Chivalry of a Failed Knight
The light novels have sold 1.5 million print copies by February 2017. Plot. In an alternate Earth, humans called "Blazers" have supernatural abilities. These Blazers can materialize weapons known as a "Device" which are made through a person's soul. At , Blazers are selected as representatives for the Seven Star Sword Art Festival, an annual tournament event held by the seven Mage Knight Academies in Japan to determine the strongest Apprentice Knight. Hagun's performance ranking in the festival is falling and the academy's director, Kurono Shinguji, is determined to find a solution to  the problem. Ikki Kurogane is the academy's F-Rank Blazer and is considered "The Worst One" for his low magical abilities, but Stella Vermillion, the princess of the European country Vermillion, is one of the top A-Rank Blazers. On Stella's first day at Hagun Academy, she is arranged to share a room with Ikki as a transfer student of the academy. When Ikki inadvertently discovers Stella half-dressed, he is challenged to duel where the loser has to be obedient to the winner for life. She ends up losing the duel, but they agree to become roommates  as Ikki's one and only merciful desire. The series follows their adventures as they train to qualify as the school's representatives for the festival. Production. After winning an award for his previous light novel series "Danzai no Exceed", Riku Misora decided to write a sport-related novel in the vein of Akamitsu Awamura's "Mugen no Linkage". Media. Light novels. The original release of the series was in a light novel format, which was written by Riku Misora and illustrated by Won. "Chivalry of a Failed Knight" has been published by SB Creative's GA Bunko imprint since  July 16, 2013. Sol Press acquired the license to the series and released the first three volumes in English on November 16, 2019. They released five volumes in total before going defunct. Manga. The series was adapted into a manga that was illustrated by Megumu Soramichi and printed in the monthly manga magazine "Monthly Shonen Gangan" from 2014 to 2017. It was collected in eleven "tankōbon" volumes. An anthology manga volume illustrated by various artists was published on December 13, 2014. Anime. An anime adaptation was announced in March 2015. Produced by Silver Link and Nexus, the series ran on  AT-X from October 3 to December 19, 2015 in Japan for 12 episodes; the episodes were later released by Media Factory through six DVD and Blu-ray volumes. Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime in September 2015 for digital and home media release in North America. The series was simulcast only on Hulu though as it aired in Japan. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray in North America on June 13, 2017. Reception. The light novels have been well received. According to Japanese light novel news website LN News, the series had 1.5 million copies in print by  February 2017. Oricon ranked "Chivalry of a Failed Knight" as the 29th and 17th top-selling light novel series in November 2015 and May 2016, respectively. In addition, its anime adaptation also appeared on top-selling charts. Anime News Network had six of their editors review the first episode of the anime adaptation: Lynzee Loveridge compared the series to "The Asterisk War" and while she considered the "Chivalry" characters to be more likeable, she was critical of the blended in CG artwork and considered Stella's becoming Ikki's servant to be "cringe-worthy"; Nick Creamer expressed criticism towards the  episode and called it a "concentrated capsule of hoary clichés"; Hope Chapman called the episode's plot "soul-suckingly lame" and considered "Asterisk" as a much nicer series; Rebecca Silverman wrote that the first episode's plot was already done by "Asterisk" and "Lance N' Masques" and while she praises Stella for some initial character development, she says this gets lost with her ""tsundere" ranting"; and Zac Bertschy said that the anime is "a total waste of [the viewer's] time, but it serves a purpose, however unintentional.". The sixth reviewer, Theron Martin, agreed that "formulaic and generic" wouldn't  be wrong ways to describe the story and he also praised Stella's underlying motivations. Martin concluded that while the series has potential, it needs to find "fresher angles" to stand out from other similar storylines. Silverman reviewed the anime's future episodes; she called the final episode "a triumphant one in terms of Ikki's battle against his own insecurities, his place at school, and his relationship with Stella", and would later go on to say that she was "pretty happy with this ending and [she] wouldn't be sad if another season materialized somewhere along the way." Chivalry