CULT DVD Review

The Sacred Blacksmith (2008 TV)

Overall: 30%

Feature: 44%

Extras: 1%

The Sacred Blacksmith (2008 TV): Season 1 (2 discs)

Sitting through the first episode of the second disc of this below par fantasy anime I had to check to make sure I had put the right disc in the player. You see, what was on screen was a bunch of naked animated girls bathing together and feeling each other up. A sense of déjà vu had kicked in from the previous anime series I had watched.

Still, the fan service isn’t so prevailant in this series. Fan service, it’s a new phrase I’ve discovered the meaning of, and for those of you not in the know wikipedia defines it as: material in a series which is intentionally added to please the audience. It is about "servicing" the fan - giving the fans "exactly what they want". Fan service usually refers to gratuitous titillation.

Since our heroine, Cecily Cambell, has herself a rather large chest it is often the centre of attention and it becomes a bit common for characters to point them out and hence ‘give the fans exactly what they want.’ Since Cecily is quite embarrassed about her size perhaps she should invest in a top that doesn’t have them sticking out so much.

Now story wise this show is a bit weak. It starts off promisingly, our heroine is a city guard in a fantastical environment and she becomes friends with a strange blacksmith and his young female protégé. There seems to be some corruption within the heads of the city and a threat of a strange man in black looms over our heroes. This is all put aside unfortunately for a large part of the series and the story goes down a rather twee and unbearably ‘cute’ route. The little girl that the blacksmith lives with is one irritating character and for some reason the series makers decide to spend an episode where the heroes take her shopping and we get the pleasure of seeing her in various outfits. It makes me wonder if this is more a ploy to create more merchandise of the character with toys and statues of the of her in various cute outfits rather than having any affect on the story.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse another group of girls turn up including a little cutie-pie princess and the whole show gets bogged down in cute as a button giggles and dress-up games as the girls bond with each other. Now, if this series was aimed at little girls then I might not be as harsh but the show is rated 15 and the amount of nudity and sexual references that pop up occasionally prevent this from being a children’s show. I really think they should have cut out the adult stuff and kept this one for the kids because as it is it seems to be a very confused series. The final few episodes hold a nice twist for one of the main characters and the threat of the villain becomes more dangerous but by this point it is too little too late. I was on the bad guys side by this point as he was about the only character I hadn’t seen blush in a maids costume.

An irritating Zelda-light fantasy series that tries too hard to be cute when it should focus more on its story and exploring the intriguing settings.

Extras

Episode Previews: An irritating voice-over from the characters re-cap on each episode.

Opening Song without credits: meh

Closing Song without credits: really don’t see the point of these.

Feature: 44%

Extras: 1%

OVERALL: 30%

Stewart McLaren