Ranked #205

Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari

Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari was my first time watching an OVA series that comes out every month rather than every week. As such, I was not prepared for the gnawing impatience I felt at the end of every episode.

At first I wasn't really absorbed with this series and just started watching it while waiting for one of my downloads to finish. However as the1st episode progressed, I slowly found myself getting drawn into the story. The basic storyline wasn't anything new. It had the same premises as some other fantasy series with the main character getting thrown into an unknown world in order to fight the villain. However the other elements of the series helped bring the story to life.

I thought that the art was very well done and really brought out the attractive aspects of nature and the wild. While watching Kenshi out in the open, I found myself wishing to be in his shoes in order to feel the wind in my face and the grass beneath my feet.

The op and ed for this series wasn't anything too special. Both pieces of music fit the series and was enjoyable to listen to. However they weren't anything people would go nuts about. The voice acting for this series was well done. All the voice actors brought their characters to life and carried the characters' feeling across to the viewer.

Being of the harem genre, the female characters were very diverse in terms of personality and looks. However unlike other harem series, I actually found myself liking all of the main female cast. Many series have at least one female lead who I just can't stand, whether it's because they're all whiny because they can't get their feelings across or because they're insecure about themselves. In this series I found myself laughing at all the comedic situations between the female characters and Kenshi and didn't find myself displeased one bit.

Kenshi was also another reason why I enjoyed this series. (Maybe it's because I recently started watching School Days and quickly got tired of Makoto's unappealing character.) Anyhow I really enjoyed Kenshi's confident and bright personality. He started out in the story as a strong protagonist and ended the story as a strong protagonist. He didn't really have to grow in character because he was already a likable character from the beginning.

With many harem series, I usually find myself cursing at the last episode if it ends in an open ending. However with this series I thought that the ending actually fit and didn't resent the producers for not choosing a concrete female lead for Kenshi to end up with. This is probably because romance was not the main point of the series. You could tell that many of the female cast had feelings for Kenshi but the way the story unfolded, you never really expected for Kenshi to become lovey doey. This series was mainly focused on the comedic situations between Kenshi and the other characters with the mecha fighting thrown in as a bonus.

This series was very enjoyable for me to watch and I never felt like skipping ahead in any of the episodes. Rather, I felt that the episodes were too short as I wanted to see more of Kenshi. Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari was a great series for me and I would wholeheartedly recommend anyone to watch it read more

As a fan of Tenchi Muyo and its franchise, Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari(Saint Knights Tale), would have to be if not the best spin-off that's come out to date.

Whilst there are subtle references to the main protagonists being part of the Tenchi Muyo! universe(TenchiVerse), rest assure knowing that you don't have to be a fan or need to start picking up any of the TenchiVerse merchandise to comprehend the plot or character backgrounds as Saint Knight is developed as a stand-alone story.

Story: 9
Like Alice in Wonderland the protagonist of the story, Masaki Kenshi is summoned to a fantasy-type world with only his wits(and an inexhaustible amount of physical power) to help him find his way back home to Japan. What makes the little adventurer special is that Kenshi plays more of an active role to the series compared to his spin-off predecessors when it comes to the action.
Whilst there is an underlining plot of conspiracy and betrayal within Saint Knight, do not be alarmed if the imbalance throws you off from an episode tense with drama and high-tech action to than randomly switch to fan-service as all-in-all like its previous spin-offs, the focus is heavily set on its harem/ecchi genre and all part of the humor. Although I should add for an OVA where its producers could have taken advantage to more fan-service and nudity, I have to respect that they didn't, as to not ruin the main focus of the plot.
With Kajishima in the directors seat(creator of Tenchi Muyo! franchise and a huge fan of NGE mecha which you may find some similarities to the show) partnered with the talented Yoshikawa Koji(director to DN.Angel and Haibane Renmei), my only advise to anyone new to the world of TenchiVerse is expect the unexpected!

Art: 8
As a fan of the franchise since the early 90's, I have never been one to critique their sense of animation & design as its usually the slap-stick comedy and harem plot-lines which had made me a TenchiVerse fan in the first place, so I was surprised and amazed of the improvement in animation since the time-gap with Tenchi Muyo GXP(last spin-off I had seen back in 2003). Although not a Miyazaki or Shinkai, Saint Knight can be classed as pretty darn good animation for our time.
From CG to background, and perfectly executed choreography with Kenshi's 5 second martial arts pawnage and mecha dog fights in episode 1, Saint Knight had already won me over. I was even surprised and delighted to find out that the very same character designer who gave us Baccano came up with some of the anime's original character design!

Sound: 7
Whilst most Tenchi Muyo anime have had an outstanding OST to back their series/OVA, unfortunately this is where I felt the series may have failed for me, which in turn eventuated my score back to a 7. OP and ED were great in their own way, I felt it just did not match the vibe which that this series portrayed and BGM at times did not suit some of the moods. But please don't let that turn you off from watching the series as this does not necessarily mean a bad thing(it could probably just be me feeling nostalgic to the franchises older OST). In regards to voice actors, as I had watched the whole series in its mother language, I had felt they had picked the right seiyuus as each character play their part well with out sounding out of place(unlike some anime that can make you cringe just from a character opening their mouth!).

Character: 8
With an original plot outside of Tenchi Muyo, I felt the characters were molded very well to fit the scenarios and as mentioned, minimal references had been borrowed off the franchise for hardcore fans out there to conspire theories to their hearts content. (10pts going to whoever guesses the special guest cameo in episode 4)
Now for those who may have already seen this show or are half-way may think the show ranks of predictability and clichés, but hey, in this day and age what anime doesn't? If you can't get past that part and enjoy the show for what it is, than it would be a waste of even watching it in the first place.
Whether the cast of girls can be classed as clichéd, I have to admit that they have been played well and their parts not as overused as what you'd normally see from a typical harem cast(eg.the tsundere type that's too tsun-tsun or the love-love type who smothers the hero too much).
While the cast is too many to mention(just check Wiki if you like to know more), what I will mention is that if your a fan of strong male leads in your anime(opposed to the uninspiring stereotype you get in harems), than you will definitely like this series as Kenshi is what you would call a one-man army with his exceptional skills whether they be domestic or on the battlefield, and yet kind and mild-mannered making you want to cheer for the guy.

Enjoyment and OverAll: 9
As a sucker for harem anime, I have always been a fan of shows where the protagonist gets "all" instead of having to choose only one girl(why make one happy when you can make them all right?). Yes its unrealistic, but you don't watch a harem let alone a harem fantasy for realism, and for a franchise that practices polygamy as a norm, I believe any hot blooded male shouldn't have any room to complain.
Hence my reason for being a fan for Tenchi Muyo! and all its spin-offs, as most have filled that criteria for me(GXP and Photon come to mind).
Although this review may sound biased(especially after mentioning that I'm a huge fan), I can only state that I really did enjoy this series with great anticipation. With 13 OVA episodes running for around 45+ minutes each(pretty much the length of a seasonal TV series), my only regret is now that its over, unless they come up with a sequel or at least an adaptation to manga/novel, it may be hard for me to compare any other harem let alone any anime for a long time! read more