Dark fantasy anime are all the rage at the moment, but that sadly means that one show might have come out too soon. The Sacred Blacksmith was a somewhat atypical sword and sorcery anime from the late 2000s. It was mostly known for its combination of less than glittery themes and fairly moe character designs, which only amounted to one measly 12-episode season -- despite the source material going on for way longer.
Here's a look back at what the series was about, why it may have been ahead of the curve, and how this might have kept it from receiving a continuation.
The Sacred Blacksmith's Origin & Story
The Sacred Blacksmith takes place in a world that was ravaged long ago by a war involving demonic power. This resulted in Demon Contracts, wherein humans could sacrifice themselves to become incredibly strong demons, resulting in them being outlawed. The protagonist is a young woman named Cecily Campbell, who follows in her family's tradition by serving as a knight. Despite this ambition, she isn't particularly good at her job, to begin with, and is incredibly weak.
This leads to her almost being overwhelmed in a battle, if not for the timely intervention of a blacksmith named Luke Ainsworth. Ainsworth wields an incredible katana, the likes of which Cecily has never seen before. After being saved by him on multiple occasions, she becomes enamored with him and yearns to learn more about the standoffish warrior, as well as develop her own skills to match his.
The series was created by Isao Miura and Luna, beginning life as a light novel series before becoming a manga and anime. The light novels ran from 2007 to 2013 in collected form, while the manga ran for even longer, lasting for around eight years from 2009 to 2017. Unfortunately, the anime adaptation did not fare nearly as well, lasting for only one season.
Why The Sacred Blacksmith Never Had a Second Season
The anime version of The Sacred Blacksmith was well-received, which makes its lack of continuation especially questionable. After all, the brief 12 episodes barely scratched the surface of the story contained in both the novels and the manga.
One reason for the lack of interest in going forward may have been the culture of anime at the time of the show's release. Dark fantasies were far less popular then, with more recent shows such as Goblin Slayer changing that dramatically in the present. Thus, The Sacred Blacksmith going somewhat against the grain for fantasy anime of its time was likely a reason for it being passed over. This tone was also somewhat confused by the cutesy, moe looking character designs, which completely lacked the edge and grit of some of the story's more mature elements.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the show's lack of follow-up seasons is the fate of Manglobe, the studio that produced the first one. Besides The Sacred Blacksmith, Manglobe produced several other great anime, including Ergo Proxy, Deadman Wonderland and Samurai Champloo. Despite this respectable filmography, the studio went bankrupt back in 2015 after accruing a massive amount of debt.
This could explain why Manglobe, specifically, didn't make more seasons, but why any other studio failed to pick up the franchise for more episodes remains a mystery. With the source material now having long been finished, fans can now get a true, complete adaptation of The Sacred Blacksmith in animation. All it would take is someone to pick up Manglobe's dropped torch.