Hyouken no Majutsushi ga Sekai wo Suberu

As the first commoner to attend the prestigious Arnold Academy of Sorcery, Ray White is immediately met with contempt from some of the students hailing from nobility. Unbeknownst to them, Ray's real identity is that of the famous Iceblade Sorcerer—a hero who led the country to victory in a past war and is one of the seven strongest sorcerers alive. Despite his legendary status, Ray wants nothing more than to live out the ordinary school life he never had.

Ray quickly makes friends with some of the most influential students thanks to his kind and amiable nature. Unfortunately, as those with nefarious motives begin to make their move, Ray may soon have no choice but to use his true power to preserve the bonds that make his new life worthwhile.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

White, Ray Main

Enoki, Junya Japanese

Rose, Amelia Main

Saeki, Iori Japanese

Griffith, Elisa Main

Harumura, Nana Japanese

Caroline, Carol Supporting

Uchida, Maaya Japanese

Bradley, Rebecca Supporting

Waki, Azumi Japanese

Alium, Albert Supporting

Amasaki, Kouhei Japanese

Algren, Ariane Supporting

Sekine, Akira Japanese

Cleveland, Claris Supporting

Hondo, Kaede Japanese

Ainsworth, Lydia Supporting

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Garnet, Abbie Supporting

Mori, Nanako Japanese

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Tanaka, Junichirou Producer

Kurosu, Nobuhiko Producer

Sawahata, Kouji Producer

Reviews

May 22, 2023

ExemplarCayman

Recommended

Violet Evergarden, except actually good.

“I have no trouble communicating with women” - the protagonist.
“Wtf, how am I supposed to self-insert?” - weebs that were expecting a generic isekai / battle harem.

First, this show isn’t a battle harem academy despite the superficial appearance of one, it’s a slice-of-life comedy.
Second, it’s self-insert fiction in a very old-school western way, like Harry Harrison’s and Robert Howard’s books. The protagonist is a gigachad with bodybuilder's muscles, mad sword & sorcery skills, a multitude of diverse talents, and an ability to unhook bras with his eyes. Basically, he’s Conan the Barbarian - a self-insert in the sense that the audience ... would like to be like him - and *could* realistically imagine themselves in his place because everything about this character's talents is actually entirely rational from the writing perspective. The bodybuilder’s muscles come from hours of on-screen exercise, the fighting skills come from getting coached by genius mentors and years of military service, etc. When he restores an abandoned garden as a hobby project, this is done with weeks of manual labor (again, shown to us on-screen) - not with a Lvl. 999 Gardening cheat skill he got from a goddess as a reincarnation perk. The audience can imagine themselves achieving the same result if they put in the same amount of effort, had the same circumstances, etc.
The issue is, this isn’t a Conan the Barbarian novel, this is an anime, and [harem] anime does self-insert fantasy in a fundamentally different way. Harem anime self-insert characters usually are pathetic losers with no redeeming qualities whatsoever who magically luck into success with zero effort on their part. That’s because such anime knows its target audience, in particular, it understands that the idea of putting in any effort or having any talents scares and confuses them. This contradiction between the approach and the medium is the reason why we get to hear these laugh/cringe-inducing cope takes from self-inserters about this protagonist being “generic” or “unrelatable.” Yeah, imagine relating to having no trouble communicating with women, the mind boggles.
Anyway, these takes are straight-up gaslighting. Not only is this protagonist a well-written, well-developed character, there is also not a single other character similar to him in all of ~1100 anime titles I’ve seen at the time of writing. What makes him particularly unique is the personality of a smooth-talking idiot savant. Here’s how this fine chap introduces two girls to each other:
“This sweet angel is Elisa. She's got an exceptionally beautiful heart, excels at being considerate in subtle ways, studies hard, and is vastly knowledgeable.”
“And then this one-of-a-kind lady who loves and is loved by these transcendentally wavy twintails is Claris. She has the highest level of elegance, with which she expertly weaves perfect sweetness into her otherwise cool demeanor.”
Now’s a good moment to mention that you can actually find a similar protagonist if you try - and that protagonist is Violet Evergarden. Both The Iceblade Sorcerer and Violet Evergarden are stories about a veteran child soldier returning to the civilian world and trying to catch up on normal late-teens life while struggling with the demons of their past. Except Violet is an absolute caricature of a naruto-running autistic robot dog (seriously, I was expecting a reveal that she is a literal combat robot like Terminator, it would’ve made so much sense), whereas Ray is a realistic, well-developed character. One aspect of which is being naive and socially oblivious as a consequence of spending formatting years on the battlefield. If someone tried those lines above on women in real life, they would come off as sleazy, but Ray gets away with it because those lines are consistent with his overall behavior both for us, the audience, and for the characters within the story. He doesn’t mean those lines as compliments, they are his genuine unfiltered thoughts, and he isn’t worldly enough to think of the implications.

Also, if those introductions made you chuckle - that is entirely intentional. The show is unapologetically goofy and tries its best to be fun. Because, as I’ve said above, it’s a slice-of-life comedy, not a battle harem - as long as you actually open your eyes and look. It features none of the battle harem academy tropes, notably, it has pretty much zero fanservice (of the teen-boy-eroticism kind you’d expect in a battle harem specifically), opting instead for imaginative animation sequences and low-key bizarre, but wholesome comedy. The Iceblade Sorcerer has more in common with Bocchi The Rock and Yuru Camp than with something like Mahouka or Rakudai Kishi. When some random muppet-looking house spider came into the frame saying “I want to have wings,” my mind immediately jumped to pinecones from Yuru Camp saying “konnichiwa.” As for the way the series handles self-insert fantasy - how many socially-anxious teens do you think were like, “Bocchi is just like me, fr fr no cap” while watching Bocchi The Rock? The Iceblade Sorcerer is self-insert fiction in the same way Bocchi The Rock is self-insert fiction.
Also, I’ve seen complaints about animation quality - those are daft and philistine. The show is very visually engaging with visionary and competent direction. Its sound direction is top-notch too, particularly how it uses insert songs to set up the mood.

9/10 for an entertaining cartoon.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 23, 2023

Zukutoo

Mixed Feelings

I did not expect to actually finish this Anime, but I did. The story is pretty "average" which is kind of sad because I actually liked the protagonist. He is not like the average MC, he is a gentlemen. He isnt simping over every single female person that he meets or is too scared to even talk to a female character. He is the opposite.


Plot:
The protagonist attends a Magic academy because he wants to learn more about Humans, make friends etc. Something cruel happened in his past and because of that his only "friends" are a group of soldiers.
It is a pretty basic ... plot to be hones. The other characters get introduced pretty fast and from then on they get to know eachother more etc. But, like I said, the MC is a gentlemen, thats why half of his friends are women. You probably know where this is going...
Of course, there is also a "Bad organisation" and the other usual stuff.


Animation:
The Animation was okay. There were some episodes with really good and some with really bad animation.

Characters:
The characters were average. The MC is the only one that was a bit different, but all in all, really basic.

Im still not sure If I should give this Anime a 6 or a 5. It was pretty funny and I kinda liked it but its still pretty average.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 23, 2023

KANLen09

Not Recommended

Funny

I effing hate this show to the core, it stinks and reels its way to the Isekai trash bin on an easy approach off the anime runway.

As Gordon Ramsay would say: "Bloody hell, here we go again." The desire for people to fill the AniManga scene with more generic Isekai/fantasy trash, I don't really understand the appeal of sadists like these to try and come up with "unique" LN-like titles for anime adaptations, simply because they are THAT popular in Japan. And people would LOVE the freak hell to pick out even the most blatant of generic works, no matter who was writing it, no ... matter who were the target audience for the shows, and absolutely no matter what was earned after the post ordeal with the anime on Blu-Ray sales. Case in point: novelist Nana Mikoshiba's Hyouken no Majutsushi ga Sekai wo Suberu a.k.a The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World.

Immediately, you can already tell of the red flags that this show unwittingly admits of the same tropes all over again: the hero (or some kind of strong entity) getting reincarnated somehow into another world or just laying low because he/she is allowed to, to then only resurface later on; the typical school academy-based magic and land of a waifu simulator where the MC appeals to all girls wanting a slice of him; the generic evil villain organizations/groups that wreak havoc for absolutely no reason at all other than to expose the hero out for who he/she is, and other weird shit that does NOT make ANY sense at all.

The TL;DR for this show (because I don't find it worthy to display the splendour of generic-sity): MC is Ray White. He's the Iceblade Sorcerer. Tired and frustrated of a life-prong war, he retreats back to school, wanting to experience life as that of a typical student: going tn class, hanging out with friends, joining absurd clubs, participating in tournament arcs that showcase his OP-ness, fight the most generic of evil with good. And the cycle repeats itself over and over again to more cringeworthy and unappealing aesthetics that the Average Joe can ever want to comprehend, much less accept the fact that not everyone can be Misfit of Demon Academy's Anos VoldiGOAT. He/She's just some generic high class-rate position who just wants a second life at experiencing ordinary things, that's no wrong at all, until the wayward evil do an expose to finally showcase that "I am this and that" and expect the audience to be shocked and wowed at the reveal. No. No, no, no, no, no. We've seen too much to experience trash, which Geoff Thew of Mother's Basement phrased this show to the T as such: a dumbfounded version of the Irregular at Magic High School, dubbed the Irregular at Glass Reflection High School.

Even equally as dumb as it can be, are the characters. Almost everything that you can note down of Isekai trash can be found here: the Protag-kun Ray White with abs to match his Onegai Muscle-loving roommate Evi Armstrong by joining a muscle club and flexing their thin, but dispropionate body formation (like, why, what is this author trying to smoke here); the dandere Amelia Rose who has a knack for Ray's attention being an awful weak disposition of her own living being, only to have a cop-out by improving herself when attached to Ray; the deredere half-elven girl Elisa Griffith that follows Ray like his loyal right-hand man and has no faults to a degree; the tsundere of Claris Cleveland being just simply jealous of his presence in tyring to appeal to her; and last but not least, the kuudere gardening club member Rebecca Bradley who seems kinda mute, but has a lot going off in her mind to require Ray's help in extracting the evil group "Eugenics" using brains as their experimental focal point in transforming into dangerous beasts. Yeah, I couldn't even make this shit up even if I tried. I have to admit that seeing the girls wound up themselves around Ray to improve their selves, it's not bad at all and displays some fun, but that's my only praise when the scenarios just click and produces eureka moments for me to say: "Darn, this is good!". It's just everyday dumpster fire that I'm willing to consume and bash it for all I care throughout its existence.

Yes, this show NEEDS one VERY NEW studio to make a mark as its first anime on the docket. But if you're well-versed in the scene of the anime industry, new studios like Cloud Hearts are just the branch-out portions for their main primary/parent studio, which in this case, gets its assistance and supervision from Yokohama Animation Laboratory, the studio behind Miru Tights and Tensai Ōuji no Akaji Kokka Saisei Jutsu a.k.a The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt. By knowing how the main parent studio's works are like, Yokohama Animation Laboratory's works are not the finest, though it seems like in Cloud Hearts's case that this show looks kinda generic, but ugly as heck with character stem lines being very inconsistent at best, sometimes thin or thick. And yes, borrowing staff from the main studio is the new standard when it comes to distinguishing how the production is like, which is totally subpar at best.

The music is the make-or-break point for any show (at least it is for me), and God forbid that I actually hear one of the worst OSTs in a very long while. I seriously don't know what it is about this musical project Sizuk, but the OP kinda sucks big time for being so obnoxiously repetitive, and the musical notes in here just want to make my ears bleed out. You want to know what's worse? Utilizing all of the fanservice moments in the ED, because that's how you know that the show cannot get too generic enough to throw all hands on deck and just simply say: "Guys, we couldn't find anything better, so enjoy watching the lead girls in sexual orientations if we can slot some, because that's our gift to you for lasting throughout each and every trashy episode of ours." Also, the ED being sung by Maaya Uchida, I'd swear to God that that's not her voice at all, until I have to accept the reality that it's a waste of a song of immense vocals.

Goddamn, this show knows its trash, that's handled by a 3rd-rate studio and a new one to boot (that I'm legitimately worried for next Winter's Sasayaku You ni Koi o Utau a.k.a Whisper Me a Love Song), what a false start down the rubbish dump that it should belong to. There is fun to be had, that's if you can handle cringe at its most intense and immense, I'll guarantee that you feel it in every inch of your soul and bones. Stay away from this show if you want to engage your sanity back, because I've lost mine in so many shows this season. And while this show isn't the worst of all, that's a track record I'll remember for the rest of my life.

What a potential catastrophic failure.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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