Sacred Seven

[Terumi]

Sacred Seven

Tandouji Aruma lives in a Kantou port city, where he meets a mysterious girl named Aiba Ruri asking for his help. Aruma is known as a “Yoshi”, one who possesses the Sacred Seven power, but he declines because he’s become an outcast/delinquent after losing control of his power in the past. Before long, rock demons known as “Ashi” appear and wreak havoc, so Ruri entrusts Aruma with a jewel imbued with her will to help him realize his true power to defeat them. It turns out that Ruri is the wealthy daughter of the Aibi Foundation, and is establishing an anti-Ashi organization because of a past incident. She’s supported by her butler Kagami Makoto and a Maid Unit that he commands.

Seiyuu cast: Nakajima Megumi, Terashima Takuma, Miyu Irino, Ookawa Tooru, Iori Nomizu, Kanae Itō

Director: Yoshimitsu Ohashi
Series Composition: Shin Yoshida
Original creator: Hajime Yatate
Original Character Design: Mutsumi Inomata
Animation Production: Sunrise

Credits to ANN for cast and production information. Edited plot myself :)

 

[Terumi]

Oh yeah!~

Sunrise back with another original work this year! Typically, its your high school action battle series of good versus evil. Weapons of choice? STONES! Read the plot above for more information.

I got sold to this series, its really good for episode 1. OP by FictionJunction was great too, so rare to hear this type of song from them, who usually do slow, sad songs.

Been waiting to hear Takuma Terashima again for some time now, since his exploits in Regios and Princess Lover. Hearing him voice a 'cool' character was refreshing. Wegot lovely Nakajima Megumi to voice our main heroine, rich ojou-sama Ruri. The fights were awesome slick, as expected of Sunrise I should say. I do see some resemblance of Geass, like similar character designs and Aruma's eyes. The story definitely has potential, as I enjoyed the first episode. Note that the story also played some puns with the words, as the weapons of choice in the show is actually stones/rocks, which is 'ishi' in japanese; Ruri entrusts her will to Aruma, in Japanese, will is also 'ishi' .

The highlight to me? THE MAIDS!

Spoiler: MAID!

Ruri's butler, Kagami, controls a group of super gorgeous and deadly MAID UNIT! Snipers, special ops? Sweet stuff! Its been since Princess Lover (again) since I see a group of 'crazily powerful' maids. Am i sold to this? Definitely! :)

 

[corocoro]

It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it got nice action and nicer maids - approved for now. :P

 

[Terumi]

great song~
i believe in sunrise! :)

 

[Kou]

Nice action fights, i keep getting code geass vibe from this lul.

 

[Terumi]

deshou? same here, similar vibes too.

loving the main charas; aruma resembling PoT's Shiraishi so much, and Megumi Nakajima portraying Ruri with such a mature voice. :)

Shiraishi:

Aruma:

 

[falcon10]

At least the company made another anime like code geass?!
But I watched the first episode and I thought the writer got the ideas from rockman and gundam

 

[Terumi]

I agree that the suit sorta resembled zero, my favorite megaman of all time. gotta love sunrise, they definitely know their stuff and how to please the audience, therefore my high ratings and favourtism of them.

characters are so tasty-looking too. beautiful.

holding out for this, very very sure i will enjoy this very much. probably next to (or possibly exceeding) IS this year till now

All the vibes in me cant stop shaking~

Already looping the song endlessly since the day i watched the episode.

 

[Terumi]

Love you guys, Sunrise!

Spoiler: episode 2

Let me start off with this. Damn Aruma, you are really really tall. :) *thumbs up*

Episode this week was simply awesome. How many times can I say that? No idea, Sunrise is the probably the best at what they do, which is keeping me glued for this series weekly. I like how the pace of the show really gotten slow this week, and how they slowly revealed the story behind the stones and our protaganists past which has be interlinked with one another. Good news for me, especially after a very frantic and fast-paced action-packed first episode. Sacred Seven is off to a flying start for an anime, and its here to make a statement in this summer. Afterall, its Sunrise, they are definitely hiding something for us later. Monster/Darkstone of the week centric? Bring it on, loving it~

From the last episode, after the purchase of the entire school, it gets a total revamp. Everything is upgraded, literally. I mean, holy, 380yen (roughly $6-7 here) for a delicious looking steak meal, I would not mind paying it at all, especially when in school! Back in the principal's office, Kagami explains about Aruma's powers and the Sacred Seven, which are actually 7 meteorites which dropped from the sky, which can cause DNA mutation, resulting in beasts and dormant powers. While Aruma still has troubles coming to terms with all the terminologies, he requests some time to think before he decides whether to work with Ruri.

Now obviously you will wonder just how much money Ruri has, able to divert resources of a multinational company into an organisation for combating Darkstones. Shocked to see that all her efforts were for trying to revive her older twin sister, who has been in a crystallised state that day when both her parents got killed. In the end of the episode too, it was revealed she was once saved by a young Aruma, whom has already shown to be able to manifest his powers back then. Ruri is a determined little ojou-sama, the way she simply jumped off to reach Aruma in mid-air showcased her resolve and trust in him. Her cute side cannot be forgotten too, as she blushes while requesting to be placed down after the battle. Top-loli of the summer? Possibly, really liking very much already.

Aruma also gets his flashbacks and past stories, which revealed his past incident of literally destroying a bunch of thugs. I wouldnt blame him though, those guys deserved it, after throwing what seems to a precious stone (probably a memento of his mum who was mentioned earlier) into the river where he spends the entire day there now. Still searching for the stone, Wakan comes up and reveals that she actually first met Aruma here. Sweet moment, evidently Aruma still keeps that stone he got from her from that day.

Action was pretty quick and sick this week, with Aruma showing off the skateboard in the OP, as well as the in-built system in his left eye which responds to his wishes. Cant deny that I see a lot of Megaman resemblances, especially Zero, whom has always been my absolute favorite in the entire franchise.

Anyone getting the Sebestian-vibes from Kagami like me? Obviously not as all-hack-powerful as that demon butler, but Kagami has shown to be very independent and protective of Ruri, enough for him to take personal actions in convincing Aruma in spite of incurring Ruri's wrath by going against her wishes. He's 18.

Aruma: You have a license? (to drive)
Kagami: I am 18. Of course I have one.
Aruma: You repeated? (in school, because he should have already graduated from high school, but he is serving as the student council president now)
Kagami: I have already graduated from Harvard.
/me salutes

That hellbrick is dead hilarious, ending his sentences with -oni. Yoshitsune? LOL~
Hellbrick (while being swallowed) : (￣－￣)♪
Hellbrick (attacked by fishes): Σ(ﾟДﾟ;

The black-ashi-knight makes a debut in this episode. US dudes speaked decent english!) Official site states him as Naito, I will just call him Kuro-Kishi till he makes a proper introduction.

 

[Terumi]

Edited OP post after video was taken down.

Cant wait for episode 3 and getting my hands on the full OP. :)

 

[corocoro]

Spoiler: Stuff

He actually showed up at the end of episode one, picking up the snake-remainder of the Darkstone. Wonder if it's the same as the one from this episode, or if all Darkstones look pretty much like that before finding gems to eat.
The stone Aruma lost was probably one of the Sacred Seven. Anyway, he's now fishing in the river for fragments of it (remember the "I don't collect just any stone." line), maybe to piece it back together or for some other reason. Maintaining his hero mode also seems to be quite expensive, with each transformation eating up a large gem.

 

[Terumi]

Spoiler: fun

yes, saw naito in both episodes. wondering what he is up to now, terrorism attacks? hehe, wanna watch this so badly. nah, its not maintaining. its entering the hero mode that needs the gems :)
but ruri has got all the riches, one or two stones lost in process wouldnt matter~

understatement: aruma is really tall

 

[Terumi]

Spoiler: episode 3

Action packed episode this week. This is how you do shounen fights, Shounen Jump. Stop kicking yourselves with your sub-standards fight and plot. Not over-exagerated, simply great action and innovative fight scenes.

First things first, we have a new slightly edited OP song, with the start and end pictures evidently different, and some animations in between.

This week is the formal introductions of several characters as seen in the OP. We have Kijima Naito (romanised as Knight, but i am keeping the katakana spelling), and Lau Fei Zui. Voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto and Iori Nozimu, that's absolute joyous. Also shown is Dr Kenmi and his research center which shields and researches the Sacred Seven bearers and the powers they possess. He has a rather cute SP, who is unnamed at the moment.

Now, at episode 3 already, there is clearly no main antagonist yet. I am completely ruling Naito out, his actions has not shown that he is in fact the true antagonist. I dont believe his actions to be antagonistic too, no way someone protecting a cute bishoujo like Fei Zui could be a bad guy. Next suspect? Kenmi. I dont like him, I am sure that the first thing that comes to everyone's mind too. His research facilities and calmness looked all too fishy, and his invented power suits match the Darkstones in power. Now, of course I suspect him to have an ulterior motive, and that something may have forced both Naito and Fei Zui to escape the facility.

Much to be said about Naito's motive, but he desperately wants Kenmi's life. He is also after some medicine that he produces, which will calm his Darkstone transformation down, something which he is running short on supply. Kenmi also said he was responsible for the past Ashi attacks, something which I think isnt entirely true, given his reactions after Aruma's questioning.

How rich are you, Ruri? That gem purchased at the beginning of the episode was clearly off the charts. I believed she might have already won with half her price. 9.9 million pounds, thats no joke Ruri. I stand by Onigawara's stance of stop overpaying for the gems. With that said, Naito says she is a 'Yoshi', which means 'good stone' which is probably the opposite of the Darkstones. Aruma simply goes berserk trying to keep his Darkstone powers in check, while Naito can freely utilise and summon other Darkstones to do his bidding. Pretty sure Naito's next target is Ruri now, given that she can most definitely transform him into something like Aruma.

Too many questions, too little answers. Looks like next episode would not answer much too, but this episode is definitely keeping me on my toes weekly. Keep it up, Sunrise. Love you guys!

 

[Terumi]

OP 1.5 (in chinese subs, only one i saw on youtube)

OP FULL PV

Seriously, i can go on listening to this song endlessly for 2 weeks now, and frankly i am not sick of it at all. This is so good~ so long since Straight Jet from IS. :D

 

[Terumi]

skipping my episode 4 review though, but one point of note.

Official english confirmation:
Tandouji Alma -> I will stick with Alma then from now.

 

[Terumi]

Spoiler: episode 5

Well well, this teaches never to trust Sunrise when they give you a beach episode preview the previous week.

What i anticipated to be another filler to slow the pace of the show, turned out to be a most eventful one instead. Of course i didnt expect it to turn into a kagami episode, but we got to know more about him, which was pretty much needed in every case. Flashback~ and reveal that the Kagami family has been serving the Aiba family for generations, a role which Kagami inherited, thus making him over-protective of Ruri. Drawing it to the next case, his armor suit definitely needs an upgrade. One, it needs space for another person, in the episode, Ruri had to settle outside and risk being harmed. Second, that CANNON. Come on, after all the equipment talk and destruction guarantees, shoot it dude. However, thank goodness Kagami didnt, and instead took up the gem inside (most likely the energy source) and handed it to Ruri for Alma's transformation.

Oh no Alma! What was with that face! Hide it! You will score excellent marks if you keep that up! :) For a beach episode, not much service, except for Nanami, Ageha and Ruri. Boy, did the megane-ko looked stunning. Ruri aint half bad herself, but her dress seemed like she was attending some wedding party instead of a beach vacation. Nonetheless, Alma threaded along his Ashi powers again this week, showing off a new attack in his true form, which probably cuts only Darkstones, seeing it avoid Ruri and Kagami.

One More Night. More Naito action and Kenmi next week. Things are back on track~ Though i think everyone just wants to see Fei. :)

 

[Terumi]

Spoiler: episode 6

Ruri is in extreme danger, and I really dont like the feel of it.

Troubled by her advances, Alma is slowly getting conscious of Ruri's lingering presence around him. It was very cute to see the 'couple' interaction when Ruri asked Alma for lunch. Her chara changed a little during that scene, but definitely nice to see her acting all cute and otome-poi, all until Alma accidentally spouted the words 'troublesome'. Troubled at both ends, Ruri and Alma left each other unceremoniously.

Now, the title, One More Night, come on~ Naito abducts Ruri to make serum from her. He is out of the serum to keep his Darkstone powers in check, and resorted to kidnapping Ruri for possibly her Lightstone blood to keep his powers in check. Seems like all this time, Fei has been using her own blood, but the effects are wearing off. Absolutely hiralious to see Hellbring get split into halves and Alma fixing him later with superglue and tapes. While Alma had determined that he go alone for the search for Ruri, after Kagami ditched in fears that he may lose control over his Darkstone powers near Naito without Ruri.

Action were great this week, starting with the fire Darkstone at the beginning and the fight between Naito and Arakune (Kenmi's SP, whose name was revealed this week). Sad to see, the fan-service pack's arm got severely injured, after Naito stabbed through her armor and arm. Any the case, Naito's motives still remain unclear, i see no reasons for him to travel out and create trouble once he has gotten Ruri.

Quite the set-up episode this week, revealed Naito's past history and setting the probable next 2 episodes on Ruri's kidnapping. Preview title revealed a fair bit of spoiler, I am looking to watch!

 

[Terumi]

will have to skip my weekly review till my exams are over.
freebies for the week:

they changed the op and ed around, new animations and all looked awesome.
episode 7 was really damn good.

 

[Terumi]

Spoiler: episode 8

filler episode? bring it on! there is a reason why i love the episode deep deep, despite the filler tag, i will go ahead and review.

First things, after the very 'shocking' revelations that kenmi is the true protaganist, Ruri and Kagami has decided to investigate further into the matter. With that, Kagami flies solo, apparently meeting up with an old friend, who strongly advised him against probing further into Kenmi's group, with Kenmi's assistant snooping in secretly.

An ingenious plan by Hellbrick lands Ruri and Alma in a date! Ruri, insecured by Alma's attitude towards her and the fights, tries to tie down Alma, by preparing a contract of sorts, only to be met with dissent by Alma. I HAVE TO AGREE WITH HELLBRICK'S PLAN: Ruri should just go hug him and 'onegai'. Most guys will just melt and say yes,me probably too, because i acknowledged Ruri was one of the, if no the, top 'lolis' this season. With the suggestion not going through, Hellbrick fakes a death time because he got split, throwing Ruri and Alma into Alma's old residence, Kamakura for a date.

Alma ought to praise Ruri for her dressing. Wonder how did she even agreed to wear those. Her maids must have some really bad tastes though, i pictured her looking much more gorgeous in a short cut dress. Back to the date, more uncertainties stirred in Ruri, as Alma was uncooperative at times. Come on dude, give her a break, how much of her finances do you think ou caused her already. Everything boiled out at the ramen store, after Ruri's confession that she is feeling down after the events and Alma is certainly not helping the situation. Realising the insecurities he caused, Alma makes a change and decides to tag along with Ruri and her fights, because withouther, he cant do anything. Literally.

The idea to hold hands till the rock shines was ingenious like i mentioned. Watching Ruri and Alma blushing while holding hands was really cute, they look good together despite the obvious height differences. With that, while handing back, they stopped by the beach, which had lots of guests, because the previous fights caused the waters to be unsafe. Playing at the sea, Alma's hime-sama gokko returns, scooping Ruri out of the waters and later playing fireworks with her.

Back home, the maids run amok like crazy girls reading shoujo manga, and situation was not helped when Ruri declared they were this, and flashing her pinky. Ruri, it is best you dont know. KAWAII-YATSU MEH!

With that, next episode showed a lot of running. Yes.

 

[Terumi]

Spoiler: episode 9

9 episodes in, and the training starts? Haha, Kagami's training regime starts Arma everyday now it seems, seeing him not able to handle any of the maids, let alone Kagami while sitting down, draws a striking contrast of his powers in his Liberator form. Yes, his 'yoshi' form is known as the Liberator form, for now, though clearly, we are still kept in the dark of its true actual (7) powers, 2 of which Arma debuted in this episode. Hard to see anyone survive that kindof cloberring in real life, and the infamous 'shounen-spirit' of not losing, which resulted in his nick of time results and sudden bursts of powers. Niche? Yes. Effective? Definitely.

9 episodes in, and everyone's noticed that Arma has changed from his old reclusive self. Other students are more than willing to talk and joke with him now, even clearing the old conceptions of him. On side note, Wakana may have hinted feelings for Arma, saying that he is something she will want in her collection. Triangle? Dont think, Ruri has got this in the bag.

We got to the ultra laser which Kagami failed to shoot a few episodes back, I had to say I was expecting something flashier than that. Ruri fail gun was best, how the hell did she even miss such a fatass? Even if no headshot, at least hit his ridiculous stomach? LOL.

Whatever the case, for this 12 episode original work from Sunrise, with my previous excitement about the show, it definitely has not let me down. Cliche, generic whatever you call it, but its a good gem to have spotted this, and of course, believing in Sunrise and their abilities to bring back and erupt some faint resemblances to Geass was critical. Story is no where from any conclusion yet, there is still much more questions.

Well then, more Naito next week again. We will also get to see Aoi's memories of sorts, what meaning it has, is of course beyond me now. Nyahahaha

 

[Terumi]

Spoiler: episode 11

Best episode of the series and probably this july season of shows to date, only the last episode is capable of better.

Aiba Foundation's massive tax evasion schemes have been ratted to the police by Kenmi, which puts Ruri under arrest. No wonder why Ruri seemed to have an endless stream of cash, she had dummy accounts and set up so that even if the company go bust, she has enough for all her servants and maids for the rest of their lives. What a great ojou-sama.

Behind the farce, Kenmi's true motives are revealed this week, in abeit the sick mad scientist type. Tracked back to Aztec's history of human sacrifice, the origins of the Sacred Seven derived from the hearts of the people, in the hearts hold the core of the Sacred powers, which Kenmi wants desperately to take his place with gods. In that attempt, the 'arrested' Ruri ends up on his operation table, I felt so pain for Ruri. The knife can never be not painful, but thank god she activated her 'crystal' mode in an attempt to stay alive and hope for Arma's arrival.

The maids are amazing really, everyone will want them as their diposal. 'Fired' by Aiba Foundation, they taken their own course of actions, serving and taking orders from Kagami again to rescue Ruri, along with Arma and Fei. With another ally in Naito who has already inflitrated Kenmi's headquarters, Fei and Arma goes into a secret passage before encountering Honyu, Fei's berserk brother. Clashing into some sort of storage room, Arma recovers his long lost pendant while leaving Naito and Fei to deal with Honyu.

Was kinda relieved to see Kenmi not interfere in the sweet moments of Arma's 'confession' after saving Ruri from her crystal stage, he went mad instead revealing that he was the one true mastermind (we know) who plotted Arma into using his powers because Arma's powers are the purest and probably the most powerful to date ever. With the subsequent berserk actions of Honyu, he was murdered by Kenmi, who stabbed and retrieve his heart, revealing a Sacred core, before placing it in his suit. Looks like Kenmi just simply wanted to be a Sacred, his suit and body was contorted into a seemingly-darkstone like figure, effectively setting himself a death flag called the 'Last Boss'.

The whole buildup in the final stages of the episode was extremely well done and directed, as expected of Sunrise. The angst, rage and un-easiness at the Kenmi scene was all the materials for a success episode, it evoked a lot of emotions inside me.

I really worry for Fei now, who was so distraught over her loss of her brother she thought she had recovered, her eyes pupils changing shape into what seems like darkstone. She is a lightstone right? Transformation? No please! Similar case to Arma, whose eyes started to glow in his Liberator colors, might he possibly to able to go Liberator mode without Ruri and her stones help anymore? Whats with the preview of showing enough by Arma's boots? I hope Kenmi dies a horrible death.

Last episode next week, will review and wrap up one of my favorite shows this year.

 

[Terumi]

Spoiler: episode 12

Zero, is that you!?!?!?!?!

Last episode! Kenmi goes on a mad power trip after obtaining the Sacred powers, while Naito's attempts are futile. Sunrise gave us a video-game ending, yes, Alma power-uping into his true Sacred Taker form, an uncanningly resemblance to my favorite Megaman Zero. With defeat around the corner for Naito as he is severly beaten by Kenmi who used Fei as a shield to stop his attacks, Fei starts to grief and believe it was all her fault that her brother was killed and others around keep getting hurt. Her red eyes and eventual conversion into a teddy-bear like Darkstone was well within expectations.

With that, I really feasted on Alma's new Sacred Taker form. As I said, it really looks like Zero, I had my fingers crossed that what happened to Zero would not happen to Alma, given their similar plights at the series finale. Alma shows off awesome execution, pummeling Kenmi, until the interference of Fei, whose attacks actually power-uped Kenmi into a golden beast. I wouldnt give credit to that, but Alma's race around Mt. Fuji to build up a crazy strike on Kenmi was fun to watch, very shounen-esque if you ask me, but nice.

With Kenmi's defeat in sight, he plants the core of Hon into Fei, tasking her with all his crazy ambitions of destroying the world. Didnt you want to become god? The awakened Aoi gives Naito his powers, changing him into his Liberator form for the first time, in some angelic fashion, in contrast to his similar darkstone designs. While Fei goes berserk, Alma conveys what he has been through to her, as both were in the same plight of 'I should not have this power. Everyone will have trouble.' -type of feeling, before Naito eventually saves Fei from the inside. Everything heads for happy end. :)

FYI, Arakune sorta 'ran' off again in midst of combating Kagami. I think Sunrise did forget something, as the battle was definitely not settled yet. A Naito special was announced, most likely in the BDs i guess, I would have wanted a sequel OVA or movie. :3

Spoiler: series review

Call it generic, call it formulalistic, but I love this show. Sure, the pacing are irregular, with the last 2 episodes being played exactly to what I had imagined, I am sure others had the same thoughts too. Plot has been predictable, like who is the bad guy exactly, but it is the execution and delivery that counts, and in Sacred Seven's case, it has been well done.

I rarely back down from Sunrise original series, I will admit that I did watch the show in anticipation of finding another gem from Sunrise like what Geass became. Although this ended up as a normal series eventually, I am glad I sticked. Production wise apart, Sacred Seven has been excellent in delivery and execution, as expected of Sunrise. The very obvious plot leaves it in its wake, the potential was there, but not properly used.

Full of action, this series would have been done better if given more than 1 cour, which will at least allow explainations of the 7 Sacred powers, along with better and more detailed events. Some other things should have also been touched not, like why the only one mecha suit was made, or the whole Aztec story.

Its been a fun ride, I will admit, I look forward to this show every week more than some others, its among the top 3 shows I must watch first hand weekly. Nothing much memorable I guess, but the experience was great nonetheless. And of course, I give my vote to 'stone cold' for song of the year, even before 'Straight Jet' from IS. Now i close off this great series review. :3

 

[DarkMJ]

Very good manga :)
it makes me think Megaman