Reincarnated as a Sword

### Producer

Gentosha Comics, Nikkatsu, NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan, JR East Marketing & Communications, Micro Magazine Publishing, BS Asahi, GREE Entertainment, Micro House

### Networks

Tokyo MX, ABC, BS Asahi (JP)
Animax Asia (SEA)

## Manga

### Publisher

Micro Magazine (JP)
Seven Seas Entertainment (EN)

### Volumes

6

***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]

## List of Published Books

### *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.

LN Vol. 1LN Vol. 2LN Vol. 3LN Vol. 4LN Vol. 5LN Vol. 6LN Vol. 7LN Vol. 8LN Vol. 9LN Vol. 10LN Vol. 11LN Vol. 12LN Vol. 13LN Vol. 14LN Vol. 15LN Vol. 16
### *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.

Manga Vol. 1Manga Vol. 2Manga Vol. 3Manga Vol. 4Manga Vol. 5Manga Vol. 6Manga Vol. 7Manga Vol. 8Manga Vol. 9Manga Vol. 10Manga Vol. 11Manga Vol. 12Manga Vol. 13Manga Vol. 14
A spin-off manga written by Tanaka and illustrated by Hinako Inoue was serialized in Micro Magazine's *Comic Ride* website from June 1, 2020 to December 28, 2022. The spin-off manga is also licensed by Seven Seas.

Manga Vol. 1Manga Vol. 2Manga Vol. 3Manga Vol. 4Manga Vol. 5Manga Vol. 6

## Fran

### Aliases:

* Black Cat Saint
* Magical Sword Girl
* Swordceress
* Fleet Crusher
* Disciple of Curry
* Beauty of the Black tail

### Nickname:

* Nameless *(formerly as slave)*
* Frannie *(by Elsa)*
* Fran *(by Teacher)*

### Affiliation:

* Adventurer's Guild
* Magic Academy

### Allied:

* Amanda *(Mother/Friend)*
* Jet *(Friend)*
* Gallus *(Blacksmith)*

## 「Biographical Information」

### Traits:

Beastkin, Divine Sword User, Magus, Skill User, Nomad

### Relatives:

* Kenan *(Father, †)*
* Framere *(Mother, †)*
* Teacher *(Guardian)*

### Occupation:

Adventurer* **Class**:
	+ SpellSword (Start)
	+ Sword Mage
	+ Sword King

Magic Student *(Temp.)* → Instructor

## 「Physical Description」

### Species:

Beastman/ Black Cat Tribe *(evolved)* → Black Sky Tiger → Divine Heavenly Tigerkin

## 「Voice Actor」

### Japan VA:

* Inori Minase *(Drama CD)*
* Ai Kakuma *(Anime)*

### English VA:

Melissa Molano

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 "Weak 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.

 *Skill*:
* Brilliant Lightning Rush
* Black Lightning Thundercat Roll
* Black Lightning Divine Claw (one of the most powerful techniques that is difficult to unleash)
* Black Lightning Advent (penultimate skill in this form that cancels awakening form upon evoking and completion of attack)

 *Skills*:
* Divine Black Lightning Rush
* Divine Lightspeed Thundercat Roll
* Divine Lightning Godspeed Claw
* Divine Black Thunder Advent (No longer cancel awakening)
* Divine Lightning Thunder Strike (unleashing thunder from palm with similar destruction force as Black Lightning Advent)

Divine Black Lightning Tiger crash (the most destructive skill in divine awakening taking the form of a massive black lightning dragon razing everything within its path and obliterating everything. The sheer power of this technique could send any combatant equal to S-rank to their maker. This technique will not cancel awakening but depletes most of the mana and physical stamina of Fran, resulting in intrusive fatigue).*Overall Combat Rating In This Form*: High S Adventurer Rank (Ratings were given based on base stat without calculating any external boost including Master or any equipment adorned)

Fran has a distinct and unique style in combat. Having been taught by Master, the job class agreed upon the Sword Mage route, which promised the ability and usage of sword art in conjunction with magic, granting efficiency in battle. With sword-mage having to master the combination of rudimentary sword skill and at least basic magic for the class to actually work in dealing physical damage and magic damage at norms to form hybrid damage, What makes Fran special is that, by standard, Sword Mage could not attain what a focused class could achieve in mastery of swordplay and magic casting, as a standard sword mage could only have a lower mastery of both compared to a single focused job class (*Swordsman & Mage*), while in Fran's case, she was able to master high-level sword style and high-level magic beyond the single class of physical and magic damage dealers due to skill sharing and her innate talent in learning; in other words, her skills were not bound by class limitation. Fran is shown to be able to master all forms of magic and physical sword art and is able to inflict DPS beyond her job class threshold, including high healing magic, giving her a massive possible way to handle any combat situation above her level. Adding up her innate evolution transformation increases her overall library of combat styles and produces a DPS so powerful that it can slay an A-rank adventurer in one strike should they have not taken any defensive measures. Due to such reasons, Fran was able to operate as a one-man party or army within a dungeon or any combat situation, thus eliminating the need for other job-class party members and support for as long as she could maintain her MP gauge to keep up with the healing in order to keep her physical wound healed, maintaining stamina to nonstop inflicting sword strike damage while at the same time continuously casting magic in rapid succession, as MP is very pivotal to her combat style being effective. After the forest training arc, Fran has tremendously improved herself, not just from the change of class into Sword King, which slightly lowers her magic mastery and tremendously enhances her sword skill permanently, but in fact, Fran trained her magic to overwrite the magic mastery reduction, which not only improves her magic mastery more than before. Fran has also closed the gap between all her inherent weaknesses through sheer training; she is now capable of responding to any combat situation and casting magic almost instantly, which places the current Fran's combat capability far from that of any normal A-Rank adventurer and almost closely approaches the realm of S-Rank. Her battle technique is currently able to overwhelm a B-ranked monster, which equals an A-ranked adventurer, with just sheer sword technique alone.
* Divine manifestation is a condition when a being gains a form or technique that adds divine attributes; it manifests usually in divine transformation and divine beast. In Fran's case, both her God of Sword Transformation and Divine Heavenly Tiger Kin offer divine attributes that increase her physical combat prowess, magic, stamina capacity, and mana capacity beyond the limit but also consume tremendous mana and stamina.
* A divine attribute is an attribute that does not fall into the category of elemental magic or a sub-element of any. A divine attribute is a holy attribute that is intrinsically non-elemental and could be imbued with melee attack and magic. When magic is imbued with divine attributes, it changes properties. Lightning or flame could be resisted or nullified with skills such as lightning or flame resistance or nullification, but when divine attributes are imbued, it turns into divine lightning or divine flame, which no longer can be resisted or nullified by elemental skills as the properties change. Currently, there is no known method or skill that could resist or nullify divine attributes attacks except high-ranking anti-demons, which are born with a natural innate resistance to divine attributes and the corrosion it causes to anti-demons. The divine attribute will not only change the properties but also enhance the destructive power, be it melee or magic attack, causing them to ignore defenses dealing direct damage without any possibility of mitigation.

Despite having powerful and puissant combat aptitude and being a dauntless might in her own right, Fran was incapable of leading or commanding a group or party of adventurers at first. Her lack of leadership quality was resulted by her less social, constant solo adventuring, and solo dungeon diving, which gave her little to no chance to be in a party, much less lead a group of adventurers. Her reticent personality does not help the situation either; in fact, it does the contrary. Although this does not pose any issue for her to improve her combat ability alone as she is decently capable of solo adventuring, it also prevented her from enhancing her adventurer ranking above C despite her combat capability being A due to the requirements of having leadership quality and not just the capability of being one-man army in order to rise above C.
* Recent escapades and endeavors in Goldicia against anti-demon hordes allowed Fran to command a 100-strong army of adventurers, giving her a chance to display and develop her leadership qualities and earning trust among the adventurers for being able to lead her battalion in a war without fatal casualties.

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.

"*Anyone who gets within ten feet of Fran is going get slice and diced by yours truly!*"
― **Teacher** vows to protect Fran

The protagonist of this work. He is a former human male who died in a car accident and was reincarnated as a sword. The reincarnated sword has a small face, a handle above his head, and a cutting edge below his face. His name and other details of his previous life are unknown. The name "Master" was given to him by Fran. Because of the name "master," all those who know he can speak call him "master," regardless of the relationship between master and apprentice. As an "intelligence weapon," he has possessed several skills since his reincarnation in the Plains of the Demon Wolves, and he can also feed on the skills or characteristics of a defeated demon by cutting its demonic stone. He has been able to fly around freely and levitate objects without any equipment by "telekinesis" since his reincarnation and has spent his days defeating many demons and acquiring skills, dreaming of one day having a beautiful girl swordsman use him. She can also use her power to float freely in the air, cook food by levitating objects, and produce an invisible arm, which she can use to grab objects. However, when he unintentionally landed in a special zone that absorbs magic power, he was unable to escape on his own. In the midst of his desperation, he meets Fran, who is fleeing from a monster attack.Feeling a tremendous debt of gratitude to her for having pulled him out, he kills Fran's master, a slave trader, and frees her from slavery. He is moved to tears by the situation of Fran, a black cat who is branded with contempt as a weakling and vows to devote himself to helping her evolve and become a full-fledged adventurer. He loves Fran like a daughter and is convinced that he came to this world for her. She is equipped with skills that can be called almost all-purpose, and she allocates points to the most useful skills, and some of them are superordinate skills. In addition to her combat and combat-support skills, she also boasts a high level of everyday life skills, making her an expert at cooking. In Fran's other world, curry is non-existent, and she is later described as the leading expert on curry, and Fran in particular has become captivated by it.

## Ending Theme

### ED Composer:

Maon Kurosaki (黒崎真音)

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.

#### Web Radio

 *A&G+ x ABEMA Anime Special Radio Program - "Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita" SP** A web radio program that was distributed on Cho! A&G+ and ABEMA Anime LIVE channel from November 4 to November 25, 2022. The personalities were Ai Kakuma, who played Fran (November 4 and 11), and Ami Koshimizu, who played Amanda (November 18 and 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*.

## External Links

* *Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita* ─ Web novel at Shōsetsuka ni Narō (in Japanese)
* *Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita* ─ Official light novel site (in Japanese)
* *Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita* ─ Official manga site (in Japanese)
* *Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita: Another Wish* ─ Official spin-off manga site (in Japanese)
* *TV Anime "Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita"* Official website
* *TV Anime "Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita"* Official (@tenken\_official) - Twitter
* *Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita* ─ Wikipedia **JP**
* *Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita* ─ Wikipedia **EN**