Kenja no Deshi wo Nanoru Kenja

TLDR
I watched this since it was there in Muse Asia, and I had never thought id ever have a more enjoyable time watching YT ads than anime.

Bad CGI is forgivable but the laughable amount of still frames, the same soundtrack being used everywhere even though it does not even fit, convoluted storytelling with several boring infodumps that only get MORE convoluted and stupid as the show progresses. everything about this show is lazy. The only plus I could see is MC having a pretty nice wardrobe and looking anywhere from slightly adorable, to the borderline-hentai-manga-loli type of cute in her numerous outfits.


Full review:-

I ... feel bad for people who are using subscription services since this is clearly not what they signed up for.

The new feeling of my internet bandwidth being “wasted” emerged when I watched this and I got it for FREE on YT .

It's hard to even quantify and remain unbiased because this “show” hardy even passes to be called an ACTUAL ANIME.

you will have a hard time finding any actual 2D animation other than generic mouth movement with faces that remain expressionless most of the time.

There is no reason to even bother to call it a video at times, any ATTEMPT at an action scene is always either a CGI mess (which is almost on berserk 2016 level) or absolute STILL frames with a lot of cringe background shouting that is just pictures FFS XD.

A seasoned anime trash watcher can call this bullshit out in the first ep XD. The whole of the first episode is spent describing the game and why MC is good and OP with boring dialogue, annoying CGI battles with carbon copy D&D Monsters, wherever CG is not possible minimal or no animation with still frames are fed right in. The rest of the half episode you witness ZERO dialogue whatsoever, I wonder if they simply forgot to record. Generic Loli walks round sniffs flowers, panties grass, and pissing. I SHIT NOT that's what she does for the rest of the episodes and even her eyes arent drawn XD.

If for some magical reason you decide to continue……

The show has Info dumps that get so god dang boring, you keep moving in circles, it feels like doing side quests in a fuckin RPG, the MC basically gets ordered round to find this guy then that guy then this guy, and on and on it goes, that is the only excuse the show uses to drive the plot forward, IF this is how the manga or LN also progresses, I have no clue why it is even remotely popular.


Plot:- (4/10)
NO just No, one would probably find a more compelling story on a free Japanese V novel.

VA, Sound, and OST (4/10)
The same loli intro scene from episode 1 OST keeps playing loops even if the scene totally does not match. Standard RPG type ED and OP which are good but forgettable after the first hearing, not to mention the stupid as fuck walking simulator ED scene which totally kills its replayability chances. The MC VA is pretty good at the character archetype she trynna plays the rest are as generic as they come.

Animation and art (3/10)
ALL the Budget is spent lewding the loli which too is pretty low quality by today's standard.

Character (2/10)
At least their names are funny IG.


Watch the first episode, LAUGH. DROP. Forget. the end. Don't suffer as I did.

A good way to judge the quality of a show is seeing how many characters or plot points you can name off the top of your head. The fact that the only character I remember is Mira, and I don’t remember any plot points except the utter abomination of the first episode speaks volumes about how forgettable this series was to me.

The first episode of any series is an extremely important one, you hit it, the watcher will be hooked, but if you miss it, the watcher will either leave, or continue with less enthusiasm. I would be someone in that latter category. I was ... so put off by the back half of the first episode that the sour taste it left lingered on throughout the rest of the show, but even if I overlooked the first episode, there’s not much to praise about the show. The jokes don’t land, the characters are bland, the world is boring, and there isn’t much to be excited about.

My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20

STORY: 3.8/25

Now we’ve seen this formula before, someone gets reincarnated as an overpowered character in a game, but in this case, Danblf, which is definitely not a lazy renaming of Gandalf, one of the nine wise men, becomes a little girl named Mira, who inherits most of Danblf’s abilities and shines in the world she lives in, solving any and all problems the world throws at her. There isn’t much to the story at all, and its fundamental problem is introducing all these plot points up, like the Soul Howl, the nine wise men, the Chimera Clausen, plus a lot of other filler, and not really resolving much of it well. Otherwise, there are no details I remember from the story at all, as the finer bits and pieces are just too forgettable.

ART: 1/10

Deplorable use of CGI, and poorly executed action scenes really detracted from the immersion. Most of the action scenes took place in stills, which really isn’t all that interesting.

MUSIC: 6.3/10

Brownie points for music because I’m a sucker for any anime music to give it a bad score. Pretty generic music for a fantasy.

CHARACTERS: 3.5/25

The characters besides Mira really added nothing to the story, King Solomon was just there to spout random facts about the world. For the rest of the characters, let me spout some names for you: Luminaria, Zeph, Tact, Fricka, Leticia, Emera, Asval, Frone. Could you tell me who was who in this story without looking it up? Probably not, and that goes to show how interesting they were. Out of those characters I listed, you might remember who Fricka is, yes, that glasses girl whose only gag was being overly obsessed with Mira. Speaking of gags, the comedy was just so mind-numbingly bad that the main character’s only comedic bit was that she apparently needs to pee a lot (don’t we all?), which was just so… off to me. The only half decent character was Mariana, Danblf’s aide, because there was that emotional moment between Mira and Mariana that was probably the only good part of the show.

ENJOYMENT: 2.7/15

I checked out pretty early here, but I got through it.

THEMATIC EXECUTION: 5.5/20

A typical power fantasy theme that at points were pleasant, but it was mostly boring. The world-building was dealt with using too much dialogue, a case of telling instead of showing, and that really didn’t help building the fantasy theme up.

OVERALL: 22.8/100

I’m sure most of you are just going to criticize the animation, and use that as your main complaint, but there is basically nothing good about this show besides that even. It is generic, boring, and just not funny. Just a forgettable show with not much going for it. However, except for the animation, there’s not much honestly that is inherently “wrong” with it, it’s just not an enjoyable experience overall, it was a project adapted so awkwardly I don’t really have much to say, except that there are a whole lot more better isekai out there.

The show where the "old man transforms into a loli" story plot becomes a reality, and all that nuttiness...amounts to nothing.

Tuesdays in the Winter 2022 season are allocated to gender-bender Isekai (well, except for Tensai Ouji) shows, and having 2 series go head-to-head against each other and airing one after the next, was a real treat: Fantasy Bishoujo a.k.a FabiNiku vs. Kenja no Deshi wo Nanoru Kenja a.k.a She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man. While FabiNiku ultimately won the battle being the better executed show, Kenja no Deshi lost the war badly by being a somewhat worse adaptation of the source material, and ... it's not for lack of trying consider the staff behind this.

The story in a nutshell, is that if you take the SAO narrative, pureed it in a similar fashion to this season's Shikkakumon no Saikyou Kenja a.k.a The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest, gave it a makeover similar to Leadale no Daichi nite a.k.a In the Land of Leadale, and mash them all to make this show. And for one, you might think that novelist Hirotsugu Ryuusen took notes and copied ideas from similar series to make it his own, only 2 out of 3 "inspirational" works made it here (SAO and Leadale) since those works came before Kenja no Deshi started its publication in Syosetu in April 2012. This source is easily a decade old, and it seems that an anime adaptation of this was really in no hurry to come out...until now, and somehow it flopped even harder than the source material which is decent to say the least.

With the world's setting done, let's introduce the characters...or rather, the only one character that really matters. The MC is Danblf Gandagore (a pun on names derived from Lord of the Rings's Gandalf and Harry Potter's Dumbledore), one of the 9 Wise Men of the kingdom in a yet-similar SAO rip-off VRMMORPG. He is respected as the strongest Wise Man magical sorcerer hero, helping out a similar friend: Solomon, whom like Danblf, is a player and king whom created the in-game kingdom together with the Wise Man. For some strange programming reason, Danblf uses a cash item in his inventory, only to be transformed into a silver-haired, blue-eyes-blue, cute and petite girl, that to add some nonchalance to it, the retainment of his powers. Obviously, anyone whom has relations to the original Danblf will instantly recognize the OP powers, so she has no choice but to profess herself as the pupil of the Wise Man while taking on an alias name: Mira (which is a derivative of the the real-world player's family name, which means mirror). All that is fine and all, but the series really has one overbearing "fanservice" in common: and that's the peeing scenes. In a strange twist, for all the work that Danblf has built during his time, in every crevice there exists a toilet that Mira can use, or even doing the deed outdoors. Like, why is this a thing? Sad to say that I can not give two flying fishes about the other characters, they're just very basic and work as what would be expected of them to do.

Any work that Studio A-CAT tries to do, there is but only one word that rhymes with all of the production: mediocrity. It's safe to say that quality was never the word when it comes to the studio's mission and vision, because it just looks like crap that's indicted because of the crappy CGI and a hefty amount of still shots. Director Keitarou Motonaga can be a chad when he does things right, but as an in-house studio director, this really is the lowest of the bottom of efforts given as the show is butchered of its source content right from the get-go, that it feels like the show is literally D.O.A.

I kinda wished the music segment can hold up, but it's the same story with the rest of the anime. Don't get me wrong, Asaka CAN create good songs (as evidenced from series like Yuru Camp), it's just that for this show, while "Ready Set Go!!" is a good song I'd like to listen to more on its own, there's just this feeling that the back of my mind, isn't the same Asaka-like quality that I've come to expect. Idol group Erabareshi has been around for more than a decade, though their roles in anime are less than desired, and it's no wonder that it feels like a throwback when they did the ED for Hajimete no Gal back in Summer 2017, like damn. They're very forgettable, as well as the totally lazy ED visuals of just a simplistic PowerPoint-like video.

I never doubted that works done by studios with bad reputations will be avoided by most people, and Kenja no Deshi happens to be that anime whom got the boot to working people whom didn't care about the source material at all, making significant changes that only degrade the anime to be the inferior version. Take my word that there's absolutely nothing unique about Kenja no Deshi, it's just tropes copy-pasted, spliced and re-hashed again and again. But I guess you can say that if you like being baited or catfished by a loli, then by all means, enjoy this "Isekai" for what it's worth.

tl;dr: I'm watching this because I'm enjoying the light novels, but the adaptation left out all the parts I consider the LN to be about. I can't recommend it unless you just want to see what the adaptation looks like.

This is getting billed as an Isekai power fantasy, but so far in the novels, that is more the setting than the story. The story part of the LN is about a guy getting stuck in his eye candy avatar and trying to live with that. MC excels at all the parts of being a Wizard, but:
* are rarely taken seriously,
* have difficulty dealing with other ... women who are oblivious to their attraction and want to mother them,
* have to repair relationships with NPCs that felt abandoned or treated like non-people,
* and have to adapt to women's clothing.

As far as the adventures are concerned, the MC is OP. but their problems aren't really solvable with power, which is nicely done. I'm hoping the story has the MC taking the helm on trying to figure out their next steps instead of being directed around as the series goes on, we'll see.

It doesn't feel like much of this made it into the anime adaption which leaves it incredibly bland and I haven't noticed anything notable to make up for the lose.

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.

In original manga story from first chapter, I really like this title like getting hype when this one got adaptation.

Who knows that the first episode it's true might some people will drop it off because almost about half-quarter is just no conversation, only "he" going home with "his" new body. To be a fair reviewer, I've straight ahead and decide to watch through until it's finish aired. The next about half, I see this have dropping to 5 score for a bit. Keeping try to positive and I finished it.

It's just get only one point up, honestly as fan of this work is quite ... bit off expectation. Many going missing such skipped story making many hole thorough the series, when I can smile my self for reading the manga, here I got just "pathetic grin(?)" like how this one turned this.

The intensity of action scene it really loss, they just deciding use many stop motion. Not to blame for using CG, but even CG it didn't mean for make robotic move and can't do the more natural one. The overall visual in 2D art is quite good, so maybe this problem is went to human skill or studio management. Better luck next time!

The sound quality from VA is general standard quality no problem here, the sound effect have bit miss, but I feel so sorry for the OST either OP or the ED. The arrangement somehow try to make feel happy but once again the movie visual didn't catch up the quality so people get pissed off, the basic concept of MV plot is contribute make the OP and ED mush likely to skip.

The character they did it well, but pity for someone who write and plan the story of this show make them didn't introduced properly. Many anime that have colossal cast have a good, manage to make side even minor have nice appeal but this miss many. For the development let's take the Mira and Solomon, it didn't change much.

It hurts too push expectation and last episode event SoL anime like Gold Mosaic have small conflict that make your bit worried, this anime didn't have any sensation nor even make your go "Badump!" Really flat sensation.

Going for packing up for summary, the another anime Leadale that I think it will be downer turned out to be better than this. If this will be a season 2, I want this taken to another studio that capable to make it. The summoner with many things is like going to big scale war, just like Mira (MC) title "he" has. Not easy to create one scene with that lot of stuff on screen and unfortunately this go flip off because lack core plan production and poorly executed.

Wise word for me, you go better read the manga, not for prohibiting you to watch, but I didn't responsible if you mad or yelling at this animation work.

From a source material standpoint:

The story was butchered compared to its original works more in the first episode, and then it gets completely jumbled in the later episodes. Actual story elements are skipped over and then put in a long flashback for some reason instead of just telling the story as it happens, elements from the story are taken out and extra elements are put in which never happen. Instead of having a story that would work like golf, going from hole 1-18, it tends to go from hole 1, to half of 5, back to 2, to 3, to 4 then back to the ... later part of 5, etc. Some parts are just changed completely.

The art was lacking quite a bit. While the world might be decent, the character art is much less sharp and detailed, with the characters appearing less mature or serious?? (Think of the character designs from Youjo Senki from the manga/LN art to the anime, same thing). The CGI obviously is unanimously hated by everyone.

I couldn't really think of any specific part that I thought, wow that sounded cool.

The characters lose a ton of characterization from their original renditions, mostly just detail that gets left out, certain flecks of information or what they might say here and there, it's just done poorly.

The only enjoyment that I've really gotten out of the show is the fact that its a moving picture, There's a lot that stays in my mind when watching and it normally kills my enjoyment, seeing characters move is cool and all, but I'd rather them just not bother in making a show if all it's going to do is disappoint.

Overall, imagine having a colored pyramid built out of Legos, Its neat and uniform, and looks great, Now take all of those colors and jumble them around so it looks like a mess, and then take away the pyramid and leave yourself with just a single stack of a Lego tower going up. Now you have no extra substance and jumbled up colors.

If their goal was to have people who read the source material constantly tell people to read it/buy instead of watching the rest of the show to boost sales, then well done.

I loved the idea and concept... that however is were it ends.

I see a good isekai as one where the characters have nothing to help them as they realise what has happened. This anime however drops the MC in to a world were people he knows have appeared many years before them, which makes for a weirdly uncomfortable situation where the MC just carries on as they did when playing the game.

We have an OP newly loli female character which could have had many of events / shenanigans, but instead is just traveling under the gise of a student of himself and seeing people ... be blown away at this student who is taught by another OP character (but is actually the same). Its a new direction which I haven't seen for this style of anime, but I wouldn't recommend anyone do it again.

I really wanted to like this show, I seriously did, it was however just plain bad.

Animation quality was fairly low effort, lots of CG for the monaters and summoned beasts, overall it would be passable if other elements of the show had come together better.

The scenerey and background art was often times very awkward and generic. There was never a moment in the show where I thought the art was particularly good.

The character design and art were ok, fairly straightforward adaptations from the manga. Mira in particular has a character design that I still really love, though sometimes they would randomly give her a ... different hairstyle that didn't quite work with the design or seeked out of character or out of place. Overall passable but not outstanding.

The music and sound design could hqve helped the animation awkwardness a lot, if it had been even decent. The sound design never seemed to match what one would expect from the summonings, amd the music choices and timings left even the high tention moments dull and unexciting.

The characters and character development were awkward to non existent. It was never really shown how Mira was close to Solomon and Luminaria, and there were many other characters with implied relationships to Mira that were never developed. The most awkward part of this were many of her summoned creatures with personalities having minimal screentime and no backstory explaining their relationships with Mira. There were also far too many characters who only had an episode or two to be developed and then never really appeared again except briefly.

The plot was all over the place too, far too many plot threads that never got developed along with a cimactic finale that came out of nowhere and had no explanation offered.

Watching this anime made me wonder wether I had mis remembered the original work in a favorable way, certainly the original also had some of the glaring flaws plot wise, but it still could have been made into a decent show with somw effort. This is not to say that there were no good moments, but the overall incoherence was too much. Like I stated at the begining, this was painful to watch, I had more fun watching Arifureta, which I only started on a lark to laugh at bad Isekai anime. At least Arifureta was fun.

I enjoyed the manga, but watching the anime it loses alot of its flair and ambition. Needs more chuunibyo, less monologuing, and more attention to the action scenes. A power fantasy that was converted into more of a carefree slice of life.

The story is adapted from a manga, and follows it well, but the direction and focus of the anime takes away its magic. Its an isekai where people reincarnate into their game characters with all the looks and skills fully imported. While much time has passed between the game and their reincarnation, we follow the main character who is a summoner also adept at ... close combat, and dubbed the "One Man Army" at some point in the past. The action scenes are average at best. We know the MC is strong, but it doesnt feel that way because we dont get setup to feel that way, we are just shown that she just is.

The art is nice, but I feel there is too much focus on the main character's design that every other character feels bland. The "badass One Man Army" had too much of a child-appealing downgrade that he just looks like any other ordinary wizard. The side characters all are abit too generic, their outfits are just to mention their class and does not do anything in the show.

There is not much character development. They feel the same as they do at the start middle and end. There is no change in motivation, character, etc because there is no goal or trial or be overcome. MC goes to place ABC to do tasks because some other player said to, meet a couple of "strong" demons, and nothing changes from before and after. We are just shown the "threat" and it is verbally said to act as a build up, but there is no weight to the trauma, the looming inevitable villains, etc.

Overall this anime is more of a time killer than an actual art. Could have been greater, but the direction it took did not do the source material justice.

If you have seen this studio's track record you will know the quality of this anime from the get go. It's not good.

The premise of being in a game, throw it out because it doesn't matter that much anyways. Also throw out the fact the MC changed gender. It's at best a gimmick for 2-3 episodes.

Supposedly, the first episode is the most important part of any show because this is the time where you get the most eyes and this anime fails hard at that. It is the worst first episode I've seen. The setup is way too fast, then there's this fight of ... one bad CGI army and another bad CGI army then ends with a montage which seems like they ran out of budget.

I will say, this gets better as it airs but a ton of people probably have checked out of this after that terrible first impression but it doesn't really reach "good". It's bogged down by the predictable fetch questing. Go to this guy and get something at this location. At least you get to see some okay-ish places. It's not beautiful but it's passable.

Aside from the backgrounds, the 3DCG is pretty bad. It just sticks out like a sore thumb. Also, at some scenes, there's a lack of animation where I expect there should be some.

I haven't talked about characters. To say the least, they're forgettable.

The music is fine but misplaced at times. It ruins the atmosphere of a fight scene (first and last episodes suffer from this).

This anime is probably one of the worst of the season with its subpar production values. It could have been decent if these things are fixed. If this is the quality that the studio is capable of, I think they should be relegated to a supporting studio until they get more experience.

If you like the world here, you are better off buying the light novel or manga.

This Anime Shall Not Pass.

*Sigh* light novel stories based around video games, VRMMORPG’s ala Sword Art Online in particular are very rarely good if ever. The only good one I can think of is Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defence which is more of a moe club comedy than a serious story about a serious video game for serious gamersTM. Unfortunately, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man falls into the category of a poe-faced, serious gamerTM, ‘what if the npc’s were reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal?’ kind of story set in a vr fantasy World of Warcraft world full of ... magic called Ark Earth Online.

The first episode introduces the two strongest players one of which roles plays as a Gandalf the Grey inspired wizard called “Dunbalf” *sniggers* and his online gamerTM friend who role plays as the kingdoms king. One day the wizard disappeared for like 30 years, but came back as a loli cus light novel in the most poorly paced, bizarrely ended first episode I've seen in a while which is probably the reason why the show has gotten such a middling MAL score.

The show attempts to create a serious mystery for it’s serious story for serious gamersTM, but unnamed male gamerTM's new avatar Mira is so overpowered that any tension in the plot just gets blown up in front of her making for an extremely dull and predictable story to follow. The rest of the side characters she meets along the way are typical light novel fantasy fodder. You’ve got a maid, hot swords girl, a big strong guy, a less big guy, a loli loving pervert and so on. It’s not breaking any new grounds.

The art and animation is fine. It doesn’t make your eyes bleed like Studio A-CAT’s last anime Battle Game in 5 Seconds, but the CGI monsters certainly will eyes bleed and your mouth scream especially when they’re in combat. The rest of the background art does look well put together and I will admit the fantasy kingdom the main story happens in looks really cool.

Despite it’s terrible first episode and it’s not totally unwatchable and I can see a hypothetical person enjoying this anime. It doesn’t do anything particularly offensive in the 4 episodes I’ve watched, it's all bottom of the barrel Dragon Quest questing nonsense you've seen in a thousand other anime, but it’s got nothing really going for it either. Not even the premise.
You’re much better off watching the currently airing World of Leadale which has a genuinely good mystery behind it’s story and is pretty cute despite it’s animation short comings. Or if you’re into gender-bender comedy (which She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man technically is minus comedy or it ever being brought up after the second episode) then Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout is very funny and takes the piss out of Kirito which always scores highly in books. Also, last years light novel comedy Full Dive: The Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG is even Shittier than Real Life is basically an entire SAO parody and it’s pretty funny though slow in places, but it makes up for that with it’s ending.

Anyway Wise Man Light Novel Loli Girl is there. That’s it.

3/10 Wasted Potential.