The Sacred Blacksmith
Oswald Lemus
Forty-four years ago, a great war known as the Valbanill War ravaged the land. One of the war's most dangerous weapons was the Demon Contract, where humans sacrifice their bodies to become powerful demons. Realizing the damage the contracts have caused the land, the surviving nations made peace and banned the use of the Demon contracts.
Cecily Campbell is a 3rd generation Knight from Housman, one of the cities of the Independent Trade Cities, a democratic federation of cities. As her grandfather was one of the founders of the Independent Trade Cities, she is proud of her heritage and wishes to protect her city as a knight, like her father and grandfather before her. One day, she fights a mad veteran of the war causing trouble in the market, and, inexperienced and outmatched, faces defeat. But she is saved by a mysterious blacksmith named Luke Ainsworth. Cecily is impressed by Luke's katana, a weapon she has never seen before, and asks him to make one for her. Her involvement with Luke will bring her to an adventure she never expected.
The manga was announced simultaneously with the anime adaptation, on the wraparound jacket of the fourth light novel volume. Artist Kōtarō Yamada launched the series in Media Factory's Monthly Comic Alive magazine on March 27, 2009.[20] The ninth volume announced in February 2015 that the series would end in its tenth volume,[21] and the last chapter was published in the magazine's March issue on January 27, 2016.[22]
Tokyopop announced their license to the series in November 2010, with the first volume scheduled for June 7, 2011.[23] However, the publisher shut down on May 31, 2011,[24] with all of its titles reverting to their original owners.[25] The series was licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment in October 2012.[26]
An anime adaptation was announced on the wraparound jacket for the fourth light novel volume.[20] The series was directed by Masamitsu Hidaka and written by Masashi Suzuki, with animation by the studio Manglobe. The series character designs were provided by Jun Nakai.[38] The opening theme is "Justice of Light" by Mayumi Gojo while the ending theme is "Miracle Happy Day" (みらくるハッピーディ) by Aki Toyosaki. The series aired from October 3, 2009[39] to December 19, 2009.
The series was licensed by Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand,[40] Manga Entertainment in the United Kingdom,[41] and Funimation in North America.[42] Funimation later announced that it would release the series uncut on DVD after streaming the edited version online.[43] The series was one of the first of Funimations's relaunched collector's edition line of series, receiving a limited edition containing an art booklet.[44] It was broadcast on the Funimation Channel starting on August 8, 2011.[45]
The light novels have sold over 780,000 copies.[46] Chris Schmitt wrote "Sacred Blacksmith has a very odd take on the fantasy genre, mixing moe character designs similar to K-On! with some deep, and sometimes dark, fantasy elements."[47]
Theron Martin of Anime News Network gave the anime series a B concluding, "Although The Sacred Blacksmith stumbles in places and fails to fully develop its setting or carry through on the plot threads it establishes, it nonetheless achieves an occasional and undeniable level of sincerity in its characters' convictions and interactions and at least partly delivers on its potential. It may be far from the elite fantasy titles out there, but even within its genre you could certainly do far worse for a pleasing diversion."[48]
Cecily Campbell is a knight, like her father and grandfather before her. She has sworn a pact to defend the city of Housman from all those who threaten it, but her resolve is shaken when her heirloom sword breaks during her first battle. She is saved by Luke Aisnworth, a blacksmith bearing an impossibly sharp sword and incredible skill. Cecily is determined to have Luke reforge her sword, but both of them are put to the test when a routine fight with some bandits becomes a desperate fight against demons.
You would think that Cecily is the hero of The Sacred Blacksmith. After all, she's the one on the cover. She's the one with the dramatic backstory. Hers is the perspective we follow throughout this book. So why do I feel like Miura pulled a bait-and-switch with the readers?
Cecily may be the protagonist, but she's never given an opportunity to be a heroine in her own right. She's always ready and willing to fight, but every time the rug is metaphorically pulled out from under her so that she can be saved by the story's true hero: Luke. Luke is not just the titular blacksmith, but also the one with the legendary weapon and big, flashy fight scenes. He's the one who gets to save the day while Cecily gets to stand by in awe and occasionally give an assist.
It's frustrating because Luke is not a bad character taken on his own. He's a little more reserved, snarky, and sad, and he serves as a good contrast to Cecily's earnestness. He's a talented blacksmith, even if this talent seems to mostly exist for him to espouse the glories of Traditional Japanese Swordmaking. It's just not fair to either of them that Luke gets put on a pedestal while Cecily is on par with Luke's elven assistant.
The plot itself is not particularly interesting. It's pretty standard fantasy fare, with a shadowy demon war waged by very evil people that is happening because of Reasons. Thus, all that's left to prop this story up is the dynamic between Cecily and Luke. The Sacred Blacksmith will continue to struggle to capture my attention so long as the relationship between these two remains this unequal.
My fear upon first reading this is that this would be just another dull fantasy-tinged jigglefest. Thankfully, Cecily's outfit is fairly modest and reasonable as far as ladies in fantasy manga go. It's just a shame that Yamada negates this by taking every opportunity to either gaze up her skirt or shred her clothes in battle. He's clearly a talented artist. You can feel the joy and relish he puts into the sword battles: the rich inking, the dynamic swooping angles, and the exciting page and panel layouts. I just wish he didn't feel the need to pander to the basest audience while doing so.
Dark fantasy anime are all the rage at the moment, but that sadly means that one show might have come out too soon. The Sacred Blacksmith was a somewhat atypical sword and sorcery anime from the late 2000s. It was mostly known for its combination of less than glittery themes and fairly moe character designs, which only amounted to one measly 12-episode season -- despite the source material going on for way longer.
The Sacred Blacksmith takes place in a world that was ravaged long ago by a war involving demonic power. This resulted in Demon Contracts, wherein humans could sacrifice themselves to become incredibly strong demons, resulting in them being outlawed. The protagonist is a young woman named Cecily Campbell, who follows in her family's tradition by serving as a knight. Despite this ambition, she isn't particularly good at her job, to begin with, and is incredibly weak.
This leads to her almost being overwhelmed in a battle, if not for the timely intervention of a blacksmith named Luke Ainsworth. Ainsworth wields an incredible katana, the likes of which Cecily has never seen before. After being saved by him on multiple occasions, she becomes enamored with him and yearns to learn more about the standoffish warrior, as well as develop her own skills to match his.
The series was created by Isao Miura and Luna, beginning life as a light novel series before becoming a manga and anime. The light novels ran from 2007 to 2013 in collected form, while the manga ran for even longer, lasting for around eight years from 2009 to 2017. Unfortunately, the anime adaptation did not fare nearly as well, lasting for only one season.
The anime version of The Sacred Blacksmith was well-received, which makes its lack of continuation especially questionable. After all, the brief 12 episodes barely scratched the surface of the story contained in both the novels and the manga.
One reason for the lack of interest in going forward may have been the culture of anime at the time of the show's release. Dark fantasies were far less popular then, with more recent shows such as Goblin Slayer changing that dramatically in the present. Thus, The Sacred Blacksmith going somewhat against the grain for fantasy anime of its time was likely a reason for it being passed over. This tone was also somewhat confused by the cutesy, moe looking character designs, which completely lacked the edge and grit of some of the story's more mature elements.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the show's lack of follow-up seasons is the fate of Manglobe, the studio that produced the first one. Besides The Sacred Blacksmith, Manglobe produced several other great anime, including Ergo Proxy, Deadman Wonderland and Samurai Champloo. Despite this respectable filmography, the studio went bankrupt back in 2015 after accruing a massive amount of debt.
This could explain why Manglobe, specifically, didn't make more seasons, but why any other studio failed to pick up the franchise for more episodes remains a mystery. With the source material now having long been finished, fans can now get a true, complete adaptation of The Sacred Blacksmith in animation. All it would take is someone to pick up Manglobe's dropped torch.
Like her father and grandfather before her, Cecily Campbell has entered the knighthood and joined the ranks of the Knight Guards of Housman. Eager to do her heritage proud and defend her city, Cecily rushes to the marketplace to stop a madman from terrorizing the populace. She quickly realizes, however, that she is hopelessly outmatched and ill-prepared for an actual fight. A lone figure named Luke Ainsworth swoops to the rescue, a swordsman and blacksmith of much renown, who will repair the broken sword Cecily has inherited from her father and take her down a road of perilous adventure beyond her wildest dreams.
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