Having died in a car accident, Tsubasa Kurata—an otaku from modern Japan—is reborn in the Fremmevilla Kingdom, a medieval world where powerful mechs called Silhouette Knights are used to fight horrific demonic beasts. Born into a noble family under the name of Ernesti Echevarria and bestowed with prodigious magical abilities, he enrolls into Royal Laihaila Academy. This school of magic trains young men and women on how to pilot the Silhouette Knights, prepping them to protect the kingdom from threats, both demonic and human. Ernesti teams up with the twins named Adeltrud and Archid Olter with the goal to create his own Silhouette Knight one day, a feat unheard of for several centuries. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
Anime have brought as a variety of shows that base on real life situations. Along with it are life lessons, curiosity, romance and other things that are related to the human world. But also, anime have brought as fictional things or scientific possibility that could be possible on real life like mechas, time travel, monsters, impossible stories, superpowers and fictional characters. This Summer 2017 season line-up of anime have been pretty simple. There's the common romance genre, isekai genre everywhere, action/fighting , Game with psychological and crazy stuffs, and comedy of course. Hidden beneath the sides of it are the ''Mecha'' genre. A genre that focuseson fictional (but soon to be non-fictional on the real world) things called ''Robots''. I welcome you the anime called ''Knight's & Magic''. An anime that is actually an ''in another world'' or isekai but when you watch it to the fullest, you may forget that it's an isekai for some reason and it's all focus on the production of weapons of mass destruction, Robots. Story: 8/10 Pretty simple intro into the anime. A mecha otaku died then got revived as a cute looking child that looks like a girl but its actually a boy then he got used to the new place he lives because there are robots there and then started his dream to make one for himself and ride it. What makes the story interesting is how we actually see it happened. How we see the robots and the MC do the job among with other characters to build the newly improved robots and convinced the king. Art: 10/10 The art on this anime, especially on the mechas, is amazing. I'm not a fan of robots/mecha that much but I can see how much effort the artist did on the art of the anime. Not only the mechas but also the character designs as well.. Sound: 9/10 We can hear the mecha's fighting very clearly with it's extravagant art. Along it, is the sound. The sound really defines how mechas smash to each other. Because of this sound is not an issue on this anime. Some animes that focuses on robots, have cracky/faulty sounds and thats what makes this anime (if you are a mecha fan, or u just want a good anime) to watch. Character: 6/10 What's lacking this anime are character developments. So far only the MC like 80% of the story is about his development. Sure, in some of the few episodes, we can seee the struggle and determination of other characters but the fact still remains that the MC is always stealing the ''developing'' part. Enjoyment: 7/10 The anime is pretty much enjoyable in the fields of enjoyment. You know I'm a simple guy who loves anime if the story is simple and understandable (I also love complicated and twisted stories) and the fights were fine and all. You don't need very well-written story for an anime to get some attention to the viewers. In fact, it's like ''click bait'' and all, though this click bait is enjoyable at it is. Overall.. I would give this anime a good ol' 7/10. The story is lacking some expression though it was a nice story-telling anime where the characters are simple introduced.
So, Isekai, Monster Hunter, and early day Iron-Blooded Orphans, and combining all of these parts together, you get...a terribly mediocre show! That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, this show is a somewhat fun, mechanical, mess! An entertaining but very badly written Isekai show that had a ton of passion for the art of giant robots. That means despite not being very good (to the point where mediocre is giving it a bit too much credit), I can respect and enjoy it to some degree. So, why is it still mediocre, and what about all this really gets me to enjoy it aside from its spirit? Well,let’s find out, shall we? There are...a ton of problems unfortunately with the narrative. For one, a ton of stuff is basically the narrator I explaining story beats or skipping stuff and saying what happened in between. It gives me Gundam Wing flashbacks and that is not ok. For a civilization about creating mechs to fend off beasts, knowing that they haven't made any remote innovation in the past century is rather disconcerting, especially when you consider the nature of a typical mecha show. When Ernesti (back then known as Kurata) dies in that original life, he just died without fanfare and we don't see what happened to him, let alone how he became reborn into this world. It also implies that he just basically hijacked the body of the boy he became; that's kinda fucked up. There are some real asspulls too, like how Ernesti used magic to pilot the Guair out of nowhere and how he was strong enough to pull the controls out despite other characters tugging on them quite hard just to move. I get that these run on magic, but again, this came out of nowhere. There are other errors and dumb moments too, like when Kerhild had a chance to slay Edgar, whose Knight mech had been disabled, she (according to the visual damage since that was offscreen) simply slammed her sword into the cockpit and left instead of thrusting the sword through it to finish him. A potentially cool battle in episode 5 is skipped and given that there is some sort of war that gets ignited, the amount of time skips in development while nothing happens is disconcerting. I do like how they spend a lot of time on the building process and the camaraderie that comes of it though, even if they sorta still gloss over it. Not helping anything is the fact that Ernesti kinda dances near Gary Stu territory, nor is the fact that the pacing is a bit out of whack thanks to the obscene SAO level time skips. That said, there are some moments that are actually pretty good, like with the king and his random duking it out for a flashy mech and showing that they're both the same basically, except one has withered a bit with age. I'm not going to really spoil too much here though despite the overall lukewarm opinion I have on the show. Even still, they can't save this pretty ravaged script that somehow gets crazier and more ludicrous in the second half. The final 5 episodes in particular are far too fast-paced given the contents within, and thus come off as disjointed that they introduce a bunch of holes and errors. I feel like they should've been their own cour to work at all, so that doesn't help matters either. Ernesti is really OP. This kinda cuts both ways. It's nice to see that he takes his skills from his world to this one, so of course he’s knowledgeable about giant robots, but to know that with all this, he also becomes a top tier magic expert who innovates there too, is a stretch. He’s basically a spunky skid, and that's fun enough to see, but he does become unreasonably OP overall despite there being a good reason for some of what he can do. Unfortunately, he comes dangerously close to Gary Stu territory, always making so many advances with mainly his ideas and little outside input, having most of everything revolve around him (and I'll explain those ramifications in a bit), and being the only one to come up with crazy new innovations, as well as some of the other aforementioned things. What’s saving him a bit is his enthusiasm and passion for robots, the fact that some of what he is capable of is understandable right out the get-go, and the fact that even his stuff notably needs work, leading to himself other people being able to modify his ideas. The fact that he is a mecha enthusiast gives me some bias towards him though. The dude has fucking orgasms over this shit. I'm sure many of us can agree that Shirley from Code Geass is not a good character, right? I mean, she’s basically there to kiss up to the MC and always devote everything about her character to him, to some extent at least. Well, Adeltrud aka “Addy” is some next level shit! The only thing separating her from being Miyuki tier shit here is the fact they there is no incest love at all, but it is still a one-sided crush. Thankfully it sometimes gets played to admittedly humorous degrees but this is largely her character. This, in particular, brings us to that whole Gary Stu issue. You see, since so much of this show is focused on Ernesti, his energy, and how awesome he is, we don't really get to see the other characters shine, a common symptom of a Gary Stu character. I'm not even gonna try to list the characterizations of the other character for this reason. I'm just thankful they don't come off as horrendous character archetypes, and some that come close, like the old man rival engineer, do get somewhat subverted (that way he isn't just a senile and jealous old coot character, he’s one that eventually finds passion again, thanks to you know who) or otherwise have something to safe then from being just a bad archetype. Doesn't mean that the cast isn't bad, because it most certainly is, though again, biases to some characters like Ernesti, and the absolutely gorgeous Helvi, even though they're not actually good characters. Besides, I don't even wanna get started in the villain characters, especially the ones from the final arc, which are all terrible and generic. There are some attempts to show some character relationships but they all fall flat too, and when we are often missing useful characters, that's a problem too for an already bloated but lacking cast. Studio 8-Bit was in charge of this show's creation and I must say, they did a good job in the visual department. It seems I'm lucky enough to only see the works of theirs that have CGI because theirs is actually not half bad. The Silhouette Knights do have choppy frame rates in episode 1 and there is a mecha dragon that suffers from bad CGI and frame rates too, and up close, most of these don't always look very good, but the coloring and way it's done here somewhat helps remedy that, and once the kinks are ironed out, they become fun to watch in battle, both in swarming an enemy or in one on one mech combat. Those sequences are insanely fast paced and done very well, especially when we see how they take advantage of the new equipment. They're based on knight armor so they definitely don't look as appealing or potentially iconic as say, a typical Gundam, but these designs are nice enough that I can see decent toy sales of them. Those swords look especially cool. The CGI demon beasts look even better, especially that giant beast that looks like a gigantic blue Avalugg. The giant magic rods don't look nearly as good, unfortunately. Still, the CGI, on the whole, is actually pretty decent, though most kept inconsistent and certainly not great. The actual art is pretty nice too, not just for the characters (just look at the way they did Ernesti’s hair, that looks sick af) but especially for the magic. I especially love what they did with the eyes. The shading for the magic fire attacks looks splendid, really selling how much of a spectacle magic can be, even though it becomes a bit overused and therefore lose its luster. The animation is overall pretty decent too, even with a few minor errors like having one scene show 3 explosion dots towards the center and the moment afterwards having those dots much farther away, but it all looks good, especially coupled with the luckily very kinetic action. Sometimes we even see beasts in 2D and they look ok. Characters don't always blend well though, so that's a fault. Overall, this show looks nice. The reused animation is also very minor, so that's alright, I guess. The music isn't as noteworthy, unfortunately. For one, I don't care for the OPs. I don't think they entirely fit the tone or setting here this series presents overall and they're ok at best songs on their own. The OST is pretty decent though. There are some decent if unmemorable tracks that often fit the scenarios well, especially in most of the action scenes. The mecha battles were pretty fun for most part and so were the big battles against some of the demon beasts. This show's attitude towards mechs also greatly appealed to me. That being said, the crypt kind of annoyed me at times and on the whole, it wasn't as fun as it could've been thanks to that, especially in the final five episodes which left me woefully disappointed. I still had enough enjoyment with this one, more than I should have. There are the makings of a good show here. Give it two cours and tidy up all the errors and the show would've been fine. I admire the spunk this show has and as a mecha nerd, this spoke to me somewhat, but it's inner workings are really on the fritz, like a loose Gunpla Kit. Shame since for a while, I probably would've recommended this series despite its faults but boy are they too many for me to safely recommend to anyone who isn't either highly interested in the concept of high fantasy crossing with mecha, a total mech nerd like myself, or really into overpowered protagonists. There are plenty of better mech shows with even better action, but this is at least one of the better Isekai shows I've seen, which speaks to the low quality of these kinds of shows. Well, with all that said, I bid you adieu.
Knight's & Magic seemed designed for one purpose and one purpose only: showing off mechs and the battles between them. So in order to fulfil that purpose Knight's & Magic had the brilliant idea of cutting out all the unnecessary "filler" that isn't that. And in the process that made the show devoid to of any real weight in it. Knight's & Magic is one of the many light novel adaptations that have decided to make up for their limited advertising time by speeding up their show. It's really a bad idea. Light Novel Adaptations are designed to sell and while I understand the want toget to the biggest events so they can really sell the show it doesn't make for a good story to rush to those events. Not only does it take away from the plot and character development but it just makes the show feel that much more hallow. Important points are just glossed over. They more often summarize things that happen than they do actually show it happening. And while it at least sets up what is needed to know for what happens later, it fails at being an entertaining work. It's just like history class. Things got a lot more interesting when it was made into a story, and a lot less interesting when it was simplified down to facts. Knight's & Magic try to reduce it down to facts and it makes it less interesting. I'm not sure how making it less interesting is going to end up selling more light novels, but it's what they decided to go with. Every scene that they rush through feels so hallow and unconvincing. It doesn't feel like the narrative being played out, it feels like a poorly done summary play. The character's hearts don't feel in the actions that we see, and they're grazed through so fast that it's impossible to really get a feel or the character's emotions or feel along with them. It also makes things get tied up way too easily or reduces too many lines down to catch-all lines that don't feel natural in the slightest. And then there's the lack of character development. It's really hard to develop characters when their screen time is so minimal. And when all they do while they're on screen is go with the one trait they've been allowed to express they aren't very interesting. It's hard to care about any of the characters when they're that flat, and when one doesn't care about the characters it does kill a lot of the tension of wanting a certain victor. I mean if the audience doesn't care, then where's the weight behind the battles? Only Ernie is able to have time to shine, and at the very least he's distinct. Although he happens to be a typical isekai protagonist who can do nothing wrong. He's unrealistically overpowered and seems to be able to do everything that he ever needs to. And he's still the best character in the show. That's just how bland and one note the whole cast is as a whole. And that is the true problem with Knight's & Magic. The audience needs to somehow find some reason to care about bland flat characters that get very little screentime. It basically relies on Ernie and his charisma to carry the show, and if you're not on board with that, then what drives the tension of the show. What makes all of that summary with it. It basically becomes mech battles and summary. And personally, I don't find that to be a very entertaining. Now if you like mech battles, then you might enjoy Mech Battles & Summary, but if you don't there's really nothing to latch onto here. The mech battles are well done, and at the very least they do pace the action a lot better. Although without caring about the fights this can leave one even more bored. They spend so much more time on battles, it does get tiring and uninteresting after a while if one is not a fan of action. The production values are not bad, and that does make it enjoyable if one likes action, but if someone wants something that stands up on its own or has something to it, Knight's & Magic just doesn't. Poor characters and summarization do not make for a good anime, and that's pretty much what Knight's & Magic is. While there are good ideas in the show they're so poorly executed and so rushed through that it just doesn't work. It's one of the worst adaptations I've seen due to this skipping. It could have fleshed out itself so much more. I could have gave life to its characters. But it decided not to, and because of that, it ended up just a hallow shell of what could have been.
Like the others that have reviewed this Anime I'll preface my review by saying its too soon to see where this anime is going. If you really like stories with weight and intrigue you're in the wrong place. The story is very upbeat the entire time and there is nothing wrong with that, not every story needs to have a suckerpunch grim dark twist to be enjoyable. I think one of my favorite things about this 'light novel-esque' anime is it doesn't fall into the trap of trying to be as edgy as possible for appeal (looking at you sword art). One plot point specifically so far iswhen a pilot flees from a fight for fear of death. It seems like he is going to be demonized for it, however when the protagonist praises him and points out that he was useful for other reasons he finds renewed vigor. It's great because before the incident the guy seemed cocky, then turned out a coward, but now is a pretty great character who I love to see on screen. Suddenly he is determined and working hard. GOOD DEVELOPMENT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE DARK OR GRITTY TO BE GOOD DEVELOPMENT. However, what this show really excels at is being a passionate R&D mecha anime. Maybe I missed the predecesor but in my experience this is the first mech anime that has shown so much of the inner working of the machines in its world. I was really on the fence since the characters are bleh and not much happens in the first episode. Then the second episode captivates you with its CG mecha sequences. One of the things the show does so well is keeping the mecha CG. It keeps it from giving the gross switch to CG from hand drawn that has always upset me in so many other anime. The detail put into the models, and I'll use this word again, the passion you can see that goes into the CG animation is outstanding! I was still however on the fence, since as others have mentioned the characters are cliched and forced tropes. Outside of the Dwarves who are just developing cool gadgets and mantaining the mecha, everyone is meh. Speaking of lets talk about episode 3. In Episode 3 the protag is challenged in proving his worth so that he can continue on his path of building a custom mecha. So he begins suggesting upgrades to the current mecha in assembly. Well the entire episode is just the development of this new style of mecha and its such a joy to watch! Anyway, the show might not be the next big thing that breaks from the mold. It is however worthy in my eyes to stand with the other giants of mecha (Excluding evangalion from the list because their bots are monsters), Gundam [Iron Blooded Orphans], Gurren Lagann, Code geass.
Knight’s & Magic is pure escapism for the kind of people that find giant robots cool. The easiest way to know if the show is the kind the viewer will enjoy is to have them watch the first 3 episodes, they are designed in a way to go through all the appealing aspect the show has and will get as it goes on. The first episode establishes the world it’s set in: although a fairly standard one, it heavily goes into pushing the robots and how magic is involved when it comes to piloting them but keeps the specifcs regarding the engine as such a surprise forlater. The way it eventually builds on it’s pretty underwhelming though. The other kingdoms are very poorly defined, they’re either good or bad relative to Ernesti’s and the threat that were the behemoths just become something the main character kills to make engines. Ultimately this aspect of the show is probably the weakest in terms of the appeals. The 2nd one has him pilot a Silhouette Knight for the first time, it’s a genuinely moving moment for those the show is aimed at because it pays off what is a dozen years of the main character working as hard as he could to get better with the glee Ernesti feels when riding it, jumping around like no other Knight Runner could and taking down the giant behemoth all on his own. That giddy feeling is basically what is supposed to carry the viewer through the show. Ernesti is represents the mecha fandom arguably pretty well: obsessed with how a mech looks and its firepower regardless of whether or not the mere concept of mechas is practical or not. The show has no qualms about being a pure escapism fantasy for mecha fans which makes it so much easier to ingest: when Ernesti is faced with robots that are based off his designs, he doesn’t mentally break down and realize war is bad, he just claims those machines as his own and salvages them when he defeats them. His disgust towards using units as turrets for a warship is probably one of the most relatable points of the show, his sense of aesthetic which is shared among many of the people having been expressed and challenged might seem like a pretty petty thing to get hyped over, but in the context of this show being for the people who obsess over this, it comes off as an incredibly powerful moment. Ernesti’s wanting to destroy the warships near the end so that they never become popular and eventually the norm is the best sign to tell who this is for: the boy’s effectively trying to hold humanity back for his selfish desire of making mechas look even cooler, if the viewer can not only accept it, but truly get behind it and support it, they’ll know this anime’s for them. The 3rd episode goes into how it’s going to distinguish itself from other Isekai anime: the conception of new Silhouette. The episode is spent on trying to make the Silhouette Knights more efficient and also find more efficient ways to build them, an aspect that is criminally underexplored in the genre. Seeing the different ways he finds to innovate already existing models and what he builds from scratch put at the forefront instead of something you find out more of by looking up the wikis is one of the most entertaining aspects of the anime. The moment ernesti reveals Ikaruga is incredibly cathartic, his dream and ideal that he thought was unachievable in front of him after a dozen years of non-stop hard work and research. The machine before he conceived Ikaruga was conceptually very interesting too, the Toy-box. It was basically a prototype machine that he tried putting any kind of idea that came to his mind, him using everything he learned into making it felt like him getting really close to the finishing line, a very rewarding feeling. This show really isn’t the nuanced and complex military war drama that it seems some people want it to be, it’s a wish fulfillment show for those who care about plastic models and how cool and powerful humanoid robots are. In that sense, I don’t think the fandom would be offended by its honest and faithful portrayal of them, if anything, they’d be happy for any and all the times Ernesti gets closer to his goals and finds a new one at the end.
This is just a short early review, but I'm enjoying this series alot, it's another isekai, but I enjoy these because of all the different takes they have on it, it's interesting to me to watch the fish out of water. In this case, it's a guy that loves mechs, and is reborn in a fantasy world where magickal mechs are used, and he uses his love of mech's to grow there. Story: It's simple but I find it compelling, it's a bit predictable and cliche, but in ways that don't really bother me too much. Art: Art isn't too bad, aboutwhat you would expect. Characters: Some things feel a bit rushed as not everyone gets as much detail and development as the main char, but I find him interesting enough that he doesn't effect it too badly. Enjoyment and overall: Hard to say how this one will be by the end, will it get a bit redundant and boring? Not sure, but I'm compelled and excited by it for now so I'm invested.
since it doesn't say how many episodes this has i'm gonna review it now. this is yet another show whose plot is about a guy (otaku) being sent to another world because we will never have too many of these. our main character was a programmer in his world and on top of that the show shoves down our throat that he is a genius at it. if you watched enough anime you know that means our character is going to be a little overpowered by the climax, which he is. in this world magic is no different from programming so he gets it quickly andis really good at it and since he has retained the knowledge of our world he basically belittles everyone as he just simply knows more. also, he looks like a girl now because traps are awesome and it allows for gags. the art is nothing special. it's your basic generic modern anime art and animation if you have seen it you know it and if you like it you like it. but the designs they give us are well done and inventive for a mecha. it's not like you're looking at Gundam and Gurren Laggan mechs. you might be looking at broken sword mechs though but what do you expect, there is only so much you can do with robots. the music is fine, once again its what you expect and if you like it you like it same with the voice actors. if you don't have a lot of experience with anime if you like this there are a hundred others shows like it so get used to it. the side characters lack significance to me. he has his friends and senpais for important reoccurring characters but they aren't much worth mentioning in a review and I've already talked about our main character. overall the characters are meh and not all that special for this genre you are not really going to get attached to them is the important part. overall, it another generic boy meets another world story. I'm not tired of them and I love them but you may be. ill give it a 7 because i like it but for critics review a 5 because its really not special
Oddly satisfying. Tsubasa Kurata a hardcore mecha fan working as a software engineer dies in a car accident, he gets reborn into a world where human piloted mechs called Silhouette Knights are used to fight monsters called Demon Beasts. Here you have your typical isekai copy and paste setting, reborn into a noble family with strong magical potentials and his past life memories. Some outliers are our main character is reborn as a baby allowing mc a chance to create childhood memories. like in ep1 which really nails down the fact this guy is a no joke die hard mecha fan. Also his new nameis now Ernesti "Eru" Echavalier, there was no point in mentioning his previous life name. With his love for mechs and drive to piolet one, mc gets studies and trains his magic everyday. During this time, he meets Adeltrud "Addy" and Archid "Kid" Olter, whom he became friends with and ends up helping them learn magic. The three of them enroll into Laihiala Academy to learn more magic. Mc being mc becomes the talk of the town quickly because of his quick wits and knowledge even at the age of twelve. He saves the city and ends up getting to meet the king for being so cool. Typical isekai stuff. Mc goes on to start a project to build a new generation of mechs as well as his own personal mech, but to do this he would need a lot tools and knowledge that he does not possess yet. This is what makes/breaks the show for some people. Mc begins to go threw trials and errors to build and upgrade a new generation of mechs. Some viewers may see this grid tedious, while some others find it oddly satisfying watching our young mc driven by his love for mechs work to build and improve from nothing his very own mech to fight in. Fun short 13 episode that I would recommend if your into world building or progress related plots. You don't need to be a mech fan to enjoy this either.
So far, a lot of my friends have really disliked this anime for its Plot and generic idea, but I wanna give my perspective, and why I really like this anime despite it's apparent flaws Story (8/10) The story is pretty generic isekai with mecha. That's really all there is to it. My friends say the story is pretty generic for the genre, and honestly, it's true. But one thing that really makes me like it so much is that, there aren't very many Isekai mecha anime that's as straightforward as this. There's no grand scheme. There's no amazing, impending danger. There's no reason to band togetheragainst a super threat. The plot doesn't pick up either. So if your looking for an action packed anime, with a plot that leaves you breathless, this anime might not fit your agenda. What makes it unique in my eyes is that, for once, it's actually an Isekai mecha genre without any of the gritty, complicated, dramatic, and passionate plot. This anime is straightforward. As Ern would describe it, it's literally a hobby. And I enjoy it. The story in itself is pretty boring, but the characters make it really something to watch. I give it an 8 not because it's amazing, but I give it an 8 simply because it's easy on the eyes to watch. It's like a light-hearted story, but with mecha. That said, the story does suffer for being not too original. There's not much world building beyond the kingdoms, and there's nothing grand about their objective. What makes it nice and good, is that it's light hearted and straightforward. I'd appreciate it if the plot picked up too, but I really like the unique theme the anime has to mecha anime that normally has a cynical view Art (8/10) The character art is good. It's not too amazing, but it's easy on the eyes. It's pretty much average, but the animation is pretty fluid anyways. It's not osmething I'd give praise it for all day long, but I'd appreciate the cute character designs anyday. The visuals are also really nice to look at. Not too color heavy, and the mecha movement is pretty fluid anyways. Sometimes it looks weird though, but I'll be honest, Looking at Ern is all I really care about Sound (9/10) The opening is LIT. Fhana openings are really nice. The voice actors are really good too. The cast are really good. I don't have much complaints to this one. The opening and ending are catchy and nice, (especially he OP, I Really love it). The voice actors do a great job, and the mecha sounds and visuals are really nice Enjoyment (8/10) The enjoyment I get from watching this anime is really unexpected. I don't really sing its praises as if its the best of the season, but it's something to watch. I enjoy the characters. But let's be honest, Ern is the best thing this show has to offer. Ernesti's character design, voice, and how the story revolves around him is what really makes me enjoy this anime more than it should make me. Ern is really cute (and here people keep praising Astolfo. Ern's my fave trap of the season), his passion for mecha is enjoyable, especially for someone like me who can also be quite the Mecha fan. The story isn't deep, it doesn't expand a lot, but how it focuses on mecha designing, Ern's hobbies of how he makes them, really comes through to me. It's straightforward, it's cute, it's light-hearted. I like it the way it is, whether the plot does pick up from here or not Overall (8/10) I for one, won't be giving this anime a bad score. Just cuz my friends think it's bad for its generic nature. Just cuz it's not action packed. I give it praise for what it is. And it does a good job of doing it. Mecha is a hobby. Nothing more, nothing less. The anime really shows that message in every aspect. The enthusiasm of the Ernesti, his mecha designs, everything. It really comes through for what it wants to be, the hobby of a young boy for robots. If it started having convoluted, complicated and cynical plotline beyond his hobbies, then I'd give it a lower score since there are far better anime in general that can do better than Knights and Magic when it comes to storytelling. Some say the plot is rushed and stuff, while I agree that there are moments that it can be quite rushed, the story doesn't get boring, even during info dump segments, sicne there's enthusiasm in every line. Credit to Takahashi Rie for doing a really good job at showing that enthusiasm too
I watched Knight's & Magic. Here are my thoughts: This anime is about a geeky programmer who gets isekai'd into a fantasy world where he is transformed into an androgynous mecha-fanatic (inb4: wow he's literally me!). The isekai world is like a medieval fantasy setting but with mechs added. Basically, this is a typical isekai show but with a lot of mecha-related content. If you stripped away the mecha theme, this would be an utterly generic medieval isekai. The mecha theme in a medieval setting is the only thing this anime has going for it – there really isn't any other selling point. In general thisshow feels fun and self-aware of its own silliness. After the first couple episodes I was feeling cautiously optimistic about this anime, but as I progressed further my enthusiasm declined. I wanted to like this but the actual story is quite dull and boring. The story feels better suited for an LN instead of anime, which isn't surprising since this is an LN adaptation. A large portion of the show consists of the MC tinkering around in the mech mechanic shop, which could be interesting but the execution is so underwhelming (it's probably cooler in literature format). This issue is aggravated by the mechs functioning via some kind of nonsensical magic that isn't ever adequately explained. I think all the tinkering and mechanic shop scenes would have been way more interesting if the mechs operated on physical principles, or at least all the engineering aspects were coherently explained. Anyway, when the mech conflicts do occur they feel totally formulaic. This anime fails to deliver any kind of engaging storyline, and the episodes feel like a slog to get through as a result. I never felt the slightest flicker of excitement or suspense while watching this. It should be noted that I haven't read the LN and can't vouch for the quality of the source material nor the fidelity of this adaptation. The characters themselves are rather lackluster; nobody is memorable in any way besides the MC. The supporting cast is tropey, generic, and underdeveloped. I liked the MC though – he was fun and his enthusiasm for mechs was infectious. The MC's VA suited him well, and his clingy female companion (Adeltrud) has some cute voicework too. There are all sorts of bastardized western-Continental-European names for everything that are a neverending source of amusement when paired with the Japanese dialogue in this ridiculous show. Some of the action scenes are decent, although a little crude at times. This is hardly a high-budget blockbuster movie; CGI is frequently used to animate the mechs and monsters. Don't go into this anime expecting mindblowing action scenes, you won't get that here. However, some of the mechs are pretty cool, and there's a decent variety of mech models featured in the show. Furthermore, sometimes the setting looks nice; for example, the medieval castles have a lot of aesthetic moments. Although the OST is nothing special from a musical perspective, it has a unique medieval flavour that suited the setting well (think historic-European instruments like bagpipes and various types of horns). It is a comical juxtaposition to hear music like that playing while the screen is filled with mechs battling. You probably won't be surprised to hear that this show can be fairly juvenile and generally feels catered to a young audience. My personal overall rating: 4/10 Were it not for the mecha theme, this would be a boring formulaic medieval isekai. The story in this is not compelling or interesting at all. Most of the characters are underdeveloped and tropey, with the exception of the MC who is fun and likeable. The show in general is fun and playful, and feels like it isn't meant to be taken seriously even though it involves military conflict. There is a ton of 'mech fanservice' in this, and for diehard mecha fans it might be worth watching. Aside from the cool mecha action, I didn't particularly enjoy this anime. The thing I savoured most about this show was the action scenes, but that's more a consequence of the story, characters and script all sucking. If you just want to chill out and watch mechs fight in medieval castles and shoot lasers at each other, this show is fine for that. Honestly, you won't miss out on much if you just skip all the duller dialogue-heavy scenes. This isn't an anime you should take seriously. I'm probably the wrong audience for this. For diehard mecha fans, I think this show is worth a try. Also, boys around roughly preteen age might enjoy this anime.
STORY: 4/10 CHARACTER: 4/10 ART: 8/10 SOUND: 3/10 ENJOYMENT: 6/10 OVERALL: 5/10 Crap!! The anime has a much higher rating than I was expecting!! Well I didn’t hate this anime, but I didn’t like it either and I am not going to watch it again to make up my mind! Anyway, here it goes; the anime starts strong with a cool setup of Mechs run by magic and ridden by humans in a Fantasy-esque world. Add in a nice world building aspect filled with strategies and politics, you are bound to expect a hit, yet the Story and Characters hinder the overall feels of the anime. I didn’t mind the narrative styleof storytelling but when they added plot jumps to that just for convenience, I suddenly wasn’t a fan of it anymore! Early on it becomes apparent a lot of stuff are being cut out, so a lot of info delivered feels unnecessary which takes away the fun from the show as more time was needed for viewers to settle in with its story. Add in the fast-paced plotline to an already weak story and you have a show with very little depth to it! Plus, it didn’t even make sense because for a world where science has advanced to such a degree where giant manmade robots are created and can be ridden to battle, yet they can’t manage to solve their monster problem? They could have at least invented something to help give them a chance against those beasts. And our MC here gets reincarnated into this world, but they never really show how or why this happens. So, I am assuming he took someone’s life which is wrong right?? Plus, the fact that the MC is a powerful person with a Mega brain of a genius & loads and loads of magic within him just cause he’s the MC didn’t sit well with me! I wanted more explanations and logic to this! Which is the same reaction I had with the concept of this world’s science and I blame it all on those damn time skips! The final arc is set to a ridiculous pace where the anime is desperately trying to wrap everything up, thus leaving such a giant mess of plot holes that has you questioning “What the hell is going on?” All of this leads to the show failing to connect with you since there is no real weight to it, so the sad or triumphal moments feel empty and hollow, the character motivations and emotions feel and look unreal, as if you are watching a bad play on stage! The characters are just as one-dimensional as it’s story with little or no development despite having a huge cast. Ernesti is our MC who’s unrealistic in every sense! He looks like a girl yet he’s a boy! (Or so we are told……😉) I found this very distracting because it was hard for me to take this guy/girl seriously! I did like fact that the anime pokes fun at this issue by pointing it out. Anyway, he is blessed with plot armour and seems to never make any mistakes which automatically takes away all tension from the situation. He was just too good at everything which made him boring. In other words, he was too OP for my liking because he always seems to be ahead of everybody else. Even though I found his hyper and charismatic nature funny due to his reprising habit of talking nonstop about Mechs, but I didn’t like the fact he wasn’t developed more than a smart nerd. He does have his moments to shine and they mostly come with his obsessive nerdiness to robots! (I think he secretly gets off to it!) This however turned out to be a double-edged sword since the entire show only focuses on Ernesti. So, if you don’t like him, then you probably are going to be bored here. Also, it’s not just the focus of the show, rather the entire anime is arranged from Ernesti’s point of view which does more bad than good in my opinion. Cause while the MC’s ambitions and passion for machines were nice to behold, he is completely oblivious to everything else around him. Meaning when people die, the anime never takes it seriously just cause Ernesti never took it seriously which is a big mistake. The rest of the cast were kept to a minimum and only allowed one type of personality, so they come across bland, making it harder to care about them as the focus of the show is on the MC only. The evil scientist turned out to be a good villain in some respects, (his pokerfaced delivery with some lines were hilarious!) I particularly enjoyed how the fight between him and the MC was really about their ideals, thus they focused only on trying to one up each other! Though I didn’t like the clichéd ending to the last arc and the comedic tone with which the villains were presented. The one area where this anime delivers hard is its art style and animation, both of which were terrific! The CG for the mechs weren’t ground-breaking but they were better than I asked for. I appreciated the efforts put in by the team in giving us one great mech fight after another. I was at awe at the handiwork of all the little details with design, clearly indicating the artist love for Mechs. Now the animation isn’t perfect as some CGI just falls flat and the lagging framerate in some places are noticeable, but the rest of the animation is pulled off in such a fun and frenzy flair, that you can’t help but forgive the errors! Same deduction with its art as well which is well-done, especially the magic portrayed here with all its vibrant colours and shades. And while props to the anime for doing a great job with their Sound Mixing which successfully sucks you in by bringing the action closer to you, the same cannot be said for the rest. Both the OP and ED failed to deliver, I found them very bad as they didn’t fit with the tone of the anime! Overall this isn’t a bad anime, it sets a standard for itself from the beginning and just never rises over it, rather sticks to it the whole time. First time I am seeing an anime where it clearly starts off on a Fantasy element, yet ends as a Mech! But this anime needs a Redo because there are chunks of good stuff in it, it just needs to be organized in a better way. If you enjoy Mech battles then you will find this very entertaining but outside of this, there isn’t much present in the anime as nothing else stands out, so you can’t recommend it to others. The show brings about good ideas but implements them poorly and they bring about many interesting characters but barely give them a chance to make an impact and that is why most of the show feels empty. It’s a good one-time watch if you can get past 3 episodes, otherwise this one isn’t for you.
Knight's & Magic has shaped up to be one of the most fun and entertaining anime I've ever seen in my life, (and I've seen over 100). Knight's & Magic is very different than your typical mecha anime which focuses on convoluted stories, wars in space, politics and all that jazz. Instead, more like the Gundam Build Fighters' series, Knight's & Magic focuses on the mecha themselves. Designing and improving them, building them, upgrading them, and then of course, battling them. The show has a very simple standard anime plot, about an Otaku who is hit by a car, likely thrown into a coma andforced to live within his mind - or was actually somehow reborn in another world while retaining his memories. Regardless, in this world, giant robots, much like the gunpla he loved to build in his world exist, and using his knowledge of robots and models, he becomes the first person in over a century to design a new mecha for the military, and soon becomes the lead mecha designer in the kingdom. What makes this series so insanely fun and addicting, is how much it focuses on exactly what we want to see, while cutting out all the other BS. In typical Shounen fashion, Knight's & Magic feels very much like Boku No Hero Academia in the sense that all you really want is to see the characters get stronger and improve and for everyone to recognize them - and ultimately, to watch them to badass things -- and that's what you get in Knight's & Magic. Ernesti, our protaganist is a genius mech designer, he makes the coolest mechs, surprises everyone, every time, and you get a 24 minute episode watching awesome mechs be created, in detail, and then seeing them battle with fantastic choreography. I highly recommend this series to any fans of the battle and creation aspects of mecha anime. Fans of mecha anime like Gundam Unicorn or Iron Blooded Orphans may not like this anime, as it focuses on the mecha, not the characters or the world.
One thing that bothered me was how fast the story went, they don't describe the main character before he went to the other world and they don't tell you how he gets there either. But one thing I do like is how diverse the characters are. Another thing I like is how they incorporated his old life into his new life like how he still remembers things about robots. My last reason is that the action scenes are so cool especially when in the robots. But even though the story is not the best I would still watch it.
The single absolute worst thing about this entire anime is that it's named "Knight's & Magic" instead of "Knights & Magic". Mecha is typically nothing but dull over powered high tech robots that conveniently happen to have some random function to make them win when it counts and everything else in such animes is usually pooped out as a sloppy package just credible enough to impress immature boys. This one however doesn't stop at redefining robots by replacing much of their technological nature with magic, it shows off much of how they are built and how the protagonist tries to remain one step ahead ofthe eventual opposing forces by tweaking how the robots work and developing clever equipment. One of the biggest deviations from the standard mecha trash is that the characters while having a somewhat smaller roll than usual are roughly a thousand times more believable than usual. Their traits are well defined and often collide in hilarious ways that can be hard for non adults to fully appreciate. The older you are and the more you love big robots the more likely it is you'll enjoy this anime, however younger viewers with lukewarm interest in robots may still find it quite amusing. While the story isn't anything special it's still very enjoyable, I'd rather stories do like this one and stick to things that work than try to be unique and just end up as an incoherent mess. The art is beautiful and the sound is lovely, the only issue with the characters is that they don't get as much focus as some viewers probably want but their screen time is incredibly well spent which more than makes up for it in my book.
Honestly, this anime was a huge disappointment. What really irked me here was the execution of the story. It felt awful, especially when compared with the LN. The anime glosses over details and worldbuilding in its attempt to fit as much mecha action in as possible, and, of all things, uses a narrator - a disembodied voice - to give whatever small bits of exposition they might have considered important. In this kind of anime. As for the rest, they seem to be relatively good in comparison. The art isn't anything special, but it works well enough and delivers on the premise. Sound is okay, even if....... Characters aren't that well explained, either, due to the continued skipping of actual worldbuilding in favor of more battle scenes... In all, it's a fun series, like the LN, but this anime adaptation skips so much content it's pretty much impossible to really get into it.
As an engineer, this is like some kind of fantasy porn - the idea that I could show up in a new place and get shitloads of R&D done in the here & now AND have it work on the first try was oddly satisfying, not to mention having the stuff go into limited-production without a hitch or the part where I'm beloved by an entire kingdom. I was watching this with a group of friends who read the LN; they were a little less than pleased with how much the plot is excised. Even as someone with no knowledge of the show, I was alittle peeved at how often they went with the "exposition dump" to speed through large chunks, and that leads into my major criticism of the show: the lack of character development. Ernesti shows up. Ernesti does good works. Ernesti is beloved. Anything and everything in between is just there to remind us of those three things - Addy's dialogue is basically "GEE ERNIE! YOU'RE THE BEST!" The only two characters who get anything resembling development are Archid and Edgar and it's a shame, because what glimpses we get from these two would make for a much better story. Knight's and Magic (why is the apostrophe there?) somewhat redeems itself in the final arc. It gives us some semblance of character development, but more importantly, it gives Ernesti a challenge requiring more just drawing up some machine and handing the drawings off to the elves. Again, it's a shame we didn't get more of this during the series; it really would have made the show a lot more fun. At least Ernesti is likable. With that said, I will say that it's at least unique. Sure, it's "Yet Another Isekai" but it's not everyday we get a series which delves into the engineering aspects of building a giant fighting robot. And, for the most part, it works. The universe has consistent rules and laws of physics and very real consequences. All in all, I'd say it's a solid 7 (out of 10). A fun and unique concept, but it falls short on execution.
6/10. Nothing special at best and inoffensive at worst. The premise is the run-of-the-mill isekai slop, though the harping about programming like it’s some superpower and the clear ‘literally me’ MC can get a little eye roll-y. The mech designs, at least are pretty cool and the Ikaruga makes for one of the more memorable things the show has to offer. The episodes blaze by events, often to the story's detriment. But that same fast pacing is a bit of a catch-22. There's never any time to develop strong attachments to anything, nor is there a chance for anything to overstay its welcome or for youto dwell on the show's flaws. The ones who often suffer the most from this are the characters. The cast is so large and events fly by so fast, aside from some notable ones like Dietrich they blend together. Knights & Magic would definitely benefit from reserving some time to focus on some members of the cast more, flesh out their thoughts, their drives, and how they react to the world around them. I am, at the very least, grateful that on the flipside doesn’t ever fall into the trap of an episode-long internal struggle about killing. All this sounds terrible in a vacuum, but it’s really not when you’re experiencing it. It’s just the way the show goes; bouncing between scenes that range from mid to fun. The sort of show that you can sit through in a single sitting and walk away from feeling kind of satisfied but retaining no real lasting impression. Given what the show sets up, there are interesting places it could go by giving the MC a revolutionary rival to help push the bounds of the Silhouette Knights and warfare across the setting, but the season concludes before it can truly enact upon it outside of giving you a taste of it in the final arc. I can honestly recall nothing about the soundtrack. Save Knights & Magic for your mecha binge and give it a watch when you’ve finally worked through the really good stuff and need something to dull the edge before it's time to start dumpster diving.
Knight's & Magic If I had to describe the show with one word it would be: Competent The world-building is fundamentally a baseline on how to do a fantasy setting right, everything is correctly built up, we get more than enough info of both the world and the magic-system so it is fully logical, understandable and intriguing. I made fun of the base premise*, but it was an effective and necessary setup for the story to be told this way. The characters are really well done, all have their agencies, several of them have their own arcs, and even their own lives and thinking are completely logical and intelligentso they feel relatable and human, even their flaws come from their base character so even when they fail it is sympathetic. For the plot I just go back to the word of today's review: competent. Sadly, it is mainly the base element I can criticize, especially as it felt like the story, they wanted to tell would've needed more than 13 episodes, but as they only got that many, they tried to cram everything into those 13 episodes, which contributed to a lot of time-skips and rushed plot-lines. The story was kind of predictable for a more experienced eye, but it might just be a routine issue. [When a racer can predict the second half of a racecourse, just by how the 1 half went.] Still, it was really engaging and full of twists and turns that kept the interest always high, with new elements and challenges for our heroes to overcome. To summarize I'd say that competence is the main element, but it does feel as if it was written by an AI. Everything is designed to a mastered textbook level, but there were really few peaks of quality. In numerical terms there was no moment that went below a 7, but there was no moment above a 9 either. 8.6/10 Subjective parts: I don't like CG, but it was nothing egregious, and maybe it is a hot take, but although I like Rie Takahashi, and she did manage to make a 10-12yo boy voice, for the latter part it was really weird having a 15-17 boy/man still having Rie as a voice actress. *2017 isekai show about a successful company-man getting reincarnated into a young fragile body, where he uses his knowledge from his previous life and integrates it with the magical elements of the new settings, because of that he quickly climbs the ranks and becomes a child prodigy, but with every promotion the situation just gets more and more dangerous for both him the team he gets to lead [which was specifically granted/created for him by the country's leader].
Mecha Otaku who earns a living as a programmer, gets a kiss from Truck-kun, and ends up Isekaid in a world where steampunk interior, scifi outerior mecha robots powered by magic are used to fight off monsters and wage war. Animation / Art / General Visuals - 9/10 ----------------------------------------------- The visuals are pretty damn good. The mecha design and animation is beautiful. Smooth and subtle 3D usage makes the mechs look absolutely amazing and the combat between them and monsters feels visceral. Non-mech aspects are pretty good as well, with clean designs and animations. The show is certainly enjoyable to watch visually.Sound / Music / Voice Acting - 7/10 ------------------------------------------ Opening track is pretty cool, but beyond that nothing particularly noteworthy. Story - 6/10 ------------- Unfortunately there isn't much of one. The show touches on some aspects of other shows like Code Geass and Gundam 00 where there's a technological race between opposing forces, but there is no real substance behind it. The entire story revolves around how one Isekai'd Mecha Otaku just can't help but to use their modern day knowledge and skills to improve on the existing mecha designs. Creating ever more powerful robots. At some point some of that new tech gets stolen, and another force appears who starts a war with them, which is basically the extent of the story. Characters - 6/10 --------------------- Like the story, the characterisation is pretty weak. The MC is extremely single minded, and it's a bit silly how their background as a programmer apparently also makes them a god tier tech engineer. I've seen more than one anime that equate the two fields and it's honestly rather annoying. Writing lines of code is pretty far removed from high tech engineering. Side characters are walking placeholders with barely any personality. All villains but one are forgettable. Attempts were made to flesh out some characters, even shoehorn a side character romance into the show, but it all falls pretty flat. 13 episodes just isn't enough time to have much anything other than non-stop mecha combat. In fact I would have preferred them to drop everything else and go even deeper into that. --- Total - 7/10 --- "Playing with mechs" is a rather enjoyable anime as long as you don't expect much from its story or characters. The meat of the show is all in the robot battles. Go in expecting that, and you'll have a good time.
I'm having to write a new review as I couldn't edit my old one written mid series. So this series betrayed the faith I placed in it, I initially felt it wasn't that bad and it had promise, so I gave it a fair review and score, however when it ended and the dust settled the end result can only be that this is a dreadful adaptation. Nothing is earned, no time is devoted to the telling of the story, the progression of the story, nor the build up to the big moments. It's like if you took the LOTR films, cut out the journey and most ofthe rest of the content, and just had a 1hr supercut of what you thought were the highlights, sure it would look impressive, but it would be a jumbled nonsensical mess that would leave you feeling dead inside. That is Knight's & Magic The main problem is when it's good, it's good, it's not amazing, but it shows promise, it could have dropped the whole isekai element to it and worked without it, maybe even been better for it, but that is an issue with the source material. But where it comes good is the design and development stages of the story, when the MC seeks to expand his knowledge in the construction of mechs and we get those moments, including the testing phase. The issue is with the adaptation itself, which is dreadful, the anime decided that we didn't want to spend too much time on that, so the best moments aren't as long as you might want them to be. They also get lost in the all the cuts from moment to moment and place to place all bound together with constant narration. The anime also wanted to rush the story, because it couldn't wait to get to what it felt was the good parts and to wrap up those storylines too. So, huge chunks of the story, huge portions of the LN ended up on the chopping floor, character development is cast aside giving us paperthin characters who you don't really care about. It doesn't take its time to tell the story, instead what you get it constant annoying narration and time skips, which breaks the cardinal rule of storytelling, show don't tell. The audience has to experience these things for it to have any meaning or impact, if they are just given a few lines of lazy narration instead then it not only disconnects you from the story and the moment, but removes any chance of investment that you might have been able to get otherwise. It's an absolute hack job of the source material, which from a small amount of reading didn't seem that bad, as I was willing to pin it down to bad writing, but it does look like it's all down to the studio and a terrible adaptation. It's a shame that this anime is so bad, I had hoped for a decent fantasy mecha anime, but this doesn't measure up. It's one of the biggest disappointments of that year
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