Reviews

I was honestly so surprised that I enjoyed this as much as I did and I feel compelled to write a little recommendation for those who might give it a chance and find the same level of enjoyment, and also to make it clear who this WON'T appeal to so people don't waste their time. Right off the bat, I should say that this is an extremely amateurish affair on almost every level. The writing is linear, straightforward, surface-level, simplistic, and unambitious. It doesn't have any deep themes (honestly to say it even has any themes is debatable), the writer can't really juggle multiple concurrent plot threads, there will only ever be one thing going on at a time, stopping arbitrarily to pick back up a different thread every so often, but never in any intertwined, multi-layered story. The pacing is stop and go, wildly accelerating or skipping through swaths of time only to slam the brakes and progress in real time before skipping forward again. The characters are entirely one-dimensional, the relationships are shallow, honestly there's barely any difference to the recurring side characters and a nameless rando that gets one line in terms of depth. As far as the world-building, you are told a little, shown even less, and don't really get any feel for the setting beside what you explicitly are shown. The systems, the places, the people, the dynamics of the whole world are loose, undefined, and only fleshed out as relevant to the protagonist's journey. The animation is minimal and basic, backgrounds are simple and undetailed, the most that can be said about the music, even the OP and ED, is that there is music. The voice acting sounds like they scraped up all the aspiring new hires from some agency and put them to work on their first professional gig.
So in what universe can I say all this and still want to recommend it? Well, in spite of everything, this show has a charm to it that with the right attitude makes all the ways in which it's quite simply not good more digestible. It's earnest, it's lighthearted but not entirely without serious moments, and its mostly the ways in which it will surprise you with hints of aspiration that may endear it to you. It comes off like the writing of a guy who just wants to entertain people with his simple rpgmaker game story, and against all odds managed to get it picked up by a studio to make his dream a reality, and even though that production is underwhelming, there's still hints of someone caring more than they had to. There are random humor moments that actual catch you off guard, both in the writing and how much effort the show put into delivering them (not that these are by any means high effort, but the bar is so low that they could have gotten away with ANYTHING and chose to do even anything more is commendable.) The story despite being so amateurish flows, it makes sense, and eventually becomes slightly compelling as you come to know the characters. Despite the world being so loosely cobbled together, the fact that I actually wanted to see more of it speaks to *something.*

This show is something that has "good" shyly hanging onto my tongue, anxious to leave my lips. But I can say that it is a comfy, relaxing piece of idle entertainment. I think this is the perfect kind of show to serve as the parsley to a more substantial piece of media. Use it to clean your teeth in between heavier dramas or nut-quaking action movies. It truly does feel like an escapist diversion. If you only want to experience masterpieces or things that even aspire to be them, this show is not where you'll find it and I'll say simply move on. But for those who just want something to watch lying in bed cuddling with a pet or to pick your heart up after watching tearjerkers or simply be stimulation for an idle brain, I think The Great Cleric is an underdog you can get behind.