Sacred Seven

... Oh, where to begin with a synopsis?

An Anime First series by Sunrise that premiered in the Summer 2011 season alongside the second half of Tiger and 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.
• A God Am I: Kenmi goes full AGAI in episodes 11 and 12, after absorbing Hung's Darkstone powers
• Anime First
• Ambiguously Evil: Kenmi. At first.
• Armor-Piercing Question: "What are you fighting for, Tandoji?"
• Artificial Riverbank
• Battle Butler: Makoto.
• Beach Episode: Episode 5.
• The Berserker: Alma's default Super Mode, without Ruri's power helping to balance it out.
• 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 Damn Heroes: The Maids during episode 11
• Bird Run: The Monster in episode 1.
• Bokukko: Fei.
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: The (thus far) unnamed user of the Arachne Power Armor. She treats fighting like a game.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Ruri to Alma, and vice-versa.
• Did Not Do the Research: Air Force Instructions clearly state that hats are not to be worn on either the Flightline or the Active Runway, USAF cops are seen specifically ignoring this order in episode two.
• Emoticon: Oni-gawara sometimes summons these in the air to express his emotions, since his own face is almost totally inexpressive.
• Expy: Makoto is possibly one of Sebastian Michaelis.
  • He's also very similar to Uryu Ishida, both in appearance and in his interactions with Alma.
• 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.
• 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.
• Golem: The Dark Stones, the monsters that Alma must battle, appear to be these.
• Hime Cut: Ruri
• 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...
• How We Got Here: Episode 9.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: While Alma dwarfs almost everyone it's especially visible with Ruri who doesn't even come up to his chest.
• 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.
• Japanese Ranguage/Spell My Name with an "S": Is it Alma, Alma, or Aruma?
• Little Miss Badass: Ruri is willing to jump out of a plane to help Alma fight Darkstones. Without a parachute.
• Maid Corps: And HOW.
• 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?
• Megane: Makoto
• Mini-Mecha: Engagement Suit, a mini-tank which can transform into a Mini-Mecha while in combat.
• Mismatched Eyes: Alma's left eye turns red when there's Dark Stone activity nearby.
  • Changes in Episode 12, where both eyes glow blue
• No Name Given: Twelve episodes later, and the woman in the Arachne armor is still just "Kenmi's SP."
• No Shirt, Long Jacket: Naito Kijima.
• Ojou: Ruri is a Type 1.
• One-Hit Kill: The Dark Stone in episode 2.
• 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.
• Ordinary High School Student
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Alma's hair, normally a sort of grey-ish brown, turns red when Ruri activates his Sacred powers.
• Power Limiter: The real purpose of Tandoji's lost pendant
  • Inverted in Episode 11, where Tandoji finds it again and then uses it to break the stone enclosing Ruri
• Princess Curls: Ruri
• Pungeon Master: Certain fansubs have Oni-Gawara's Verbal Tic translated like this.
• Pyramid Power: The Darkstone from episode 5.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Beware of Alma when this happens.
  • Makoto
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Alma and Ruri, respectively.
  • Also of note is the horns that Alma and Naito have, mimicking the most popular depictions of the mythical Oni.
  • Also inverted color-wise with Ruri and Aoi.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Alma. A literal one as of episode 5.
• 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.
• Shipper on Deck: Onigawara seems to be one for Alma and Ruri.
• 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 as far as Getting Crap Past the Radar goes.
    • Changes in Episode 12, where ALL FIVE KNUCKLES become barrels.
  • The beginning of the first episode seems to be a Shout-Out to Mai-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 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.
• Show 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.
• Student Council President: Makoto gives himself this position at the end of the 1st episode.
• Stuffed in The Fridge: Ruri's older sister Aoi
• 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.
• Subordinate Excuse: Makoto for Ruri
• Super-Powered Evil Side: Alma's Super Mode, at first
• Surprisingly Good English: Two of the American soldiers in episode 2. While it is quite obvious that these two are voiced by people whose first language is Japanese, the intonation, pronunciation, and grammatical structure is correct.
  • Even more so the announcer on the auction in the third episode. Perfect pronunciation, owing to his British voice actor.
• 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.
    • 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.
• Taken for Granite: The monster in episode 1 and another one in episode 4.
• 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 which goes from a tank to a humanoid Mini-Mecha.
• Transformation Sequence
• 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.
• Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World
• Who Wears Short Shorts?: The unnamed user of the Arachne Power Armor.
• Zettai Ryouiki: Ruri