This summer has been surprisingly busy for me and with Otakon just finishing up it seems like a really good time to cover one of the more talked about series there. Of course I’m talking about Sacred Seven. Now this series actually surprises me in that it starts off kind of sluggish at first but then really picks up after the first episode. Well this is all good and well but unfortunately it doesn’t keep up this rate of progression. Worse off yet there isn’t much to be said of the director Yoshimitsu Ohashi, as he doesn’t really have much merit under his belt, so I’m not expecting a major pull through in the later part of this series to get me reeling for more. Still though this series does intrigue me if only because the main character is extremely tall yet rides a tiny moped/motorcycle. (Imagine a 6’3’’ guy on one of those toy motorcycles that stands maybe a foot off the ground, hilarious right?)
Sadly much like the series as a whole, there isn’t much to be said about the originality of the characters. What we have here is the age old equation of hero who struggles with the darkness within himself and the girl/girls who help him find his way. Throw in there multiple overlapping love triangles and overprotective assistants as well as the whole school drama scene and minimal action scenes and what we come out with is our new “action series”. The development of the “main” characters in this series is what I would expect from supporting roles in other anime and the underdevelopment and loss of originality is going to turn out to really hurt this series. That being said, I’m not saying that there is no way for them to make it work. I mean look at the Gundam Seed/Seed Destiny and Gundam 00 as an example, they also used pretty much cookie cutter characters but the main difference is that they took the time to develop them and the end result was something you can sit down and enjoy watching. I honestly hope there will be more character development soon or I don’t think there will be much saving this show. I will however give them props for at least humanizing the “villain” making it much harder to define side for the side groups, which at least keeps it interesting.
Now you would think that since the characters are cookie cutter people must like it for the plot or story. I’m going to reject that theory. The plot of Sacred Seven is not something to be in amazement about. It certainly not entirely bad, however there are no outlying factors that make this a particularly unique and interesting story, instead it is simply mediocre. It is in fact so mediocre that there really isn’t much to say about it and that is pretty sad since there has been a decent amount of hype about the series.
After five episodes I really did expect much more to the series, the beginning is what draws people in or pushes them away, and if they could not open strong I have a hard time seeing Sacred Seven really doing well. They have some time to make it up but honestly if by episode 8 there isn’t the presence of a strong plot or some interesting character developments you can be certain most people will lose interest. Even against all odds however with a strong company like Sunrise behind them they just may be able to pull something off before it is too late.
Here is a link to AniDB for you guys in the event that you are wanting a summary or more information on the cast or team.
