Wakaranai

  A selection of screencaps for Manglobe’s anticipated fantasy anime, The Sacred Blacksmith, were posted today on the internet’s foremost otaku-blog, AkibaBlog. The show, based on a series of novels, is set to air next season and has received a healthy amount of buzz and promotion, with two promising PVs already released. This could be shaping up to be Manglobe’s big success story, at least in Japan (it’s doubtful it could ever surpass Samurai Champloo’s sales abroad).

The screencaps can be seen below, but visit ➨AkibaBlog to see them in their full dimensions.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The caps are a more high-quality look at the strong art and animation values behind the series that we’ve already glimpsed in the PVs. As I’ve said many times before, the character designs are superb. They have a slightly more generic feel than Manglobe’s previous character designs (and the same thing could be said about the show as a whole), but they are still highly attractive and well-detailed. But the above caps best illustrate the promise of the show as an action series, with some very cool fight sequence moments captured, and some very polished-looking magical effects. The remaining screencaps exhibit something else entirely:

ｷﾀ━━━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━━━ !!!!!!! Thrown in as a much-appreciated compliment to the fantasy battling are some hints of fanservice. It looks like the above character (lead female, Cecily) gets some kind of magical-girl styled transformation sequence! Sexy!! I like series with a good blend of action and tasteful ecchi content, so I’m happy with these caps! Cecily herself has actually been one of the main pulls of the show for me - I’m totalled enamoured with her design. Her various facial expressions seem to suggest both a tough, valiant side, and a cute bishoujo one ♥. Maybe my fondness for her is due to, as others have pointed out, her vague resemblance to the popular Biri-biri. I sincerely hope that her seiyuu, Ayumi Fujimura does something great with her.

Look forward to the first episode on Sun, October 4th 24:30 on Chiba TV.

Check out my ➨full write-up for this upcoming series if you want more info and the PVs.