i will start up with a quote that tells those that read alot of light novels a bit of what to expect

Quote from baka-tsukis forum user kira0802
"it smells like IS, it tastes like HnA, it feels like Seikoku no Dragonar, it sounds like Campione! and it looks like ZnT. Basically, it is Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance."

I tried to write up a unbiased review, but when i started i felt my resolve crumble to dush as i notice every crack in Blade dance armor of logic

it smells like Infinite Stratos?
well it is a male protagonist in a all female school being the ONLY male being able to wield spirit magic, this does sound like a magical version of IS and it is by no means a bad setting handled right.
Sadly i dont thing blade dance handle the setting as it should, it treat every girl at school as a mob rather then individuals, they seam to ALL share opinion about him without even seen him. he was branded a corrupting existance even before most people could possibly known who he was or that he was going to go in the school. and with the setting as it is it's wierd for them to assume he is anything but a noble at first guess and in such a sheltered enviroment they should be extremly curious about him rather then looking at him like he is the bathroom mold.

to the fact the protagoist is nice to everyone yet gets treated like he is maggot-fodder by the women for no apparent reason, if falls a bit into what many series have with comedy violence, its supposed to be fun the tsundere almost kills him with her plasma whip, but shes cute so all physical pain she cause him is forgiven right?.
it playes its violence elements without making it feel like a joke, and that makes harder to just brush aside and accept as a joke device.

"It tastes like Hidan no aria, feels like Seikpku no dragonar"
points to the fact 2 characters seam to want to brand him as their own, he is my servant/pet/slave/spirit phrases that most of the time make no sense because the heroines are implied being isolated and tottaly oblivious to the real world, however as the story is told they seam far to knowledgeable for this cue to work and they should understand that wanting someone to be your servant does not equal him being so.

it sounds like Campione!
sadly i have not read all of this yet so i can't say exaktly where it comes from.

However this series does borrow or steal alot of elements from zero no tsukaima, the diffrence is that in ZnT the protagonist is left with little choise but spend time with the violent heroine in Blade dance nothing stop him from simply walking away from his tormentor especially if he is as skilled as they imply.

Oh did i say the protagonist have a backstory that should leave him emotionally stunted or alteast socially clumsy, yet nothing of this shows in his character and is left as simply "cool backstory" and this backstory should be the reason he is so awesome, yet the fact he is left unaffected/unscarred by his own backstory make it seam fake and fabricated.

Redeeming qualitys of Blade dance is few but that its very easy to read, making true on the word light in both light novel and light reading, this hold true even on the fight scens making them easy to read and follow keeping them fairly intresseting make the whole thing readable

... Last updated on April 11th, 2012, 1:54pm