Kenja no Deshi wo Nanoru Kenja

With a dignified veteran's body and a long white beard, summoner mage Dunbalf was one of the strongest player characters in the virtual reality online multiplayer roleplaying game Ark Earth Online, even heralded as a one-man army. Together with the "Nine Wise Mages" and King Solomon, they formed the mage player Kingdom of Alcait. But one day, Dunbalf and the other Nine Wise Mages suddenly go missing, leaving no trace behind.

In an effort to spend his expiring credits, Dunbalf had purchased a cosmetic kit and tinkered with his character; however, he accidentally fell asleep during the customization process. Upon waking up, Dunbalf not only notices that the world of Ark Earth Online has become more realistic, but also discovers that he has turned into a cute girl! After reaching Alcait, he learns it has been 30 years since he supposedly disappeared.

Now tasked with finding the other missing mages by King Solomon, the avid role player proclaims his new identity as Mira—the Pupil of the Wise Man Dunbalf—and ventures forth to prove his legacy.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Mira Main

Oomori, Nichika Japanese

Solomon Supporting

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Luminaria Supporting

Hinata, Minami Japanese

Zeph Supporting

Saitou, Junichi Japanese

Pam Supporting

Kino, Hina Japanese

Mariana Supporting

Horie, Yui Japanese

Tact Supporting

Izawa, Kanomi Japanese

Fricka Supporting

Sakura, Yae Japanese

Asval Supporting

Yasumoto, Hiroki Japanese

Emera Supporting

Natsuyoshi, Yuuko Japanese

Shimosato, Satoru Producer

Arai, Kousuke Producer

Yoshida, Kento Producer

Takimoto, Rei Producer

Reviews

May 21, 2025

Zeno_Artaxerxes

Recommended

A story about a people being transported in a VRMMORPG that they were playing for quite some time, a game which was the kind where anything could happen if players found the way to do it.

To be honest, this anime is not that good, it's mediocre at best, with shitty CGI fights and lot of skipped content and unanswered questions, even basic ones, that just take away from the overall experience. This anime truly felt like just an ad for the source material... But I lowkey enjoyed it. It made me curious about the light novels and to see more of that world, as ... everything it showed made me think that this story has a big and good worldbuilding, and because the story goes more on the way of the MC/FMC (whatever you want to call it, it's a gender bent from male to female MC) going on adventures and exploring the world in a very chill, comedy like and enjoyable fashion, it kind of grew on me.

The story focuses on a summoner, the one named One Man Army, the best one in his kingdom founded by his RL friend. He had the character of an old wise mage... until he spent a few credits and experimented with creating a cute avatar, only for him to be caught getting transported in that cute avatar. But as it happens, not everyone was transported at the same time, some came later and such... A lot happens, but the main thing of this story is that the MC just goes on adventures exploring the world and trying to find a few people. The adventures are pretty interesting and really make you wonder about that world, but alas, they seem to me really cut short and not much info given, as even characters met during those adventures don't really get much time. But one thing that really made me enjoy it was that characters felt like they had personality, their interactions, almost all, didn't feel cringe to me, which is a big plus when it comes to thrash isekais. Some people might complain that there's almost no progress to the main story though, so be warned about this, that this anime season is mostly about the journey, and not the destination/results.

But the production of this anime... is kinda weird at times... from montages that feel made just to rush the story, to showing fights as still frames, and even when something is moving, you bet there's gonna be a lot of CGI that's kinda bad... also MC is an OP summoner, always having something for every situations, but you don't really get many explanations on anything, which I find it as a shame... guess I will have to read the light novel for those. Also, the pee jokes/scenes are quite a few... I like that they do show what an army would look like, but then when they show the fights between those armies, it's just some isolated parts... or just rushing...

Story: 7 -- Big potential on a lot of worldbuilding, but you don't get much on it. The story shown here feels mostly like a presentation of what the source material will explore more.

Art: 7 -- The CGI was kinda bad in this one, but there were a few fights... sometimes with a lot of still images though... But the rest of the are was okay.

Music: 7 -- Didn't have a problem with it, but nothing special as well.

Characters: 8 -- Here I really liked the characters and their interactions, even though sometimes I felt like I didn't get to see the whole scenes animated, and just small peeks at what the source material contains.

Enjoyment: 7 -- Overall I kinda liked it, it made me smile quite a bit, and really made me curious about that world.

Overall: 7
Right now it has 6.33 from 55.610 votes Ranked #8174 Popularity #1785 Members 136,746 as of 22/05/2025.
I recommend it to people that want to watch a chill, comedy like adventure anime in a world that does seem to be kinda big, with a cute MC, which are also okay with not having all of their questions answered. All good vibes type of story/adventures!

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 6, 2024

Nebucad

Mixed Feelings

A basically interesting storyline that is poorly executed.

The anime begins by not explaining to the viewer what actually happened. In episode 1 he is the Wise Man and towards the end you only see the girl waking up in the grass and making her way ‘back’.

One wonders whether he has been transferred into the world? But she doesn't seem to worry about it. There is also no ‘logging out’ and if you are in a VMMORPG, why do you have to sleep, drink/eat or go to the toilet at all.

In the same way, the 30-year period raises questions. Is that 30 years rl or ig? ... What relevance does this time period have and why are the other sages shown as online but are not accessible? - Actually, no interesting questions are really answered.
This is rounded off by the faulty animation. There are a few places where there is no animation but only sound. This means that the story continues even though nothing is shown, only to show animations again in the next scene.

The categorisation of the enemies is also confusing. In an episode before, our sage single-handedly kills a full demon Rank Graf -3 and in the episode after that, a half-demon is supposed to be a much bigger threat and you want to prevent its ‘awakening’ to a full demon - Okey, weird story -- To summarise, there are worse storylines but the story is not really convincing either. For this reason, the rating shouldn't really surprise you. A sequel is not to be expected, the result of season 1 was not convincing enough for that.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 12, 2022

Snowtime4K

Not Recommended

Why am I even reviewing this?

I have to say that this is a prime example of one of the worst shows I have ever seen to this day, and I purposely watch shows that are the lowest rated on MAL from time to time.
First I’ll go over the one redeeming factor for this entire show. The main character is cute, and they make a point to force the story to dress her up in as many ways as they can in a short timeframe.
Outside of that, I cannot think of a single thing that someone would really enjoy about it. If you like power ... fantasies then this might work out, but you also require other perspectives to enjoy it too:
1. Ignoring terrible cgi and horrible fights that reuse nameless monsters
2. Don’t mind lack of characterization and 1-dimensional stock characters everywhere
3. Watching the epitome of “We know the Isekai genre is doing great right now so let’s make another terrible one about literally anything”
If you want to watch a power fantasy isekai with a cute character, just go watch Sword Art Online. I recognized this show was bad in the first episode, but nothing could prepare me for how much worse it could get.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Poll: Kenja no Deshi wo Nanoru Kenja Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Mar 29, 2022	54 replies	by Wholesome_Seeker »» Jul 1, 6:36 PM
	Poll: Kenja no Deshi wo Nanoru Kenja Episode 9 Discussion KANLen09 - Mar 8, 2022	26 replies	by Wholesome_Seeker »» Jul 1, 5:24 PM
	Poll: Kenja no Deshi wo Nanoru Kenja Episode 10 Discussion KANLen09 - Mar 15, 2022	21 replies	by Wholesome_Seeker »» Jul 1, 5:15 PM
	Poll: Kenja no Deshi wo Nanoru Kenja Episode 8 Discussion KANLen09 - Mar 1, 2022	24 replies	by Wholesome_Seeker »» Jul 1, 4:21 PM
	Poll: Kenja no Deshi wo Nanoru Kenja Episode 7 Discussion KANLen09 - Feb 22, 2022	30 replies	by Wholesome_Seeker »» Jul 1, 2:22 PM