*Some spoilers* Also, I highlighted some parts of the review bold if you'd like to get through it quicker. I'm not crazy about long reviews myself so I get it, and I apologize as this one will be quite long. Well, this series was about everything I expected it to be. The reason why I started this series in the first place is that other users voted it as similar to Bladedance of Elementers and Absolute Duo, 2 anime that I've seen already. Bladedance was good in my opinion and Absolute Duo was decent enough. For it to be similar to those 2 anime isn't a bad thing then. It does make you feel like you've seen everything in this anime before however. That can be a good and a bad thing.This anime is rather predictable. You know right from the start how the main character will be in terms of adjusting to the all girls academy. His "sister" is there (Mitsuki, they share a bond like siblings and I guess they're like adopted siblings but they're not blood related), there's the girl who is ice cold to him but you know she'll warm up to him in the future (Lisa), there's the girl who's not the smartest but will be the primary heroine (Iris), the tomboy (Ariella), the girl who's scared of guys (Ren), the bookworm (Fyrill), you get the idea, pretty much the same tropes, it's nothing too new. I don't think that's a bad thing because sometimes sticking with a formula that has worked before can work again, but like I said, you know how the interactions will be with each of the girls.The story itself is pretty straightfoward. Yuu, are main protagonist, is the only male D is the world (real quickly, I dislike how they're called "D's". It sounds terrible. They couldn't think of something else? Even something like Cleffingers or literally anything would've been better. I chose Cleffingers because the mark to signify the fact they're D's looks like a treble clef). Anyways, he's transferred to an all girls school to be with all the other D's. The D's have to fight monsters called "Basilisks, and each D is paired to a basilisk. If the basilisk paired to them meets up with them, they turn into that basiliskThe story is fine enough, the fights are a bit predictable, you have the tragic backstory for Mitsuki (2 years before the current time, her best friend turned into her respective basilisk, you have the first fight for Iris, and then the main boss fight between some tortoise looking basilisk that takes up the final 3 episodes. A Quick subplot I forgot to mention, Yuu is also affilited with the NIFL and therefore he faces some pretty extensive pressure from them to succeed in all his missions. The other main plotpoint involves a character I haven't mentioned, and that's Tear. Tear is a couple years younger than the rest of the main cast, and quickly falls in love with our main protagonist Yuu. There's a whole "she calls Yuu her husband" gag that's stupid and I ignore, but what makes her character key is that she thinks she's a dragon when in reality she's a human. Our secondary antagonist, Kili, a girl who is from some affilitation I can't remember, wants her to believe she's a dragon and goes to great lengths to succeed, even posing as Honoka, a student in the academy. Anyways, I was confused as to whether or not Kili has control over the basilisks or not. It seemed to be implied she did but it was never specifically stated. I'm going on a bit of a rant now though and over-complicating things, just know that I thought the story was okay but kind of predictable.The animation, decent. Nothing much to say about it. It was started 2015 animation with quality slightly decreasing in the latter episodes.As for the characters, I liked Mitsuki. The whole "I'm his sister but I have a crush on him as well" part was weird, but her character does develop a bit from the beginning to the end, and she does learn quite a bit throughout the fights. Lisa (the stone cold girl at first) also has some good character development, and was solid. Iris, I didn't really care for her. Early on she is just basically played for fanservice, though that thankfully does stop later on. You can tell there's a going to be a slight rivalry between her and Mitsuki over Yuu. As for Ariella, she was cool but doesn't get much screentime. Ren and Fyrill are mostly background characters though Fyrill gets a few moments in episodes 9 and 10. Tear was easily my least favorite character. She was annoying throughout.Overall: Like I said, this was about everything I expected. As someone who enjoyed Bladedance and thought Absolute Duo was decent, this one being similar to both is not a bad thing. But I did thing Bladedance was better, and so I thought this was just kind of a slightly lesser version of it. Not bad, but not too memorable either. I would recommend this anime to fans of the action and fantasy genre, but not really anyone else.
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