English Dub Season Review: Reign of the Seven Spellblades Season One

Overview:

It’s springtime at Kimberly Magic Academy, and new students are beginning their first year. Among them are a skilled and studious boy, Oliver, and a headstrong samurai girl, Nanao. They soon form a unique bond in the halls of Kimberly, but this picturesque school isn’t what it seems. Dark secrets and endless danger lurk behind every corner. Can these wizards make it to graduation alive?!

Our Take:

It’s very rare to see a series go past twelve or thirteen episodes and not get an entire second cour but I guess there’s a first for everything. It was really disappointing for me to not get more of this series because I had a lot of fun with it. I read the first volume of the light novel but that only covered the first six episodes or so and I anticipated every episode after that. The arcs that were covered were fascinating and I have to say that the world building here was some of the best I’ve seen recently.

If you’re a fan of the Harry Potter franchise or it sounds interesting to you but you avoid it due to personal reasons then let me give you Reign of the Seven Spellblades as an alternative. The magic system in this is really interesting because they don’t just value spells but also close combat. It’s called “one-step, one-spell” distance and it means you can cast spells but also attack with your “Athame” which is like a shortsword that they also use as a spellcasting focus. The spell part of the equation is harder for Nanao to do because she is the epitome of a samurai. She uses her katana to solve most problems.

This leads me to the characters and I have to say they’re all really enjoyable. Nanao and Oliver are the two standouts, I really wanted to see where their relationship would go. Their friends that join the group all have some memorable moments except for Guy, he got next to no development but I would imagine that would come later if we perhaps get a second season.

This series was a lot of fun for me and I would recommend it but it’s ending isn’t ideal. You’re going to be left with more questions than answers and you will definitely want more and I’m not sure you will get it in anime form at least. For fans of the story itself, all is not lost because the light novel is being localized in English. I have the first six volumes and I will definitely start reading it now because my interest has been piqued. I suppose if you want to decide how well a series did that is where you would look. Does it leave you wanting more? In the case of Reign of the Seven Spellblades that answer was yes.