Reign of the Seven Spellblades

[KriegGuardsman]

So, I saw the rating of this manga and was quite shocked. 7? How does it deserve such a low number? It didn't look so bad that time I checked the first chapter! Hence, I read the 5 chapters that, as of 18/06/20, were uploaded, and give my review.

The short version of my review, for those who don't want to get the manga spoiled, is: this is a good story with the potential of being great or fucking terrible. I have reason to hope for the former outcome, but be ye warned. Here's the rest of my thoughts

The setting is the very familiar magic school. Kimberly will really remind you of Hogwarts, with its weird rooms and dangers, but without the stupid houses system. The tone, however, leans on the grim one, but not edgy. The restraint the author shows in depicting the dark stuff is quite refreshing.

The characters show promise, but risk being held back by idiotic clichées. I was having good vibes for two whole chapters. The dynamic that I thought was forming between them sounded interesting. Nona and Oliver seemed to have some strong interaction that can then evolve into romantic attraction, and I wouldn't have loudly groaned at that. What made me loudly groan was the (don't worry, it happens in chapter 2, can it really be considered a spoiler?) revelation that Katie likes Oliver. The following chapter pretty much confirmed that yeah, that's romantic attraction (as far as manga shorthands go). Maaaaaaaan, really? You've known this guy for one day and already wanna bang him, because he's (whatever she said he was)? Are you sure about that, chief? I would like to think that actually it's Katie who's the main love interest, but damn this does stink of the tired old one-sided-love-triangle I've seen waaaaay too much in recent works. Seriously, there's 2 other male characters in the main cast, one of which seems to have somewhat of a prior relationship with her. Anyway, I just don't want the other cast members to divolve into "harem or drone".

Literally the only thing that makes me fear for the worst is the last thing I talked about. For the rest, it's more than fine.

 

[4V29LN0n]

I don’t understand why people are so defensive about the manga. It has decent score, gets a lot of views. What more do you want?

It’s still trash though. The novel could be the greatest thing ever, doesn’t make this adaptation less shit.

 

[Turkeyjerkey]

@Null_Existence
@AngryFerret
7 is an average score. Do you think every series deserves a 10? There is absolutely nothing outstanding here. Generic characters, generic premise, generic story. It in no way exceeds the low standard set by other manga and light novels.

None of the characters act like real human beings, they're all just stock archetypes that were never good or interesting to begin with. The premise of a magic school has been done to death. The story is just going to be your typical harem action series with edge some thrown in. As for pacing, even slow-burn series should grab you right from the start. But this isn't slow-burn pacing, it's just dull. Everything in this series could be found in 10,000 other series. It is a slapped-together mishmash of cliches that offers nothing original.

If you're not completely tired of this stuff yet then fine, but that doesn't make it worthy of a 10. At most, it's just popcorn fluff, there to entertain and fulfill your fantasies, but lacking any substance.

 

[Ayreos]

This is a masterpiece. The taste-impaired commenters who don't get it wouldn't be able to gauge the quality of any other art form either, I suspect. This would be a masterpiece even if it was drawn as stick figures or if it was an official adaptation of harry Potter.

@Turkeyjerkey
MC lacks a family, so he can't help but to be friendly despite his own problems. Samurai girl is probably looking to be killed by someone like her to atone because she hates killing but loves winning death matches, a contradiction she cannot endure. Tense emotional duel has already occurred. Small girl is an animal activist finding out the harsh reality of dealing with animals in a professional setting.
That level of deep characterization before 10 chapters and more set up. Yeah, you might find more than this if you read Dostoevsky or another classic author in literarure, but in this medium? It's a 9 or 10. This is the correct way to rate a combined art form. If any of the art forms involved hits a peak compared to the rest of the medium, the whole work does as well.
Your "none of the characters act like human beings" is proof of your error, you must be thinking of a movie or a novel to not know manga has specific pacing requirements. For every emotion you need to draw a new expression, which means a new panel. So in manga with tight page requirements you gotta skip most of the character motivations to maintain flow, which requires imperfect creative solutions. The motivations are all being presented together as I listed above, and in record page count!

 

[pizzapicante27]

@AngryFerret I didnt, but I can totally understand why someone would do so from a description that reads: "Harry Potter but angsty and edgy".

 

[Aoatique]

I think this is a good shit
Definitely deserve 8/10 or more
But most people seem to only vote for 10 and 1 on this website
Refreshing to see many different score on this manga

 

[Turkeyjerkey]

@Ayreos
Perhaps you should wait until you're older before you start judging whether something is a masterpiece or not. Give your brain a little more time in the oven, ya know?

Sorry, that was condescending, let me start again. Go read a bunch more manga. Expand your tastes and horizons. Explore interesting and original works that offer more than just prepubescent wish-fulfillment. Then come back here and judge for yourself whether this is a "masterpiece," or just another ln adaptation to throw on the pile.

 

[AngryFerret]

@Turkeyjerkey

I didn't say that this one should be 10/10, but it also doesn't deserve scores like 1 or 4 and basically on this site avg. scores below 8 mean either ecchi or something bad. True it's ridiculous but this how it is on MangaDex.

The manga art is nice, it avoided some of the cliches and the author build a rather nice atmosphere that could lead to somewhat good and original story development. So yeah it deserves 8/10, especially if you compare it to other cliche mangas with a higher score.

 

[Ayreos]

@Turkeyjerkey
Sadly for me, I'm probably far older than yourself and have read far more manga than yourself.
Just using the term "wish fulfillment" is shallow understanding of the genre and art mediums in general. Western media is full of what you call "wish fulfillment", it's just done differently and camouflaged slightly more. I got the works of Juan Giménez recently and aside from the phenomenal art it's as bad as the worst manga, mostly smut and power fantasy.
I have spent years trying to accumulate high brow reads, but it was a mistake. Shakespeare was never supposed to be high brow, for instance. Just like most ancient literature. Cool deeds by cool heroes and plenty of their sexual exploits. Nothing new under the sun.
There is nothing good in pretending humans are only deep and complex, just at much as pretending they're nothing but animals. Real life humans are deluded without base wishes and damaged without deeper pursuits. So is art. And this manga has a great balance.

 

[Turkeyjerkey]

@AngryFerret
I honestly think the rating system is flawed mostly because of how it interacts with human psychology. When people like something, they'll often rate it a 10, and when they don't like it, a 1. Part of that is trying to counteract the scores other people give it. Because the ratings system is an average, more extreme scores will have a larger effect. If you see other people rating something you like a 1, you might feel compelled to rate it a 10 to counterbalance that, even if you think it really is a 7 or 8. Likewise a series you don't like getting a bunch of 10s might make you give it a 1, even if you think it really deserves a 4. Everything below an 8 is considered "bad" leaving out more than half the scoring system.

Nobody sees your vote, only the average, so instead of voting what a series deserves, people will often vote an extreme number to try to drag that average closer to what they think the series deserves. It's for these reasons that Youtube switched from a 5 star to a like/dislike system.

Really neither is ideal for judging a manga. Best just to develop a sense of your own tastes, then you can usually tell whether you'll like a series from the cover, description and tags. They say don't judge a book by its cover, but because manga often use particular art styles according to their target audience, you can tell a lot from that alone.

As for me, I'd rate this series a 6, but personal taste plays a large role in that. I tend to rate originality very highly now and would rather read something flawed, but unique than something competent, but standard. Used to prefer more standard series, just got tired of them after a while.

 

[Turkeyjerkey]

@Ayreos
Spoken like a true 13 year old, you can't fool me.

 

[ocram96]

Honestly, i m glad this series picked my interest before i could be influenced by this low score. It has only few chapters so i give it a try and i dont think it deserves a 7 score. Of course i mean by mangadex standards, usually everything below 7.80 is quite dull so i wouldnt normally pick it up. In the end i give it a 8 which is what i think the score should be after so many chapters (5 as of know) and i dont usually give a score to a manga before 20chapters in which i think many people on this site should start doing. I m npt even trying to defend this mangas originality or anything, its just that if you are someone whos read a ton of others mangas i dont think it will be easy to find something that feels really good and original therefore u shouldnt let that to f**k the score up since its not based on similiarities with other works. On the other hand if you are not a very experienced reader you should wait untile 15chapters to give a reliable score. Either way i think the key is just patiance, if you dont have it you can always just drop from reading without the need of giving 1 to 4 scores which should be really reseervd for reeeally shitty materials. Dont know if it makes sense, just wanted to give my opinion on this matter. Peace ✌

 

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

The pacing is really slow but it allows for the world and character to be fleshed out very well. This manga doesn't deserve that 6.7 rating, give it a read.

 

[gandung777]

so basically this is a weebs Hogwarts with swords? I want Clortho high as cameo or mahotokoro

 

[NeoAnything]

"The pacing is really slow but it allows for the world and character to be fleshed out very well. This manga doesn't deserve that 6.7 rating, give it a read."

The world is decent but the characters are boring as fuck and almost non-exploited (yet ?), I really don't know what you could mean there. It feels rushed as hell, the characters are empty and we don't have time to care about what's happening
I think it deserves a 7, so it's not too far-fetched right now. It's worth discovering, because it's so short, and I really hope it's gonna get better, because right now it's kinda bland (even though the world is quite interesting, as gandung777 stated it has an hogwarts vibe)

 

[4V29LN0n]

@NeoAnything It means they like the novel and blind of this manga adaptation's shortcomings. Honestly the comments defending this manga sound like they come from brainwashed cult members.

 

[Teniken]

This series is definitely at best a 3/10

 

[Retneu]

Ok so this manga is basically Hogwarts but instead of all the cool shit in Harry Potter, this manga just makes you think "Holy fuck why is this allowed??".

 

[ckxii]

During the first chapters im getting Harry Potter vibes but as the chapter goes on it gets boring and felt rushed.

I turned to the Novels and i can see why people are shitting on the manga adaptation.

 

[hmmboi224]

some tasty cringe right here trying to be more than it is
but who's complaining