Reign of the Seven Spellblades/Nanatsu no Maken ga Shihai Suru

Well, as much as the manga is a fairly rough product, a cancellation means less money for the franchise as a whole, which is not great.

If the manga made money, there's a good chance we'll get an adaptation of Year 2, maybe with a different mangaka, like what happened with Yozitsu.

Volume 13 is out in Japan. We've been talking on the Nanatsuma Discord about the images.

Honestly I'm just here for Nanao in a kimono.

The other girl is Ursule Valois, who fights Oliver, Nanao, and Yuri Leik in a tournament match in volume 9.

Edited by StarSword on Dec 7th 2023 at 1:33:05 PM

Nice to see those two interacting especially after the character development Urusle got in the last volume.

I do appreciate how consistent Uno is with giving Nanao the real Protagonist Friendship Power.

Yeah, it's a really interesting twist that most of the Stock Shōnen Hero tropes went to Nanao, The Lancer of the series, and he instead made the actual main protagonist Oliver an Anti-Hero who's Overshadowed by Awesome for the first several books.

TBF Nanao is the owner of the titular seventh spellblade. So that tracks.

Welp, the character sheet is tripping the page length warning, so it looks like I'm going to have to split it up into subpages today.

Volume 10 comes out in English this coming Tuesday.

Back in December, the translator tweeted this comparison of how much thicker it is than the previous books.

Welp. Being Katie continues to be pain. Oliver and Nanao got to third base: he finally kissed her back and admitted he was in love with her and they spent the night together in their base, but his PTSD from his Rape as Backstory kept it from getting further than heavy petting this time.

NGL, I'm a little disappointed they didn't go all the way, but given how twisted some of the previous sexual content in this series has been, part of me actually prefers it this way: they're taking it slow and letting themselves get used to each other like adults instead of acting 100% like hormonal teenagers, and Uno taking the ramifications of sexual violence seriously is refreshing.

ETA: Volume 10 spoilers

Edited by StarSword on Jan 24th 2024 at 10:13:57 AM

Before I click are those LN spoilers or what

For the volume 10 translation, yes.

Ok haha avoiding the spoilers then but uhhh sorry for ya, Katie and your <complete conjecture mode> fight for magical beast rights going poorly

Also, ~Knightof Lsama, you were totally right when you called Miligan a madlass: she gets a Tournament Arc match in the first chapter that I'm still laughing about. It's the most bonkers fight scene in the whole series so far, I think it was actually better than the Godfrey/Echevalria rematch everyone was waiting for.

Edited by StarSword on Jan 24th 2024 at 11:54:19 AM

Welp, I finished volume 10. The last chapter where Oliver fights Demitrio Aristides takes up the entire second half of the book, and let me tell you: if you thought the volume 1 epilogue / episode 6 was a Wham Episode, you don't fucking know shit. I'm going to be chewing on this one for days, that was utterly insane.

It'll be a while until I get my copy, damn.

Well, just finished volume 10.

Damn. That was a lot.

Inorite? Total rollercoaster, Bokuto-sensei pulled out all the stops with this one. Some of my personal highlights:

• Miligan and Lynette's Kansas City Shuffle with Milihand and her basilisk eye was hilarious, probably the single most entertaining fight scene in the series so far.
• Frickin Tim becoming Student Council President? Who saw that coming?
• Oliver and Nanao are finally together for realsies!
• I usually dislike rape scenes in Japanese media because it comes off fetishistic so often, but that scene was horrifying, as well it should have been. Also, FUCK Oliver's grandpa: he had every bit of that coming and worse.
• I'm honestly surprised how sympathetic of a character Demitrio ended up being. On the flipside, with the additional backstory we got, Darius may now be the series' first Complete Monster candidate.

Edited by StarSword on Jan 26th 2024 at 12:03:30 PM

Agreed on all counts. I also appreciate the continued hints toward poly, as well as Chela, Pete, and Katie each showing their "oh, he's a little fucked up actually" side.

Well, the thread agreed: Nanatsuma is likely getting its first Complete Monster entry after volume 10. Not Darius, though (I decided he was too petty on second thought), but Oliver and the Sherwoods' great-grandfather.

I have no interest in Complete Monster as a trope, but I will just note that all three of the bullet points on the header for that trope don't apply to the character in question, and part of the point of the character is that the issue is with the society that raised him, not the person himself. Ollie has a whole monologue about it.

The very present dissonance is the point of that character.

I disagree:

• "The character is truly heinous by the standards of the story, which makes no attempt to present the character in any positive way." His actions are beyond the pale even by the admittedly high standards of mage aristocrats: the only ones we know about who even comes close are Joseph Albright's dad and and Ursule Valois's grandmother (ETA: and Ophelia's mom); Theodore and Lord Cornwallis are neglectful fathers at worst. Even Demitrio Aristides, one of the people who tortured and murdered Oliver's mother, is clearly appalled by him. And the mere fact that people actually object to the "family tradition" argument to the point of Gwyn and Shannon having support for a palace coup after Oliver kills him shows this isn't Deliberate Values Dissonance: he really is meant to be a thoroughly horrible person. And we have the Aaltos and Oliver's parents being Doting Parents as a direct counterpoint.
• "The character's terribleness is played seriously at all times, evoking fear, revulsion and hatred from the other characters in the story." We've got Gwyn and Shannon both clearly going WTF even before the rape scene, and Oliver's father literally committing suicide partly out of shame that he didn't try to stop it.
• "They are completely devoid of altruistic qualities. They show no regret for their crimes." Trivially true: he goes to his grave convinced he's done right by Oliver and Shannon, purely on the basis that Oliver succeeded in impregnating her first try after being drugged into raping her, and promising to repeat the Rape by Proxy until Shannon carries a child to term.

Edited by StarSword on Jan 30th 2024 at 9:37:39 AM

Yeah, I know. I read the book. I'll repeat that Oliver has a whole monologue about how things could have been different if society was different, and how it's actually worse because the old man clearly considers this doing right. Again, the dissonance is part of the point. It's a statement that Uno is making about mage society as a whole, not one specific bad man.

But honestly, I think Complete Monster is one of the wankiest tropes on this site, and it's not one I'm interested in discussing. As long as it's not put on the Spellblades trope list (as mandated by the CM page header), folks can do as they please.

Edited by RedSavant on Jan 30th 2024 at 11:10:50 PM

Well, anyway, the English blurb for volume 11 is available. Release date is May 21.

So we got a Vacation Episode this time, interesting choice, but also some follow-up on the tensions within the Sword Roses that are starting to crop up.

JP cover art is cute as hell.

Yup, the cast is in the purple-lined uniforms on the cover of volume 12, so I imagine that's when they'll be officially starting fourth year.

I wonder if they're going to pick up the Godfrey spinoff as well. I'm sure they will be.