they are not necessarily violent. (The potato chip scene in 'Death Note' is a good example.) Violence without conflict is just spectacle: another pointless tournament arc. 'Spellblades' has plenty of violence but little conflict: many of the fight scenes serve no purpose, as the students are continually challenging one another merely to show off.

The plot is practically impossible to spoil because it includes practically every fantasy trope and treats each of them with about as much detail and depth as a plot synopsis. None of its ideas are inherently bad: every good pizza begins with a ball of dough. The plot, the setting, and the characters could have worked: just rewrite every scene. Make the goldfish-brained samurai girl the protagonist: her backstory, her struggle, her growth — all of it has potential. I know you can make any story sound stupid by describing it in a stupid way, and I have tried to avoid doing that. So an elf and a troll fight bees with a werewolf: so what? 'Hamlet' had a ghost and a pirate ship, and it turned out fine. In every case, it is the execution that counts, and in this case — I mean 'Spellblades', not 'Hamlet' — the execution is perfunctory, wasting its potential.

On the positive side, the series is morally inoffensive, exalting friendship, courage, traditional martial arts, and the ethical treatment of animals; in that respect, it's better than 'Black Lagoon'. I liked the kissing scene, the severed hand, and the barbecue guy. The last arc was watchable. The voice actors did the best they could with the material.

All in all, 'Reign of the Seven Spellblades' is unfortunately quite bad. At times, it was entertainingly bad; looking back on the season as a whole, the edgy wizard kids, the goldfish-brained samurai, the slightly improved final arc, etc., I can even say that it was endearingly bad, so long as I do not have to rewatch any of it. I can recommend it as a case study in how not to tell a story, but I cannot recommend it as a fantasy series.

Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru (2023)

Overall, it is like a 7 but it has a massive issue. This isn't supposed to be the power of friendship and slice of life, it is supposed to be dark, gritty, and full of revenge. It was supposed to be deep but in the end, it is Harry Potter with more selfish characters. People hide their powers when it matters and you get a deep set of allies everywhere but they basically do nothing.

One minute you get a deep backstory, see the targets, and get ready for some revenge and it was great but then suddenly it ... goes back to the power of friendship and slice of life and nothing particular happens again. Even the finale builds up like it is going to be an epic battle but in the end, nothing really happens which is a real big shame.

The art is average, the sound isn't bad and the characters are somewhat interesting just sort of lacking.

If a season 2 came out with more of the dark stuff it hints about like it tries to in the final episode for all of a few seconds then fantastic. If not then it is just a fake story premise just like every other show in a school.

3/10 in its current state.

I wanted to like this anime. I really did. After watching so many new anime the last couple years that felt generic with cheap animation and boring characters.....I hoped that this anime would be a breath of fresh air. Weeeell........it misses the mark more than it connects.

The animation quality is respectable. You can see a smoothness in how the characters move around in social environments or in fights. The art design for the characters are a mixed bag. Some characters have a generic look, but some look like the creator really tried to draw a unique person.

For me, there are three critical negatives ... that caused me to drop it after 6 episodes.

1. "Wait....who is this now/again?" That's what you might think several times within 6 episodes. Besides the main characters, side characters get introduced and then taken off screen barely long enough for them to be introduced. These characters are shuffled around like musical chairs and it definitely feels odd. I think the ultimate problem is that the cast is too big too early and nobody is getting the screen time needed for you to really digest their presence in this show.

2. The main characters are all together as one big friend group, despite being strangers 2 seconds earlier, for literally no good reason at all. I had to question why they were choosing to be together many times through 6 episodes, even before knowing each others' names. It just feels VERY forced, lazy, and unrealistic(yes, I know it's an anime, but still.........)

3. This is tying in with #1 and #2 regarding the big cast of characters. Nobody has any depth or character beyond the surface. I know that it's only 6 episodes so far....BUT somebody, anybody of the main cast should have a back story going on or a substantial clear motive that is reflective in how the show will end.

Oliver Horn? a talented fighter.........that's about it as far as we really know.
Hibiya? A very talented samurai whose hair changes white with a explanation from Oliver that will induce an eye rolling response.
Michela? A girl that is fairly decent in being aware of situations around them. Has some unexplored past with a side-character.
Katie? An girl that loves different beings in the world and has a crush on Oliver
Guy? A SLIGHTLY thick headed guy.........nothing else.
Pete? A tsundere who doesn't have a lot of magical background in his family.

That's it. And somehow these main characters are connected at the hip with each from the word "go" . The side characters are even less explained or cared for.

This anime has the pieces to potentially be good, even very good.............but the pieces are badly managed and halfway through this season(if it's 12 episodes) there is no improvement to be seen.

Nanatsu no maken is (more than Mashle) taking inspiration of Harry Potter. It is based on the LN, which, so far (I've read vol. 1) is pretty good. so how does the anime compare with the LN?

Animation: 7. The animation is good, at some points even great, like at the fights. the sound design is satisfying enough, but what I think is lacking is a dynamic animation style that will boost the magic casting. The fights are dynamic. The rest is pretty standard anime.

Story: 7. This is the first thing where the LN outshines the anime. the story in the anime is pretty good. ... But where the LN goes more in detail, the anime feels rushed. Where i would give the LN a 9, pacing of the anime is just worse.

Character: 6. This grade is bound change, but at this moment (ep.3). Characters is the thing where the LN outshines the anime most. As previously stated, the anime feels rushed. The consequence is that there is no time for character details. In other words, they feel very shallow (especially compared to the LN).

concept: 9, Harry Potter, but a fresh, different story. Need I say more?

Music: 8, I'm a classical music enjoyer, so the music speaks more to me than your average anime, But i think that the Ost of nanatsu no maken is original, and in a good way.


To conclude, I would recommend this Anime to most people. But know, if you want to enjoy this story to the fullest, I'd recommend reading the LN.

TLDR; Good OP and ED, decent animation sometimes, horrible plot and character progression, nonsensical world-building and magic systems. Don't waste your time unless you want to hate watch or completely turn your brain off.

The Good:
The best part about this show is the music. The OP and ED are both pretty good, and may deceive you into thinking this show is worth your time as they did for me.

The Meh:
The animation is passable most of the time, and even occasionally decent, just don't go in expecting to have your socks blown off.

The Ugly:
At the beginning I thought this could be an interesting Harry Potter meets ... anime sort of deal, but as the episodes came and went, it became increasingly clear to me that this wasn't a good anime. The plot was extremely difficult to follow throughout the show. Key moments would suddenly appear and then be dealt with just as suddenly when it felt like they really needed more development time.

The same can be said of the characters. I don't remember the names of most of the cast and most likely neither will you. None of them receive substantial development during the show, or the development is rushed to the point that I mostly forgot what happened to them. There are also a few "important" plot and character development points that you would think, by looking at them, would totally alter the story and genre of the show. Most of these are rarely if ever mentioned again, especially one tied to one of the main protagonists.

Also this is absolutely one of the most poorly-built worlds and magic systems I've seen in recent anime. Things feel like they happen or don't happen entirely because the barely-cognizant plot demands it. The same can be said of the magic system, which is almost never explained in general, and when it is, there's barely any semblance of logical cohesion to the rules governing it. If you want a good magical system and a far better world, watch something like Mushoku Tensei instead.

Don't waste your time on this show unless, like me, you're purposely looking for something to hate-watch and criticize the living you-know-what out of.

Interesting premise and good animation had me excited to watch this anime this season.

This anime however greatly disappoints. Eight episodes in and feel no connection with any character nor any interest in any character, the reason is simple too, the show has offered nothing substantial to grasp onto, the primary protagonist has a bit of a mystery surrounding who he really is but is kept very hidden even from the viewer to where I question why even bother with it at all.

The show is about a 7th powerful magic yet only the 6 have been slightly mentioned as of episode 8...

Maybe 2 story arcs have ... happened thus far? I'm really not sure as the story is so haphazard and nothing feels of impact that it a start or finish goes unnoticed.

Oh and most of the school hates the primary 6 characters, cause elitism of one type or another? It feels like lazy writing to have so many people actively hate on the group for no good reason. Just the same kind of obstacle to kinda but not really develop the characters yet horribly fail to do so. I can excuse tired tropes when they achieve a goal, this show fails to solidify any new facets of the primary characters, a side character might develop a bit just to be lost in the endless crowd right after.

Waiting for something, anything really to kick off and after 8 episodes still waiting. If a episode get's delayed I'm honestly not sure if I would notice it missing that week or that it get delayed when it did air.

If this was nothing but a huge tease for a game that launches in October I could understand why they are doing what they are doing, outside of that however it is very lacking.

Sorry for the lack of finer details, the issue is nothing has been memorable enough to really note and I would need to be paid to watch it again to find those finer points.
There lays it's fatal flaw, nothing worth remembering, at least if it had bad story or enough story to create a plot hole there might be something that stick out, here it's like anything of note was sanded down to the point where it does not stick out.

This anime is such a let down because first impression was that I’d love this anime. Visually is fantastic, and the sound effects/music are top notch. Based on just those two elements its a hard 9/10, unfortunately regarding everything else the show just falls flat on its face.

The plot is a jumbled mess, the flow is awful, almost like it was written to air as 1hr episodes but later changed so episodes start and end in weird spots in relation to the story, and the plot points where they clearly want me to become emotionally attached to a character just feel forced fed. The ... show just feels like it was designed by someone purely as a cash grab instead of writing a good compelling story. Not that making money is a bad thing, I 100% understand a studio/writer/artist wanting to make profit on their work. However far to often shows made this way just feel off.

It’s like they took all the qualities of successful anime, added a splash of “The Harry Potter game is popular right now” and threw it in a blender, and while its made with quality ingredients the finished product just feels void of personality and honestly fake.

Have you ever watched a trash anime?

One of them would be definetly this. So NOT Worth your time. Even though I watched it for free, I felt like I have been robbed. No interesting story, plot, any kind of average intellectual level of conversation between character and of course no interesting character. So boring. After 4 Minutes of timeline from 1st episode, I just spammed my right arrow to skip the bullsh**. Its not like its my first garbage anime. But still I had to write this.

Anime productions should stop doing this kind of garbage. Its definetly not gonna last. So that means ... its not gonna earn money. Basically it means it does not worth anime makers a single dime of their HARD WORK. So wasted of sklills from anime producers. We as a viewers should boycott this kind of bullshit. We are living in 21st century and should expect so high qualified anime stories. Animation is ok. But the whole plot and story are so not WORTH. So disappointed.

Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru, or Reign of the Seven Spellblades, if you prefer, is a great show that takes its time to develop itself. As an adaptation of the LN given a runtime of 15 episodes, it did a pretty nice job at what it was trying to do. That being said, it wasn't able to be as indulgent as the LN but what it does provide is enough to satisfy what it does cover in the story without leaving too many things undeveloped. That being said, the "3 episode rule" many people follow does this show a disservice. The suggested minimum episode ... count for this show is 6 episodes. Watch that far and then make your decision, but it's definitely worth giving it a shot.

Each of the members in the main group have their strengths and weaknesses. This becomes apparent as the show goes on and they have to solve various problems that come up. Everyone relevant gets enough background and definition in a timely manner before they become relevant, providing the proper introductions in ways that feel fluid to the narrative and doesn't break it up too much.

The scenery and world leaves a lot to be discovered. There's a good amount of varied locations that the show visits despite being placed at a single academy. Many places get familiar, but not stale when returning to them multiple times throughout the duration of the show. It doesn't take long for the show to introduce one of the biggest reasons why there's so much for the students to explore, and leaves no doubts to them and the audience that exploration might be someone's downfall.

They aren't afraid to pit peers against each other, and they talk about the school's 20% rate of mages being "consumed by the spell" which is a nice of way of saying that someone died from magical circumstances. That's also not something they treat lightly, the show has a dark undertone to start and without getting into spoiler territory, it doesn't go away and makes sure it's known to be there. They try to cover it up with the day to day circumstances but it still lingers on the edge of perception.

The score is fantastic and at all times provides a proper atmosphere to the content being shown on the screen. Combat? Appropriately balanced brass and drums. Maybe some whirring strings in the mix. Minor mishap in class? Not overly dramatic yet still urgent flurry of notes. Day-to-day student interaction? Calm and collected background track. Both the opening and the ending songs are absolute perfection in musical composition for evoking the right feelings of wonder in both cases. Active curiosity and reflective pondering.

The animation of the show is very pretty. The characters are expressive, the choreography is well done, and the motions of characters feel fluid and dynamic. The colors blend nicely, things don't stick out unless they're meant to, yet nobody fades into the background outside of the nameless characters that are part of the background. Even the actions taken by things like brooms and plants sfeel fitting and real. With all the very beautiful animation to see, it's a shame that this didn't particularly carry over into some of the magic. The spellcasting itself is great, the magic circles that appear around the wands and such blend nicely and fit into the scenes where they're present. After the spell cast though, most elemental spells and other adjacent categories feel rather mundane to see. There's a lot of effects for more specialized spells and even some of the spells that aren't orientated around combat feel "magical" in their own ways, yet some of the more common spells used that are still magic to the audience and should feel magical, just don't. It's not a particularly major thing, but it is somewhat noticeable.

Unfortunately, on the more critical side, they did bite off a bit more than they could chew. 15 episodes was enough to get all they needed in, but it sits on the border of being too indulgent and not indulgent enough. This story is one that wants to be a 24 episode long haul so badly but it doesn't get that chance, and it's not often that a show ever comes out of the blue with that opportunity these days. Almost all of the shortcomings of Reign come from how the structural format of a show airing in 1 cour doesn't take well to the way a story like this wants to be paced and built up over time. If this show gets a season 2 then it will only benefit overall as it will have that time that it really wanted to shine.

Overall, the show is a lot of fun and a balancing act of dark tones and day-to-day life in the magic academy. There's a lot to love here but still something to be desired. That being said, the 15 episodes that we got are satisfying on their own while still allowing for a continuation in the future. It's worth giving it a shot if you're not one for reading, get to episode 6 and make the decision. If the show doesn't cut it, the LN doesn't have to follow the limitations the show has to deal with, and gets to be exactly what it wants to be.

"The Reign of the Seven Spellblades" presents a formidable challenge for me to endure. Initially, I found myself captivated by the trailers and intrigued by its synopsis. However, the pilot episode fell considerably short of my expectations, although I believed it warranted further viewing. While the character designs generally met an acceptable standard, the dialogue, already noticeably tedious, failed to consistently engage me. Moreover, the musical accompaniment often failed to sync effectively with the prevailing atmosphere. This departure from ideal harmonization was somewhat anticipated for a debut episode, akin to the early stages of other animes I have come to appreciate, such as "Black Clover," ... which exhibited initial roughness. The pacing of the show felt conspicuously irregular, resembling the fluctuating speeds of a child toggling between 2x and 0.5x playback throughout the entirety of the episode. Yet, the animation quality offered a degree of respite from this peculiarity. However, my reservations deepened considerably upon the introduction of the principal character's discourse. This juncture prompted the emergence of significant skepticism regarding the show, as it appeared plagued by glaring plot holes and transgressions against cohesive world-building. Thoughts such as "Why would someone who can't use magic be admitted to a school specifically meant for magic?" "What self-respecting principal of a prestigious school would outright flaunt the death rate of her school?" "why would parents or the government even continue to support such a school?" lingered in my mind. These ruminations persisted throughout the remainder of the episode, prompting an incessant inclination within me to disengage mentally. Despite my initial assessment of the episode as mediocre overall, I committed to persevere and continue watching. Regrettably, as you will subsequently discern, this would prove to be a mistake.

Plot [1.3/10]:

Having watched four episodes from beginning to end, I find myself unable to provide a coherent depiction of the overarching plot's trajectory. The disordered pacing within the narrative serves to obstruct the comprehension of any particular scene. This lack of clarity is further exacerbated by sudden occurrences of events that are devoid of prior buildup and explained poorly, resulting in a profoundly confusing storyline.

For instance, we are abruptly transported from a scene where characters are partaking in a meal at a dining table to an unforeseen entrapment within a labyrinth. In this sequence, an incredibly lust-driven, lunatic senior student is accompanied by a corpse-harvesting senior student, whose appearance resembles that of a middle-aged man, and they proceed to corner the main cast. Bizarrely, a sequence of insults culminates in the improbable emergence of a Kaiju, birthed by the magically aforementioned horny senior, and another one fashioned from dungeon bones created by the senior student who’s appearance contradicted his age.

Moreover, a puzzling inconsistency arises wherein students are expressly prohibited from engaging in fighting each other without the employment of protective spells. Nevertheless, instances materialize where students openly challenge one another to clandestine underground duels or unabashedly launch assaults without apparent repercussions. One of these times, a rather cocky student extends a challenge to the main character, proposing a duel set to unfold within the confines of an underground colosseum. As night descends, the anticipated confrontation without warning, transforms into a hunting competition. But an even more bewildering twist comes in the form of jojo’s part 3 magician’s red cameo, who emerges suddenly and embarks on a spree of indiscriminate student casualties. It is noteworthy that in a prior instance, a student prefect was conveniently present to safeguard students from my prior example. Curiously, this vigilant intervention was conspicuously absent when the student body faced the genocidal bird-man. But In spite of this great tragedy, there were no formal apologies or changes to the school the next day, beyond the students clamoring as if they were wholly unaware that countless students got brutally massacred. Its narrative tries to portray the school as fair and lawful, but somewhat dangerous, but what it shows instead is a hellscape, unfit for study or even living.

Collectively, the plot evokes a semblance akin to that of "Family Guy," characterized by its constant interjection of scenarios, yet lacks the comedic element, instead playing itself completely seriously. It feels like every moment I watch this show, I am met with very slow and arduous scenes that are then abruptly cut to another that is bizarre and edgy to the maximum for just sheer shock value and it seems to have no repercussions to the school setting so it resembles a monster a week type story, well I cant even give it that much credit, as it plays out sort of like the Pokémon anime where there is very little acknowledgment of the prior episode, rather than having a consistent canon.

Setting [2/10]:

In addition to the issues elucidated within the plot section, this section will be a little shorter. There is no effective worldbuilding, foreshadowing, and coherent setup within the narrative. An evident lack of interconnectivity and contextualization pervades the storytelling, resulting in a disjointed portrayal of events. The school's design appears to draw inspiration from Harry Potter's Hogwarts, but it lacks the magical charm and distinctive places that make Hogwarts special. Here, all you have are generic locations you would expect in a magic school but without any lore or interesting features to make it feel lived-in. Instead, we encounter generic magical spots that lack depth or interesting features. Then you have the labyrinth in which the school was unwisely but purposefully built over for unknown reasons that endanger the many students, which calls into question the principals statement of "your life and death are in your hands" when the very building in which they study and sleep in is essentially a death trap, we see bones littered throughout the labyrinth insinuating that no student who had died had ever been ceremoniously buried with respect or even bothered to be recovered despite prefects (senior students, and not specially trained adults) being stationed, the institutions spares no resource to even let the unfortunate families hold a funeral for or even see their child.

The narrative's depiction of these settings is cursory at best, neglecting to furnish pertinent details regarding their interconnectedness, spatial relationships, or navigational logistics. Astonishingly, the student body appears to effortlessly traverse the sprawling expanse of the school without any apparent logistical hindrances, a conspicuous incongruity considering its considerable magnitude.

In summary, the “school” is a morbid and anomalous human meat grinder built upon a glorified mass-grave. The absence of meticulous world-building efforts and the omission of vital particulars, such as geographical orientation and the mechanics of movement, contribute to an overall portrayal that lacks any cohesion and fails to foster an immersive narrative experience.

Characters [1/10]:

Having just described the insanity that is the setting, we rightfully need to populate it with the most perverse, ignorant and unacceptable characters imaginable. To start, the character designs can be deemed passable, without any particularly remarkable or exceptional attributes. While some characters, like Nanao, are more pleasing to the eye, others, including the main character Oliver, are mundane and generic. The crux of the issues, however, resides within the character's writing and portrayal. It can be asserted with certainty that each character within the narrative is either ensnared within a dichotomy of uninspiring banality and clichéd triteness, or they are entangled within an unfortunate embrace of exaggerated edginess and imprudent impracticality.

A recurrent pattern unfolds across episodes, wherein audiences are inundated with introductions to a plethora of nondescript peripheral characters, each flaunting a solitary noteworthy trait engineered either for gratuitous shock value or for the sole purpose of cultivating annoyance. This predicament remains further compounded by the lackluster protagonists themselves. Their motivations for enrolling within such a perilous institution are shrouded in ambiguity, with scant justifications beyond the vague notion of seeking new experiences or acquiring knowledge, often absent in practical execution, in fact, no one seems to realize the dangers they are constantly in, you would expect death-school students to be more competent, hardened and interesting, essentially characters that are just waiting to write themselves into existence, but the author seems more interested in reusing the ignorant and banal mannequins seen in most anime that feature a magic academy.

The dialogue employed within the series is disappointingly bereft of cogency and coherence. The narrative often succumbs to abrupt leaps in logic, inundating viewers with an amalgamation of trite humor, contrived jesting, irksome incongruities, and perhaps the driest and most unmotivated humor that will leave you at your wits end. For instance, a pivotal instance involving Oliver and Nanao partaking in a swordsmanship exercise culminates in an inexplicable shift from mutual respect to an irrationally pronounced intent to lethally engage one another. This unusual character motivation is elucidated by Nanao's perplexing proclivity to associate death with love, which in turn results in her subsequent disposition toward self-destructive tendencies. But this is immediately contradicted by her flashback to a time when she was still in her home country, where that philosophy appears to not exist at all.

Furthermore, the pacing narrative of the show oscillates erratically between sluggish monotony during mundane conversations, emblematic of a snail's languid crawl, and a frenetic, near-breathless tempo during intense combat sequences. A notably vexatious character, Katie, is purportedly an advocate for animal and magical creature rights but she is shown to have no aptitude in anything whatsoever, which subsequently is consistently cast into the role of a distressed damsel, perpetually rescued by her peers. This portrayal, regrettably, undermines her ostensibly compassionate disposition. In a pronounced departure from logical coherence, her presence at a school that openly condones animal subjugation through a conspicuous parade on the inaugural day remains an inexplicably unresolved enigma. This absence of congruence underscores a prevailing tendency wherein characters appear to inhabit their roles merely to fulfill designated slots, devoid of genuine purpose or narrative propulsion.

Each character within the narrative seemingly adheres to rudimentary stereotypes, enshrining them within a rigidly one-dimensional framework. The overarching impression is that of a checklist hastily assembled by the author, failing to furnish characters with any semblance of depth or complexity. Even pivotal figures, such as Guy Greenwood, a central protagonist, are rendered insubstantial, their identity reduced to mere surface-level attributes with a conspicuous dearth of substantive characterization. This narrative impoverishment is further illustrated by the inclusion of psychopathic individuals endowed with the preposterous ability to birth Kaijus, and educators who blatantly inflict torture upon students without incurring any semblance of retribution.

In summation, a pervasive pallor of shallowness, monotony, and banality permeates each character portrayal, collectively yielding a composition rife with generic attributes that ultimately fail to resonate with discerning audiences seeking multifaceted and captivating personas.

Art [6.8/10]:

The artistic direction encompassed by this series exhibits a spectrum ranging from impressive to middling. Particularly commendable is the animation quality evident in the dynamic action sequences, which captivate with their fluidity and precision. Equally noteworthy are the intricately rendered backgrounds, which contribute to the visual depth of each scene. Notably, the fight with the Garuda is strikingly choreographed and effectively captured through thoughtful camerawork, despite facing certain inconsistencies. These deviations are exemplified by Nanao's unexpected ability to decapitate the Garuda, a development that contradicts previous declarations pertaining to her blade's absence of an edge.

The magic although not grounded or explained well, is a common occurrence in the genre but looks stylistically pleasing nonetheless. The series' visual strengths are, however, tempered by interludes of monotony inherent to the storyline, alongside intermittent lapses in meticulous detail.

Taken in totality, the series' artistic direction emerges as respectable, with its laudable components somewhat counterbalanced by the story's inherent limitations. Despite these inherent shortcomings, the series manages to maintain a satisfactory level of visual quality, ultimately contributing to a viewing experience that can be deemed decent in the broader context.

Music [5.7/10]:

The musical accompaniment, while adequately reflective of the narrative's backdrop, regrettably lacks emotional resonance. Although ostensibly aligned with the setting, its utilization often falters, resulting in a disjointed integration within certain segments of each episode. Collectively, the musical score's impact is unremarkable, albeit not egregiously subpar. It would have been apt to categorize it as mediocre, were it not for the frequent misalignment between the music's tonalities and the scenes they underscore. This recurrent misjudgment slightly diminishes its overall quality from middling to a somewhat less favorable evaluation.

Verdict:

Every single episode feels like it's trying to fit a filler story within a bigger filler story, reminiscent of those nested Russian dolls. The result is an incredibly disappointing and cringeworthy watch that leaves you wondering why you invested your time in the first place. This repetitive pattern of unfulfilling content manages to taint the entire viewing experience, evoking a strong sense of repulsion and frustration that's hard to shake off, long after the credits roll. If you have an ounce of self-respect give this show a pass.

I have to say this. I am completely surprised by the rating of this anime. People dropped it too early. The first few episode may seem boring. But before you dropped it, try to continue watching it up to at least episode 6 and then you can reconsider.

A bit of hint: there is a background plot. And this anime is not as docile as it seems from the first few episodes. The world building and the intensity of the story goes up every episode.

Sure at this point this anime just got overshadowed by some other big animes this season. But the score should ... not be this low.

Have you ever watched something that was so bad that it was still fun to watch because of how ridiculous the whole thing was? Yeah, this one is not it.
- The so called plot is so rushed that characters have to explain what is going on as soon as things happen with zero background or context.
- There are no characters; somehow this anime fails at having the most basic and generic characters you could possibly think of.
- The face of the characters is drawn off model several times during a single episode, and even as often ... as 3 times per scene.
- Characters in this show are so overpowered that they would make Kirito blush.

Go watch anything from your PTW list instead. You'll have a better time.

Anime that will get you hooked from the very first episode.
Before the anime was announced I had read my first 3 chapters of light novel. Then dropped it because I don't read light novels.
But just to see what is popular nowadays. And then the announcement came, "Haha I knew they would make anime from this 🤣". Opened Discord and wrote to my friends "I won this bet 👍".
What is good about this anime:
I loved peacing from the start, not slow nor fast.
The action scenes are looking nice and are quite engaging.
The art and animation style is quite good and enjoyable.
It's not the "Let's not ... kill anyone" type of anime. Which is always a good thing.
Mc has a good backstory. No spoilers here.
What would be better?
I want to see more things like the redo of healer or Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo in animes. Or just a little hint of character having you know what with them or not being a total jerk when it comes to basic communication with girls.
Very solid 8/10

Seven spellblades is... quite a few orders of magnitude short of measuring all the edge this show wants to have. Yet with all that edge there are almost no good points to be found.

If you came looking for a good anime Harry Potter with swords I can at least guarantee you most of that statement is true, just not the "good" part. The show is every bit as shallow, cliche, and needlessly grimdark-edgy as one might expect any random mid-late 2000s Harry Potter fanfic to be. In fact I would honestly be more surprised to learn that this show *wasn't* actually just someone's Harry Potter ... fanfic they wrote back in highschool when they still thought edgy meant deep. But enough dunking on the whole, let's waste some time trying to make sense of the parts.

Characters - 1/10 (a point for each dimension they collectively have...)
We've got the kirito one, the suicidal samurai one, the noblewoman one, the dumb jock one, the nerd one, and the animal lover one. That single sentence just did about as much to characterize our main cast as 4 episodes of the show. The only other characterization for them is that they're all mary sues: they are all always right and anyone who dislikes them or disagrees with them is wrong and a horrible person. Speaking of people who dislike them, they're all stereotypical idiot bullies who get easily one-upped the second kirito or suicidal samurai draw their swords (at least half of the main cast exists purely to be protected by our lead duo after all). There are also some obnoxious teachers and some upperclassmen with weird fetishes, but none of them have done anything remotely important.

Plot - 3/10 (placeholder score until a main plot actually happens)
We've got 6 kids at sword hogwarts studying magic and swords. There's not really anything resembling a main plot yet, just some B plot about troll rights. The lack of any main plot is itself not a problem for now, as the core concept of "kids go to sword hogwarts" is more than interesting enough to keep engagement for a while, but the mini episodic plots so far have all been incredibly contrived and cliche to the point where I have almost no faith the eventual main plot will be anything better than bad. Oh and don't forget: if you or someone you know is depressed/suicidal, just tell the person to stop feeling that way and the problem will instantly be solved (/s).

Worldbuilding - 1/10 (How did you fail this horribly this quickly?)
Harry potter with swords. This should be a free 7/10 or better, except in the same breath we explain the concept in the story we immediately undermine it. "We use swords because one time a mage got beat by a non-mage with a sword because magic is bad at close range. Also when you fight with a sword don't forget you can use fast-casting stun/confusion spells which are exceptional for close quarters combat." Seriously, that's (paraphrased) actually how it went. There are also other issues with how the school is run and how we see magic being used in the world, but it's much easier to just point and laugh at immediately invalidating the argument for using swords.

Music - 7/10? (I haven't been paying enough attention tbh)
Fairly certain the OST at least sets a pretty solid mood and fits the show well. I'm honestly too focused on how terrible the writing is 99% of the time to notice it so it's at least not bad.

Animation - 8/10 (it's honestly just good.)
For as terrible as the writing is, at least the show looks good. We've had at least one strong action scene now that was genuinely entertaining enough to make me forget how much I hated how we got to the fight and how the fight was probably going to (and actually did) resolve. I feel bad for the animators, because they deserve to work on better shows than this dumpsterfire.

Edginess - 2000s punk rock/10 (wakemeupinside)
Unless the mortality rate of mages who don't go to school is somehow higher than 20%, I can't see a single reason why anyone should accept the existence of a school where so many people constantly get crippled or die. Then we have suicidal samurai... Then we have people willfully abusing other sentient beings because they are "resources to be exploited" yet also seeming to revel in the fact they are being immoral... Then we have kirito... So far the least edgy things in this show have been the swords, because those apparently are dulled normally for student duels so they don't kill each other in class.

Conclusion: Honestly, if you really want as much edge as this show wants to give, you should just go listen to some Linkin Park or MCR. I guarantee you anything they have put out is better written and more enjoyable. If you want harry potter fanfic, maybe just go dig through AO3. If you want something to hate-watch, welcome to the club, our support group meets at 9pm on Saturdays.

I'd rate this show even lower, but I feel bad for the non-writing artists involved in the production.

Edit after episode 6: I genuinely hope the people saying "it gets really good" weren't referring to the events in this episode. Or maybe I do because at least then I can understand how they fooled themselves into thinking mindless edge is "good" somehow? I don't know, I'm just enjoying the trainwreck colliding with a dumpsterfire by laughing at it.

Another cliche magic school anime with boring characters and the cliche of the power of friendship that resolves any problem, the premise had potential, "a school that is possible die inside while trying graduate", no one died, if died I can't remember because the characters are boring and irrelevant to have any memorable moment.

Art syle is good and was the thing catch me, definite above medium, it can sustain the quality in moments of fights, some episodes with a lot dialogues looks like a good PowerPoint, animation doesn't disappoint much when necessary and music was tasteless to be noted.

Story was very predictable as always ... are in cliche animes, lack of trying new things, lack of killing important characters to make it more intense, verry irrelevant.

So i went in thinking that this had an interesting concept and that it maybe it had a bad rating because it was like an isekai or something like that, i was wrong. The rating in this situation does not lie (it's below 7 rn). The show isn't that good and mind you this is coming from someone with a lot of tolerance for bad and bad-ish anime.

The show even though it has an interesting concept it lacks in a bit of everything. The main cast feels bland, they don't have that "real" feel to them, the story is only a little better than that ... of a generic isekai, the fight choreography is pretty bad, it doesn't feel exciting in the least, i feel like no matter what happens i just don't care. There is nothing that can make this series good, it's not horrendous, but it's not good in any way. The only thing good about it is the concept of "magic is dangerous" and that concept is not done right and is certainty not enough to carry the show by itself. It's a shame because with such a concept if everything was just a little better this show could have been something like a 7/10.

The best way to describe the show is that it's like drinking bad tap water, it's water, so it should be inoffensive, but even as water it's bad.
Just don't waste your time on this, it's not worth it. If you still want to give it a try, watch 2 episodes, those should be enough to give you an idea about the quality of the show.

The Story was less than average and confusing we spend 5+ episodes still learning new charcters that hardly matter to the story

Also the focus on Katie and Nanao is not needed and same could be said for almost all of the charcters its to much to focus on and remember, the main focus should be on Oliver instead of these other background characters who play slight roles in the show
Back to Katie who if couldnt handle the treatment of the magic fauna should have been removed from school and with Nanao who just wants to be unalived

The there is just points where it cuts from ... one moment to another with hardly no context adding to the confusing story
all in all its just meh compared to what other shows you could watch

This series is a bit of a mess as it lacks focus and isn't sure what it wants to be

The Harry Potter comparisons are apt, but clearly in an attempt to avoid those comparisons the series tried to add in all these extra elements and became an even bigger mess than Harry Potter is.

It's a magical high school romp, except they are either skipping class a lot or the school just doesn't do more than two classes a week.
It's a revenge story, except the MC doesn't seem to have much interest in carrying out his revenge
In an overall story premise that makes little sense
The school ... is dangerous because magic is dangerous and can consume the person, but its also made even more dangerous because the teachers and other students are actively out to harm all the students for no real reason other than 'they can'

So you see where everything breaks down, its a mass of ideas, but the worst thing is, they aren't all mixed together in a blender, its like the ideas are all put into a tombola and then drawn out one at a time, focusing on whatever has been drawn out and forgetting about pretty much everything else.
This is why I say it does not know what it wants to be.

One big issue is the cast, it has a cast of six 'main' characters, and yet that cast is often just stripped to two or three of them, and they are just painfully dull
It's actually some of the characters that aren't the main cast that are some of the most interesting and are given some development, backstory and also quite crucially, personality

Thing is, there is clearly potential here, somewhere amongst everything else, and it is not an outright bad series, but nor is it a good series, it does have some good moments, but those good moments aren't enough to elevate it.

This show is so bad I can't even tell you how bad it is without you watching it. I'd rather watch a show of Sonic fanfiction made by AI. The writing is so dry, it makes eating Saltines in Death Valley look wet.

I'm pretty sure every good review is paid for, or is bots with ChatGPT, since every single one mentions episode six. Episode six isn't amazing btw. If you've watched anything besides Hello Kitty and Dora, you saw what was happening since episode one.

The main character feels like a bad isekai self insert of how an introvert with no social ... skills imagines themself, as if they were an extrovert. The characters are so one dimensional it makes Black Clover seem as though the show writers are clones of George R. R. Martin and JRR Tolkien. Episode seven is the moment it all clicked for me, it's just some woke writer again, whose only reason why they have a job is because of the agenda they're trying to push in media. It actually makes me so mad to see this, instead of making something good, they make it solely because it has some genderfluid magic stuff. I don't care if you if the story has an lgbtq+ character, I just hate that lazy garbage is made purely because it has an lgbtq+ character.

All in all, you could use ChatGPT with a different prompt from whatever this anime used, and made a better one. I sincerely hope you didn't/don't have the displeasure of watching this anime, and I HOPE, I NEVER, EVER, watch something as bad as this EVER, again.