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「Robots & Fantasy」
Edward Elric said it right. One can dislike milk, but still love cake! In a similar vein, I’m not so much a fan of mecha, but the isekai premise had me completely entranced from the get go. Let it be known far and wide, that Zaiden is Random Curiosity’s “Iseguy”, the person you rely upon for matters pertaining to this recent trend of other-worldly adventures. May I proudly introduce Knight’s & Magic, an anime adaptation of a light novel I’d read some parts of about a year ago. I’m happy to say that it was among the ones I particularly liked, although the translations eventually stalled, much to my chagrin.
Zaiden’s Practical Advice
A hardcore mecha otaku by the name of Kurata (Sakaguchi Daisuke) dies a dog’s death. He is subsequently reincarnated as Ernesti Eccheveria (Takahashi Rie) into a medieval fantasy world where the skies are ruled by mechas called Silhouette Knights. If you were wondering why everything was going at such a breakneck speed, they fit the whole first volume into a single episode. Yup, you just read that correctly. I’m wondering if they were skipping to the crux of the matter in order to draw in more viewers, bypassing segments devoted to character development and world-building. It’s a shame, but I can see how it possibly works out for the better, simply because there a lot of righteous self-insert moments that were a pleasure to read, but admittedly overly simplistic in execution. For those interested, I recommend reading the rest of the ‘School Entry Arc’ here. It may seriously boost what you’re already enjoying to new levels, provided you don’t get too greedy and read ahead. Tempting, I know! Still, try to hold on.
Explaining the Magic System
Let me briefly fill you in on how the isekai concept remains relevant to Knight’s & Magic, despite the fact it seems to be immediately ditched after a silly and lacklustre death. Ernesti’s genius level programming skills actually correlate with the magic system used in this medieval fantasy world. The light novel goes into much further detail in this regard, which I shall proceed to explain. The spells he used to fly and increase his physical abilities, that the twins use too, are a result of the improvements Ernesti made to the current world’s magic using his contemporary knowledge of programming.
As for the magic system itself, the novel describes it as being parallel to computer programming language. Ernesti initially doesn’t possess knowledge of the magic language, since it didn’t originally exist on Earth. But after keenly studying it from a very young age, he quickly starts spotting how he can make adjustments for the sake of maximum efficiency, and begins to approach problems with the skill of a genius, veteran programmer.
I actually really enjoy this approach to isekai, though I’m still impartial to the more conventional stuff. Ernesti is not just cheating with knowledge of modern advancements to gain a completely cheap footing in this new fantasy world he finds himself in. He’s actively bringing a totally different mindset and method from our world, generating innovation and driving progress in scientific fields that don’t even exist in our world. By embarking down a path that uniquely incorporates the most advanced thinking from both worlds, while developing entirely new technologies as he goes along, it really feels like Ernesti’s achievements are gained through his own efforts and hard work.
Other Random Thoughts
Things of note include when Ernesti starts off from the beginning of elementary school, and skips straight to middle school level. Pretty impressive if you ask me, and the reaction faces of the professor and his new classmates are priceless. Anyway, onto the mechas. Don’t you agree that they look super cool? Much better than what I was expecting, coming in off of 8bit’s more recent anime adaptations. The actual animation itself wasn’t very smooth, but it all looked good flowing together pretty well and that’s what ultimately matters at the end of the day.
Concluding Thoughts
Shinpachi (Gintama) turning into Megumin (Konosuba) had to be one of the most bizarre transitions I’ve heard, but I’ll take it. Instead of pastiche explosions, we’ll be treated to gushing mecha-gasms. I have no doubt that Takahashi Rie will do a fine job in this department.
Given the next episode preview, it’s quite clear that we won’t get a flashback covering the earlier events in the light novel, where a vast majority of the character development took place. From here on out, we’re gonna be treated to pure mecha fanservice, complete with the glitz of battle and the excitement of tinkering about for upgrades. If you love action, mecha and isekai, be sure to stick around! And also look forwards to another post about Knight’s & Magic coming later this week!
ED Sequence
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ED: 「Hello! My World!!」by fhána
Preview
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The ‘&’ in the naming for Knight’s & Magic screencaps has messed up some of the image functions that would usually be available. Pretty mad that’s the second show of the day that’s done that to me, the other being Hina Loji from Luck and Logic. Will work on getting it fixed ASAP!
Edit: All fixed. Turns out the problem was that damn apostrophe.
You haven’t seen the comment screencap nightmare of a series that is “Working%21$21%21″…
https://randomc.net/image/Knights%20and%20Magic/Knights%20and%20Magic%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2028.jpg
silver hair, a cute face, beautiful azure eyes, bell-like voice, snow-white skin, a petite frame.
BUT HE’S A GUY!
inb4 “My Mecha Otaku Loli is a Trap”
If it’s a Trap x Girl.
Does it count as yuri or hetero….?
Unconventional Hetero. It’s only yuri if there’s no schlong to be had.
The day Hideyoshi went to another world…
Appropriate Steins;Gate reference there!
Pretty Boy Syndrome. I knew a guy in elementary school who had this ‘curse’ when I was in high school. All the high school girls treated the Pretty Boy like a big doll. He literally could do no wrong.
After college I came back and saw him again. He had managed to get a girlfriend almost as pretty as he was. Not bad, but the fiance gained 40 lbs just before their freshman-college marriage.
Good to see that the anime rushed through the boring ‘I reincarnated in a fantasy mecha world. Let’s train, meet our potential haremite and go to school for a few years!’ segment.
But in this case, we do want to meet our potential haremite… of huge, sexy mechas 🙁
IM KINDA DISAPPOINTED WITH THIS ADAPTATION SERIOUSLY ..THIS IS MY FIRST NOVEL AND THEY SKIP A LOT OF THINGS THE PHASE WAS BOOM I ALREADY GROWN THEIR UNIFORM SUCKS …u cant see the progonist is OP seriously in the novel he is OP the discription was like u can really imagine whats happening but in this when they show his power that was all ? shit
Rushed through 90% of the character development to get straight to the action, huh… Well, this was the time to do it if it really needed to be done. Now knock it off. Slow the hell down and give the audience a chance to process character relationships and stop cutting out good bits of comedy, then we’ll be okay.
So, Zaiden… As an Iseguy… Death March anime, you losing sleep waiting, too? XD
Likely the anime team wanted to get to the mecha action ASAP.
The 1st half of LN1, which the anime breezed through, is fairly slow-paced, even if it does go deeper into characterization and worldbuiding. Although if they did that, then you’d get viewers asking when the mecha action starts…
They could rearrange things so the characterization is used in later episodes.
A rearrange seems likely with how they handled the big sister, which I won’t hate as long as it isn’t sloppy. Will it be? Next episode should tell.
Aex, Death March isn’t the one making me lose my sleep. It’s Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari.
Did you read the LN or WN version? I’ve heard the LN version is much better, after editorial intervention. Plus there’s some LN original arcs too.
Didn’t hear about that and I like Death March more(gotta love the absurdity), but here’s hoping ShieldBro gets at least 2-cour!
Shieldbro and gourmet God getting anime, will quagmire getting his turn too? Haha
@Maou: As hard as I would squee and run around like a ten year old girl if Mushoku Tensei got animated, I think the pacing and scale just requires too much commitment. 24 episodes would be the absolute minimum to get to a half-way decent ending point, and I don’t know if it’s profitable enough to get that much attention.
Oh man, Mushoku Tensei by a good production team would be a dream. It’s actually my favourite light novel, the only rival I can think of for it being a Chinese web novel called ‘I Shall Seal the Heavens’. But it’s 24 volumes, so I find it difficult to imagine that it would get adapted. Then again, we got Shield Bro, so one can hope! 🙂
Knights’s author states in his Twitter profile that he “loves works with giant humanoid weapons, and will live and die for mecha”(plus authoring’s his 2ndary job).
兼業小説家のような何か。 巨大人型兵器をテーマとした作品を好む。メックと共に生き、メックと共に死ぬが定め。https://twitter.com/Amazake_Write
It’s pretty obvious how his priorities shaped Knight’s themes. 😀
IMO, his focus makes Knights one of the more unusual isekai webnovels turned LNs published because its content is made to appeal more to mecha otaku over the usual mainstream otakus. So instead of the usual sexy/ecchi fanservice, you get robot battles and tech R&D for fanservice.
I don’t know who this man is, despite having followed his light novels for a good year or so. Whoever he is, he sure has his priorities straight.
Link to author Amazake no Hisago’s Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Amazake_Write
Looks like he bought himself a new Transformers figurine.
Zaiden: That’s good, because then he knows exactly what running theme he wants in his story.
this anime IMO, its indeed interesting, the mecha idea mixed with rebirth in another world theme is just fine to me. however my problem with this episode is that it seems rushed so the anime can jump to the story quick in episode 1 and that the MC “himself” looks a girl. are we getting a crossdressing scene in this anime? because normally the existence of a girly boy in the anime indicates that this will have some gender bender plot as well
but anyway, the story is somewhat interesting, but i can see that this will not be on my watch list if episodes 2 and 3 will not show something epic.
Mecha and character designs are by illustrator Kurogin, who also designed the mecha armours of the Masou Gakuen HxH LNs, the mechs of Mahou Senki Lyrical Nanoha FORCE, and the costumes of the Cross Ange cast.
https://randomc.net/image/Knights%20and%20Magic/Knights%20and%20Magic%20-%2001%20-%2029.jpg
I like how the anime shows all the mechs having heavy wear and tear on their surfaces, to emphasise their constant usage in the field.
Initially I wasn’t sure how to take the massive skipping off all the non-mecha content from volume 1, but none of my friends watching it blind seemed to mind so… eh? The character design and animation were good, and I’m sure the pace will normalize in episode 2. More importantly, mecha fanservice has been sorely underserved in anime for far too long and Knights & Magic is sure to fix that.
I am fine with them breezing through the ‘prologue’.
So they’re all happy little Eru’s smiling at the giant mech, and didn’t even spare a moment for their dead carriage driver? This is why I hate rich people.
the driver got out fine the only thing eaten was the horse.
I like the pacing lol. setting up the main character as a genius in the first ep and have him breeze though the first Vol of the LN makes him seem more interesting, the character development and relationship development can always catch up later in the anime. and really… I dont think i be too interested in watching the Main go though daily life when his a genius… wouldnt that just be kinda boring? XD besides i hate sitting there and wait 3 to 5 eps before they get to the real plot
https://randomc.net/image/Knights%20and%20Magic/Knights%20and%20Magic%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2016.jpg
The shota that will save the world!
Its too bad they skipped some of the awesome stuff that happened before the battle with the behemoth, I was hoping that they would at least show the training that Kid and Addy went through.
Also the scene were Ernesti saves Addy didn’t actually happen that way, as he met them before they actually managed to escape.
Plus they skipped the entire introduction with the older students/pilots.
But most importantly, they skipped the whole deal with Kid and Addy’s half brother… Which is the most awesome part in the first volume.
Other then that… the animation is amazing, and I can’t wait to see the battle with the Behemoth! ^_^
I initially had no plans to watch this series. The preview description didn’t sold me on the show. Finding myself with nothing to do I decide give this show a try and whoa! I am sold on it now. I went and read up on the manga. I am so looking forward to series now.
I actually wrote the preview, so that was my bad. I try to sell the good and negative aspect of things, and probably was a bit too critical of Knight’s & Magic. However, I do have personal biases against the way politics is handled in Knight’s & Magic.
Then again, as zztop posted, the authour literally only cares about mecha, which would also explain why the light novel is lacking in other departments such as romance.
What I (a LN and Manga reader) wrote in reaction to viewing the episode on reddit (and before seeing this post, sry Zaiden):
Stupid Prius drivers https://randomc.net/image/Knights%20and%20Magic/Knights%20and%20Magic%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
Is a new way to set Truck-kun free:
Because of Truck-kun’s various failures across different series, he was demoted to driving sedans.
As someone that codes, I 100% appreciate colour coded Code Editors lol Also appreciate the dark grey background, staring at white screens all day is hard on the eyes. lol
https://randomc.net/image/Knights%20and%20Magic/Knights%20and%20Magic%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2002.jpg
My day was not done until I found this screencap and checked that the code made sense. It’s likely Java, which means that spells run on the JVM?
I think i give this Anime a try. Perhaps i have a little Mecha otaku heart, since Gunbuster and such
i try to give my emotion names…
– Break Blade: Ancient Robots, only know how to maintain them, lost the wisdom to build new ones
– Gunbuster: The School in how do they train become an Pilot
– and other Mechas from my young history of Anime veteran life