Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru

Impressed by Nanao Hibiya's skill with a sword, Kimberly Magic Academy instructor Theodore McFarlane saves the samurai from certain death amid a fierce battle. With his encouragement, Nanao enrolls in the academy, where she instantly becomes a celebrity after she and four of her peers save a student from an enraged troll. Under the leadership of Oliver Horn, a young man who seems to hide a troubled past, Nanao and her newfound friends start their magical apprenticeship at Kimberly—where only four out of five students make it to graduation in one piece.

It does not take long for Oliver and his friends to experience the dangers of the academy firsthand, as a near-death encounter in the labyrinth under the school leaves Nanao grappling with her bloody past. The inexperienced yet determined students must stick together if they want to have a chance to survive and uncover the mysteries that the academy holds.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hibiya, Nanao Main

Nukui, Yuka Japanese

Horn, Oliver Main

Tamaru, Atsushi Japanese

Aalto, Katie Main

Oowada, Hitomi Japanese

Reston, Pete Main

Sugiyama, Riho Japanese

McFarlane, Michela Main

Yamada, Misuzu Japanese

Greenwood, Guy Main

Sugawara, Shinsuke Japanese

Carste, Teresa Supporting

Mano, Ayumi Japanese

Milligan, Vera Supporting

Kakuma, Ai Japanese

Sherwood, Shannon Supporting

Watabe, Sayumi Japanese

Salvadori, Ophelia Supporting

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Kawase, Kouhei Producer

Sotokawa, Akihiro Producer

Matsukura, Yuuji Producer

Reviews

Oct 24, 2024

deadlyspawn

Recommended

Funny

Simply awesome and divine. I enjoyed this anime from start to finish. Keep in mind I found out about it only recently and binged it right away. I'm fortunate for not caring about reviews/spoilers or what social media is chirping about until I finish the story. I don't allow "group think psychology" to get in the way of my personal taste and enjoyment of art - not before, during or after the show. That type of thinking belongs at work, at schools, in public because that's the purpose group think serves.

This show was great at showing the duality of each ... character. Whether good or bad as a medium of choice, you are presented with the dichotomy for every character they focused on, obviously not for certain one's because we didn't get there in the story yet. Also for some characters it's subtle yet still well presented; obviously the story isn't complete and people forget that if all questions are answered, the next addition is then a sequel and not a continuation. A first season of an anime is just the beginning of the story and the plot hasn't started rising yet. Sure there's a secondary full plot to clearly have a start and finish... that's writing in a nutshell. But this one is going to get intense and only better with more seasons.

Definitely not a waste of time for most who will watch and I've seen other magical school anime's, this one is great compared to its peers.

You want Harry Potter? watch that... or read it even.
I get it; magic school.
Like every movie with an elf, dwarf, humans and a wizard reminds them of Lord of The Rings.
Pepsi? Coca-Cola? blah blah blah.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jan 12, 2024

The_Walker

Mixed Feelings

< concise review >

Verisimilitude: The "lifelikeness" or believability of a work of fiction.

Well, in Seven Spellblades, this is not the case. Something just feels "off". Character interactions feel forced and cliche. The script is boring, idiotic, and campy. Character expressions fall flat. And thus the show fails the believability test. This is sad, because on paper this should have been a fantastic show. But the people who put it together just didn't know what the flying f**k they were doing.

The worst part of the writing is the transitions. Switching from grimdark to happy-go-lucky friendship slice of life time is entirely possible to ... do well, the caveat is that to do this there needs to be something in the plot that logically ties the two together giving each more suspense. Things that hint at something more going on with one side of the story when you are watching the other. Seven Spellblades fails to do this, or to be more accurate it doesn't even try, emphasizing its verisimilitude check failure even further. It almost feels like you are watching two different shows that just switch between each other at random with no connection whatsoever, like a drunken fever dream you can barely remember.

5/10. Wasted potential.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 3, 2025

AeroGunz

Not Recommended

“Reign of the Seven Spellblades” is what happens when a mediocre idea is combined with incompetent writing.

This is one of the worst written shows I’ve ever seen. Not only it uses cliché ideas You’ve seen a million times before, but it butchers those ideas by not understanding why they could work. The plot is so basic that there is not a single unique point in it. Well, that is not true. There is one, ONE rather original sex based idea (at least I haven’t seen it in many anime, from the top of my head I can only think of 2, but if I say ... the title it would be spoiler territory), but it’s treated like background for most of the time. The one time it could have been made an important plot and even story point it’s just not. Like the writer forgot he created a situation and a character that should play off one another in a perfect way.

Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

So the real story is hidden in the beginning and revealed in a very dramatic, court of owl sort of way, in episode 6. A bit late if You ask me but that is the least problem with writing.

The main problem is that “tell not show” is the name of the game here. A lot of things are told and only proven right, if even that, a good time later. Case and point — the very beginning of the first episode. The first thing we hear is that the school has a 20% mortality rate aka 1 in 5 students die. Just who in the right mind would enlist their children in such a place? Is there no alternative to this school? Probably not, because the writer is incompetent and people allow children to go there. But, the first thing we see is a magic flower chatting to people being kind of an ass. Oh, yeah. Totally the same level of drama. It’s insulting how little the writer thinks of the audience.

Speaking of treating the audience as morons, just how moronic the whole school is? It’s stated that not only do they have a 20% mortality rate, but the faculty doesn’t care much about what happens to the students. They are only interested in results. Just how moronic is that? Let me get this straight, there could be a student with a damn IQ over 9000, skill with everything and charisma enough to organize students into actual proper teams, but if he gets killed by assassination or equipment malfunction everyone will just think “Oh well, c’est la vie” and go on with their day? What is the point of that? No one will gain anything from that. It’s just a dangerous environment, for danger’s sake, nothing logical or organic in it. It’s just a testimony of the writer's ineptness.

The main cast is just atrocious. For starters, the main group is too big. We get 6 characters for 15 episodes. That’s too many. Because everything is rushed and devoid of stakes, the characters are just predictable, flat and basic stereotypes. As a result a lot of characters are left on the side lines and not utilized. There is no real reason for two of them to exist. One has a function as a plot device but the other has none. Not only that, this show is guilty of one of the most lazy thing in writing allied / friend groups — they become “friends” almost immediately. They know each other for just a few minutes and somehow they are all friends and spill their guts to each other. Because everyone tells their backstory to people who they just met in a school that just begs for students to organize a battle royal and use personal information against each other. Eff off. Not only the main cast, the people that get their assess handed to them by the main cast also suddenly feel the need to tell a worthless sob story about themselves. Of course that doesn’t apply to out MC — Olivier, because of course it doesn’t. The one time someone even theories about his past, he makes a face like he’s considering ending her on the spot.

From the very first episode, the amount of amateurish, cliché and just plain pathetic writing is of the chart. To the point the first episode ends in a true edge lord, cloak and dagger fashion. A pathetic, pseudo-dramatic monologue that sets up the MC as “more than meets the eye”. Shame it does so in this superficial way. I get second hand embarrassment just thinking of that shit. The worst part is that the level of amateur writing sticks for all 15 episodes. I don’t think there one episode I would call competently written, it’s like watching baby’s first screenplay. It makes watching this show really difficult and I was close to dropping it at least once every episode. Believe it or not, it’s actually impressive just how bad the writing in this show is, to the point I can’t defend it enough to call it mediocre. It’s just bad.

If for some reason You hold on to hope that this show might have any kind of stakes, then episode 6 should destroy that completely. Oliver is shown to have powers to see variants of the future and just choose which one he likes (and never uses it for the remainder of the show, even if doing so could probably save a lot of time and at least two lives). The fuck is this shit? After that there is no point in watching this show because You are aware that nothing will ever happen to him or people he deem worthy of his assistance. The writer is also stupid enough to have the MC monologue that his opponent is much more skilled and the show wants me to take that as any sort of stake? The mofo is able to choose the timeline with the outcome he wants, just how is this even a stake? It’s just so effing amateurish, boring and insulting. How badly You want to destroy this show?

Speaking of Oliver… yeah… he’s the worst kind of protagonist You can imagine. He has no equals (despite what he monologues), has more knowledge than anyone else about everything, can use rare skills and can never make a bad decision even if he’d try. In episode 5 he even acts like a mentor / teacher figure and saves a few students from their mistakes. For fucks sake, there is nothing in him that would make an interesting protagonist. Everyone knows that in the end the hero will save the day, evil will be punished and the sun will shine, but the real meat of most stories is that it’s more interesting when the hero struggles. If he’s perfect in everything then there is no point in the story. Oliver has a goal but does close to jack shit towards achieving it. He just goes with the flow and if once in a while he gets to check a list of his kill list, it’s just a nice bonus. He has nothing to gain being in that school or even making friends. His goal is simple and there isn’t given a reason why he couldn’t achieve it in a more direct way. But I guess that would require adding world building to the show and with the quality (more like there lack) of writing on display I am 100% sure the writer would have a brain aneurysm trying to think of something logical.

Now, because this show has some nice shining lights and really, really badly written bonding, some people can find this show attractive. The same people probably think that Ubisoft and Nintendo are consumer friendly companies so let’s not be too harsh on them.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of Summer 2023 titles with an accompanying promotional video, commercial, teaser, or trailer. This post will be...read more

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	Could someone explain the flashback in episode 1? HaruyukiIsCute - Dec 5, 2025	3 replies	by animedude1287 »» Dec 6, 2025 7:11 AM
	Poll: Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru Episode 15 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Oct 13, 2023	119 replies	by Tsukasa_Rio »» Oct 6, 2025 6:16 AM
	Poll: Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru Episode 13 Discussion Stark700 - Sep 29, 2023	43 replies	by Tsukasa_Rio »» Oct 6, 2025 5:02 AM
	Poll: Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Aug 11, 2023	185 replies	by Tsukasa_Rio »» Oct 3, 2025 6:06 PM
	Poll: Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai suru Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jul 21, 2023	133 replies	by Tsukasa_Rio »» Sep 25, 2025 2:33 PM