Review of The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy
The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy — the definition of the LN BS trope done a thousand times and more, which sounds different, but honestly looks no different from many of its contemporaries. For the record, novelist Yuu Shimizu is one of those authors that you don't know much about. That is unless, you've read or even seen Seireitsukai no Blade Dance a.k.a Blade Dance of the Elementalers, which got TNK's anime adaptation almost a decade ago in Summer 2014, which to me is one hell of a guilty pleasure of a source material when both the school and harem genres were a riot backin the day (i.e. 8-bit's Winter 2011's show Infinite Stratos is one of them), and I loved it for what it is. Fast forward 5 years later, and we have the latest work from the author: Seiken Gakuin no Makentsukai a.k.a The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy, which IMO is nothing more than the same nostalgic throwback to the same era, trying to sell the exact same genres by adding the reincarnation formula to it, but overwhelmingly bad.
Nowadays, Isekai and reincarnation go hand in hand, but sometimes they have their own unique and diverse formulas, which, in the context of this show, is nothing all that different. Considering that the MC, the Demon Lord of Leonis Death Magnus, has fought his way to hell and back being the Undead King and the strongest of the Dark Lords at his command, only to concede at the hands of humanity getting back control of the world, with him sealing himself with a barrier and a resurrection spell that would let him rise again 1000 years to exact the same calamity on humanity. Guess what? Leonis did indeed resurrect after the same amount of time but shrank down into the size of a 10-year-old kid after being coincidentally awakened by his benefactor, Riselia "Selia" Ray Crystalia, alongside her childhood friend and personal maid Regina Mercedes while fighting mysterious monsters called Voids. With Selia almost left to her near-death while protecting the just-awakened demon lord, Leonis protects her by defeating the Voids and healing her to perfect order, determined to understand what had changed within the 1000 years that he was left in his slumber.
So, just like Kamito Kazehaya, his contracted spirit of Claire Rouge, and other girls vying to curry his favour, Leonis, Selia, Regina, and the other girls who would form their group, aptly named Platoon 18 of the 7th Assault Garden, which is essentially both a home and a military order to shield people away from the Voids. As old ones get crushed, new ones are formed, as well as the aptly placed Excalibur Academy, where students can hone their magic skills to one day be useful on the frontlines against the malicious monsters. And at the very least to Leonis, if both his personal maid Shary and servant Blackus aren't enough, he is trying to develop the near-useless Selia into a capable magic user; at least it serves as a benefit to fulfil his dream of 1000 years prior by weaving current world events to mould his vision. But for now, being in a 10-year-old boy's body meant that the girls of Regina, the caring Senpai telegraphist of Elfiné Phillet, the sword warrior Sakuya Sieglinde, and especially Riselia herself, would occasionally thirst over Leonis, for which said girl becomes his guardian and showers him with her care, not knowing of his true colours that he slowly moulds her into becoming one of his (hopefully) most powerful current-day companions. Believe me, both works have similarities, but somehow the latter just doesn't make it as palpable as the former.
Despite being handled by controversial director Hiroyuki Morita (not the one associated with studio C2C of the same name), it seems as if his infamous claim to fame is handling Spring 2007's Bokurano, which at the time was a pure lambast of butchering the source material's anime adaptation, which got the irony from fans of Mohiro Kitoh's manga. This time, however, after quite the long-term hiatus to come back helming the director position, it seems as if he has karma for taking on mediocre to bad shows, such as is the case with said show here, which once again is nothing short of ironic semblance. The execution was way down; studio Passione didn't really feel like a suit for the show (unless it decided on the nudity of the content); and not to mention that the entire anime just overall felt so lacklustre and lost its shine even before it hit the unanimous 3-episode rule.
Heck, not even the music can save this show. I know I give a lot of flak to Chiai Fujikawa's Anisongs, but her songs to me are hit and miss, and her OP song here...let's just say that I find myself speeding up the song just to make it more listenable. The same can be said for Kaho's ED song, which is much better, albeit a hair faster than the original song's composition.
LN BS stories like Seiken Gakuin no Makentsukai are a dime a dozen all around, devoid of any creativity or innovation to do something different to attract new interest to the source material. And coming from someone as low-key as Yuu Shimizu, as a Seireitsukai no Blade Dance fan, I felt insulted that after such a work, the author came up with a story like this, and it's exactly what I'd come to fear: a typical cluck of lame-ass, boring nonsense.
Just don't watch this show at all; you're not missing much.