I don't get why people call Anima relic. Yes, in practice anima is the 'relic' quest-line, but the weapons themselves are not relics, contextually or narrative. You are not restoring a weapon, you are transferring spirit from host weapon to host weapon (one of which happened to be a replica of an old weapon) as it slowly but surely outgrows them. The main complaint that I see is that they don't look ancient, and that's right! They aren't relics, they are anima weapons, a brand new weapon that is being created by you and Gerolt rather than a weapon that you are resstoring to its former glory; or replicate as the case was.

All in all, the designs make sense if you take into account that they are not relics, they are Anima. They did not exist in any form before you set out to grow the weapon, they are not meant to look ancient or dated, they are a new creation that didn't exist before this point in time. Even... If Monk's looks a tad silly; it's really not that bad.