Sacred Blacksmith Forum

I’ve expressed confusion in the past about what exact qualities delineate a show as shonen or shojo. My gut instinct would be to classify this SACRED BLACKSMITH as the latter, but you lunatics have trained me to deny that instinct. If it is, indeed, shonen , then that’s in the face of a girl protagonist, a mostly girl cast and a girly tone that’s in marked contrast to all the shonen and seinen shows I’ve watched so far.

Actually, you know what? Let’s forget any descriptors aside from “entertaining.” Whether it’s made for girls or boys, adolescents or adults, this is an entertaining show.

When it comes to fantasy, I generally have a distaste for sword 'n sorcery stories set in some pseudo-medieval setting that's obvious made up by people who drew inspiration from Tolkien over actual folklore or mythology. That’s not a knock on Tolkien - - not at all - -  because LORD OF THE RINGS resonates today because he drew from BEOWULF, KING ARTHUR and a long career of classical studies, not from a game of telephone his inspiration may have played with, say, Robert E. Howard's CONAN stories. It’s a big reason I disliked LODOSS WAR. That show was based on DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.

Tangential rants aside, this show reminds me a bit of LODOSS WAR (the perky blond elf has a lot to do with that) but it’s got a dash of ZELDA in some genuinely-creative ideas. I was especially impressed by the glass monster from the climax - - a creature I honestly haven't the likes of anywhere else. Seeing as how this is a 12 episode OVA, I'm definitely going to watch the entirety of it some time soon. I'll discuss the plot then but, for now, I'd like to raise some discussion points...

Watching this raises some questions I’ve had about the nature of fan service in fantasy. Cecily’s an appealing, strong and three-dimensional heroine (I dug the subtle touch of her hand shaking every time she draws her sword,) yet her armor looks like a French maid’s with only just a few protective additions. There are more shots lingering on her boobs in this episode than I ever saw of Winry, Rei or Yoko's in their respective shows.  When that sort of thing happens in comics or film, the vocal commentators will say it’s sexist, exploitative T&A. But if this is a show about girl power,does its occurrence makes it aspirational? It's not like dudes are feeling objectified when Conan goes around shirtless - - that's what they want to be. Let me know what you lunatics think. I'm curious.

Watch this episode “Knight,” here and decide for yourself. I received a set of this show's DVDs from Funimation, as they’ve got a new collection coming out.

Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of  HYBRID BASTARDS!  &  UNIMAGINABLE . Order them on Amazon   here  &   here .  Follow him on Twitter:  @tompinchuk

I think I had the same problem when trying to watch this show. It goes down the road of fan-service for just a bit and while it does it best sticking to the story, it tends to wander off. I wouldn't recommend watching it.

I vaguely remember this Fall 2009 title, except for the fact that it was shameless about fan service. Other than that, it doesn't get very excitingly memorable. I think the reason why I don't remember it so well was for the fact its plot ended up going all over the place and ended up with a sudden, improvised conclusion arc that I wasn't satisfied with at all. It's almost like a trainwreck, except it's in slow motion - over all of its 12 episodes. 
 
Which is a shame, since I thought it had the potential to be a good fantasy series myself when I watched its first episode. 

  But if this is a show about girl power,does its occurrence makes it aspirational? It's not like dudes are feeling objectified when Conan goes around shirtless - - that's what they want to be. Let me know what you lunatics think. 

You brought up an interesting point and honestly I don't have a good answer.  I think a feminist would tell you that both the conan thing and the fanservice thing involve "male gaze," except the former is about latent homosexuality.  I'd probably have to call bullshit on that to a degree (probably a result of my obvious latent homophobia, of course).
 
On the other hand there is the whole pro-sex feminist/lipstick feminist thing which would probably be okay with you calling it "aspirational."  Most people want to be attractive, I think; I don't know that that is an issue firmly divided along gender lines.  On the other hand, I also think there's a fine line between "girl power" and a sort of woman-warrior fetish.  
 
Some feminist critics have pointed out that the "girls with guns" stereotype isn't really liberating because it is still playing the "male power" game.  The woman shouldn't have to beat the boys at their own game, she should rewrite the rules on her terms.  Ditto for the stereotype of the sexually acquisitive female character who can "love 'em and leave 'em" just as well as any male character.
 
The other difference between the conan thing and the fanservice thing is that there isn't a long history of the repression of men and boys.  The argument goes that it is less reprehensible to portray men as objects of lust compared to women for similar reasons to why it might be more acceptable to tell a racist joke about French people compared to Jewish ones.
 
As for me, I tend to be more interested in efforts to reconstruct gender roles and sexual politics, because I think the deconstruction thing has been done to death.  Assuredly, that is "easy for me to say," but that's where I'm at, regardless.

ive seen up to episode 5 love the boob references xD

Already bought it. And to answer your question, no I have no idea how it happened!

Pfft whiney people...
Even though its prolly campy as hell, its medieval fantasy, JUST what I wanted..
 
Thanks Tom, you've come in handy finding me some anime to watch.. I've seen to many to find any that are in my range of viewing.