Originally a Korean mmorpg with an open world environment and a martial arts inspired real-time battle system, an anime adaptation of “Blade & Soul” by studio Gonzo has started to air.
Going through the anime spring season line up, there were several series that although they did not particularly stick out, still seemed worth to sample, like “Mahou Shoujo Taisen”, ”Break Blade” or “Blade & Soul”, hence decided to give the first episode a try.
Unfortunately, “Blade & Soul” did not really appeal to me at all so won’t be watching the rest of this series. Will not label “Blade & Soul” as a bad anime based on this first episode alone, but it lacked anything original and failed to pull me into the story or have its characters and fantasy-like world setting appeal to me.
The overall atmosphere, level of animation, character designs and plot events were similar to other fantasy genre shows like “Queen’s Blade” or even “Koihime†Musou”, although it lacked the ecchi fanservice of the former and shoujo-ai tinted comedy of the latter.
“Blade & Soul” might still appeal to fans of the fantasy genre or those interested in the original game, but personally will not pick up this series.
