This season had its fill of Isekai anime, and I will add this one to that pile. Yes, I can already hear you saying; "but this isn't an actual Isekai."
Sure, you may technically be correct, but for all practical purposes, it follows the same general line of story and plot beats, so it may as well be one.
The old king dies after a long and honorable life building up his nation and making it prosperous for his subjects. As he dies he gets a favor from the goddess for a life well lived, and onto his next life he goes. Or rather, onto the next life she goes. Not sure why they made the MC into a female in the next life, as I do not think it has served much of a purpose in this first season, but sure, alright then.
Yes, there are some callbacks to how perspectives are different now that he is a pretty girl vs previously being a man, but nothing much of anything is done with this potentially interesting plot point throughout the first season.
Another apt thing to mention is that while this show is named "reborn to master the blade", our MC does practically nothing of the sort in this first season. She uses a blade perhaps once or twice, but otherwise, she just shoots laser beams and beats the shit out of her opponents using her brute strength alone.
I can only assume and hope that in a potential second season, we may actually see her master a blade of some sort, hah.
Characters
We get introduced to our MC and main supporting character from the get-go, before getting a small group of additional supporting ones introduced over the next half-season.
I personally never really cared much for most of the characters in this first season outside Inglis. Her battle-addict personality and the humor around that kept me engaged enough and entertained me enough to the point that I thought, okay, sure, she isn't terrible.
To a smaller extent, I would say the interplay between her and Rani was also fine, and a slightly positive note in the season. Outside these two though, none of the other characters I cared for in any way whatsoever. I don't feel we get to know them well, I don't feel we explore much with them, and they barely exist for certain story purposes, if any at all.
While Inglis and her whole shtick is fine enough, and while it fulfills my power-fantasy appetite, everything else could have used a lot more work to try to pull me in.
Plot
So the plot is nothing too complex either. Inglis is reborn and all she wants is to master her skills and the blade, while staying out of politics and everything of the like, as she was so saddled to death with in her prior life.
She does nevertheless get involved in some things throughout the season, as is only to be expected I suppose.
The main driver for the plot seems to be whatever Inglis gets herself involved in for the sake of being able to battle strong opponents and improve her skills, with some random events sprinkled on top.
I do not expect much from this sort of Fantasy Isekai anime, but I would have liked a more fleshed-out world and a deeper story as a whole. Or at the very least more of a hint toward that.
I will be fine watching a second season of Inglis kicking ass though, as I am sure many of you also will.
Summary
Everything in this anime seems average at best, with good reason.
- The animation style is fine
- The combat scenes are lackluster
- The characters are average at best, with many being barely more than NPCs
- The plot is far from deep, nor clever, or especially engaging, it's just there, to an extent
Most everything in this anime is, at best, average. And while I watched it all the way through, and while I would most likely watch a second season, it barely kept me engaged, especially by the end, so I am happy it is done for the season.
I would not recommend you watch this unless you are unhealthily into this sort of anime, as I am.
If you are in the mood for a battle junkie anime though, you may check out Black Summoner instead.
