Generally, I’m all for tournaments, sword fights, high-fantasy, and adventure anime, but Rakudai fell flat on its face with crappy characters, cliches, and plot holes.
【Story】
4/10 — Rakudai Kishi no Calvary (which will be shortened here as “Rakudai”) follows the story of Ikki Kurogane a knight with the nickname ‘The Worst One’ due to his lackluster magical skills. However, despite what everybody believes, Ikki actually possesses extraordinary skill and fighting ability. After beating the A-rank princess-knight Stella Vermillion in battle, the two team up (sort of) to battle through the Seven Star Sword Festival in order to establish themselves as the best knights.
The plot of Rakudai is fairly generic these days in anime, but for me I still love this type of storyline. Unfortunately, the execution of Rakudai was pretty lame and heavily relies on cliches and tropes. You’ll see the same run-of-the-mill junk that has been done to death in the anime world: a guy walking in on a girl while she’s dressing, incest, several jealous guys that pick a fight with the MC because why not, etc.
For all the cliches this anime includes, it also leaves plenty of room for plot holes, too! Not once does the anime try to explain what knights are/what their duty is. Are they supposed to be the police of the world? Are they just people gifted with powers from birth? What are they and what is their purpose? What do they even use these powers for anyway? We never find out and there are no attempts made to explain. As another review mentioned, this makes the Seven Star Festival seem pretty… useless. Participants are paired up to fight in death-matches because… why? To determine the strongest, you say? So basically this is just a sporting event? Okay… so what happens after the tournament? Are apprentice knights hired as bodyguards for people? Clearly not, since many of the top students (Touka Touma, for example) are still attending school even after the tournament ends. So… what is the purpose of knights? The anime never explains. I know some might say, “well, if Rakudai gets a second season, they’ll explain some of these things!” but that to me is a pretty lame excuse. You don’t give someone subpar information and expect them to be interested in what’s to come. Even if this anime were slated for a second season, I shouldn’t have to wait to get basic expository details.
Another issue I found is that most of the battles in Rakudai (an action-tournament anime) aren’t even tournament-related. Most battles take place outside of school grounds and really aren’t even relevant in the grand scheme of things. When it comes to actual tournament battles, most just flash forward to the end where we see one of the main characters brandish their sword as they’re declared the winner. Only about 3 - 4 fights are shown over the course of the entire series and nearly all (with the exception of one) are Ikki’s. As the main character, this is to be expected, but the fact that his battles all end predictably make the anime dull.
Rakudai seems like it had a great plot idea, but it wasn’t approached in an enjoyable or sensical way, thus I give this category a 4.
【Characters】
2/10 — The characters of Rakudai are what make this anime intolerable.
Ikki Kurogane — Your flat, overused, “kind-hearted” male protagonist who becomes conveniently oblivious whenever a girl wants to take him to bed. Coming from a family that shunned and isolated him because his knight skills were an epic fail on their record of prestigious knights, Ikki works hard to become a strong knight that will be able to protect others. He’s colorless, having no unique goal in mind that you haven’t seen or heard before. By episode one, Ikki establishes himself as Kirito 2.0. He’s your typical Gary-Stu, complete with a sad past to make you feel as if he actually deserves your pity and has genuine flaws. One of the biggest issues with this show is that Ikki doesn’t have any flaws or weaknesses (because no, not knowing how to deal with the attention of girls is not a character weakness). All of his problems are external rather than internal. The problem isn’t him, it’s the world he lives in. There are no inner demons he has to face, no personality defects he has to overcome, no opponent that *really* will give him a run for his money. He’s basically flawless. When he was younger his magic skills might’ve been crappy, but we never actually SEE this. All we see is the end product of a perfect sagacious swordsmen. In episode 12, after Ikki realizes his father truly doesn’t love him (big surprise), he goes into emo mode for about 10 minutes before his school friends cheer him up. This isn’t an internal struggle and about the closest we ever get to seeing one. Characters like Ikki are hard to root for because you already know he’ll win every battle he steps into. That’s why watching him get beaten down by characters such as Kuraudo and Kirihara was all the more enjoyable, even if it only lasted a few minutes.
Stella Vermillion — She is, shockingly enough, worse than Ikki. Stella Vermillion, princess-knight from a foreign land, wears the label of “twin-tailed tsundere heroine” and quickly rises to the top of this story’s short-lived list of female horndogs. She’s introduced as the all-powerful A-ranked knight that has the ability to control fire. And of course, throwing away all logic, she loses her first battle on the first day of her enrollment to none other than Ikki Kurogane. (Never mind the fact that she’s an A-ranked knight and doesn’t land a scratch on Ikki yet a C-ranked knight beats Ikki so bad he has to go to the hospital in a later episode…) What sickens me the most about Stella is that she has very little dignity. Ten minutes into the anime, she’s prepared to make Ikki commit suicide for walking in on her while dressing, but later on, that SAME day, she seats herself on top of him and begins stripping him down/touching him out of “curiosity.” By episode two (which, for viewers, seems like only a day has passed) she’s already “in love” (read: lust) with him. For the next two episodes, her only role is to pine over Ikki and try to maintain a monopoly over him. Ikki himself seems oblivious to her feelings, but don’t worry, he falls for her by episode 4. Buildup and relationship development not included. For the rest of the series, her personality can best be described as that of a desperate, quick-tempered girl that seems to always be in heat (with episode 9 being particularly disturbing). To make matters worse, even though Stella is an A-ranked knight, she loses or becomes incapacitated for almost every single one of her on-screen battles (this doesn’t include tournament duels since they aren’t even shown). Even though she’s the supposed HEROine, you only see her defeat 1 opponent in the entire anime. This makes for a very weak heroine indeed, so I wouldn’t necessarily call her a heroine but more of a side character. Stella is Ikki’s cheerleader and trophy, plain and simple. She’s not meant to be taken seriously as a character that can hold her own, and if she is, the studio should’ve done her justice instead of making her out to be lovesick and needy all the time.
Shizuku Kurogane — A character that had potential, but is forced into the ‘incest-is-best’ character trope for the simple reason of why not. Misanthropist at large, Shizuku is one of the only Kurogane family members (Ikki’s younger sister) that isn’t out to get Ikki. She’s quiet, analytical, controls water/ice, and French kisses her brother in episode 2 (he doesn’t seem to have a problem with it considering he doesn’t push her away). From the get-go, she’s introduced as having a brother complex, but this aspect of her personality has no relevance whatsoever to the story. After episode 4, it’s clear that she’s “out of the running” for Ikki’s heart, making me wonder why she even had that incestual bit of her personality in the first place. General love and respect for her brother would’ve been enough, but I guess this anime really wanted to hit home the fact that she’s always going to be there for Ikki. That aside, Shizuku actually isn’t that bad of a character, but as much as I rack my brain, I can’t figure out what her purpose is. She doesn’t actually add anything substantial to the plot. If she were removed entirely nothing would be different.
Nagi Arisuin — Alice, as he is referred to, is the only character that isn’t squashed into an archetype. He is introduced as Shizuku’s roommate and appears to be a kind-hearted male (?) that can control shadows. Like Shizuku, he actually wasn’t that bad of a character and became the ‘wise old owl’ of the four. Sadly enough, he’s one of the better characters this show had to offer, but was barely given any screen time. As a result, he didn’t seem to have much of a purpose, though he did provide cryptic advice from time to time.
【Art】
4/10 — I don’t have much to say about the art and sound since they aren’t my prime focus, but for the sake of the review, I’ll leave my two cents. The art is decent; not my favorite but decent enough. Battle scenes were fluid and not bad at times. The art style itself seems as if it were literally ripped from the light novel and given color, which isn’t a bad thing. What was a bit strange, however, was the shine that the characters had in their eyes and hair. It was almost as if the sun was always shining on everyone… even in a dark room. Perhaps I’m just nitpicking, so I’ll leave it at that.
【Sound】
5/10 — No part of the soundtrack stood out for its excellence. I admit that while I didn’t listen to the ending, I thought the opening was very catchy and enjoyable. Voice actors were fine and I have no complaints.
【Enjoyment / Conclusion】
3/10 — I can say with honesty that Rakudai was my least favorite part of each week. With very few redeeming traits, I can’t really recommend this anime for anything you wouldn’t find executed better somewhere else. Perhaps if I had to say something positive, the character designs were pretty decent and at least two of the battles kept my attention. Rakudai seemed like it didn’t know what it wanted to do, or rather, it had a plot in mind but didn’t know how to execute it in a sensical way. Annoyingly stupid or pointless characters and over-the-top ecchi scenes made this anime something I didn’t enjoy nor would I recommend. Comparison-wise, Rakudai was like eating a hamburger and trying to find the meat. Sure, the lettuce, pickles, and bun might taste okay, but the real substance just isn’t there. The few good points this story does have (and I found very, very few) are nothing to write home about.
This anime is, without a doubt, “The Worst One” I’ve seen this whole year.
