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「王立騎士アカデミー」 (Ouritsu Kishi Akademii)
“Royal Knights’ Academy”
Ahh new episode, new arc, and another barrel full of cute and adorable fun. Or, you know, the other sort of fun. It’s pretty well established that I’m fully on board the Eiyuuou bandwagon now, having chosen to cover it and all, but I swear this show keeps on finding new and ingenious ways of keeping me amused. And that’s before we get into the copious amount of foreshadowing going on promising plenty of future fighting fun.
Having done the veritable tour of Eiyuuou’s world and its main players, we’re now into the academy arc of this little story, and with it the (largely) predictable direction of future events. This isn’t even a slight against Eiyuuou: academy settings always feature the training, the ditzy teachers, the rivals and antagonists who may turn into friends, and some underlying mystery to tie it all together. New girl Leone is case in point, being the sister to Leon (parents sure went all out with the naming didn’t they?) and the unfortunate victim of his anti-Highlander actions earlier. You know for sure she’ll get her redemption down the line and wind up very good friends with Inglis and Rafi both, even if the specifics are currently unknown. At least we know her comedic value won’t be lacking, which as everyone understands is the most important bit. Without a doubt.
As for the true (wo)man of the moment, Inglis is as Inglis certainly does – or in other words, never ceases putting a smile on my face. Besides her sheer love of fighting carrying over into what’s clearly an upcoming boss battle (wouldn’t be discussed so much otherwise), I love how the other running gag of this show is settling on Inglis’ and Rafi’s rapacious appetites and ability to quite literally outeat everyone within a mile radius. Such a shounen trope admittedly, but it really fits the theme at play here, particularly when you have both Ripple and Leone show just a little concern about how much these girls can put away in an instant – the tongue in cheek aspect really gets me grinning. Mind you probably not as much as when Inglis starts fielding those inevitable confessions of love and others playing matchmaker (*looks at Rafi*), but I think we’ve a bit a time before that fun comes down the track.
After all, we have to first find out who Inglis is going to beat up this arc.
End Card
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“Oh noes, there are three of us but only two beds – how will we manage? Of course, let’s all share the same bed!”
That’s certainly a novel approach to problem solving. Anyway, does this show qualify as a guilty pleasure? I mean, the direction, animation, characterisations, storytelling, etc. etc. are all competent enough but not exactly stellar, yet it’s one of the shows I really look forward to each week (and that’s despite the fanservice having been toned down a little from the manga) so I guess it must have something going for it.
Oh yeah it’s a guilty pleasure through and through – a good chunk of the reason why I stuck with it haha.
At its core it’s nothing particularly special, but the premise, execution and lighthearted, lackadaisical nature make it a winner. It’s one of those paint by number shows which just clicks.
Not sure what’s going on with the ANN ratings (not that they really mean anything) as episode 4 rated worse than shows like The Reincarnation of the Most Boring MC and Elf Farming in another World. Still, it’s supposed to be popular in Japan.
Just raters being contrarian for the sake of it probably. I never give much credence to them for this reason since outside of universally praised or panned shows everything typically falls within the same narrow range. Reading fleshed out reviews gives a much better impression of quality.
This series is one of two nonsensical fan service entertainment that doesn’t take too much brain cell has become a weekly guilty pleasure for sure. Most of the time, I wondered as I am watching if I actually read the source material, would I lose that one brain cell?
I’m reading the official LN translation and I think your brain cells are safe. It’s a pretty good time to start as the “Prismer” story arc has just been completed.