what's wrong with it?

MaouHero said:
Well, don't trust MAL too much. Lately the scoring system has gotten weird. Maybe it changed something or the popularity of anime changed things. Anyway, you can easily see that several anime are getting 6 and several 8, even 9. It's pretty unregulated.
And the main factor, the story is being built little by little, it's not a shounen with a super bad guy to defeat right away. The protagonist also didn't show himself as a "badass" right away. There was also nothing extremely flashy and exaggerated.

These are triggers that people are conditioned to expect.

Iron_Maw said:
The annoying thing here plenty of long-running excellent series begin exactly like Spellblades in terms of structure and you even have other making same complaints those shows too despite fact they should know better, but Spellblades somehow magically worse. Quality shows don't spill the beans about everything they are and they characters are about unless they gonna end in 12 episodes or one book. But some ding Spellblades for not 2 seasons worth character development & characterization in 3 episodes.  But ultimately yeah, MAL scores have never been the best judge of quality. Especially when you can rate shows before they even air.

Connort1998 said:
in terms of scores after 3 eps there are many examples of it changing such as black clover being hated at the start and dangers in my heart last season, but you only can judge based on the content out so i feel 6.8 is pretty justified the first 3 eps have been pretty mediocre 

Necromia said:
Didn't rate it but I dropped it on the first episode. Just seemed weird to me that everyone became friends instantly. Have all your generic character tropes. Booknerd, the clutz etc.

The ogre attack at the festival was the biggest issue I had with it. How are they going to have all these dangerous creatures walking around with no security? Guess the intent was to showcase the characters strengths but how it was set up seemed lazy. This show just seems... generic.

warchilll said:
I'm an outsider to this story, but after three episodes it rang kinda hollow. Way too many characters being introduced at once, and they're practically BFFs half-way into the first episode? Some weird pacing and plot development overall:

I appreciated the story and movies, but I'm not really a Harry Potter fan. Is that supposed to be the main selling point on this one?

Necromia said:
Didn't rate it but I dropped it on the first episode. Just seemed weird to me that everyone became friends instantly. Have all your generic character tropes. Booknerd, the clutz etc.

The ogre attack at the festival was the biggest issue I had with it. How are they going to have all these dangerous creatures walking around with no security? Guess the intent was to showcase the characters strengths but how it was set up seemed lazy. This show just seems... generic.

Iron_Maw said:
Well they dd not become firends immediately. I went rewatched the ep1 r to troll incident and dinner all everyone was doing was either making some smalltalk they see or somebody telling to watch for something. If that idea being friends then I have assume you don't either don't anyway or you have never held conversation on train with some didn't know after comment something happening. They only become friends at dinner after whole troll incident clear up because why wouldn't they after helping save a fellow student?

And there guards the (students show leading the parade), that wasn't the problem, the issue was Katie magically forced to run there and nobody had anytime react to other than people literally next to her. Troll itself wasn't supposed to act like that anyway, as been trained to be docile which is a plot point.  Beyond That I don't what Spellblades suppose to be generic compared to. As mentioned before JJK is generic shounen with go-getter protagonist, training arcs, schools, a trio friends, with energy based power systems and overt-top villains and people are just fine with that given MAL's score.

Necromia said:
So the ones leading the creatures were working as guards too? In that case that the one leading the golden dragon right behind the troll would have been closer to help but he didn't. 

The scene is just a low effort setup to rush their friendship and showcase their powers. That's a hard drop for me. 

Also idc about your JJK meltdown as much as idc about this show.

Zefyris said:

Excuse me, why are you assuming that ANYONE is working as GUARDS in a SCHOOL? This isn't the US, guards in a school is a complete anomaly. I was even surprised that several viewers were complaining about no security being here inside the school, not sure if you're american or not, but if you are, just so you know, pretty much the entire world outside of your country consider normal to have 0 guard in a school and would be weirded out at the idea of adding some.

The few upperclassmen present in the parade all were busy taking care of way stronger monsters. The parade is organised fully by a few upper classmen that volunteered. Are you suggesting than the guy with the dragon should have left the dragon alone in the middle of the crowd to run after a troll that went away from the line ? Or did you want him or her to blast the place with something strong enough to go through the troll's thick skin and bone with all the freshmen around it ?

The trolls didn't have anyone guiding them with a leash because like it was said in episode 1, they're slaves so it's normal that they're walking around alone doing work, they're magically subjugated. Leaving alone a way bigger monster that is definitely not subjugated since it's kept with a leash for the sake of running after a smaller one is your idea of "security" btw? The troll went away from the line, so the upper classmen weren't especially close, only other freshmen were.

Finally, I'd like to point out something very simple that you have missed
- by coincidence, Katie who is from a family supporting non human right was targeted by that spell that made her at risk of dying by a non human sentient race.
- by coincidence, a troll, that never went berserk before and was supposed to be fully enslaved, went berserk at the exact same time
- by coincidence, no upperclassman nor teaching staff was close enough and immediately available to arrive in the first 30sec- 1 min of the incident.

Why, oh why, are you thinking that this incident is only here as a one time thing only serving to make them all friend ? Why, oh why, are you assuming that the 3rd coincidence is just bad writing rather than adding all 3 coincidence together and think there's no such thing as a coincidence in the whole incident here? That it happened to Katie not by coincidence, that a troll that had no business going berserk went berserk at that exact same time and ran from the line wasn't a coincidence, and that the timing of everything being when no one that could help quickly was close enough to do so is no coincidence as well?

Why, oh why, are you so eager to brush off what happened to Katie here as a simple prank that went too far? When even the teachers that usually don't care especially about the student's safety find the whole thing fishy enough to apologize publicly, and go out of their way to research the incident to understand what really happened here ?

Is this REALLY bad writing, or are you ASSUMING it's bad writing and threw away any other way more logical possibilities ?

ejleon said:

I have heard of rating after 1 or 3 or 5 episodes, or just rating before even watching, that is completely unfair for the creators.

I think the option to rate an anime should only be available to those who have watched all the episodes, because that’s the only way to fairly each anime.

I have had both experiences where the first few episodes are…

1. not that good, but then it becomes a great anime series

2. really good at the beginning, but then later episodes ruin the anime

It is just not right that people act this way.

ejleon said:
I have heard of rating after 1 or 3 or 5 episodes, or just rating before even watching, that is completely unfair for the creators.

I think the option to rate an anime should only be available to those who have watched all the episodes, because that’s the only way to fairly each anime.

I have had both experiences where the first few episodes are…

1. not that good, but then it becomes a great anime series

2. really good at the beginning, but then later episodes ruin the anime

It is just not right that people act this way.

MaouHero said:
Well, don't trust MAL too much. Lately the scoring system has gotten weird. Maybe it changed something or the popularity of anime changed things. Anyway, you can easily see that several anime are getting 6 and several 8, even 9. It's pretty unregulated.
And the main factor, the story is being built little by little, it's not a shounen with a super bad guy to defeat right away. The protagonist also didn't show himself as a "badass" right away. There was also nothing extremely flashy and exaggerated.

These are triggers that people are conditioned to expect.

APolygons2 said:
I think the problem is that people wanted a generic isekai, but it's actually a decent show. so it's stuck between not being trashy enough for isekai fans, and not being amazing enough to impress others, at least so far.


idk though I haven't started this season yet, too busy catching up on some older stuff.

amlg said:


Actually... this is the norm in Japan too.

Especially since people vote on a manga by CHAPTER. And those with lower ranking for a long period will be cancelled.

Whereas they base on the anime ranking on "episode sales". Yup, there are rankings of how much each of an anime's episode is selling, if it doesn't get good sales PER episode, there's a chance the anime won't be having any more season/ sequels. (sometimes to the point where a studio gets revamped in the middle of a airing season, IE: people/ artist/ director get replaced)

Have you never seen posts about episode sales before? there are lots. Tho mostly in fairly popular series.

Anime sites that do reviews and ratings are actually quite tame compared to the actual real world business side, LOL.

APolygons2 said:
I disagree. you can and should rate a show based on how good it is so far, but you should judge based on the core aspects like (writing, music, animation) rather than the stuff that takes time to develope.

what I think is unfair is rating a show that you have dropped. 

shows do get better or worse as they go on, but if you rate it before finishing it, you error is only temporary. it will be gone as soon as you finish it.

but since you will never finishing the dropped show, you are unfairly lowering the score of a show that you will never finish. which is why I never rate the shows I drop even if I am pretty certain of how good their quality is.

Iron_Maw said:
The appeal of show is setting and seeing the characters from vastly different backgrounds who have decent chemistry with each other bonding in school that revealing itself to harsher than look colorful appearance suggests They aren't BFF just they talked to each other. I don't why some people ignore that 6 where involved in crisis where they were forced to put they whatever differences they had at the time and worked together (when they didn't  even know their names at that point) to save a fellow student from death in situation only they had time to react due to being near her. Why wouldn't you think that would make the group a bit more open to each other by time for proper introduction come I don't know. Sounds like a bunch people that share a common sentiment valuing people lives over petty bullshit and they using the excuse of not knowing each allow pointless deaths.
On your spoiler

Personally don't know any of it feel hollow or what some are expecting out of it. So far the first 3 episodes have focused on set good natured people (even without taken account any friendships formed) with have distinct personalities who are all in the same boat become solid friends through a crisis with hints of a larger plot in store in the background.
Thank you. Just thank you. I so rarely see reasoned and adequately crafted responses to Spellblades claims, it's good to see one. It's worse on forums of my language. I hope OP and the people with questions are satisfied. And I hope my post doesn't break any rules, I only registered for this thanks)

Mahirunin said:
Thank you. Just thank you. I so rarely see reasoned and adequately written responses to Spellblades claims, I'm glad to see such a thing. It's worse on forums of my language. I hope OP and the people with questions are satisfied. And I hope my post doesn't break any rules, I only registered for this thanks) Same for Zefyris ofc.

ejleon said:

I am commenting on MAL ratings only.
1. MAL per episode ratings
2. MAL completed anime ratings

… so the “sales” are not a part of my comment.

But thank you for explaining, seems really unfair to me.

amlg said:


I know the sales isn't yours.

I was just mentioning it cause that's what the Japan do, especially since it actually affects the whole anime at the end.

Anime with bad episode sales have very low chance of getting sequels. So the sales in this case is the ratings Japan do for EACH episode.

You can go search up ppls talking about episode sales and how it affects the whole rating of an anime series in Japan.

.

It's also the reason why MAL has TWO different ratings for anime.

One for "each episode" and another for "as a series".

The "each episode" is to reflect how the Japan do their ratings for the manga and anime series, while the "as a series" is for people that wants to only rate on a completed series.

JakkoFourEyes said:
Personally, my problems lie with a few things:
- the MC is the most boring character of the main cast (aside from maybe Guy). His personality is bland just like his design and of course seems pretty overpowered, comically so sometimes. Him running around during that alchemy lesson, being apparently the only capable one saving all the others was almost hilarious. He probably has some "epic" backstory, but that doesn't excuse anything. He's a pretty generic anime fantasy character (and similar to the generic isekai characters as well). Tbh, the only characters I'm interested in are Nanao and Katie.
- the majority of the rest of the students (and some of the teachers) have been portrayed as almost cartoonishly evil without any real justification.
- the interactions between the main cast feel very forced and unnatural. It's sometimes almost annoying to me.
- the school doesn't make much sense to me. Is the freedom to do basically anything really worth he lives of 20% of students? So far, the reason there seem to be many deaths, seem to be the students (and teachers) themselves. Even if the cause was a terribly dangerous curriculum, why would they accept students that have little to no magic experience? In most cases, that probably doesn't work out well, like would have for multiple people during that alchemy lesson had our lord and saviour Oliver not been there (because the teacher doesn't care apparently).

JakkoFourEyes said:
Personally, my problems lie with a few things:
- the MC is the most boring character of the main cast (aside from maybe Guy). His personality is bland just like his design and of course seems pretty overpowered, comically so sometimes. Him running around during that alchemy lesson, being apparently the only capable one saving all the others was almost hilarious. He probably has some "epic" backstory, but that doesn't excuse anything. He's a pretty generic anime fantasy character (and similar to the generic isekai characters as well). Tbh, the only characters I'm interested in are Nanao and Katie.
- the majority of the rest of the students (and some of the teachers) have been portrayed as almost cartoonishly evil without any real justification.
- the interactions between the main cast feel very forced and unnatural. It's sometimes almost annoying to me.
- the school doesn't make much sense to me. Is the freedom to do basically anything really worth he lives of 20% of students? So far, the reason there seem to be many deaths, seem to be the students (and teachers) themselves. Even if the cause was a terribly dangerous curriculum, why would they accept students that have little to no magic experience? In most cases, that probably doesn't work out well, like would have for multiple people during that alchemy lesson had our lord and saviour Oliver not been there (because the teacher doesn't care apparently).

Iron_Maw said:
-When has he been OP, please list them. All you done use the word generic like 5 times without actually saying of why he's bad. You're complaints are just nonsensical to me seem boil down I hate because him has black hair and isn't asshole. Doesn't sound like he ever gonna win with your given how much project on him. Might as well add he generic for breathing too.
-Every character has literally presented reasons why act they way none of have been cartoonish evil. Like sell gonna on Andrews and Mackley being super mega evil then you have good examples of that.
-What is unnatural about their interaction and what does natural interaction look like? Where is this objective standard that everyone is supposed to follow?
-Yes is to them in this society. This was outlined in the first episode. The world doesn't care appealing to your personal morality on the matter. The accept students into the school who little experience because whole point to teach them magic turn them in proper mages. That also means accumulating to culture of mages. Why do you think alchemy, spellology, magical biology and other classes we have seen are for? Why are asking questions you pretend aren't awnserd by watching the show? This asking why Jujutsu Sorcerers go high school.

JakkoFourEyes said:

- I said the majority of students, not specific characters. The colloseum bit for example.

Iron_Maw said:
I'm not gonna focus too much time on this but I'm gonna address this point. Nothing conservative students did out of boundaries of humanity. In fact humans in our actual history have went out and done far worse like lynching people for having different color skin, forced the poor and slaves into gladiator matches against each other and animal cheered when they mauled to death. If those students cartoon villains for doing a tamer version of same thing then we humans are actually bona fide bloody soulless monsters. Don't be full of yourself if you think humanity as whole in mob mentally has ever been any better, we plenty of expreince on bullying people for their beliefs and trampling on human rights because entirely withing human norms. Maybe your forgot or haven't read a history book if so I'm implored that your do. Art imitates life is insightful quote for a reason.

JakkoFourEyes said:


You misunderstand me. What made them cartoonishly evil to me was not what they did, but how they behaved while doing it. Cartoonishly evil doesn't necessarily mean that the characters are doing the most atrocious things imaginable.


Also, I'm not full of myself. You don't know me. please don't insult people over a difference of opinion over an anime.

APolygons2 said:
I think the problem is that people wanted a generic isekai, but it's actually a decent show. so it's stuck between not being trashy enough for isekai fans, and not being amazing enough to impress others, at least so far.


idk though I haven't started this season yet, too busy catching up on some older stuff.

Necromia said:
Didn't rate it but I dropped it on the first episode. Just seemed weird to me that everyone became friends instantly. Have all your generic character tropes. Booknerd, the clutz etc.

The ogre attack at the festival was the biggest issue I had with it. How are they going to have all these dangerous creatures walking around with no security? Guess the intent was to showcase the characters strengths but how it was set up seemed lazy. This show just seems... generic.

durask said:
One thing that kinda bugs me about any magic school anime/show/book whatever is the inevitable Harry Potter comparison.

It's not like there was anything particularly original about Harry Potter and it certainly wasn't the first British Boarding School for Wizards story. Before Harry Potter we had Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea books. Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series has Unseen University, an university for wizards. The Worst Witch series has Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches and one of the books says that there are thirty wizarding schools in the United Kingdom. 

That's not to mention tons of relatively more obscure books by other British authors.