Marinate1016

I don’t know what it was, but iceblade just hit for me. First episode was meh, but as the next few went on I really started liking the MC, the world and characters. Something about them just ticked for me. I always say that something being generic does not necessarily mean bad. All stories have really been done before, so it comes down to execution to keep things entertaining and I think the execution of the characters in this one was good despite the generic overpowered guy at magical academy who everyone thinks is weak plot line. Smaller cast means more focus on them andtime to actually flesh them out. Little details like the edgy class rival who tries to make life hell for the MC actually growing and changing over the course of the show as opposed to staying a whiny brat all the time were great. I also think the lack of much overt fan-service was a welcome way to keep the focus on the interpersonal relationships of the characters and story. The story isn’t the strongest and mainly focuses on the MC navigating daily life at the school while overcoming his personal trauma. He’s apprehensive to making friends because of previous experiences and gradually those walls are torn down. If I had to have any complaint with the final episodes’ arc was pretty weak. I didn’t really care about Rebecca as a character because she didn’t have much screen time, but they tried to make it seem like she was an important character and force us to be emotional with her situation. Probably a result of skipping some source content I’d imagine. Art wise the show is kind of odd. The first time I saw it I just thought the character designs looked so weird and plain. I’m still not the biggest fan of them, but they have grown on me along with the story. The animation is pretty bad though. All of the fight scenes are subpar. Especially Amelia’s little battle arc. Someone once told me that you can’t have great animation and good character development. That’s not always the case, but in this one it is. Iceblade isn’t the most original show around, it’s definitely trope-y and it doesn’t have the best animation, but I enjoyed it a lot which is all that matters. It was actually one of my favourite shows of the season and after onimai, the second most anticipated Thursday seasonal. I’ll be checking out the LN for sure after this. Iceblade gets 8 out of 10

KANLen09

I effing hate this show to the core, it stinks and reels its way to the Isekai trash bin on an easy approach off the anime runway. As Gordon Ramsay would say: "Bloody hell, here we go again." The desire for people to fill the AniManga scene with more generic Isekai/fantasy trash, I don't really understand the appeal of sadists like these to try and come up with "unique" LN-like titles for anime adaptations, simply because they are THAT popular in Japan. And people would LOVE the freak hell to pick out even the most blatant of generic works, no matter who was writing it, nomatter who were the target audience for the shows, and absolutely no matter what was earned after the post ordeal with the anime on Blu-Ray sales. Case in point: novelist Nana Mikoshiba's Hyouken no Majutsushi ga Sekai wo Suberu a.k.a The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World. Immediately, you can already tell of the red flags that this show unwittingly admits of the same tropes all over again: the hero (or some kind of strong entity) getting reincarnated somehow into another world or just laying low because he/she is allowed to, to then only resurface later on; the typical school academy-based magic and land of a waifu simulator where the MC appeals to all girls wanting a slice of him; the generic evil villain organizations/groups that wreak havoc for absolutely no reason at all other than to expose the hero out for who he/she is, and other weird shit that does NOT make ANY sense at all. The TL;DR for this show (because I don't find it worthy to display the splendour of generic-sity): MC is Ray White. He's the Iceblade Sorcerer. Tired and frustrated of a life-prong war, he retreats back to school, wanting to experience life as that of a typical student: going tn class, hanging out with friends, joining absurd clubs, participating in tournament arcs that showcase his OP-ness, fight the most generic of evil with good. And the cycle repeats itself over and over again to more cringeworthy and unappealing aesthetics that the Average Joe can ever want to comprehend, much less accept the fact that not everyone can be Misfit of Demon Academy's Anos VoldiGOAT. He/She's just some generic high class-rate position who just wants a second life at experiencing ordinary things, that's no wrong at all, until the wayward evil do an expose to finally showcase that "I am this and that" and expect the audience to be shocked and wowed at the reveal. No. No, no, no, no, no. We've seen too much to experience trash, which Geoff Thew of Mother's Basement phrased this show to the T as such: a dumbfounded version of the Irregular at Magic High School, dubbed the Irregular at Glass Reflection High School. Even equally as dumb as it can be, are the characters. Almost everything that you can note down of Isekai trash can be found here: the Protag-kun Ray White with abs to match his Onegai Muscle-loving roommate Evi Armstrong by joining a muscle club and flexing their thin, but dispropionate body formation (like, why, what is this author trying to smoke here); the dandere Amelia Rose who has a knack for Ray's attention being an awful weak disposition of her own living being, only to have a cop-out by improving herself when attached to Ray; the deredere half-elven girl Elisa Griffith that follows Ray like his loyal right-hand man and has no faults to a degree; the tsundere of Claris Cleveland being just simply jealous of his presence in tyring to appeal to her; and last but not least, the kuudere gardening club member Rebecca Bradley who seems kinda mute, but has a lot going off in her mind to require Ray's help in extracting the evil group "Eugenics" using brains as their experimental focal point in transforming into dangerous beasts. Yeah, I couldn't even make this shit up even if I tried. I have to admit that seeing the girls wound up themselves around Ray to improve their selves, it's not bad at all and displays some fun, but that's my only praise when the scenarios just click and produces eureka moments for me to say: "Darn, this is good!". It's just everyday dumpster fire that I'm willing to consume and bash it for all I care throughout its existence. Yes, this show NEEDS one VERY NEW studio to make a mark as its first anime on the docket. But if you're well-versed in the scene of the anime industry, new studios like Cloud Hearts are just the branch-out portions for their main primary/parent studio, which in this case, gets its assistance and supervision from Yokohama Animation Laboratory, the studio behind Miru Tights and Tensai Ōuji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu a.k.a The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt. By knowing how the main parent studio's works are like, Yokohama Animation Laboratory's works are not the finest, though it seems like in Cloud Hearts's case that this show looks kinda generic, but ugly as heck with character stem lines being very inconsistent at best, sometimes thin or thick. And yes, borrowing staff from the main studio is the new standard when it comes to distinguishing how the production is like, which is totally subpar at best. The music is the make-or-break point for any show (at least it is for me), and God forbid that I actually hear one of the worst OSTs in a very long while. I seriously don't know what it is about this musical project Sizuk, but the OP kinda sucks big time for being so obnoxiously repetitive, and the musical notes in here just want to make my ears bleed out. You want to know what's worse? Utilizing all of the fanservice moments in the ED, because that's how you know that the show cannot get too generic enough to throw all hands on deck and just simply say: "Guys, we couldn't find anything better, so enjoy watching the lead girls in sexual orientations if we can slot some, because that's our gift to you for lasting throughout each and every trashy episode of ours." Also, the ED being sung by Maaya Uchida, I'd swear to God that that's not her voice at all, until I have to accept the reality that it's a waste of a song of immense vocals. Goddamn, this show knows its trash, that's handled by a 3rd-rate studio and a new one to boot (that I'm legitimately worried for next Winter's Sasayaku You ni Koi o Utau a.k.a Whisper Me a Love Song), what a false start down the rubbish dump that it should belong to. There is fun to be had, that's if you can handle cringe at its most intense and immense, I'll guarantee that you feel it in every inch of your soul and bones. Stay away from this show if you want to engage your sanity back, because I've lost mine in so many shows this season. And while this show isn't the worst of all, that's a track record I'll remember for the rest of my life. What a potential catastrophic failure.