Bladedance of Elementalers, known in Japanese as Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance, is a Light Novel series written by Yu Shimizu with illustrations by Hanpen Sakura (volumes 1 to 13), Yuuji Nimura (14-16) and Kohada Shimesada (17-20), which was published for 20 volumes from 2010 to 2019. Also called "Blade Dance of the Elementalers". It has a manga adaptation illustrated by Hyouju Issei that was serialized in Monthly Comic Alive from 2012 to 2016, and an anime adaptation that aired on July 14, 2014, and ran for 12 episodes.
The setting is dominated by spirits, the denizens of Astral Zero. Only a pure maiden can make a contract with a spirit and gain access to its power.
In Areishia Spirit Academy, maidens from noble family are gathered to receive an elite education and become spirit contractors. But one day, the boy Kazehaya Kamito accidentally peeps on a girl taking a bath, Claire Rouge. After punishing him, Claire drags him along to a nearby sealed spirit in the form of a sword, which she intends to contract with for more power. However, the spirit reacts violently and she's unable to form a contract with it. Instead, Kamito is the one who forms a contract with the spirit.
It turns out that Kamito is the only male alive capable of contracting with spirits. Unfortunately, he isn't the first example of this... the other known male elementalist, Demon King Solomon, went down in history as a cruel tyrant. Because of this, various people are wary of him...
Provides examples of:
- Abandoned Mine: The climax of Volume 2 takes place in one of these. Team Scarlet is dispatched there in order to prevent a powerful spirit sealed within the mine from being released. There, they come to blows with Jio Inzagi, who is trying to release the spirit, and was expecting them.
- Action Prologue: The first scene in the anime is a match where Ren Ashbell is shown easily defeating her opponent in the Blade Dance tournament.
- Always Female: In-universe, elementalists are pure maidens. The known exceptions are Demon King Solomon and Kamito, though it is known that others with the potential have existed. All male elementalists have their power because they are born as vessels of the Darkness Elemental Lord.
- Another Dimension: Astral Zero, another world where spirits live. Humans with divine power become like spirits when in Astral Zero.
- Assassin Outclassin': When Kamito was about 13, he tried to assassinate the Dusk Witch, Greyworth Ciel Mais. He was soundly defeated and was taken in by her.
- A Truce While We Gawk: The duel between Kamito's group and Ellis's group in episode 2 is interrupted by a demon showing up.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Velsaria's armor makes her nearly invulnerable to physical attacks, but it isn't well suited for defense against magical attacks. Claire and Rinslet exploit this by first heating up, then rapidly cooling a section of her armor to cause it to start cracking due to the rapid extreme temperature difference it's subjected to.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Velsaria's contracted spirit puts her in a giant suit of armor, making her a lot bigger than the other characters.
- Really, almost every other volume includes a showdown against a giant spirit of sorts.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: Kamito as Ren Ashbell. Even the Girls Want Her. It's been three years since "she" appeared, and nearly every elementalist in the world is still a rabid fangirl.
- Balanced Harem: Although Claire is the most prominent female character as the main heroine, and Restia is clearly the one closest to Kamito's heart, all the girls in Kamito's Battle Harem receive plenty of attention and development, with Kamito being roughly equally close with each one of them.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: During the battle against the giant flame spirit Valaraukar, the latter ends up setting the surrounding area ablaze. The flames keep burning for over a day afterwards.
- Naturally happens again when Kamito faces Rubia, who incinerates large portions of the tower floor they are fighting on. After Rubia is defeated, Team Scarlet is soon after forced to face a partial manifestation of her contracted spirit, Larvateinn, who creates an even greater inferno.
- Battle Harem: Team Scarlet more or less is Kamito's.
- Battle in the Rain: The battles that take place around Nefescal Palace, in the imperial capital of Ostdakia, during Fianna's rescue naturally count. First is Kamito and Fianna vs. Leschkir Hirschkilt, followed soon after by Kamito and Leonora vs. Greyworth.
- Bedmate Reveal: You can usually count on Est to appear in Kamito's bed every morning, though some of the other girls have taken their turn, including Rinslet, Fianna and Restia.
- Big Eater: Elementalists have larger appetites than expected from their build, as spirit magic consumes a lot of calories.
- Blade Brake: As Kamito and Rinslet fall into a frozen valley following a confrontation with ice dragons, Kamito grabs Rinslet and stabs Terminus Est Zwei into an icy cliff face. It doesn't slow their fall much, forcing Kamito to jump into a cave before the fall could kill them.
- Blow You Away: Wind spirits and elementalists who contract with them. Ellis specializes in this.
- Blue Blood: Nearly all elementalists are nobility of some sort. Its very rare for a peasant child to be born as an elementalist, but it happens.
- Broken Ace: Claire is the daughter of the formerly-prestigious Elstein family, a talented elementalist who can fight at both close and long range, has high grades due to putting effort into her studies, and has inherited Elstein's True Flame. But thanks to her sister Rubia's actions, the Elsteins were disgraced and sent to prison, and Claire is hated by many for her sister's actions. Her lack of friends (besides Rinslet) at the start of the series, and her confrontational personality, are all because of this.
- Casting a Shadow: Darkness spirits and their contractors. Notably, the former are mentioned to be rarer than the spirits of the other five main elements, possibly due to the Darkness Elemental Lord opposing the rest. Restia is the main example of a darkness spirit.
- Shadow is also an element separated from darkness in this setting. Shadow elementalists, such as Freya, are able to move around in shadows.
- Cerebus Syndrome: While it never stops being a lighthearted fantasy, things become noticeably more serious during the second half of the series, following the climax of the Blade Dance festival. To elaborate:
- the Fantasy Pantheon of the setting, the Five Great Elemental Gods, are revealed to be contaminated by an Otherworldly Darkness populated by angel-like beings, which has been slowly driving them mad throughout the ages. These beings intend to enter the human realm, which would bring unparalleled disaster to it, and have so far only been kept at bay by the efforts of the Elemental Lords. However, the Elemental Lords won't be able to hold it back for much longer.
- Political instability and an increasing number of weather anomalies leads to several instances of civil unrest. The Alphas Theocracy is caught in a bloody civil war, while the Ordesia Empire is all but taken over by the Holy Kingdom of Lugia, and the heroes are forced on the run, losing the support network that was the academy and their families. Violence is treated more seriously, and people start actually dying, instead of only suffering “mental wounds” like they did in Astral Zero.
- On another note, there is a greater focus on the sexual intimacy between Kamito and the girls, particularly because it is revealed Kamito can share some of his power with them through kisses and such, which tend to act as aphrodisiacs as a side effect.
- Chick Magnet: Kamito.
- Clingy Jealous Girl:
- Claire, hands down. And not just in the "love" aspect. Though in general, she's likely to attack the other girl too, unless its Est.
- Est acts like this when Restia is around.
- The other girls also have their moments, though they are usually less violent about it.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- In episode 12, Fianna tells Kamito he can "eat her" along with the cake. Est then says he can eat her as well, not quite understanding what Fianna meant.
- A few moments later, Kamito comments that Ellis looks very pretty in her fancy dress. Rinslet, Claire, and Fianna all get jealous, and push a slice of cake into his face, telling him to "eat their cake." Est once again misinterprets their actions, and asks Kamito to eat her cake as well. But she shoves a large cake into his face instead of the slices the girls used.
- Compelling Voice: The ability of Word of Power.
- Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: Greyworth made one for Kamito in order to allow him to attend Areishia Spirit Academy with little suspicion.
- Cool Sword: Some spirits take on the form of swords as their Elemental Waffe form.
- Kamito has had two:
- Restia - Vorpal Sword
- Est - Demon Slayer
- Kamito has had two:
- Culture Chop Suey: The Ordesia Empire is based on Feudal Europe with bits of Shinto for princess maidens in the Divine Ritual Institute.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- One of the reasons Ren Ashbell is so admired is that most of her fights in the previous Blade Dance turned out like this. Only Luminaris is known to have given her some trouble.
- Kamito and Restia utterly destroy an army of demon spirits while fighting together.
- Jio Inzagi easily defeats Ellis's knights.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Carol, Rinslet Laurenfrost's maid; the main reason for hiring her is because she is cute even if she is clumsy and useless at house work.
- Dance Battler: Every elementalist is this.
- Deal with the Devil: Rubia contracts with Laevateinn to gain powerful fire magic, the price being that she must eventually sacrifice her life to the spirit.
- Death by a Thousand Cuts: It takes Team Scarlet quite a few attacks to finally bring down Velsaria.
- Disguised in Drag: Kamito does this a few times in his life.
- When he was younger, Greyworth made him dress as a maid to help disguise him so that no one knew that he is a male elementalist like the infamous demon king.
- He dressed as a girl and went by the name of Ren Ashbell when he first participated in the Blade Dance, to disguise the fact he was a boy.
- When he has to sneak into the Grand Shrine to meet Reicha Alminas to get rid of the Brand of Darkness, he dresses up as a princess maiden.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Ultimately downplayed and averted. Thinking they are on the same page due to some miscommunication, Leonora pins Kamito down to a bed with her Super-Strength and starts stripping down, meaning to have sex with him, and not stopping despite his protests. After they are stopped due to outside interference, Leonora thinks to herself how scared Kamito looked at the time, and regrets coming on too strongly.
- Dual Wielding: Kamito's original fighting style as an assassin. After regaining Restia as a contracted spirit, he's able to dual wield her and Est.
- Elemental Powers: Elemental Spirits are mostly classified by six elements: Fire, Wind, Earth, Water, Holy, and Darkness. Other elements include Ice, metal, poison, Lightning, etc.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Each element is strong against some and weak against others - for example, water has an advantage over fire and holy has an advantage over darkness.
- Elemental Weapon: Claire's Elemental Waffe is a flame whip named Flame Tongue.
- Energy Ball: About the most common use of the fire element in battle is to create fireballs. They are practically Claire's Signature Move.
- Extranormal Institute: About any facility that teaches elementalists; most notably Areishia Spirit Academy.
- Face–Heel Turn: Greyworth seemingly undergoes this in Volume 14. Millenia claims that it isn't simply brainwashing, but it's unclear exactly what happened.
- Fanservice: Given the genre and the setup, it should be no surprise that there are moments meant to… stimulate the reader.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
- Kamito's homeland is implied to be the counterpart of Japan.
- Kuina/Quina Empire is the counterpart of China.
- The Alphas Theocracy is based on the Arabian Peninsula.
- Fantasy Pantheon: Both the human realm and Astral Zero are ruled by the Five Great Elemental Lords, which preside over all spirits. Its soon revealed there used to be a sixth Elemental Lord, but most traces of its existence were erased.
- Feeling Your Heartbeat: Ellis touches Kamito's chest to check his rising heartbeat and confirm he is indeed feeling excited due to Ellis falling on top of him while wearing a Chainmail Bikini. It serves to prove that, despite his mind regressing back to his time in the Instrucional School, the emotions that he developed thanks to Restia are stil there.
- First Kiss: And not just one! Claire, Est, Ellis, Restia, Rinslet and Fianna all get their first kiss with Kamito.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: In rare occasions, malevolent spirits demand human lives as offering. This is explained to the audience moments before it is revealed that the spirit Rubia was contracted with had demanded her own life as compensation for the contract.
- Foil:
- Kamito and Leonora. Both of them are high-level elementalists with incredible power and skill, with Kamito leaning towards the latter and Leonora the former. Kamito wields a sword spirit whose elemental waffe is called the Demon Slayer, while Leonora wields a dragon spirit whose elemental waffe is called the Dragon Slayer. On a more amusing note, both of them assume a dominant role in the field of romance.
- Fianna and Rubia. Both of them are of high birth, with Fianna being the second princess of Ordesia and Rubia the first child of the (formerly) high-ranking Elstein family, one of the Four Great Houses. They both became princess maidens renowned for their skill. Rubia betrayed her position and Ordesia by going against the laws of the Elemental Lords, becoming known as the Calamity Queen. Fianna tried and failed to stop her, and the resulting trauma rendered her unable to use her spirit, causing her to lose her position as well and become known as the Lost Queen.
- Velsaria and Luminaris. Both blonde and prodigious elementalists that took part in the previous Blade Dance three years ago, only to be defeated by Ren Ashbell. In the present day, they are the favorites to win from their respective countries, and both seek to settle the score with Ren Ashbell.
- Rubia and Velsaria. Older sisters of members of Team Scarlet, both of them used to be very affectionate towards their younger siblings, until an incident made them become cold and ruthless, traits only made worse by the negative effects of Cursed Armament Seals, which both of them decided to have implanted on their hearts in order to gain more power. Both of them are defeated by Kamito at the end of a climactic battle with help from their younger sisters, which results in their Cursed Armament Seals being destroyed, and them becoming more like how they were before.
- Food Porn: Whenever food appears in the light novel, you can expect Shimizu Yuu to spend a ton of time describing the dishes being served and telling you how awesome they are.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Fianna and Kamito actually met three years ago, during the time of the last Blade Dance tournament, but he doesn't remember her until she pulls her hair back into the same style she had at the time.
- The Four Gods: The Blade Dance team from the Quina Empire is named after them. Their elementalist's spirits are even named after each individual god:
- The White Tiger for their Ace, Shao Fu.
- The Azure Dragon for Rao Rin.
- The Black Tortoise for Hakua.
- The Vermilion Bird for Rion Sharma.
- The Qilin as the fifth spirit for their leader, Linfa Sin Quina.
- Frame-Up: Greyworth and Fianna are set up by the Holy Kingdom of Lugia to appear responsible for an attack upon the Ordesia emperor, in order to ensure their puppet, Arneus, ascends to the throne instead of Fianna, who many in court saw as more fit to rule.
- Friendship Denial: Claire and Rinslet occasionally do this to each other, more so Rinslet who calls Claire her self-proclaimed rival. They actually deeply care for each other.
- Gender-Blender Name: Ren from Ren Ashbell and Ren Ashdoll.
- Gender-Restricted Ability: Only young girls can contract with spirits and use spirit magic. Male elementalists like Kamito and Solomon are the vessels of the Darkness Elemental Lord Ren Ashdoll.
- Going Commando: Dragon elementalists tend to forgo panties in order to be closer to their spirits. It is outright forbidden to wear any in the presence of the Dragon King, lest his fury be incurred.
- The members of Team Scarlet are forced to remove their underwear before they are allowed to meet with the Dragon King, much to their dismay.
- The Great Fire: Upon Rubia's treachery, the Fire Elemental Lord set the entire Elstein Duchy on fire.
- Great Offscreen War: There have been several:
- The Ranbal War from a few decades ago. It started as a dispute between small countries regarding spirit crystal mining rights, but it evolved into a conflict involving the entire continent.
- And before that, there was the Demon King War a thousand years in the past, during which Demon King Solomon tried to take over the whole continent.
- And before that, there was the Spirit War, in which the Darkness Elemental Lord waged war against the other five Elemental Lords.
- Healing Factor: By tapping into the Darkness Elemental Lord's power, Kamito gains one of these.
- Heroic B So D: Emotional breakdowns and mental shocks are noted to be particularly damaging to elementalists, since it can easily render them unable to commune with the spirits, including their own contracted spirit. Fianna is the most prominent case in the series, as Rubia's betrayal and her powerlessness to stop it destroyed her self-confidence and left her unable to even summon Georgios, let alone take over as Fire Queen
- Kamito also suffers a few of these throughout the series, though not to the same degree as Fianna. One time he suffers a minor one after Restia first reveals herself to him after setting a mad spirit loose. It takes a "Shut Up" Kiss from Claire to break him out of it.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: Rinslet fits this trope to a T. She is a quite prideful girl on the outside, even a bit aggressive, but she cares very deeply about those around her (even if she won't admit it), including Kamito from the beginning despite him being a complete stranger at the time.
- Humanoid Abomination: Nepenthes Lore is an incredibly powerful entity and a member of Team Inferno during the Blade Dance. It constantly wears a full-body suit of armor, and everyone can tell that there's something off about it. It's actually a previous vessel of Ren Ashdoll who was consumed by the power and was resurrected by Rubia. The armor acts as a restraint on its power. When it sheds the armor, it sprouts tentacles of darkness and barely qualifies as humanoid anymore.
- An Ice Person: Ice spirits and their contractors, Rinslet being the most prominent example.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- How Ren Ashbell defeats Velsaria in their Blade Dance match.
- Kamito does it again at the end of Volume 3, though this time to break the Cursed Armament Seal that was afflicting her.
- Intimate Healing: Due to Kamito's body naturally repelling healing holy magic, Fianna is forced to perform a lot of physical contact in order for it to have any effect. She doesn't mind this one bit.
- During Volume 13 Kamito is injured, and with the nearest help too far away, Rinslet decides to take a page out of Fianna's book, and perform this sort of healing herself. Completely inexperienced in this sort of thing, she takes it too far and ends up kissing him.
- Irony: Kamito, who is a male elementalist like Demon King Solomon, wields the same sword that Areishia used to defeat Solomon. On the other side, Rubia has inherited the Sacred Maiden's power, and uses it trying to awaken Kamito as the Demon King. This is lampshaded in-universe.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia:
- Kamito loses his memory at the beginning of Volume 12, due to the trauma of Restia's apparent death. He regains it at the end of said Volume.
- At the end of Volume 12, it's revealed that this has also happened to Restia. This is because of an emergency measure by the Darkness Elemental Lord, which cut her off from her power and caused her to be reborn as a human.
- Volume 13 reveals Restia had also erased all of Jio's memories regarding Kamito, to prevent him from seeking revenge against him, or revealing his identity as Ren Ashbell to the world.
- Light Is Not Good: The Holy Elemental Lord is corrupted by Otherwordly Darkness, like the other Lords. Moreover, the Holy Kingdom of Lugia becomes a major antagonist later in the series.
- Love Confessor: Claire is able to tell her parents she loves Kamito, but only by referring to him as Ren Ashbell.
- Magic Kiss: After the events of Volume 10, whenever Kamito kisses a girl, her power is boosted. This is because he is transferring a bit of the Darkness Elemental Lord's power, which awakened in him during his fight with Rubia. It also serves as an aphrodisiac.
- Mana Drain: Many of the antagonists, such as One-Winged Angel Velsaria, Zirnitra, and Nepenthes Lore, have the ability to drain divine power, which puts Kamito at a disadvantage because Est requires a lot of it to be used properly.
- Marry Them All: By the end of the series, this is pretty much all but stated to be the canon ending, with the girls outright suggesting the idea themselves.... by founding a new Kingdom under Kamito JUST to legalize polygamy. Needless to say, the girls are all for it and Kamito himself puts up next to no real resistance to the idea. And yes, this includes Restia and Est.
- Meido: You can tell the author has a taste for them.
- Carol, Rinslet Laurenfrost's maid.
- Milla Bassett becomes Mireille Laurenfrost's personal maid after retiring from the Blade Dance.
- Kamito was made to be Greyworth's after he failed to assassinate her and as a deal to free Restia from Suliman's Ring.
- Ellis dresses up as one in Volume 3 as thanks for Kamito helping the Sylphid Knights deal with Jio Inzagi back in Volume 2.
- Restia spends some time dressed as one after being reunited with Kamito and the others in Volume 14.
- Metaphorically True: In Volume 16, Cardinal tells the Alphas Theocracy refugees (who are Demon King cultists) that she will bring the Demon King back to life, in order to lift their spirits. She actually has Kamito, the inheritor of the same power as the Demon King, dress up and pretend to be him.
- Milholland Relationship Moment: Kamito initially keeps the fact that he was an Instructional School orphan a secret from the rest of Team Scarlet, fearing that said knowledge would cause them to hate or pity him. When the secret comes out during the battle against Muir in Volume 4, the girls are outraged… that he thought knowing that would change their opinion of him.
- Motivational Kiss:
- Claire kisses Kamito in during the first volume to get him out of his funk, after he finally saw Restia again after 3 years, only for her to let a mad spirit run loose in the city and disappear again.
- When Kamito is about to start his long journey towards the Laurenfrost territory, Ellis gives him one as well.
- Mukokuseki: Averted, if only very subtly. Kamito possesses black hair and dark eyes in a way that distinctly marks him as Japanese-coded.
- Mundane Utility: Spirit contractors often use their contracted spirit for mundane tasks, such as cooking and cleaning.
- Naked First Impression:
- Kamito first meets Claire as she was bathing in a lake in the forest he had gotten lost in.
- He also meets Est this way, in the bed he was sleeping in no less.
- New Transfer Student:
- Kamito, though he wasn't attending any school previously..
- Fianna Ray Ordesia also transferred to Areishia Spirit Academy after hearing of a male elementalist being there.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Early in the series, Claire and Rinslet get into a fight outside Kamito's shed. Claire's spirit accidentally sets his shed on fire, and Rinslet's attempt to put it out ends up destroying it completely.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: Kamito's Areishia Spirit Academy uniform since he is the only male student.
- "No Peeking!" Request: When in Dracunia, the female members of Team Scarlet are told to remove their panties before they are allowed to see the Dragon King. Kamito turns around to give them some privacy, until he overhears Ellis claiming she is wearing the same type of underwear Ren Ashbell is said to wear. Kamito, being Ren Ashbell, turns around in an outrage, much to the displeasure of the girls present.
- Not What It Looks Like: Est shows up in the bed Kamito was sleeping in midway through Volume 1. She appears to be a young naked girl wearing nothing but thigh-high socks. Naturally when Rinslet gets suspicious, she finds Est under the sheets, and gets the wrong idea.
- Oh, Crap!: Vivian Melosa, the merchant selling cursed seals in the last arc of the anime, has this look after Greyworth shows up to punish her for selling the cursed items to her students.
- Ominous Obsidian Ooze: Enemies that produce it from their body are always trouble, particularly since it is often used to absorb divine power from elementalists.
- One Cast Member per Cover: The light novel's volumes 1-9 all feature a different girl on each cover. The rest of the covers have one or two of the same girls.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Leonora invites Kamito to ride a Dragondola with her for her "first time". Naturally, Kamito assumes she means her first time riding a Dragondola, and expresses surprise she had never done it before. Leonora is mildly upset that he thought of her like that, put is pleased when Kamito confirms it is his first time too. It isn't until Leonora pins him down and start stripping that Kamito realizes what Leonora meant by "first time".
- One-Gender School: Since normally elementalists are pure maidens, any institute devoted to training them is an all girls school by default.
- Areishia Spirit Academy was this until Greyworth made Kamito enroll.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted, there are multiple beings with the name of Ren.
- Our Angels Are Different: [[They're mysterious beings of great power, revealed at the end of Volume 11 to be an apocalyptic threat to the world. An entire army of them exists inside the Otherworldly Darkness]].
- Outdoor Bath Peeping: The story starts with Kamito running into Claire taking a bath at a lake.
- Playing with Fire: Fire spirits and their contractors. Claire and Rubia specialize in this.
- Public Domain Artifact: Some elemental waffen in the series are named after them.
- Recruiting the Criminal: After the Tournament Arc, Rubia decides to create a suicide squad. Two of the people she recruits are Velsaria Eva and Vivan Melosa, both characters who were defeated and imprisoned early on in the series.
- Rescue Romance: Kamito first met Fianna when he saved her from a dryad during his first Blade Dance. From then, she fell in love with him.
- Royal Harem: Demon King Solomon used to have one. While he used to make concubines of the princesses of the nations he conquered, nine of them were special among them. With these nine he shared the Darkness Elemental Lord's power, allowing them to serve as generals for his army.
- Running Gag: Kamito waking up to find a girl in bed with him. More often than not, someone else will enter the room and get the wrong idea.
- Fianna's terrible cooking.
- Kamito making snide remarks about Carol's ever more apparent uselessness as a maid.
- People whispering to themselves about Kamito's sexual deviancy within his earshot.
- Sealed Army in a Can: The tactical-class military spirit, Crusaders, which is sealed in Milla Bassett's Demon Sealing Eye.
- Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Averted by Kamito despite having been (successfully) trained since childhood to be a master assassin. This is thanks to Restia and Greyworth teaching him important knowledge to live in society.
- School Festival: The Great Festival of the Spirits doubles as this for Areishia Spirit Academy. The students set up all sorts of stands and attractions for visiting guests and spirits. We get to see one taking place during Volume 12.
- School Uniforms are the New Black: Members of the cast rarely wear anything other than their school uniforms. Its justified by the fact they are actually sacred garments, perfectly suitable to commune with spirits and perform rituals, both very important parts of being an elementalist.
- Secret-Keeper: A few people know that Kamito was the Ren Ashbell who participated in the previous Blade Dance.
- Shoot the Bullet: Rinslet has a tendency to shoot down projectiles with her arrows. Over time, Rinslet grows skilled enough to shoot down multiple arrows with multiple of her own, at the same time, and from a considerable distance.
- Shout-Out: At one point, a spirit named Balrog shows up.
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Kamito knows a spell, Weapon Works, that allows him to construct temporary swords.
- Summon Magic: How most elementalists call forth their contract spirits, as either their purified form or elemental waffe form.
- Superpowered Evil Side: By drawing on the Darkness Elemental Lord's power, Kamito gains enhanced strength, speed and a Healing Factor, but suffers from violent impulses that would eventually transform him into another Nepenthes Lore if he gives in.
- Support Party Member: Fianna has this role in Team Scarlet. Being trained as a princess maiden, she lacks combat skills but can support her teammates with ritual dancing and barrier construction. Her spirit, Georgios, is oriented mainly towards defense. Her elemental waffe, Save the Queen, only continues this trend, as its functions are creating a barrier and restoring her allies' divine power.
- Sword Plant: Excessively so. Any time someone needs to put their sword down, they will plant it tip first into the ground.
- Tailor-Made Prison: The Temple of World Isolation, located at the imperial capital is shown to be this to princess maidens, even ones as skilled as Fianna. It completely cuts you off from the outside world, and prevents you from even contacting your spirit.
- Terminally Dependent Society: The world is dependent on the spirits. One time, the Fire Elemental Lord was angry and made fires impossible to light in the Ordesia Empire.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
- Velsaria's opening attack against Claire's team in episode 12 is to unleash a barrage of shots, which vaporizes the surrounding battlefield. Fortunately for the girls they manage to deflect much of Velsaria's attack away from them.
- Also applies to Rubia and Muir when they each eliminate entire teams in the tournament by themselves, the former by using the strongest fire spirit in existence, and the latter by summoning Military-class spirits to decimate her opponents.
- Took a Level in Badass: The female members of Team Scarlet undergo training in Volumes 15 and 16, resulting in significant boosts to their skill.
- Tournament Arc: The Blade Dance festival that takes place between Volumes 4 and 11 is a team tournament free for all, with 5 members in each team.
- Transfer Student Uniforms: Fianna still wears her Divine Ritual Institute uniform.
- Transformation Name Announcement: Whenever an elementalist transforms their weapon into its spirit form, usually in the form of an animal or monster.
- Two-Teacher School: The only relevant staff members for Areishia Spirit Academy are Greyworth and Freya. Some unnamed teachers do appear in Volume 12 though.
- Tyke Bomb: The assassins of the Instructional School.
- Unperson: Ren Ashdoll, the Darkness Elemental Lord, was subject to this.
- Virgin Power: Elementalists have to be youngnote , pure maidens; their powers disappear along with their purity. Whether this applies to Kamito or not is unknown.
- We Can Rule Together: Upon witnessing how resourceful she can be, Millennia actually offers to let Fianna become the Holy Kingdom's puppet instead of Arneus. Given what Fianna had just gone through because of them, she declines without giving it much thought.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Claire gets extremely upset at Kamito after hearing that he agreed to help Ellis and the Sylphid knights out for a short while in episode 10. She feels he's going to leave her, and doesn't want to get too friendly with the knights because many of them continue to mock her sister.
- Winged Humanoid: Restia's human form is a girl with black feather wings.
