Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru

Beryl Gardinant, a self-proclaimed "humble old man," is a sword instructor at his dojo in a rural, backwater village. In his younger years, he dreamed of glory as a master swordsman, but those days are long behind him. Out of the blue, he receives a visit from a famous former pupil who brings him world-shattering news—he's been appointed as a special instructor for the knights of the Liberion Order! With his life now turned upside down, Beryl travels to the capital and reunites with some of his former students: elite knights, an ace wizard, and even an adventurer who's attained the highest guild rank possible. But why do they all want his tutelage?! As far as he's concerned, they clearly don't need him anymore. Can Beryl live up to his new position? And will he ever get a moment's peace away from his adoring students?!

(Source: J-Novel Club)

Gardenant, Beryl Main

Hirata, Hiroaki Japanese

Lysandra, Surena Supporting

Ueda, Hitomi Japanese

Marblehart, Rose Supporting

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Citrus, Allucia Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Freya, Mewi Supporting

Nakada, Arisa Japanese

Harbeller, Ficelle Supporting

Yano, Hinaki Japanese

Diamond, Lucy Supporting

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Crueciel, Curuni Supporting

Hirose, Yuuki Japanese

Thief Supporting

Tanabe, Kousuke Japanese

Howlman, Ibroy Supporting

Nara, Tooru Japanese

Matsui, Yuuko Producer

Ozawa, Fumihiro Producer

Endou, Kazuki Producer

Komatsu, Shouta Producer

Reviews

Jun 22, 2025

prakhargr8

Recommended

Funny

From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman stands apart not by sheer spectacle, but by its quiet confidence and grounded approach to its storytelling. It is a tale uninterested in chasing the extremes of power fantasies or overblown ascents. Instead, it devotes itself to a more intimate portrait of a man who never sought greatness, only to live with quiet integrity. And in that restraint, it finds clarity. The narrative unfolds with deliberate pacing, choosing nuance over noise and rooting its strength not in impossible abilities but in the discipline and subtlety.

What emerges is a character study steeped in humility. The protagonist’s journey is not ... one of chasing ambition but of becoming someone capable in the face of responsibility, a trajectory shaped more so by necessity. The anime eschews the gaudy conventions of its genre, opting instead for battles that feel weighty not because they’re grand, but because they’re personal. There are imperfections including the occasional stiff animation and a surrounding cast that veers toward formulaic harem tropes but the heart of the series remains remarkably earnest. It never loses sight of what matters: the discipline behind the blade and the burdens that come with wielding it. The show is neither flamboyant nor hollow, it's meditative, composed, and human.

In the end the show's emotional resonance doesn’t depend on overblown action, but on authenticity. Every duel feels like it belongs to a world not of fantasy but of lived experience and profound modesty. All in all the anime doesn’t try to redefine its genre; it simply honors it and in doing so delivers a story of substance rather than theatrics.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 2, 2025

BeetleR19d

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

'Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru' was an interesting watch for me. After all, spring 2025 didn't have the strongest catalog of anime to offer, so I wasn't particularly eager about any of the new shows that came out. So when I started watching this anime, I was practically expecting nothing from it. The synopsis and the cast of characters suggested it was probably going to be another 'Generic OP and oblivious MC with his harem' type of show. And after watching it, I can confirm that my initial speculation wasn't far off at all. However, it wasn't entirely on point either, so it's fair ... to say this anime did exceed my expectations (because I barely had any to begin with).

Note: This is a review from an 'Anime Only' person's perspective. So, I'm not going to judge this show on how well it adapted the source material. Instead, I'll be saying how good it is if you only watch the anime and know nothing about the source material, like I did. I will try to keep this review short.


Plot and Characters (6/10):

I actually liked the base this story has. The protagonist being 40 year old country bumpkin instantly makes it a lot more separable from a ton of generic shows that have 14-16 year old kid as protagonist. But that also makes it kinda awkward when all of his potential love interests bar that loli principal is around 20. Romance aside, the plot was predictable for the most part. I won't spoil anything but the fact that every female character that gets introduced somehow ends up being his ex-disciple was something that I knew would happen (I mean, its quite literally written on the manga title) , but still when it started happening every 2 episodes, It didn't leave a good taste. They could easily solve this by introducing one or multiple students who meet with him in the anime and grows a bond . Probably you can fill Mewi in that criteria but still that wasn't enough, and I don't think she should be considered a love interest. The mystery part of this show wasn't great, but I suspect this was mainly because it had a 12-episode run. I will conclude this part of the review by saying, everything about this anime's plot and characters feels vague. You will mostly follow 4-5 character for 12 episodes but still you will feel that, you barely know anything about the characters at all and that's a huge red flag if you are coming to watch this solely for the story.

Animation and Audio (7.5/10):

The animation was okay. I feel that's the most accurate way to describe it. I of course didn't expect ufotable-esque quality from this show, and probably no one else did either. But it wasn't terrible. The character designs were average in a good way; while it didn't have a very distinct art style, the characters still looked fine.

The voice acting was as usual, nothing to complain about. The protagonist sounded like an old man, and I think that was my only concern regarding the show's voice acting. It would have been awkward if he sounded like a teenager or even a man in his twenties. It needed to be an older-sounding voice to fit his character. The opening and ending songs were fine. I only listened to them once, just a few minutes ago to write this part of the review. So, that pretty much answers whether they were remarkable.

Conclusion (6.5/10):

As I mentioned at the beginning, I came to this show expecting nothing, so the fact that I watched the whole thing means it wasn't awful. But did I thoroughly enjoy my time watching it? The answer is a big fat NO. So you're probably thinking why I'm putting this in 'Mixed Feelings' instead of 'Not Recommended'. I think how much you can enjoy this type of mediocre anime depends on how many of them you've watched. Perhaps a version of myself from four years ago would have liked this show a lot more than the current me. So, in my opinion, 'Mixed Feelings' is justified. This is only worth watching if you have no other decent fantasy show options and are specifically looking for a 40-year-old country bumpkin as the protagonist. That caters to a very niche audience.

Thank you for reading :⁠-⁠)

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 21, 2025

Gwynbleidd_Alan

Not Recommended

As someone who didn’t read the manga and went in completely blind, the premise caught my attention. An older swordsman, finally leaves his quiet village and his job as a sword instructor at his dojo to head to the capital and live up to his reputation as a sword prodigy. It sounded like something with a lot of potential. But... it just didn’t land.

The story feels generic and honestly ended up being boring to me. I couldn’t connect with the characters in any way, and I didn’t care much about what was happening most of the time. I won't lie, I was also kind of ... weirded out about how seemingly all of his former students were women, wearing revealing outfits, and for some reason they all seemed to be into him. The age gap made it awkward, and the way those interactions were written didn’t help either. It feels like a harem but doesn't commit to that route.

The anime kept falling into the same repetitive loop. Someone would doubt the main character or not take him serious, then he’d pull off something impressive or cool to prove them wrong, again and again. It got old fast, and nothing really developed beyond that. The plot never evolved, and it felt like the show was just stalling until the next predictable moment. Everything else was full of clichés too, like the classic evil church figure, and a world that felt flat and underdeveloped. There was no real lore or substance to keep me invested.

To be fair, the CGI was well done. It blended nicely with the regular art style and made the fight scenes look smooth and satisfying. But even those moments couldn’t save it, since the outcome of every battle was obvious before it even started. The so called twists ended up being nothing more but a predictable mess.

If there was one redeeming thing for me, it was the relationship between the MC and his more or less adopted daughter Mewi. That was actually wholesome and felt genuine. It was the only dynamic in the show that had heart and didn’t feel like characters just acting out tired archetypes.

Curiosity got the best of me. This show seemed interesting at first but it didn’t do anything meaningful with it. Average at best, frustrating at worst.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Poll: Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - May 17	57 replies	by JohnDimension »» Jul 15, 8:34 PM
	Poll: Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jun 21	72 replies	by dienesdz »» Jul 15, 6:59 PM
	Poll: Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jun 7	61 replies	by EinTheVariance »» Jul 12, 8:33 PM
	Poll: Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru Episode 9 Discussion Stark700 - May 31	47 replies	by Abyhape »» Jul 8, 7:07 AM
	Poll: Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Apr 12	89 replies	by Abyhape »» Jul 8, 7:06 AM