Kenja no Mago Episode 2 Discussion

Ehurvaks said:


Wait a bit more before passing judgment that the characters are all simple.

I heard that the main antagonist of this show is very interesting and quite popular in the Japanese Kenja no Mago fandom community( to the point some people in Japan like to root for the main antagonist's group even more than the MC's group lol).

Snaita said:
I liked this, but everything that involved the blue hair girl was all so damn cheesy wtf. If she's gonna be that relevant I hope that they develop her she, with a bad side to her that she hides or something, otherwise it's a really cliché and uninteresting heroine... She's like feels like those useless MCs in Shoujo manga, that people don't get why they are protagonists.

Ehurvaks said:


Shield Hero is too edgy and stressful to watch for some viewers. But Kenja no Mago appeals more to viewers that prefer something less edgy, less stressful and something that can be watched in fun by turning the brain off.

I too don't watch Shield Hero as I dislike edgy stories and edgy protagonists with the exception of Overlord, as Ainz has comedy too unlike the too serious Shield Hero.

Elisabethkisses2 said:
Honestly LOVED both the 1st and 2nd episodes. I am so excited for the next episode, and I will definitely be watching this anime. But I will probably wait for more episodes to come out, because I like to watch them back to back.

Ehurvaks said:


Have you seen the preview for the next episode in my post above ?

Honestly I too can't wait for the next episode, lol.

Mythologically said:
I don't usually believe in "so bad it's good", but this is unironically bad enough that it becomes hilarious.

Bibimbapski said:


My thoughts exactly.

Also the names are hilarious, Merlin aside, MC still retains a Japanese name "Shin" and his love interest is named Sizilien or Sicily. I would much rather see blue-haired tits in a hentai getting pounded in several positions than being wasted in this series.

This episode was more enjoyable than the first. Tits is being stalked by her fiance who, in an NTR hentai, would've ravished her and let his men use her several times.

MC being OP is okay but it's trite and brings nothing new to the table. The humor is still hit or miss, mostly miss.

Actar said:
Here I am loving both Shield Hero and this show. I watch anime because I actually enjoy it. The horror. Nothing wrong with a wish-fulfillment series that makes you smile from time to time. This is pretty much One Punch Man with magic. It's all about the OMG reactions of the people around him and the catharsis you get when they realize they're no match for him.

Seriously though, anime fans today are so toxic.

AiHikari said:


Perfectly fine to like a bad show. Doesn't make it any less of a bad show tho, just makes it a bad show you enjoy. I mean I'm also watching it, but just because you can constantly tap the right arrow on the keyboard and not miss anything the show has to offer. As a 5 minute episode show, I can even say it's almost decent.

ttcchen said:
about time i drop it i guess
twists are too predictable
mc don't have an objective, making the plot boring and with no direction
side characters aren't interesting enough, not even the main love interest. she feels too stereotypical. and they other characters don't really contribute to the plot. they are the type that the plot can go without, i feel. maybe they'll play a bigger part later on bug so far it's kinda boring to watch.

the mc also is boring. his personality is so bland and average i can find like a dozen other anime character with his exact personality. nothing about him makes him special and interesting to watch.

Actar said:


Er... no. There's no such thing as an objectively bad show (or good show, for that matter). It's your own perception and interpretation of it that makes it bad or good. (If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were being patronizing.)

Ehurvaks said:


The MC does have an objective. He is told by his grandpa and grandma to go to school to learn the common sense of the world. So learning that is his objective.

As for the story and plot itself, things will happen. This isn't a story where the MC is active in doing something from the beginning, but a reactive story, in which the MC reacts to events surrounding him.

Marvel Superheroes start like that, too, right ? From zero to hero. People who are nobodies but suddenly start acquiring super powers and must fight villains ( whether they like it or not ). Not all MCs have to have a strong objective from the beginning ( like revenge or something ).

ttcchen said:
it's been said over and over again that he lacks common sense and thats the highlight of the show how the strongest magic user don't have common sense can surely bring about lots of hilarity. But so far i haven't seen anything that shows him lacking common sense to the point of bot being able to integrate into the society. He can converse with people just fine and make his way around the place with strangers and didn't do anything remotely stupid like someone without common sense would do. Not to mention he was an adult b4 he died so even if merlin didn't teachany common sense, if he has previous memories he should also know common sense and how to act like a decent human being.

Kamiyan3991 said:

Cotrary to popular belief, transcribing the names isn't that easy.
シシリー -> Sicily -> Sizilien (GER),
and "von" is from German.

Actually, you never know w/o official transcription.
Kanji sucks.

AiHikari said:
By that logic everything is subjective. Which is not, there's lots of 'objective metrics' you can use to assess if something is good or bad. For an anime, would be an amalgamation of production values, plot and character writing and so on. You'll be really hard pressed to find anything good about the show besides 'I like the premise'. Everything else is extremely average at best.

Ehurvaks said:


The common sense, as mentioned in the manga and source material, is to learn about the world he lives in, and as you know, the most efficient way to learn about that, is to have direct personal experience, instead of learning only from books.

Shin doesn't have any friends of his age nor has he been in a town or city until he was 15, since he lives in the forest where he can get food and water on his own hunting animals with his grandpa. Therefore, to learn more common sense, he was sent to the magic academy to socialize with people.

So he is not at the school to learn magic or anything technical ( since he's already good at that ) but to socialize with other people and understand better about the society of the world he lives in via direct personal experience.

For example, before he attended the magic academy he doesn't know that most other young ones of his age can only do lame-ass magic that can't do shit to most monsters, but now he knows that the magic power he has is beyond most others' level.

Actar said:


Precisely. When it comes to art at least. The judging criteria you are choosing to apply to your understanding of art is subjective in and of itself. What you think is "good art" can be completely different from what someone else thinks is "good art". Unlike something objectively provable according to the scientific method of reproducibility and repeatability, you would be hardpressed to find some criteria that everyone agrees upon 100%. In critical theory, this is known as Poststructuralism. With the Death of the Author, the meaning of the text lies within the audience interpreting it. I can prove this very easily. Give me any text, film, music, painting, etc... and I can give you two completely different interpretations of it, one positive, one negative. I mean, you'd think this would be pretty obvious with divisive or revolutionary art techniques that rejected all that came before them, especially during their time. Heck, this is also why you never see any film or book being universally praised by all "professional" critics.

ttcchen said:
Common sense is not a term you generally use to describe knowledge of this world. You can know a lot about the world and still not have any common sense. A character who lacks common sense would be far more entertaining to watch than a character who lacks mnowledge about the world he's in. The only way for the latter to be interesting is if u have really good world building and side characters developments and show it well (instead of telling it). But 2 episodes later the world is boring and cliche side characters are bland and stereotypical too and too many exposition is just characters sitting still and explaining it to our face.

Ehurvaks said:


World Building ?
Bland Side Characters ?

Ummm.... I don't know about you, but the world building so far has been solid, compared to crap like Smartphone or Hyakuren no Haou. Why ? Because there are multiple countries other than Earlshide, which will be covered in later episodes, and at least one of them will play an important part in the story from what I've heard.

Remember King Diseum mentioning something about the "Empire" ? Also, the demonoid mentioned of in episode 1, as well as the Empire, are both foreshadowing of what will happen in later episodes. Do you really think such things would be mentioned before as mere exposition and then not play any role later ? Nope, those are foreshadowing what'll happen later.

The characters too are fun and full of life, from the teasing bro of Prince August to the Tsukkomi character of Maria.

Also, 2 episodes are too little to judge the story with. You...need to be more patient, enjoy the comedy and characters, before the action parts come in later episodes. Trust me, I read high fantasy novels from many Western Authors too, and I had to read through a ton of wall of text of exposition before I get to the juicier parts, and it is worth it.

Kenja no Mago.....is a million times better than Smartphone or Death March, both of which had no direction at all in its bland storytelling and nonexistent plot. At least in Mago, MC's group will have a strong purpose.

Actar said:


Precisely. When it comes to art at least. The judging criteria you are choosing to apply to your understanding of art is subjective in and of itself. What you think is "good art" can be completely different from what someone else thinks is "good art". Unlike something objectively provable according to the scientific method of reproducibility and repeatability, you would be hardpressed to find some criteria that everyone agrees upon 100%. In critical theory, this is known as Poststructuralism. With the Death of the Author, the meaning of the text lies within the audience interpreting it. I can prove this very easily. Give me any text, film, music, painting, etc... and I can give you two completely different interpretations of it, one positive, one negative. I mean, you'd think this would be pretty obvious with divisive or revolutionary art techniques that rejected all that came before them, especially during their time. Heck, this is also why you never see any film or book being universally praised by all "professional" critics.

Raikiri29 said:
"Sizilien"...
My eyes are bleeding

4kicks said:

And finally; "シシリー" is not kanji.

AiHikari said:


What I understand from that theory is that relies on the art itself as it's own intrinsic value, rather than comparing to other pieces of the same value, which is not something I personally agree with. Yes Kenja no Mago has it's merits if you look at it solely taking it in consideration, but the moment you put side by side to other adventurey fantasy Isekais, it quickly loses any appeal it might hold.

Ehurvaks said:


-snip-