Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance

[anon]

Based off of past release dates which were very consistent I say volume 11 will be out on May 25th and according to estimation that is 90% certain

[zzhk]

Umm, no.

The publisher's website clearly says June 25:
http://www.mediafactory.co.jp/bunkoj/schedule/index

[denormative]

The publisher's website clearly says June 25:
http://www.mediafactory.co.jp/bunkoj/schedule/index

"Elemental Lord Assassination"? Sounds fun.

[florza]

Based off of past release dates which were very consistent I say volume 11 will be out on May 25th and according to estimation that is 90% certain

Publishers don't release books suddenly, they will always have a schedule, and hence, you will always know one month in advance before the release.

Sites like http://ranobe-mori.net/ are really nifty for updates.

[Greed]

hey guys im just wondering if vol4chapter2 is safe to read im getting that it needs tlc check or something

[soranokira]

probably down to when kuroihikari's free to qc the translations.
Also personally I prefer calling it Spirit King Assassination. =P

Calling the water spirit that's sealed as the Water Spirit Queen and Rinslet's future contracted spirit. And a few more Rinslet flag developments.

[denormative]

Also personally I prefer calling it Spirit King Assassination. =P

The only problem with that is that there's 10 volumes of "Elemental Lord" that someone's going to have to go through and change if they want to make that the official translation.

[Hale]

I feel pretty bad about only now getting around to saying thank you despite having read the entirety of what has been published about 3-4 weeks ago, on the upside, i did write up a fairly comprehensive review for members of my local anime club thingy so i can just copy pasta off that without any major repercussions (i hope)

As a foreword, my club is fairly open and straightforward about things so I apologize if the language isn't as grand or neutral as most reviews should be.

Seirei Tsukai no Kenbu (approximately blade dance of the elemental users) is a story that details of the journey of the only guy who can form contracts with elemental spirits who historically have only allowed completely pure women to wield them (or a demon king. ... Not really positive for males either way.) In other words,it's the usual harem setup(in fact, he even gets a nickname from the general populace, demon of the night? Something like that.) but where the novel shines is it's focus on creating a mystery. So far, the blade dance part applies mainly to a tournament that grants it's winner(s) any wish, thus it has a pretty high level of competition.

Very early on in the story, the reader is privy to Kamito's problems, a lost spirit with whom he shared an extremely close bond, lost memories surrounding an event that happened 3 years ago, an unexpected new contract with another spirit.. The wheels of fate start grinding the moment he enrols into a special school dedicated to preparing future elemental users, the reader is slowly fed information about what happened 3 years ago but as of volume 10, the current volume released in Japan, details are still pretty hazy and the reader is left with a pretty strong hook in regards to wanting more information around the mystery.

Another difference is that the novel doesn't try to pretend to be unique and bog the reader down with a million different terms or ideas, instead the novel focuses it's attention on developing the characters, at the end of the day, the characters are still considerably tropey/stereotypical, but there's enough diversity that their actions (aside from the usual harem jokes, i.e main love interest (uh... Any of them in this case though there is one who gets to do it the most often ha.) walks in him in compromising situation, pain ensues) are fairly interesting if predictable at times.

Related to the point above is the fact that the author (much like every japanese author seriously...) understand the impact that messing with emotions can have on the sales and uses it pretty liberally, almost every character is given enough emotional pain to prompt a break down (although it seems to be one major one every volume :p). Heck one of the main character is introduced with an emotional scar so deep she basically loses her power (slightly spoiler-ey but the chance of readers guessing it before it's revealed in the novel is pretty low since they reveal it so fast.)

A quick neutral point should exist here ha. That is fanservice. There's a heck of a lot of it and some of it is kind of wtf am i readingworthy, let's see.. Good examples would be someone showing up nearly every single time in nothing but kneesocks, one of the main people having equipment for a variety of things, up to and including bondage gear, a random fight(sorta) in bikinis. On the upside, some of it is kinda explainable and the author almost always pairs it with the fact that they have no experience with males which turns it from something potentially kinky into something very cute when kamito turns the agression back on them ^^ (strictly imo, some of the stuff is still sexy regardless xD)

The only real negative point is that several plot points are blindingly obvious.

Spoiler! :

The girl that he has a fight with? If that's not a standard harem style flag, nothing is. The real identity of Ren Ashbell? Easily deduced just from kamito's reaction to her name.

That said, it's not a murder mystery and the plot points that are really central still don't have an acceptable answer(things that i mentioned in my first positive point :p)

Another point that has been raised by others (i'm not a firm believer...) is that the novel borrows elements from other novels that are also popular, to which I can only say show me a work that does not copy a single line or idea from a different source of media. Novels have never solely been about unique storylines(we'd have entire sections of bookstores destroyed if that was their sole purpose haha) but rather what the author can use those ideas and concepts to do. This novel DOES have a setting similar to Zero no Tsukaima or Infinite Stratos, but I highly doubt any sane intelligent individuL would say that the outline of the storyline proceeds exactly the same. It's a common issue in the industry of novels and should be taken at face value rather than being pointed out as a mistake.

[Ourea]

It can't be helped since STnBD is somehow a combination of most popular novels (it's just an opinion on based on my observation on other readers point of view)

Still, It's an interesting ln to read rather than reading an ln where as you read a pile of text where as there isn't anything that interesting in it.
I'm not pertaining to anything though XD. Anyway Good Job Tlrs on finishing it up to v10 (Y)

[latos1117]

Just a quick question so did Rinslet Fenrir die? Or was he rescue by the dragon princes(Leonora)? Sorry about this silly question just a bit confuse about this. Also thanks to everyone that helps on this amazing project.

[Haxton Fale]

We'll find out in the next volume whether

Spoiler! :

Fenrir has been lost forever in Baldersnatch's mouth. There's a good chance that it has, and that Rinslet will acquire the girl from the maze as her new spirit.

[denormative]

We'll find out in the next volume whether

Spoiler! :

Fenrir has been lost forever in Baldersnatch's mouth. There's a good chance that it has, and that Rinslet will acquire the girl from the maze as her new spirit.

Spoiler! :

Well it seems inevitable that his harem (who consists of one of each elemental type) gets one of each of the former/real elemental lords as their familiar spirits. Claire already has Scarlett (from memory there was a reference to her having another name somewhere), and she's likely the fire one; the water one is Iseria from the maze which is a nice match with Ice. Restia is probably the former darkness one (which is why she wants the current ones eliminated). So what's left; wind, holy and earth? Maybe Est is 'earth' since 'Steel' shares that quality?

Eh, but I'm rambling while waiting for PDFs to upload.

[Haxton Fale]

Spoiler! :

Right, Est's standing is quite unclear, as she's not Holy. But since she's a demon sword (IIRC), would she count towards Darkness element? Or simply in the Demon Spirit class (which might be of Darkness element, not sure atm)?
As for the others, I wouldn't go as far "former" Elemental Lords. I highly doubt there were any former Lords, as it's kinda hard to get rid of a spirit altogether. Scarlet is simply a very powerful Fire spirit, just like Restia is a very powerful Darkness spirit (who happens to be a manifestation of Ren Ashdoll at the same time, though. This part is kinda slippery, because she's just as much of an Elemental Lord as Kamito is the Demon King - they are incarnations, but not without their own personalities and free wills. If you've read Tsukihime, it'd make sense, as there's a very similar situation with Roa). That's shown by them having humanoid shapes, as explained either midway through the ten volumes or closer to the end, when Scarlet is unsealed.
I suspect that Ellis's hawk and Fianna's knight might reveal some sort of incredible power (think Balance Breaker from DxD). They might acquire (unseal) humanoid forms, though I hope the author won't go as far with OP-ing the main team. Though their power-up might be then explained with sudden plot, and that might feel slightly strained...
And speaking of power-ups, I suppose Kamito will unlock Est's full power either at the end of this or next volume. Of course, after Restia decides to not be too jelly about it because of a life-threatening situation.
A harem of swords, ffs...

[denormative]

A harem of swords, ffs...

Speaking of which, this series is getting as bad as Campione! with harem proliferation. He's got a primary harem, a secondary one building, and also a sword-harem.

[KuroiHikari]

Est possesses the steel attribute(I can't use the term element, people would start something ). The series has been showing that other than the 6 major elements of the Elemental Lords, there are other elements as well. Elements, which caused the readers rejecting my plan of making "spirits" "elementals".

I've change the poll to query on the quality of the work, since I'm more interested in that.