Anime Review: Sacred Seven
Title: Sacred Seven
No. of episodes: 12
Genre/s: Action, Mecha
Synopsis:
Tandouji Aruma is known as a delinquent in his school. In reality, he is just a loner detached to any human relationship. Until Aiba Ruri asked for his help by using his power of the Sacred Seven. Of course, he turned her down. But when a monster attacked the city, Aruma decided to use his power to fight it. Unfortunately, he went berserk and the only person who can help him control it is the girl he previously met.
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Not only a loner and brooding guy, Tanjouji is often the misunderstood type of guy. He is infamous for his “inhuman” strength that defeated a bunch of thugs. This resulted to him being the most fearful guy in school. However, that rumor does not discourage the president of the Rock club to persuade him in joining them. Obviously, he refused. But not until Ruri asked for his help in defeat the Darkstones. Lately, some rocky creatures are turning the city into chaos; putting the lives of its inhabitants to danger. Ruri knows that Tandouji have some kind of power similar to Darkstones, and if used properly, can actually defeat the evil rocks. He agrees when he feels something tugging inside him when near a Darkstone, not to mention his past that he couldn’t leave behind.
So we have what it seemed an action-packed series, with some high school fluff, and family drama. Right from the first episode, Sacred Seven shows a promising plot ahead. The entire premise of the story is interesting, indeed. But my interest goes up and down throughout the series. The plot is nowhere near complex yet it becomes confusing when the main story is being interrupted by filler episodes. One episode it’s action and drama here and there, next one it’s a high school life filler episode. It’s like the creators are trying to establish the relationship of the characters, at the same focusing in the main goal of the whole story.
It does not help that this is only a 12-episode anime to contain all those things. In other words, it should have been more direct, and have faster pacing of events. You should not be surprised if you do not understand why Character A responds like this, or Character B chooses to do that etc.
In most shounen series, be it in anime or manga, the hero is most likely powerless at first and a bit troublesome to others. But he has always this something that he wants to protect. Later on, this something will bring out the best of him. And yes, Tandouji is just like that; your average shounen lead. Being the awkward guy that he is, Tandouji is not good in building friendship with other people. At least, not until he meets Ruri and becomes a member of the Rock Club. Just like our lead guy, the rest of the characters are not that remarkable. Let’s see, we have a loli-like female lead, a butler who seems to be a rip off of Sebastian (Kuroshitsuji), an oddball club president, a bunch of kickass maids, and some standard villains. Good thing is the leads have some developments in their personalities while the others remain the same. Meh.
Unlike for some who have watched this and liked the op and ed songs, it takes me a while to appreciate the songs. Out of all the songs, the one that stands out is Stone Cold. It suits the entire mecha atmosphere this anime is emitting. The others are melodramatic but isn’t that good enough to leave an impression.
The art resembles Code Geass since the head in the character design is the same as CG. Sadly, this one is a little inconsistent in the design. Sometimes the characters look a little different with a. The biggest problem is Tandouji’s and Ruri’s body build. Tandouji is so huge, even taller than most of the guys. Then, there’s Ruri and her small built. It wouldn’t have been a problem if she isn’t paired with Tandouji. They look so awkward with their height difference.
I think this will be the first time I’ll be commenting to the voice actor/actress. With Ruri’s loli looks alone, more often than not, the voice will be high-pitched plus some clingy attitude. To my relief, it is not. It is rather deep that it surprised me when I first heard about it. The others are good.
While I enjoyed this at some point, I cannot say that I can 100% recommend this. It has its good parts but it does not outweigh the bad ones which I’ve stated above. It could have been a good action anime if not for the unnecessary drama and anticlimactic scenes. Despite that, this is still pretty decent to watch. You’ll just have to watch this when you’ve run out of other good series to watch.
