My biggest issue with most isekai is that the MC is reincarnated and is an idiot. Not the case here. Seika is fully aware of all of his previous experiences and is doing his best to avoid the fate he suffered in his past life, being betrayed because of his power. Instead, he opts to seek out other strong people and support them rather than being the focal point of this story. I like sly and conniving MCs who put themselves first rather than some bs morals. Seika will do anything to prevent going down the same path again. Including lying, manipulating and even killing people. That ruthlessness is very much refreshing to me as I hate goody goody two shoes paradigm of morality style MCs. I thought it was really cool how he befriended several characters in the story with the idea of getting them strong enough to deal with the threats in the world, rather than him. Seeing the mind games he played every episode was great.
Of course, even though you’ve got a somewhat unique MC, you still do have your usual isekai tropes, childhood friend/servant who’s in love with MC purely because he’s nice to her, magical school setting, jealous brother, rapey characters who are rapey purely to get you to dislike them, etc. At this point it is what it is, you know what you’re gonna get with an isekai setting and although things like this can get repetitive, I liked the world and mechanics enough to still have a lot of fun. I think the last 3 episodes was where stuff really started going down. The princess that was introduced was really the first person in the series who could compete with Seika mentally. Everyone else is pretty dumb in the story, so getting someone who isn’t an idiot was nice. I wish we would have got more of that. But these are overall minor complaints for me. I just like the show. It’s kind of basic, but feels different enough to hit all the right spots. Plus, I just love isekai. Sue me.
Animation is pretty mediocre here. Luckily, there’s not a lot of it to speak of. Most of the fights are just seika using his summoning abilities so it didn’t stand out too much. Art style is your usual fantasy style, nothing to write home about, but not bad. Pacing is pretty good, I haven’t had a chance to read the LN yet, but from an anime perspective nothing feels rushed or anything. I think if anything the tournament arc felt a little slow.
Saikyou Onmyouji was great for me. It didn’t reinvent the wheel, but as an isekai lover it ticked all the boxes I would look for in the genre and is a good watch.
Saikyou Onmyouji gets 9 out of 10.
