In a World… where everyone is partnered with a small elemental spirit, the Katvarna Empire wages an unending war with the neighboring Republic of Kioka. The 17-year-old Yatorishino Igsem, the scion of the most loyal to the Imperial House noble family, is about to embark on a ship in order to take the High Grade Military Officer Exam. Accompanying her is Ikta Solork - a lazy, loudmouthed lecher. Despite being a complete opposite to the diligent and noble Yatori, they form an unbeatable duo, as under his coarse face, Ikta hides the mind of a tactical genius... though he hates war and wants nothing more than to land a cozy job as a librarian. Due to certain circumstances, however, he grudgingly also aims to take the exam alongside his friend.
On the cruise heading towards the examination site, they meet three other test takers - the handsome but modest Torway Remeon, ambitious Matthew Tetdrich, and aspiring medic Haroma Bekker. They don't get to mingle for long, as their ship is hit by a raging storm. While evacuating, Ikta spots a young girl being thrown overboard by the waves. He jumps into the sea to rescue her and bring her back to the lifeboat. The 6 of them are left stranded, but that's not the worst of it - they quickly figure out that they landed behind the Kioka's borders and the girl Ikta risked his life to save? She's Chamille Kitra Katjvanmaninik, Katvarna's 3rd princess, making this whole situation that much more complicated.
At this time, no one could've predicted that this would trigger a series of events with would force Ikta to survive in a world engulfed in war with his superior intellect... and, in turn, earn his place in the Katvarna Empire's history as the legendary "Lazy Invincible General".
Alderamin on the Sky (ねじ巻き精霊戦記 天鏡のアルデラミン Nejimaki Seirei Senki - Tenkyou no Alderamin, lit. "The Wind-up Spirit Chronicle: Alderamin on the Sky") is a 14-volume Military Fantasy Light Novel series written by Bokuto Uno and published by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Bunko label from June 2012 to August 2018. The series took the 2nd spot in "This Light Novel is Amazing 2014" contest. A 7 volume Manga adaptation by Kawakami Taiki was serialized in ASCII Media Works' seinen manga magazine Dengeki Maoh. An Anime adaptation produced by studio Madhouse also aired in July of 2016. The series is available for worldwide streaming on Crunchyroll
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See also Reign of the Seven Spellblades by the same author.
Contains examples of:
- A Father to His Men: Lieutenant General Hazarf Khan was this, to the point that, after his Senseless Sacrifice, his students kidnap Princess Charmille to avenge him.
- Adaptation Distillation: The Whole Episode Flashback in episode 5 originally occurred in the 7th volume of the light novelsnote .
- An Aesop:
- The moral of the story is how incompetent leadership within a military leads to dangers and consequences, especially when putting rank above intelligence.
- Along with that, the story ends up giving a strong anti-luddite message. It shows how the Empire ends up lagging behind other countries due to their shunning of new technology, and end up losing countless lives in situations like the Sinak Rebellion due to not bothering to consider issues like alpine sickness.
- Another moral: just because a person is right about the current state of the country being poor doesn't mean they're actually capable of doing better.
- Anyone Can Die: Due to the war themes, the series does rack up a body count, especially of secondary characters the series provides some depth to before they meet their end. Eventually, it is proven not even main characters are safe after Yatori's death at the end of Volume Seven of the Light Novel.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Or at best, completely useless. The norm in the Empire, since the victory of The Three Great Families some time in the past, is nobles, regional governors, etc. shoving all the administrative work unto the military while living in comfort, yet happily throwing their weight around when it suits them. The only reason commoners don't take up arms against the aristocrats running their districts into the ground is because they never expected anything from aristocrats in the first place.
- Armchair Military: Most high ranking Imperial officers focus only on self-interest, and when push comes to shove, they clearly have no business commanding a lemonade stand, let alone an entire army. While there are many truly competent people in charge, due to the bumbling of the higher ups, their life expectancy is really low.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Nanaku Daru is the Chieftain of the Sinack, and also an exceptional fighter in her own right.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Most civilian female clothing we see expose the belly button with no shame. Princess Chamille even bares her midriff in her regular princess attire as well. This is averted when they are wearing military clothing.
- Batman Gambit: Ikta excels at using the enemy's expectations and ways of thinking to his own advantage.
- Brains and Brawn: Ikta is the brains as he mainly does the thinking and Yatori is the brawn because of her superb sword skills.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Ikta's character description. He considers Sloth a virtue rather than a vice, arguing that the search for easier ways to accomplish tasks is the biggest driver of innovation in human history.
- Childhood Friends: Ikta and Yatori met each other when they were in their preteen years.
- Decapitated Army: In a training exercise at the Military Academy, Ikta commands a company opposite Torway's brother Sarihasrag, a stereotypical Imperial aristocrat. In the second skirmish, Ikta baits him into fighting him in a prepared position at the exit to the training area: Sarihasrag cannot refuse the fight because if he's unable to leave when the exercise ends, Ikta wins by default—but by the same token, if any of Ikta's step out of bounds, Sarihasrag wins. So he orders his men to charge and pretend not to realize they were "killed"—only for Torway to nail him in the back of the head with a paintball from the treeline, "killing" him. Sarihasrag can only helplessly scream "Torway, you bastard!" into the trees as Ikta counter-charges his shocked men; Yatori (assigned to Sarihasrag's team) and the lieutenant take command and are forced to order a fighting retreat.
- Engrish: Suffice to say, "Alderamin on the Sky" is not grammatically correct.
- Everyone Has Standards: Ikta technically slept with a married woman, but he claims he thought she was already divorced before he slept with her.
- Fantastic Firearms: Guns in the series are fired with compressed air, generated by the gunner's air spirit familiar which is fitted into a compartment inside the receiver; as such, guns only work for people with air spirits as opposed to the other three elements. Up until partway through the series, they're smoothbores with relatively short range, about 40 meters, but during the conflict with the Sinack tribes, Ikta introduces air rifles he imported from the Kioka Republic with the help of his exiled former mentor, allowing his troops to snipe Sinack defenders out of their positions.
- Fire-Forged Friends:
- The core cast became steadfast friends after managing to survive the sinking ship and working together to return to the Empire with the princess.
- Ikta and Yatori even more so when they fended off a wolf pack back when they were kids.
- Good Republic, Evil Empire: While we don't see that much of the Republic of Kioka, since the protagonists are all part of The Empire, what we do see paints them in a much more positive light. They will accept Katvarnian refugees, are more technologically advanced and are open-minded to most of Dr. Aranai's research. On the contrary, the Katvarna Empire bans any sort of scientific discovery as "blasphemy" and will use both military successes, and failures to cover up their political and management failures, often sacrificing their best commanders by putting them in unwinnable situations to divert public outrage from themselves and unto enemy nations.
- Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die: While the Empire tends to put the most incompetent, arrogant, and corrupt officials in the higher ranks, and far from the battlefield (although some of them get cocky enough to think they're invincible and take to the lead, going through their loyal soldiers like water by using them as meat-shields while they go full on Leeroy Jenkins), they see nothing wrong with giving their competent, skilled, and most talented commanders and troops impossible orders, putting them in exceptionally dangerous, and often easily avoidable situations, or basically ordering them to commit suicide at the sword of the enemy, and if they disobey, executing them, as Ikta can testify about his father. It's gotten so bad Princess Camille outright orders Ikta to become head of the entire army and then lose a major war without losing the actual talent to clean the corruption out.
- Klingon Promotion: In the end of Volume 7, Camille murders the Emperor and takes the throne herself.
- Kukris Are Kool: Warriors from the Sinack Mountain Tribe are shown using these. The chief Nanaku Daru, even Dual wields a pair.
- Mountain Warfare: While still Military Academy cadets, the cast get posted to the mountainous northern border of the Katvjarna Empire, and become embroiled in a rebellion by the local Sinack people intentionally provoked by the racist military governor. The hazards of mountain warfare become significant plot points: logistics are complicated by the narrow trails, and an entire battalion is lost after pursuing the Sinack too high and succumbing to altitude sickness, weakening them for a counterattack.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: The de facto mindset in the Imperial Army, with the Igsem family being the example of it.
- One-Woman Army: Yatori can easily defeat an entire group of soldiers by herself.
- Only Sane Man: As demonstrated in Episode 2, Ikta could see that it was ridiculous for the Imperial Army to not attack and only play defense. He stated it would be smarter for the army to retreat because it was only a matter of time before they fell at this rate, and he is proven right by the end of the episode.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Yatori's father is apparently still alive after his daughter's death partway through the series.
- The Peter Principle: The relationship between the local governors and the regional military commanders is twisted, corrupt, and incestuous. Regional governors are appointed by the military from among their ranks, and the higher ranked soldiers are appointed by the governor. To the surprise of very few, this puts both sides so far out of their competence zone that it's amazing the Empire hasn't completely imploded already. Woe be to any who complain though. At best, they will never get any recognition or merits. At worst, they'll be given an order to commit suicide at the sword of the enemy, and have their name live in ignominy for all time...
- The Plan: Ikta is skilled at coming up with them.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Zig-Zagged with Ikta and Yatori. Despite their differences, the two form an unstoppable duo, knowing each other in and out to the point of calling themselves "two in one", yet Ikta never tries to make a move on her. This is especially notable, considering his unrelenting skirt-chasing. Not to mention Yatori had caught him fooling around many times in the novel and doesn't even bat an eyelash. Her usual reaction is that of a disappointed older sister upon discovering said act. Then again, Ikta has a thing for married women, widowers or older-women in general. On the other hand, Ikta and Yatori do at one point have a long and serious conversation about having a child together, though Ikta refused to go through with it.
- Precocious Crush: Princess Chamille appears to have a crush on Ikta despite their age difference and knowing he has slept with numerous women.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: There are plenty of them in the Imperial Army, like Ikta's father. The problem is, this often clashed with the Empire's expectations of soldiers. Resulting in them meeting their demise as Red Shirts one way or another soon after their introduction.
- Relative Button: Princess Chamille hits this button with Ikta when she indirectly insults his mother.
- Rousing Speech: Ikta gives one during the end of Volume One of the Light Novels and Episode Four of the anime. He states he didn't expect it to have as great of an effect as it did on his men.
- Savage Wolves: Those are some serious berserker wolves in episode 5.
- Science Is Bad: In-universe, The Katvarna empire declared science as heresy and forced its founder, Anarai Khan, to escape and seek asylum in Kioka.
- The Slacker: Ikta takes pride in seeking the easiest possible life. He declares laziness to be the driving force behind mankind's progress, leading to the invention of the well instead of going all the way to the river, etc. Too bad he is thrust into adventures he never asked for.
- The Smart Guy: Ikta takes this role in his group.
- Smart People Play Chess: The characters can be seen playing chess quite often, which helps the viewer determine who may be smarter than they let on. To the surprise of no one, Ikta trounces everyone on a regular basis.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Ikta with some of the other people in the Imperial Army.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Both Ikta and Matthew take up a level in kindness towards each other and other members of the core group after becoming Fire-Forged Friends. Ikta refers to Matthew and Torway as his friends despite the fact he openly disliked them in the first episode. Most notably, Ikta helps Torway deal with his Big Brother Bully.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Episode 5, with details the start of Ikta and Yatori's friendship.
- Would Hit a Girl: Crosses over into Would Hurt a Child territory as Ikta threatens to break Princess Chamille's neck if she insults his mother regardless of the fact she is a Princess.
- Yubitsume: Ikta does this to himself in episode 10 to get the Sinack chief to agree to lend troops to asist the Imperial troops from an attack by the Aldera Holy Army.
