Reincarnated as a Sword

Reincarnated as a Sword, also known as I Became the Sword by Transmigrating (転生したら剣でした, Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita) or Tenken (転剣), is a Japanese light novel series written by Yuu Tanaka and illustrated by Llo. It started as a web novel on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website in October 2015. It was later published as a light novel by Micro Magazine, who released the first volume in July 2016. The series has received a manga adaptation by Tomowo Maruyama, published by Gentosha, as well as a spin-off manga by Hinako Inoue, published by Micro Magazine. Both the light novels and manga were licensed for North American release by Seven Seas Entertainment, as well as the spin-off. An anime television series adaptation by C2C aired from October to December 2022. A second season has been announced.

Synopsis
The hero of Tensei shitara Ken deshita differs from your standard otherworldly protagonist in that he is reincarnated as a sword! Beginning his quest by spawning in the middle of a beast-ridden forest, he encounters an injured girl frantically fleeing for her life. Saving her from her assailants, the pair acquaint themselves, and the girl introduces herself as Fran. She bears a heavy past, having endured the enslavement and maltreatment of her tribe, the Black Cats.

As the hero is unable to remember the name from his past life, the young and tenacious Fran bestows him the name "Shishou" and becomes his wielder. Thereafter, Shishou and Fran become a formidable team, embarking on quests to liberate the oppressed and exact justice!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Novel
Yuu Tanaka started the series as a web novel hosted on Shōsetsuka ni Narō in October 2015. Micro Magazine acquired and published the light novel series under their GC Novels imprint, with illustrations by Llo. Fifteen volumes have been published as of March 2023. The fifth volume's limited edition was bundled with a drama CD, telling an original story. Seven Seas Entertainment announced their acquisition of the light novels and began releasing from August 6, 2019.

Manga
A manga adaptation by Tomowo Maruyamawa was serialized in Gentosha's Denshi Birz magazine from December 9, 2016 to January 15, 2018. After the magazine stopped, it resumed publishing on Comic Boost. The series is compiled into thirteen tankōbon volumes, with the first volume released in April 2017. Seven Seas Entertainment also licensed the manga for North American release, with the first volume released on December 17, 2019.

Character
The main heroine of this work. She is a former slave of the Black Cat tribe. She is taciturn and a glutton. Likes to bathe. Equipped by her master. 12 years old. She is a magic swordsman. Rank G → D (TV Anime Series), Level 3 → 26 (TV Anime Series). He was traveling with her parents to find clues to the evolution of her race in search of strength, but her parents passed away in the middle of her journey and she was left alone. She spends about four years of her life deprived of her freedom.

While transporting slaves to a town, she is attacked by Twin-headed Bears in a depleted forest, and in an attempt to survive as her guards and other slaves are overrun, she meets the sword she will henceforth call her master on the run. She pulls her master out of the ground and kills the demon instantly, and the surviving slaver is killed by his master's wrath. The slavery contract is thereby annulled, and Fran is free to go.

By equipping a master, the master's skills can be shared and used. This allows for two attacks at once, one by the master and one by Fran when activating magic and skills. She uses her enhanced physical abilities, high-level skills, and high-powered magic to fight at any distance. However, she is not content to rest on her laurels and wants to become stronger through experience and mastery of borrowed power.

Although she is a man of few words, she is not emotionally inert; in fact, she is sensitive to hostility and malice and is often seen mercilessly punishing people who point their blades at him or insult the Black Cat Tribe. Fran also places complete trust in his master, who saved her and reacts excessively to any disparaging remarks about him. Fran has a bad tongue because she is a child, and she sometimes mishears and mispronounces words, and sometimes she calls villains like Auguste "Zako Vice-commander".

Her favorite food is mainly meat, but ever since she tasted his master's curry, she has been completely captivated by it. When asked by his master, "Which tastes the best, sweet, medium-hot, or hot?


 * In her Divine Awakening form, Fran manifests a similar physical appearance as Black Heavenly Tigerkin but also gains a more majestic lightning aura with divine energy also longer fangs and nails.
 * Adventurers and slave traders alike have tried to harass her, either because they underestimated her or because they were mesmerized by her beauty and petite stature that shadowed her fearsome combat versatility as an adventurer lest she do not attack others unless provoked.

Abilities
She fights basically by borrowing his master's skills with the ability to share skills, but she wants to "become strong and worthy of wielding his master's power, rather than relying on borrowed power," and she is willing to get himself hurt and do other reckless things to achieve this goal. According to his master, "I am not a weak Cat". She is the child of a ferocious beast that is sharpening its fangs.

She buys every fight she is offered at the price she is willing to pay, and Fran has no hesitation in killing the bad guys who attack her. Fran will not hesitate to take up relics as well. She has been called "Magic Sword Girl" because of her remarkable achievements, such as defeating a large army of more than 100 goblins soon after becoming an adventurer and trudging through a dungeon almost single-handedly.

Later, through training in the labyrinth city of Ulmut and various encounters, she finally mastered "Awakening". He was able to evolve into the legendary "Black Tiger. When they evolve, their eyes turn gold and their tails become striped, but their appearance remains unchanged (in Another Wish, a pattern reminiscent of a tiger appears on their faces). At a martial arts tournament in Ulmut, she performed her "Awakening" and achieved a good result, placing third in her first entry. Her black lightning-clad fighting appearance earned her the nickname "Kokuraiki," and she became the hope of the black cat tribe, which was her original goal.

At first, she was not interested in her own position or fame and even disliked being conspicuous. However, after acquiring the name of Black Lightning Princess, she began to refuse to be conspicuous in order to inspire the Black Cat Tribe. Perhaps because of her age, she was happy to have a strong and cool name.

Fran's already versatile stat and Awakening release boost her stat even further allowing her to defeat two experienced A-ranked adventurers Remmus and Goldalfa in 1 versus 1 match, a feat which surprised every spectator and beyond anyone's expectation given that Fran is a C-ranked adventurer during the tournament.

Fran's stat does not reflect her C rank status, her stat (excluding Awakening) puts her combat ability in a class of a fresh new A-ranked adventurer and that is excluding all the stat boost she will obtain from her Awakening activation. Adding her awakening and recently evolved Sword Arts -> Sword Lord Arts and the fact that she leveled up and gained a few more skills after the tournament (level 45) up to this point (current level 49) would allow her to take on and defeat A ranked adventurer which she struggled to defeat during the tournament with much more ease now. After Fran's training in the forest post chapter 510, her overall strength has once again greatly enhanced to the point that she is almost closely approaching to S-Ranked adventurer including her changes of class from Sword Mage to Sword King and her enhanced level and stat which is Level 61 including better mastery of Magic and her new prolonged awakened state duration. Possessing a penchant for violence, Fran is no stranger to skirmishes and fights whenever there is an opportunity for one, even as far as making excuses to engage in a mortal combat situation against an individual or monster. Having an abnormal amount of fondness for fighting does entail some unwanted trouble and attention, while at the same time causing her rapidly expanding skills and battle experiences to broaden and diversify ever so quickly. Fran experiences high combat during heated fights and extended battles against powerful opponents, resulting in an adrenaline rush that manifests the joy and elation within her to the extent of combat reverie
 * }

TV Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced in the twelfth volume of the light novel on September 24, 2021. The series is produced by C2C and directed by Shinji Ishihira, with Takahiro Nagano writing and supervising the scripts, Atsuki Saitō designing the characters and serving as chief animation director, and Yasuharu Takanashi composing the music. It aired from October 5 to December 21, 2022, on Tokyo MX, ABC, and BS Asahi. The opening theme song is "Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita" by Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets, while the ending theme song is "More Strongly" by Maon Kurosaki. At Anime Expo 2022, Sentai Filmworks announced that they licensed the series outside of Asia.


 * Staff
 * Original Author - Yuu Tanaka
 * Character draft - Ruroo
 * Director - Shinji Ishihira
 * Assistant director - Kazunobu Shimizu
 * Series composition - Takahiro Nagano
 * Character design/chief animation director - Atsuko Saito
 * Master Design - Shinya Asanuma
 * Monster Design - Hiroshi Arisawa, Itoori Kudo, Ryosuke Kuwabara
 * Action Director - Takeshi Nishino
 * Key animator - Ryo Haga
 * General video supervision - Tomoya Takahashi
 * Color design - Masato Takagi
 * Art director/setting - Masahiro Sato
 * Art board - Koki Nagayoshi
 * Prop design - Ryosuke Kuwahara
 * Director of Photography - Masaaki Onodera
 * 3D Director - Takahisa Ohashi
 * 2D Director - Keisuke Sasaki
 * Editing - Tsuyoshi Sadamatsu
 * Sound director - Shōji Hata
 * Music - Yasuharu Takanashi
 * Music Director - Mitsuhiro Toyota
 * Music Production - NBCUniversal Entertainment
 * Chief Producer - Kazuaki Takahashi, Akihiro Narita, Kimito Sekito, Toshihiro Suzuki, Hiroyuki Hayashi, Ro Suga, Mari Okamoto, Jie Shen
 * Producer - Ryo Hino, Akiyoshi Ueda, Tomoyo Komon, Ryota Kanda, Yuko Matsui, Ichigo Feng, Shintaro Yoshitake, Kumi Nakamura, Yo Kanda
 * Animation Producer - Yosuke Shimada
 * Animation production - C2C
 * Production - Tenken Production Committee (NBC Universal Entertainment, Glee Entertainment, Micro Magazine, JR East Japan Kikaku, BS Asahi, Seishu Yugi, Nikkatsu, Micro House, Gentosha Comics)

This was followed by an English dub as announced at Anime Weekend Atlanta on October 28, 2022. After the airing of the final episode, a second season was announced.

Short Voice Drama
A short voice drama will be available exclusively on ABEMA on October 5, 2022. The illustration used in the voice drama was drawn by Atsuko Saito for the "NBCUniversal Anime × Music 30th Anniversary 24-hour TV 「Turning sword part (転剣パート, Utate ken pāto)」" broadcast on September 25.

Reception
In his review of the first volume of the light novel, Theron Martin of Anime News Network praised the interactions between the two lead characters, saying: "Beyond the action scenes, Tanaka's writing skill is a little above average. Dialogue and character development flow smoothly and world-building, though somewhat limited, does fit with the perspective of the central characters." However, he criticized the story's lack of originality, noting its similarities to So I'm a Spider, So What?, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, and Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon.

Trivia
'' to be added. ''

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