Seirei Gensouki

I feel numb. It's like my eyes glazed over and my mind shut down. I sometimes thought that the anime might be buffering while watching, but then realized that the animation is just so stiff that every scene feels like a still shot. I would occasionally be awoken by the hallowed voice and visage of Kirito, only to realize that no, it's just Rio, who has the same voice actor and a strikingly similar design to everyone's favorite Gary Stu, except worse because the proportions in this anime are awful. I thought I fell asleep from time to time and missed something important since characters ... would suddenly be like 5 years older, but then realized that no, it's just the horrible pacing and random time skips.

Well, at least the girls are cute, right????? Would be a lot better if they were actually animated decently...

This has been my experience with Spirit Cronicles, and as you can probably tell, I'm not a fan. But you'll also be surprised to hear that I think this anime has the potential to actually be decent for what it is.

The good news is that I went into this expecting absolutely nothing, and so far, the anime has been able to perfectly live up to my expectations. Yay! Now I actually thought the first episode was pretty alright as it introduced some interesting concepts into this world. I like how the isekai aspect of this series is at least being handled differently. The idea was a little intriguing and I was interested in seeing where things were going. But then the protagonist went to school.

Everything about Rio's academy life that didn't involve Claire Celia was the most uninspired, bland writing I've experienced in a work of fiction in awhile. It's just...so bad. You have to watch it to fully understand. Even though the reason behind Rio leaving the school was pretty poor, terribly forced, and completely avoidable, I'm kind of glad he left because it just wasn't going anywhere. The male students are the most stereotypical noble douchebags imaginable and the female students do literally nothing. Luckily, the 2 episodes featuring the school went by quickly (though I hope that isn't a bad sign for the overall pacing of the anime. Ah, who am I kidding, it totally is). These 2 episodes only served to show that our protagonist has the potential to be a completely overpowered character. Hooray...

Episode 4 is the best one so far and the reason why I haven't lost faith in this series yet. And no, it's not because Rio acquired an animal girl loli...ok, that's part of it, but it was the execution of it all that pleased me. The combat sequence was actually passable, and Latifa's backstory was well done considering the lore of the series. Yes, it's nothing amazing, but it's a step up from what I've seen previously.

The only character who's been good in my mind is Celia. I like her design, personality, and voice actress. Though that's not to say she's great or anything, it's just that Celia actualy has...character. Plus I probably won't forget about her a week after the show ends, though two weeks MIGHT be pushing it. At least that's more than I can say about the rest of the cast thus far. So the author was able to make a cute, white haired waifu girl. Does that alone make the show a resounding success? Yeah probably. But as a boring semi-critic, it's nowhere near enough for me.

Quick shout out to the ending theme song which is actually pretty solid. They should have switched it with the opening in order to at least attempt to hype up viewers before watching each episode. But then again, this show's placement of music has been quite questionable, so I shouldn't expect anything. I just don't feel like the songs match up with their corresponding scenes a good portion of the time.

I'm not scoring Spirit Cronicles lower yet because I'm an optimist who has hope that the upcoming episodes will be able to improve upon the anime's current shortcomings. Though it's a pretty slim hope. Fingers crossed that I'm not TOO disappointed!

*Spoilers be warned, this review will have some context that's relevant to the overall story*

What comes to your mind when you hear of the word "Isekai"? As a genre made famous from the tropes it originated from, the popularity that literally started its rise and downfall with SAO, and the momentum of shows like it has never stopped. Giving us the great likeness of Re:Zero to the horrendous worsts like Isekai Smartphone, there exists an Isekai for everyone, but not all of them are masterpieces of their own right. Seirei Gensouki on the other hand, touts to be just that and more: a carbon copy ... of SAO, but there is a major key difference that sets it apart.

Let's get the similarities out of the way for most of the anime-onlies being simpletons for comparison: Haruto Amakawa a.k.a Rio (in the fantasy world) is pretty much a less-refined version of Kirito, from the behaviour (which looks more lax than said character) to even the costume which looks eerily similar the the Black Swordsman coat. Rio no doubt has a harem of girls kissing up his ass, but just hold that thought for later on. Most of the baddie villains are similarly one-toned evil with boisterously filled egos that are meant for the MC to trump justice with good against evil, but most of the time he does nothing against it. Which begs the Gary Stu of a character of questioning why wouldn't he be rescuing those in danger, but like the others before it, there's a very specific reason behind all of this ordeal.

If you can get past all the blatant similarities of how Seirei Gensouki is just another work of literate copy-and-paste Isekai tropes, then this is where the proof of the redemption story of novelist Yuri Kitayama's writing capabilities lies at: it's not just your typical, generic Isekai story plot, but something that will have you going back and forth of reading between the lines of what was presented and piecing those plots together in the span of different timelines. I would like to give a shoutout to Typecero, because this guy is a devout fan of Seirei Gensouki, and most of the analyses done was in no small part his work, and this review is made possible because of his episodic breakdowns which made the big picture clearer between the anime adaptation and its changes when compared to the source material.

So, in the beginning, characters do get brutally Isekai-ed in a wayward bus onto an incoming train, but the thing is that the characters in the bus are not one-trick ponies who are just Isekai-ed into the fantasy world. See, for the main character Rio, he isn't just some generic Isekai character, but one that's of reincarnation and fused with the original person's (Haruto Amakawa) memories. An orphan living in the slums of the new world, and wanting to find revenge on the person whom killed his mother at a young age. To make things more complicated, the kidnapping of princesses gets him unequivocally involved (which he saved), which lands him in the walls of royalty for a commoner such as Rio to attend school, only to get ridiculed by the usual hierarchy social status of commoner and arrogant nobles, children or adult, they're all the same. Being falsely accused of anything and everything of noble status, Rio is labelled as a fugutive to the point of literally being forced to escape from the Bertram kingdom, which continues smearing his name left and right.

It's not just Rio who suffers this kind of usual historic barbarism of instigating the superiority of nobles. Take the young fox girl Latifa for example. Like Rio, she was subjected to slavery, and being a tool for the royal family as their controlled assassin to hunt Rio down to kill him when he was forced to flee from the kingdom. Thankfully Rio was able to get her out of her predicament, to which then she followed him on his lone journey, becoming his adoptive sister. If anything (and this might come off as a spoiler) that you should pay attention about, Latifa is one of the passengers on the bus with Rio (the real world Haruto), and she is known as Endo Suzune, another charcter reincarnation into the new world. See, I told you that characters in Seirei Gensouki aren't just walking tropes.

The thing that's so interesting (but sadly generic for a "prologue" of sorts) about Seirei Gensouki is the world-building that's between characters, the factions within kingdoms and not to mention, Rio's "harem" of girls that admire him for what he does like Maou Gakuin's Anos Voldigoad. Most of the content would already be going into spoilers since the anime's plot had one major development skipped that made or broke the overall tone of the series, but I can share a few details while keeping vague. Let's take Rio's teacher, silver loli Celia Claire for example: she was the one whom took care of Rio when he was being taught at Betram Royal Academy, overseeing his progress to the point of gradually being in love with him. Yes, you saw that right, a teacher-student relationship that built up to a point where the anime resurfaced back again with the passing of timelines to make it relevant. Another significant character is the pink-haired Aishia, whom is Rio's spirit of a contractual awakening of a "special power", and for better or worse, this is where novel fans went all gaga about her. Because from the time she appeared in the original source material, everything appears to have a drastic change of course within the timeline of its spectrums, and for good reason to shift the tonal direction of the novel. Even villains (or rather antagonists) like noble Charles Arbor accumulated all karma from oppressing Rio at the initial stages of the anime, get their break from being served that under their noses. You see, the various intertwinings of the factions and the characters belonging to the faction they come from, carries the weight of the name they bore, So for Rio to sense any injustice and fight back, he literally cannot do so as it would be treason on the part of the family and people held responsible, not Rio. The dreaded "harem" is something that I'd left must be concerned, because it's through the actions that Rio does to infatuate the girls' hearts, not by sheer looks alone. Rio is admired because he is a hero to them, and ladies fawn to heroes because of this.

On that note, I'd highly recommend you to read the manga or light novel if you're interested, because while I cannot cover that much hidden context of what the anime presented, the world of Seirei Gensouki is much larger than life when compared to the anime adaptation. Because while it isn't bad, the tropes that we've seen time and time again are the result of compressing such a big story as this from the hands of the production team. Led by veteran director Osamu Yamasaki in both direction, script and series composition, they tried their best to stack as much content, while making some questionable narrative decisions that relegated Seirei Gensouki to the average Isekai lookalike of a show that even novel fans have to concede that it's labelled as such. What a disappointment.

Other than that, I'd feel that this is a show where without the knowledge impartation from novel fans, anime-onlies will not feel lost, but just feeling that average, mediocrity of subpar-ness of tropes seen one too many times before, compiled in one complete package that is this show. If you're like me, seek out the forum discussion topic that I created explaining all about the adaptation comparison so that everyone can be on the same page. Bear in mind that it's full-on spoilers, so watch the anime before reading the hefty few-thousand word episodic essays. At first, I was gonna shrug this show off as just the typical "not bad, but not good either" Isekai show, but thanks to people like Typecero, I get to understand this show better a lot and have some appreciation for Yuri Kitayama for a generic story that can go as deep as it could to prove the naysayers wrong. The novel truly has its hardcore fans for reasons such as this.

Animation-wise, Seirei Gensouki just exists. Given that this is TMS Entertainment with WAO World for co-production, it just looks fine and nice while smelling that limited budget work. Not spectacular, but as I've mentioned time and time again, it's serviceable on all fronts. While I feel jaded that the OST didn't really come off as something unique, there is at least some creativity in the OP/ED visuals which are foreshadowing the story. For one, there are 2 versions of the OP: one that you normally see on Crunchyroll, and there's the Bilibili version which has the same narrative tone, albeit with a few differences that novel fans (and eagle-eyed anime-onlies) will recognize very subliminally. Are you surprised to hear of this? I bet you were if you're paying attention. The songs and the artistes helming them also sound very generic, but Aguri Oonishi's "Elder flower" for the ED is one hell of a good song. But just like the rest of the show, you've guessed it: it's average across the board.

Back to the main point, Seirei Gensouki a.k.a Spirit Chroncles won't ever break the bank out of the hellhole that is the Isekai genre. And since it originated from the Isekai lands of Syosetu (which is where you'll see works like Mushoku Tensei, TenSura etc.), be prepared for some of the most average Isekai tried-and-true formulas just repeatedly conspiring together for a story well short of initial expectations. I also highly doubt that anime-onlies like myself will ever want to read the original source material since the adaptation has some minor missteps that gave it a major disservice. All in all, it's the same average and repetitive "You can pass this show up for better shows" cliche rhetoric or metaphor, and my hope has already diminished since Day One when this anime started to tingle my bored antennas, that slowly but surely spearheaded into pure disconnect.

Another isekai show that is for some reason at the top of the seasonal anime charts. It does absolutely nothing new except for some strange elements they added to try to stand out which made it worse for the show it anything.
These characters that were reincarnated are in the middle ground of remembering themselves and not, it honestly is a gimmick that makes it worse than just all the sheer amount of generic tropes and cliches that are packed into this show. The art and sound directing are decent at best, very average. The story is about another well-accomplished good looking dude that died in ... the most over-exaggerated hilarious bus accident I have ever seen. Like I legit burst out laughing when it happened. Anyways, he is revived, happens to have special powers (1 cliche), happens to just be good at anything he does (2), and is a fucking girl magnet (3). And to top it all off, there is a magic high school where he will most likely be attracting girls like nothing (4). With the mc being packed with all these cliches, he is so one-dimensional it's laughable. Every other character is also so one-dimensional that it's just so dreadful to keep watching. You have that one girl that keeps getting saved, one annoying ass royal ojou-sama wannabe, kids that try to talk shit to mc to bring him down, all these characters exist for one purpose and are literally not developed at all. The only thing that's saving me from putting characters at a 1/10 is the slight mystery aspect with the reincarnations in the middle ground like I mentioned before, but overall, it brings it down as a more pointless gimmick that seems unneccessary anyways and made it worse overall. In summary, Spirit Chronicles is the new isekai that does tries to stand out with this weird gimmick but it makes it worse, not to mention it won't save it from the sheer amount of cliches it already threw in. Don't watch this unless you like to find guilty pleasures or you enjoy trash.

I don't really write a review. This is an exception.

Seirei Gensouki starts of as a 7/10 isekai anime. I really liked it until the second half of the episode. The premise starts of with a pretty standard isekai set up but with a twist that the mc retains the memory of his new host.

Everything else feels like superficial. The plot muddens as the story progressed. The anime begins as if a sketchy dude told you he can tell you a story about an isekai story, the story is a bit interesting but then it suddenly feels like he cuts off some important details and adds ... some really exaggerated unbelievable crap just to keep your attention.

The anime presents itself so you would feel disconnected with the characters. I feel bad for the author of the original source. The director, writer, and editor approved and made this possible.

It's such a bummer that even isekai pharmacist feels better compared to this. I'm a trash isekai fan but this is too much.

If you're looking for a high-quality, thought-provoking anime that will leave you feeling intellectually fulfilled, then Serei Gensouki is definitely not for you. This show is the trashiest of trash, and I mean that in the best possible way.

From the awful animation to the nonsensical plot, Serei Gensouki is a hot mess of epic proportions. The characters are all one-dimensional caricatures, and the dialogue is cringeworthy at best. But somehow, despite all of its flaws, I couldn't NOT look away every 5 minutes. I was so mesmerized by the trainwreck unfolding before me that I just had to keep watching.

In conclusion, Serei Gensouki is a ... must-watch for anyone who loves terrible anime. It's the perfect blend of trashy goodness and pure entertainment. 10/10 would recommend to all trash aficionados.

What the fuck, this is the most pathetic show I have ever watched. One would think they made this to compete for the title of the worst anime of the decade, if not of all time. The characters act less human than the average fly on the wall, the art is bland and boring and the story is less interesting than watching paint dry. I usually don't think one should write a review until the show/season is complete as the ending will often change one's perspective on an anime. However there is no hope left for Seirei Gensouki, so heed my warning; do not, under ... any circumstance, watch this pile of garbage.

I'm not really sure why I'm giving this a 2. Probably because it's not so bad it's horrible, but it's not particularly good either. I saw someone call Rio/Haruto a discount-Kirito from SAO, and they actually aren't wrong.

I actually can't think of anything redeeming about this show.

The art is stereotypical I guess.

The music is so-so for a mediocre anime.

Fair warning, each episode is a speed run. Whether they're speed running the years, or a mediocre fight to get to a mediocre point you just don't care about. In fact this whole anime is just a speed run to things you just don't care about. ... You can't even get whiplash from the pacing because there is no other pacing other than fast, and even if they slow it long enough for you to care, you don't get whiplash. You'd have to actually care about any of the characters to get whiplash.....and you don't really get time for that either.

It's all a speed run of 'Rio bad hurr durr' then 'oh no we were wrongz!!1!1 uwu' then 'teehee our badz super OP and forgiving Rio!'

There really were no unique, or interesting characters. The MC Rio, was boring. He acts like a third party viewer to everything, and the times when he should get mad, he acts like it happened to someone else. Rather than 'mature', he just didn't. care. It didn't happen/isn't happening to him after all. He's just controlling a body as far as he's concerned. Also, everything was so dang predictable, nothing was a surprise. Like, why even bother, you know what's going to happen before it's revealed.

So yeah, if you like episode speed runs and discount-kiritos with no real personality, this might be your thing.

I don't know the material that this is based off of, but really it takes a genre that is kind of getting tired and does nothing new with it. If anything it goes back a few paces.

The main character is never really developed past: I'm an overpowered edgelord who can't interact with people, but that is overlooked and every girl likes me cause reasons.

The quasi harem of female side characters is where I kinda get upset with this anime. A lot of them are introduced being pretty awesome and strong. Then the next episode they inexplicably can't use most of the ... powers they showed in the introduction and need to be rescued by the totally awesome edgelord main.

There is so many story skips and the lack of development means that the story is kind of disjointed and you can't connect with the characters at all. The main is going to a far away "fantasy Japan" cause his parents were from there, but he has never seen it and knows nothing about it. On the way he easily spends years with people then leaves them behind without a second thought apparently.

The villain is totally in the shadows with very little connection to the main character, no real reason to even understand what he is up to or anything. It is just very hard to get excited about anything cause there really seems to be no true conflict as the hero easily bulldozes through physical conflicts and has no psychological connection or conflicts to really anything.

It's pretty bad, I would say maybe watch if you enjoy watching bad shows just to see the multitude of ways they manage to be bad. You can see the cracks in the first episode, and every episode after that the show almost seems like it's about to take off and it constantly whiffs.

This show had some cool character designs and at times it was endearing enough that if it actually went somewhere it could have been a mediocre but okay show. But the plot development is extremely poor and the show wastes a lot of your time doing nothing of interest for a ... while. Then in the last couple episodes there is not enough time for the show to properly end. Nothing much gets resolved and nothing really feels worth resolving. The end is not satisfying and leaves as much open as possible for a second season which I don't think will happen and even if it did I'm sure it will just pick up with some random time wasting that makes the season 1 cliffhanger completely pointless. As soon as something interesting starts going on you can totally rely on this show to not follow through and turn it into a waste of time.

In a sense the show starts off as an adventure, but the motivation behind the first goal is not enough to get the viewer interested. Then when the journey ends somewhere halfway into the show, the protagonist goes on a revenge plot, which comes out of nowhere because the protagonist has never shown any emotion or reason to desire revenge until the second he learns there is someone to get revenge on. Then that plot just disappears entirely, if you didn't watch that episode you wouldn't even know because that plot point is never referenced after that episode. It feels very haphazard. More like a loose collection of events than a story.

The characters are all fairly one dimensional and none of them develop. The MC acts in a way that you never know what he's thinking except for the two times in the show that he says it out loud. They killed every potential that he had in order to make him a self insert. By the way, I would have never thought to call this a harem if I didn't see the tag. I would watch other shows for that, nothing really happens to call this a harem. And also the MC has still not gotten over the crush he had on a girl that rejected him IN A PAST LIFE. Even after meeting multiple new romantic interests in his new life over the many years during the show he is still thinking about her. It almost feels like the writer of the show felt like he was rejected only a couple hours ago because that's when the flashback happened, but in the setting of the show it has been way too long to still care.

There's also the power fantasy aspect of the self insert, as the MC is pretty much just a one man army, but the system of powers/techniques is not well explained and doesn't make much sense. Also you never see him training despite him saying he has always kept it up. They also say like 30 times in the first couple episodes that the MC can't use magic, but it's never explained why. But he can use seirei jutsu, which is not magic, but other people can't use it, but it functions essentially like magic. I think the fighting is not that satisfying, as you never see the MC overcome a physical challenge. He mostly wins fights easily against overwhelmingly weaker opponents, and there is never really any threats, so it's not a great show if you're into the fighting and power scaling stuff.

There's tons of other small things that really don't make sense and it just kind of makes me incredulous. If you reincarnated, and you were one of the two people that remembers your past life, and you met the other one, and you recognized them because you died in the same accident, you would not spend years around this person before it randomly comes up in conversation. What a ridiculous plot point, which by the way is pointless and nothing ever comes of it, I guess it's just a bad excuse for one of the characters to call him oni-san. I'm not sure what they were thinking when writing this show. It's just kind of a mess that chooses not to redeem itself. Truly bad in a way that feels intentional at many times. And it's not even a fan service or funny. 0/10, waste of fairly decent animation and artwork for this script.

Disclaimer: I have not read the web novel (WN) nor the light novel (LN) of this series. However, I did try to find sources that can explain the differences between WN, LN, and the anime series for a clearer, overall, understanding of this series - albeit the relevant sections that the anime covers. This review will (strictly) be covering the anime but will consider the differences between the different media, such as the LN and WN based on my own understanding and interpretation. Feel free to disagree since I admit that I do not have all the information and I am aware that not reading ... the original material (i.e. the LN and WN) might make my review less convincing.

*For this series the MC will be used interchangeably for the character that has been isekaied and the character that hosts all of the MC's memories.

Story: The story of this anime starts with an interesting concept for a reincarnation isekai genre where the main character (MC*) behaves (mentally) different from other reincarnation isekai genre MC's. This is because the reincarnation isekai genre (so far) makes the MC; preserve both memory and (physical) body, inhabit another body and preserve their memories, or inhabit another body and lose their memories, when going to another world. However, there is not much anime that tackle the question of the MC having to inhabit another person's body whilst the host memories are still retained. This gives the impression that the story will be about how the MC and host resolve their own identity considering that the host suddenly receives memories (from the MC) and believes they are his own despite not having experienced any of those events. However, its execution on this front was unsatisfactory since it focused more on the adventure where the MC meets relevant characters instead of his mental state. I am aware the LN also contains the adventure part so this is not a saying it's an error but more on its poor method of execution on the main theme of the story, i.e. the mental state of the MC confirming his identity.

From my understanding, the entire first season of this anime should be the prologue according to people who read the LN (from what I gathered is 3 volumes long!!) but the irony is that the anime does not convey this at all. The story starts the series when the MC was in his childhood but then quickly moves to his adolescent state after two episodes. This gives the impression that the "prologue" was over and we were already in the main storyline. The main cause of this impression was a lack of an in-depth narration and/or monologue from the MC since understanding the mental state and goals of the MC gives a clearer idea to the viewer what events have to transpire for the MC to attain their goal. Even more so for this series since the MC has to come to terms with the "extra" memories that he does not fully understand. It was clear (after knowing this was meant to be a prologue) that the adventuring was meant to be an exposition for the MC so the viewer has a better understanding of his character, ability, his two different memories (and arguably their two personalities), and their background. This implies the next season may start focusing on the identity issue for the MC and host where the host will start to get confused about who he is considering he has two sets of memories (and personalities) from one being on Earth and one is in the current (isekai) world. As a result, the story left an unsatisfactory feeling where important information/insight on the MC's mental and emotional growth is left in an unknown state.

Character: As mentioned in the story section the main point of the story was to explore the identity crisis of the MC, but the anime conveyed very little information about it. The main reason was that the MC was introduced to us (the viewer) in his childhood and after two episodes (of going through education) he becomes an adolescent young man BUT we are not given how much the MC has adapted to his new memories nor his emotional state on the matter. His outer appearance always delivered a calm and mature outlook of life and makes it seem that he has sorted out the memory issue but later in the story, we become aware that he is still trying to cope with them. Moreover, the lack of information on how the MC copes with his new memories (and the new personality) makes some of his actions when interacting with other characters (during his adventure) questionable since we do not understand the choices he makes. For example, he turns down on a girl who wants to travel with him on his adventure despite the fact he is only traveling to figure out his past. You can argue that there are dangers to the girl if she wasn't prepared but the anime made it clear that he is powerful enough to protect her and she was aware of the dangers of traveling and yet he still doesn't allow it. As a result, for the first half of the series, you are always trying to figure out why he acts the way he does and whether this has any relation to his identity crisis until midway through you are given his background, origin, and motivation and then it becomes clear that all of his actions has little do with his identity and more to do with his motivation (his revenge). The lack of the MC's monologue on his emotional state makes his character quite boring and confusing and even after knowing his motivation (which is revenge) it still makes him boring since we are unsure how his other persona (the isekaied MC) feels about it. In addition, we get to see other characters (predominately females) interact with the MC and this should also contribute to his emotional state (since he has two personas) but again we have a lack of information about it making it seem that both personas have similar values, which is not the case by the last few episodes. Thus, creating confusion on the situation of the MC's mental (and emotional) state between the two personas.

As for the other characters, they are quite one-dimensional since it is very easy to identify which characters will either be friends or enemies to the MC without any grey areas so to speak, such as being frenemies or spies, etc. Therefore, it becomes easy to identify characters that are villains and allies and characters that may become his romantic interests. Although considering this is the prologue of the story, it is possible that these one-dimensional characters are meant to set the stage for new characters that could actually endanger the MC where he needs his allies to aid him. Otherwise, the story would become very linear with a very predictable plot and very simplistic story where it is easy to foresee the MC will always be placed on the pedestal where his identity crisis makes him more special rather than being detrimental.

Art and Sound: For the music, I do not have any problems with the OP, ED, or OST but I do have issues with the art (or in this case the animation). The animation was very noticeable when looking at the fight scenes throughout the series. All of them show a very simplistic (to borderline lazy) representation of the MC fights with difficult foes. Such as, the sword swings the MC uses to cut through the body of large beasts or the MC's hand-to-hand combat against powerful foes makes it very noticeable the animation for these motions was done with a lack of understanding of how the body interacts with such dynamic movement. As a result, the fights feel lackluster and quite amateurish which downgrades the supposed difficulty (or ease) the MC should be experiencing when he is fighting.

Overall: The anime takes a very interesting approach to the reincarnation isekai genre where it is rare to see the MC having an identity issue in regards to both the MC (isekaied) and host's memories preserved. However, the anime executed this topic poorly leaving a very unsatisfying feeling. Both the story and characters did not deliver the importance of this identity crisis and it was left in the air until the last few episodes where it becomes apparent the MC's and host's personalities have different values and this becomes clearer near the end of the series. Luckily, there is a second season so it may be possible that the anime will do better considering the "prologue" of the series is now over. Furthermore, the last episode introduced us to other (spoilers) isekaiers thus providing potential character development for the MC by comparing him to the others based on their adaptation to this new world - as long as these other isekaied characters are not one dimensional.

Frankly, I didn't expect much before I started the anime, I thought it was an isekai anime that comes out every year. However, after watching the 1st and 2nd episodes, my expectations rose and I had the idea that it was one of the best anime of the season. It was progressing well. It was not unnecessarily extended. it wasn't boring. Of course, I wanted to continue because I really liked the anime, but later I realized that it was a big mistake. Once again I am disappointed.

It didn't take me long to realize that the anime I watched with love had turned into an ... anime that couldn't go beyond a cliche. Perhaps the worst Isekai anime of the season. The quality continued to decline each time a harem was added to the anime.

Story : I remember watching at least 10 anime like this with exactly the same storyline. ( 4/10 )

Art : Unfortunately it wasn't bad, but I don't think it was at a sufficient level. ( 5/10 )

Sound : It was as I expected. opening and ending deserved to watch. ( 7/10 )

Character : It was pretty bad. There were 1 or 2 that we can call solid character. ( 4/10 )

Enjoyment : As I said, I liked the first episodes, but it started to decrease over time. I can't even tell you how sorry I am. ( 4/10 )

Overall : 4

The only reason why I rated enjoyment as a '6' was because I had fun picking out all the cliches while watching this show.

> Besides the criminally underused amazing premise, which is good enough to be the central preoccupation of an entire isekai, the show demonstrates that it is just another isekai in which the knowledge of a previous life blessed with immense magical potential manifests within an 'underdog' protagonist from the slums who is constantly belittled by the obnoxious spawn of nobility. This overused trope of classism, especially within an educational environment, is wearisome and unrealistic. How is it unrealistic? Even after 5 years ... of constant accomplishment in both academics and swordplay, the attitude of the insufferable antagonist remained unchanged. So unchanged, in fact, that it is almost like there was no time skip, no growth or adaptation to the MC's presence, and that he only joined a month ago.
During the cliche of saving the royalty, the assassin moved unrealistically slow, in order to have the MC not die.
I did not notice any noteworthy music nor animation, though the art seemed above average.

*animation seemed a bit cheap on inspection. Action Fights were 'skipped'.
In the ED, i noticed characters looked like
homura https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/843514243030843464/867000732891611146/unknown.png
misha https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/843514243030843464/867001488361127966/unknown.png
horikita https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/843514243030843464/867001629861740575/unknown.png
madoka https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/843514243030843464/867001647443345408/unknown.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/843514243030843464/867002661194170418/unknown.png a bit like kirito

the story is not interesting and too many timeskips are not clear but it's good enough to speed up watching time

the art is just ordinary, what's more, when the action is swearing it's not very interesting, what's the genre for if there's an action, it's really normal

the sound is good, it's good and it's just right

Well, when it comes to the character, I don't like heroin or the MC, because this is like a special anime for lolicon, wow, love is normal and I'm not a lolicon, so I don't like it

My enjoyment is also lacking but it's only at the beginning that I enjoy ... watching it

for all of them, this anime still has a lot of flaws

this review contains both spoilers and swearing!

Story: 2

Step 1: introduce characters in a re zero like manner thus inciting discriminatory treatment.

Step 2: make the character go through childhood trauma/ awakening of sorts.

Step 3: ENROLL INTO MAGIC SCHOOL.

... Step 4: GET KICKED OUT CUS OF BLAITENT SETUP (but dont forget you need to establish connection that can be used as plot convenience for the finale)

Step 5: Make harem to fill episodes to the finale.

Step 6: Make trashy wedding crashing finale

THE ONLY REASON THIS FORMAT WORKS AND ANYONE WOULD WATCH THIS IS: cus that girl thats being saved looks like barbara from genshin impact (would you believe me if i told u am not a genshin simp...)

Art: 7

pretty good art actually, especially with the girl that looks like barbara... (once again am not a genshin simp....)

Sound: 5

Nothing memorable about sound, voice acting is also mediocre

Characters: 1

oh boy, time to rant again. I dont even remember any of the characters names except for Rio (the mc) and am only doing this review for a school assignment in all honesty, il put the grade i got on my assignment here when i recieve it ;).

Rio is copy paste mc being discriminated against (i dont think i need to explain much more)

Woman that looks like barbara is maiden in distress that needs to be saved but makes it more difficult by trying to bear the burden herself to make the series feel more real and more of a challange for the mc to morally justify but in reality just makes the plot forced and makes it painfull to even watch casually

All the other characters are just there, they dont matter

Enjoyment: 2

I enjoyed roasting it and kinda liked the first episode so i cant give it a 1

Overall: 3

Maybe enjoyable if ur 10 years old and your taste is more trash than the pile of garbage in your room your mom ask you to clean up every day

In conclusion: I heavely doubt this will ever get a second season

This one's going down as my disappointment of the year - my 2021 award for 'highest concentration of squandered potential'.
The core premise of Seirei Gensouki is *SO COOL,* you guys - it really is. It's so cool that it is absolutely heart-rending that the anime that presents this premise is just such shamefully self-indulgent uninspired harem trash (and I'm no harem-hater, there are legitimate amazing harem anime, but this deserves the 'trash' label wholeheartedly).
When I say "Isekai where the guy from our world doesn't just magically reincarnate, but actually has his soul and memories fused into a pre-existing person from the 'other world', forming essentially ... a new person with the memories of both and a personality that combines the two", do you get excited by that prospect? Does the interplay being discussed there fascinate you? Good - it should! It's an absolutely wonderful and at least partly-original premise, and could be an amazing way to liven up the now-stale isekai genre.

...but how would you feel if I told you that this premise results in a character best described as "Mom can we have Kirito?" "No, we have Kirito at home.", in an anime whose animation, dialogue, embarrassingly transparent audience surrogate wish-fulfillment, and "down-time events" seem to all borrow heavily from that disasterpiece 'Master of Ragnarok'. If you know, you know.

Doesn't feel very good, does it-
No, and after suffering through all that, do they deliver on that cool central concept the first few shockingly well-written episodes sold you on? ...A little bit. In a post-credit scene after the last bleedin' episode of the season.

I mean, it gives me hope that maybe this first season was just a dumping ground for all the author's bad ideas and obligatory 'fan service', such as it was, and that perhaps this next season will focus more on plot and less on loli imoutos wanting to wash the audience-surrogate-MC's back... but I want to be quite clear here. You could watch the first 3-4 episodes, some clips amounting to -maybe- another episode's length all stitched together, and then the final after-credit scene on the final episode... and you're honestly pretty much caught up with the plot. Literally everything else is just the MC being absolutely perfect in every way, being lavished with gifts by the elderly, respect and praise by the adults, jealously by the young men, and adoration (and barely disguised lust) by the young women - all in a constant neverending stream.

If you think a legitimately interesting reincarnation mechanic is worth putting up with all that, then by all means this is the show for you.

Rise of the Shield Hero: Walmart Edition.

That's all this anime is. It's a rip-off of Shield Hero. (SPOILERS AHEAD) You have a guy who dies getting reincarnated into another world, where he is maligned by the world's nobles and mistreated, even though he's secretly the most powerful guy on the planet. They lobby false accusations until he leaves the country where he meets a beast girl named Raphtalia...excuse me, I mean Latifa..who was initially a slave until he frees her. The two then go on adventures, until circumstances bring him back to face off with the very nobles who mistreated him.

It's ... straight up Rise of the Shield Hero with some slight tweaks.

But, unlike Rise of the Shield Hero, this anime does not have a cool MC. This one has Rio. A sickeningly sweet boy who is always polite, courteous and "gallant". He's about as exciting to watch as public access television. Surrounding Rio is a harem of completely interchangeable names and faces of high-pitched girls all fawning over Rio no matter where he goes. Nothing stands out about any of them other than being "cute", which is the only thing Rio can basically say to them throughout the anime. How womanly they become over time. Because there's literally nothing else of note about them. I think the only thing interesting at all about the harem dynamic here is that Rio takes off on the women for years at a time. That's at least a little different from other run of the mill harems like this.

The story seemed promising in the first few episodes, with Rio trying to find his bearings and deal with the harassment of the nobles. But, it quickly tapered off into a run-of-the-mill Isekai adventure, before crashing and burning in a dumpster fire of a cliffhanger ending that explains nothing about why he's there, what is going on with his spirit girl, what he returned to the kingdom for before he dealt with Celia's situation, just all sorts of loose ends in what is obviously a set up for the sequel. I understand leaving something on the table for a second season, but you can't just end a season like you're ending episode 4. You have to explain some things, wrap up some kind of loose ends. Meh, not that it matters anyway. It's unlikely I'll watch the second season of this, anyway.

The anime was mediocre through most of the run, and became subpar in its final episodes that foisted a marriage drama on you out of nowhere, instead of having Rio either find Lucius or deal with the lies the nobles told about him. I wouldn't waste too much time watching this. If you haven't seen it, I would go watch Shield Hero instead. It's a much better version of this.

A lot of potential was wasted.

This is a review coming from someone who is ATM an anime only fan and who has not looked up any information on the show outside of what is shown in the anime. That being said this comes from a place of all of the other shows I have watched in the past and from my own gut feelings.

Let's get this out of the way, yes this is just another issekai with a Kirito OP main character nothing has changed on that front, Hell even Kirito himself is the voice of the MC just slap Asuna as the ... spirit, and boom. This anime was hard to get through but honestly, it picked up a lot of momentum towards the end it had a pathetic character development it jumped all over the place none of the arcs ever felt complete and I want to blame the anime short 12 episodes run time for this, This anime is hot trash there is no doubt about it but it has so much potential It has made me feel so bad for the source material that I will be reading the LN/Manga.

This honestly could be something good (on an Isekai scale of course) there are a lot of aspects that if fleshed out and given the proper time would make this something way better than more popular shows like "Killing Slimes for 300 years" or "Wisemans Grandchild" Not saying those shows are bad, I enjoyed them tbh but I think if this show was given their budget or 24 episodes it would be much better than it is now.

I hope that this gets a 24 episode sequel as only Vol 3 1/2ish volumes have been adapted to my knowledge, The cliffhanger ending come on guys what is this Promised Neverlands 2nd cousin.

First 3 episodes was a typical isekai storyline, like every isekai that shows promise BUT turns to shite in the end. It feels like the story really lacks direction and its super cliche.

Reincarnation, poor sob story about his childhood which involves a female. People think he's super weak at first then he's strong but obviously doesn't know it and makes this face :0. (seemingly shook over his own skills). Someone who's jealous and tries to oppose him. Triumphs over boo boo the fool and a female falls in love with him. At this point its not even a spoiler, its how 90% of all ... terrible isekai animes work.

I think its not brought up often enough but female leads in isekais literally suck. They are, of course yet again kinda whiny, fragile AF and there just for the looks. One is the super shy type that has teary eyes. Usually the main chara's lover/ future lover. Other one is some furry or some creature, probably enslaved and designed to be cute blegh. Last is the big bobbed girl who sticks them to the main character and drink beer. There's literally no individuality to them so it would be nice to see a decent female lead once in awhile.

Overall:
To be fair, I really tried continuing but its a type of anime where you just skip and skip just for the good parts LOL or just watch snippets of it on social media. Thats enough for me.

I won't say much about this anime other than that it well, it has a lot of plot holes, the most jarring one being at the "black wyvern" scene or whatever it was called, they said a year has passed did they not? So why were they still there?

Anyway, the story was dreadful, a lot of time skipping and very minimal detail, I didn't enjoy it at all, hell, the first few episodes of the original Sword Art Online were like a masterpiece in comparison to this twelve episode anime.

The art? I actually liked it, it was pretty, some of the scenery was beautiful ... even, but does that save it? Hell no, just because an anime is pretty, doesn't mean it's good, and this is a shining example of that.

The sound was...something, the music in the anime was done well, but not much else, I enjoyed the voice acting and all, but ehhh...

The characters were absolutely awful, aside from Charles, he's a decent villain character, but nothing to write home about at all.

All in all, I highly don't recommend this trash fire of an anime, don't waste your time.

I'll be brief. This is a self insert anime, where a bland protagonist has girls falling for him left right and center for no reason. Aesthetically it's a soulless SAO clone, and I don't like SAO to begin with.

When I first saw the synopsis, I thought it might be an interesting take on the whole reincarnation thing. It is not. The fact that it's different is a mere technicality, added only to earn pity points for the protagonist, as the story tries to portray him as the underdog who fought his way up from nothing, when in reality he's just using the memories of an ... infinitely more privileged person to get ahead.

Art is ok, but then, if the girls don't look good, then this thing would not even work as self insert, so we couldn't have that.

Avoid this anime. It is either worthless or directly harmful to your intelligence.