The Sacred Blacksmith | First Impressions

The next series to cut into my sacred time is Manglobe's latest, The Sacred Blacksmith. Their reputation has taken a bit of a hit lately, as their output has been progressively getting worse even since they created the hit series Samurai Champloo (2004). Ergo Proxy (2006) is a good series, but not as good as it could have been as it dabbled in pretense far too much. Michiko and Hatchin (2008), Manglobe's previous (and by far weakest) effort, also squandered its potential. It had so much going for it too as great production values, a well-researched setting, and slick direction from promising rookie director Sayo Yamamoto were destroyed by disappointingly limp writing. Now Manglobe is actually adapting something rather than creating something original like they have in the past; and what they are adapting didn't appear to be all that interesting at first glance. The question is: Have they gotten back on track?

Demons aren't easy to domesticate.
Seems like rookie knight Cecily didn't get that memo.

Surprisingly, I think we may have an early contender here! Out of all the opening episodes I have watched so far, this is the only one that I have enjoyed from start to finish. Granted, the first episode is far from perfect and is not terribly impressive, but it managed just click with me, and that is all that really matters. As expected the animation is quite good (though not quite as good as it was in Michiko and Hatchin), the background art is crisp and detailed, the character designs are colorful and appealing, the voice work is pretty good (I really like Cecily's voice actress), the ending theme is cute and catchy, and the plot shows some promise. Though not much really happened first episode (Cecily really needs to get out of the rut of repeatedly having to be saved by Luke), but what did happen was executed very well as the cliffhanger really left me wanting to watch more.



With potential winners in Kuchu Buranko, Kimi ni Todoke, and Sasameki Koto in the horizon, I don't expect The Sacred Blacksmith to be the series of the season. But with the very good first episode and with plenty of people (myself included) not expecting a lot out of this series, it has the makings of a good sleeper pick. Looking forward to seeing if it lives up to it potential.

Being a knight and a female does have its advantages ...

... and also its disadvantages.