Anime / Sacred Seven

...Oh, where do we begin with the synopsis?

An Anime First series by Sunrise that premiered in the Summer 2011 season alongside the second half of Tiger & Bunny.

Seventeen years ago, a meteor fell from space, scattering a bunch of rare jewels around Japan known as "Dark Stones." These stones provide tremendous power to whoever touches them, but also have a bad habit of driving the user insane. Fast-forward several years: a loner named Alma goes to school despite being accused of sending 19 kids to the hospital all at once. An amazingly rich woman named Ruri and her butler Makoto ask for his help. With the power from her "Soul Stone," he can wield the power of the "Sacred Seven" and destroy the Dark Stones.

But of course, everyone has their own agenda involving the Dark Stones. Even Alma's newfound friend.

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This series contains examples of:

• All of the Other Reindeer: Alma, for the fact that he nearly killed eighteen other people in one of his rampages.

• The Assimilator:Kenmi. He wants to devour all the power of the Sacred Seven.
• Ax-Crazy:Kenmi by the last episode, as he goes Drunk with Power.
• Battle Butler:

• Even more so, his father who took on a Dark Stone in hand-to-hand combat without the benefit of a Mini-Mecha.

• Betty and Veronica: Wakana and Ruri respectively.
• Big Bad: Kenmi is behind everything in the series. Alma losing his pendant, Ruri and Makoto losing their family, Naito and Fei's predicament... he's behind it all.

• Big Little Sister: As Aoi didn't age over the years, Ruri is this to her older twin sister.

• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: When called an coward, Kenmi says that he prefers to call his action(using a Human Shield) an "efficient use of resources".

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The unnamed user of the Arachne Power Armor. She treats fighting like a game.

• Conveniently Seated: Alma sits himself at the left corner by the window in the back to show his isolation. He actually reinforces this by pulling his desk even further back.

• Death Fromabove:Fei unleashes an rain of projectiles after absorbing Kenmi's powers and turning MadwithPower.

• Despair Event Horizon: Seeing his brother get killed by Kenmi drives Fei insane with homicidal rage, which Kenmi magnifies by passing his malice to him just before dying.

• Emoticon: Oni-gawara sometimes summons these in the air to express his emotions, since his own face is almost totally inexpressive.
• Extreme Omnivore: One of the Dark Stones from episode 9 eats trucks, BFGs and their laser beams.
• Extremity Extremist: One of the two Darkstones from episode 9 only fought with it's legs, on account of its arms being locked in a Badass Arm-Fold.
• Eye Colour Change: Alma's left eye turns red when there's Dark Stone activity nearby.
  • Changes in episode 12, where both eyes glow blue.
• Feed Itwith Fire:Fei hits Kenmi with projectiles in the finale. It makes him NighInvunerable .
• Forgotten First Meeting: Alma saved Ruri from falling beams when they were children. This was the first time that he had activated his Sacred powers. Alma forgot all about it, though.
• Friendless Background: Alma. He could actually make friends, but invariably lost them because he scared them off when he exhibited his powers and had to constantly move to a new town because of that.
• Gag Sub: One sub group jokingly calls Alma "Squall" due to his resemblance to the character from Final Fantasy VIII, both appearance and personality-wise.

• Good Colors, Evil Colors: Naito's coat and armour are black. With Aoi activating his powers, he dons a white armour (which also does away with the mask covering his entire face) and he's seen wearing a white version of his coat at the very end.

• Heroic Sacrifice: Kagami's father blew himself and Number 0 up to stop the latter from going after Ruri after he killed the rest of her family.

• Hoist by His Own Petard/Bullying the Dragon:
  • The rampage that nearly killed those students. They threw his necklace in the river.
  • In a looser way, in the episode with two darkstones, where the Engagement Suit actually uses it's BFG, said BFG makes the Monster of the Week stronger, rather than injuring it...
  • Fei shoots at Kenmi in the last episode. It gives him Nigh-Invulnerability thanks to his new absorption powers
• How We Got Here: Episode 9 opens with Alma getting absolutely owned by the episode's Dark Stone. As the audience wonders how things have gotten to that point, cue the opening and the story plays out as usual.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: While Alma dwarfs almost everyone it's especially visible with Ruri who doesn't even come up to his chest.

• Identical Twin ID Tag:
  • Two of Ruri's maids are twins who are distinguished by the side of their head their bangs are placed on.
  • Ruri and Aoi are distinguished by the shape of their hair; Ruri's is curly while Aoi's is straight.
• I Drank What?: Those drinks Ruri is inhaling all throughout episode 4? Sexual stamina drinks. When she finds out, her whole face goes bright red.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Ruri and Aoi's mother died when Number 0 impaled her with his spear-like tail.
• Instant Awesome: Just Add Mecha!: Kagami pilots the only mecha in a series that isn't about them. Perhaps because of that, it suffers from The Worf Effect a lot.
• Intimate Healing: Variation in which Alma and Ruri need to hold hands in order to make a piece of stone shine so Oni-Gawara can be healed. At the end of the episode, it turns out that the whole thing was just an elaborate ploy to have Alma and Ruri go on a date, though we don't get an explanation as to how Oni-Gawara gets fixed.
• Japanese Ranguage: Is it Alma, Arma, or Aruma?
• Lady and Knight: Ruri and Alma respectively. Makoto also fills the knight part too.
• Lightning Bruiser: One of the Dark Stones from episode 9 is lightning fast, has enough strength to kick Alma across a forest and a river and is pretty much impervious to anything anyone throws at him, until Alma has a moment of Heroic Resolve.
• Little Miss Badass: Ruri is willing to jump out of a plane to help Alma fight Darkstones. Without a parachute.

• Major Injury Underreaction: Arachne's user gets stabbed through her arm by Naito. She doesn't scream in pain, merely remarks in a whiny tone, "I really hate him" after the fight is over.
• Mark of the Supernatural: People with the power of Soul Stones have green eyes.
• Meaningful Name: Arma, an alternate rendering of Alma's name, is "Weapon" in Latin.
  • Ruri means "lapis lazuli" in Japanese. Guess what color it is?
• Mineral MacGuffin: Soul Stones. Dark Stones, despite the name, aren't an example.
• Mini-Mecha: Engagement Suit, a mini-tank which can transform into a Mini-Mecha while in combat.
• Murder by Cremation: Pretty much the fate of anyone who dies at Number 0's hands, Ruri and Aoi's father being an example.

• No Name Given: Twelve episodes later, and the woman in the Arachne armor is still just "Kenmi's SP."

• Not a Date: Episode 8 is totally about Alma and Ruri trying to fix Oni-Gawara and is most definitely not a date. S-so what if they're holding hands?! It's for Oni-Gawara's sake! Oni-Gawara!

• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: In episode 4, Alma calls Ruri to the school rooftop to ask her for a Soul Stone without telling her that a Dark Stone is in the school premises. Ruri initially believes he's going to confess his love to her.

• One-Winged Angel: Kenmi fuses with his armour and becomes a horned golden beast in the last episode.
• Only a Flesh Wound: During their second fight, Naito manages to lodge a sword into the Arachne-user's left forearm before fleeing. Her subsequent reaction is to rip it out and comment on what an annoyance Naito is.

• Parting-Words Regret: Before Aoi got crystallized as a means to protect herself from a rampaging Hon let loose by Dr. Kenmi in the Aiba's vacation home, killing the twins' parents, Ruri got into a fight with her that ended with Ruri calling Aoi an idiot for accidentally breaking the angel she worked so hard for. Needless to say, after what happened afterwards, Ruri bitterly regrets doing so and spent most of her years growing up trying to get rid of all the Darkstones for Aoi's sake.

• Power Dyes Your Hair:
  • Alma's hair, normally a sort of grey-ish brown, turns red when Ruri activates his Sacred powers.
  • Naito's hair becomes blue when Aoi activates his.
• Power Limiter:

• Inverted in episode 11, where Tandoji finds it again and then uses it to break the stone enclosing Ruri.

• Red Eyes, Take Warning:
  • Beware of Alma when this happens.

• Red Is Heroic: All of Alma's armours have lots of red in it, in addition to his hair becoming red.

• Rescue Romance: Ruri first fell for Alma when he saved her from getting crushed by a falling beam when they were just kids years before the start of the series.

• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Ruri buys the entire school at the end of the 1st episode just to keep an eye on Alma.
• Ship Tease: Lots between Alma and Ruri. The date episode is especially oozing with a lot of Alma x Ruri.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Onigawara seems to be one for Alma and Ruri.
  • And so is the entire Maid Squad.
• Shout-Out:
  • Alma's initial Super Mode looks like a Guyver, while his real Super Mode looks like Strider.
  • His Arm Cannon is a lot like Mega Man's, even the barrel on it used similarly.
    • Changes in episode 12, where ALL FIVE KNUCKLES become barrels.
  • The beginning of the first episode seems to be a Shout-Out to My-HiME, a series by the same company, which also started with a ship getting destroyed.
  • Kenmi is defeated by an attack that resembles a smaller version of the GIGA DRILL BREAKER... which is kinda ironic, when you consider that he was voiced by the Great Kamina!
  • In episode 4, Makoto has to bust out the Engagement Suit in the middle of a school festival...and paints it in Gundam colors so the students won't freak out.
• Shown Their Work: In episode two, while the uniforms themselves are outdated, the United States Air Force Security Forces are seen in berets baring the proper insigina,◊ and the ranks themselves are easily discernible to those with Air Force experience.
• Spell My Name With An S: There is some debate on whether Tandoji's name is spelled "Alma" (the spelling used in the official subs), "Arma" (for the possible pun, mentioned under Meaningful Name), or "Aruma" (a flat transliteration of the characters used).
• Spider-Sense:
  • Alma can detect the presence of other Dark Stones, usually indicated by one of his eyes changing color.
  • Not so much a Spider-Sense, but his own Darkstone activating when another one gets close. The other one gets close enough, it'll provoke a transformation into his Dark Side, which without Ruri's abilities allowing him to keep his sanity, can turn VERY violent.)
• Strapped to an Operating Table:
  • Ruri during episode 8. Thought they didn't operate on her, they just needed to make some serum from her blood.
  • Happens to her once again in episode 11. And this time, there was a planned operation. By which we mean, Kenmi was going to cut her heart out. While she was awake.
  • Naito is also seen like this during his flashback to his time as a guinea pig.
• Student Council President: Makoto gives himself this position at the end of the 1st episode.

• Swiss-Army Hero: While in his Super Mode, Alma can summon several weapons and tools:
  • Arm Cannon: Forms around Alma's left arm. And his middle finger becomes the barrel. It becomes a Arm GATLING GUN in episode 12.
  • Hover Board: Which Alma can use for some Sky Surfing.
  • He has a mode the lets him pass through walls Shown in episode 3. It's the exact same as Naito Kimija's, just blue in color
  • Whip Sword: Can turn his Scarf of Asskicking into one of these.
  • An armor on his legs that gives him Super-Speed
  • In the same episode, a Superpowered Jet Pack that turns him into a anti-air missile.
  • This Is a Drill: Alma gains the power to summon a drill over his arm in episode 12.

• Teen Genius: Makoto is eighteen and has already graduated from Harvard.
• Theme Naming: The Power Armor produced by Kenmi has thus far had a Greek mythology motif going, with the two models produced being "Cyclops" and "Arachne".
• Transforming Mecha: Kagami's Engagement Suit, which goes from a tank to a humanoid Mini-Mecha.

• Transformation Trinket: Deconstructed with Soul Stones. They cannot be reused and have to be bought for sums of up to billions of yens. That said, Ruri seems to have a hefty amount of them, so it doesn't really become an issue.
• Undying Loyalty: Ruri's entire staff including Makoto are all incredibly loyal to her, and will not hesitate to put their lives on the line for her sake. Alma is also pretty dedicated towards her too for giving him a purpose in life and freeing him from his past.
• Verbal Tic:
  • "Oni" for Oni-Gawara. It's even a thought-tic, as shown in episode 4.
  • One sub group out there has "Oni" translated as "Hell", and has translated his name as "Hellbrick". This same sub group is rather notorious for altering the anime they translate for their own amusement.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Alma and Makoto may both dislike one another, but they do eventually respect each other over the series' run and will not hesitate to engage in Teeth-Clenched Teamwork when it comes to protecting Ruri.

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