Anime Review - The Sacred Blacksmith

The Sacred Blacksmith is an anime series from Studio Manglobe (Samurai Champloo & Sengoku Basara). Based upon a series of light novels by Isao Miura it tells the story of Cecily Campbell, a third generation knight from the city of Housman. Although she means well, she finds herself stumbling and bumbling her way through a series of encounters until she teams up with the mysterious blacksmith Luke Ainsworth and his trusty sidekick Lisa. Forty four years have passed since the Vanbanill War and fears are raised that war will once again ravage the land.



To be honest, before getting my hands on this series I had never heard of The Sacred Blacksmith. In a way, I think this may have added to my overall impression of the series. Blacksmith is a fantastic series set in a fantasy world full of beautiful environs and moe characters.

The story is solid, not outstanding but certainly solid. It establishes a rather deep back story which could be expanded on to no end. I feel as though if this were a 24 episode series they really could have given us a better insight into what makes our protagonists tick and what wounds afflict the world that they inhabit. The characters, although built on classic anime cliche, are extremely likable and here lies the beauty of the series. The relationship between Cecily and Luke is comedy at its best while young Lisa is somehow youthful, innocent and tawdry all at once. Her innocent charm makes her infatuation with Cecily's boobs all the more funny.

The animation standard is great, especially with regard to the backgrounds and environments, which makes the universe of The Sacred Blacksmith all the more immersive. Generally the animation is of a fantastic standard. Original character designs by Luna are... er... original. The moe although obvious isn't blatant or terribly out of place. There is a fair amount of fan service but nowhere near enough to be offensive or ludicrous. If anything, it goes towards emphasizing the femininity of Cecily, our beautiful and headstrong heroine. The animation is crisp and vibrant with barely a single artifact in sight. Madman have done a great job of this transfer.

The music in this series is just as good as everything else. The score is is an epic melange of orchestral strings and woodwind while the opening number, "Justice of Light" by Gojo Mayumi, adds to the upbeat valour and honour endowed within the following episode. Aki Toyosaki's "Miracle Happy Day", however, just doesn't fit. Sure, it's a cute little number with a chibi-Lisa running around accompanied by Toyosaki's kiddy-like voice, but it just didn't suit. All of this is conveyed in 5.1 stereo.

It may just be that I'm from Campbell stock myself but I really found myself enjoying the character development of our lead, Cecily Campbell. This was most definitely the most enjoyable part of the series. The Sacred Blacksmith was a very enjoyable series full or magic, fantasy, humour, great animation and pretty gals. If you're still not sure whether you should watch it you can always watch the entire first episode for free at Madman.com

All 12 episodes of The Sacred Blacksmith have been released in a 2-disc DVD collection by Madman and are available right now!