First Impressions / Knight’s & Magic

「Scrap & Build」

Ernesti let his enthusiasm get the better of him when he makes some lofty requests. You could see that his grandfather was beginning to get anxious, the beads of sweat trickling down his temple while tugging on Ernesti’s arm. The anime left out the king’s thought process of dealing with Ernesti, if he did end up making a request vying for greater power. Let me tell you, it wouldn’t have been nice. But I doubt our mecha-loving shota could have been in too much trouble, since his major preoccupation is so obvious. If anything, the quick realisation helped him better phrase his request, even making the king feel amused.

So after being promised knowledge of the Ether Reactor, on the condition that he designs a mecha that would be a step up from the current models, Ernesti immediately gets to work on the research and development!

Research & Development

Bringing over superior knowledge from our world, Ernesti goes about revolutionising mecha. The interweaving of crystal tissue for increased tensile strength seems like an obvious answer for structural issues, given our modern understanding of human biology and engineering. But I can see how it would be missed out by a civilisation less advanced in these particular fields. Not to mention, they’ve probably relied on magic as a crutch rather than properly investigating scientific fields, which I can totally understand. Many human military advancements have come from times of great conflict. Seeing the lack of a pressing need to improve the Silhouette Knights, owing to a relatively peaceful era as well as the sheer expense of trial and error usually entailed with R&D, it’s not difficult to figure why no one really bothered to push for an advancement. While there is still no urgent situation to stimulate advancement, Ernesti is freely offering the wisdom of his life hacks, bypassing the issue of high costs and mitigating the amount of trial and error required.

Substantial portions of the R&D were cut down in comparison with the source material, turning months of hard work into a matter of minutes. I actually think this might have been a good production choice. Most of the essence was retained, with R&D concerns being given a passing scene where they were reduced. Had they gone into depths over the creation of the Tellestele, it would have been 2-3 episodes of trial and error. While the eventual payoff in the sparring session would have been even better, we have to consider that the anime industry revolves around weekly showings. As you can imagine, two weeks of fruitless struggling with minimal results would hardly entertain a wider audience at large.

Sparring Session

We can see that the sub-arms allowed for a Red Mage build, whereby sword and magic could be used simultaneously. Add on the inclusion of the structural improvements gained from crystal tissue interweaving, and this new mecha pretty much outclasses everything in terms of raw power. Despite fighting against a vastly superior mecha, Edgar put up a magnificent fight, demonstrating his skills for all to see. Though deflecting the magic projectile with the blade of Earlcumber was not enough to overcome the Tellestele, Edgar should be pretty pleased he managed to push a stalemate. As we could see from the sparring session, the modifications made were largely beneficial. The only severe downside would be a highly increased energy consumption, assuming that the calibration issues can be resolved pretty soon.

Concluding Thoughts

I have to come clear and say that I’m not a particularly huge expert on mecha. For a long time, I even had an aversion to the genre. But when you see someone being passionate and excited like Ernesti, you begin to realise his enthusiasm is actually pretty contagious. Anyway, you could tell something shady was going down by the end of the episode. It seems that spies from another kingdom have been closely monitoring the R&D process. My advice? Just sit tight and enjoy whatever is about to come next!

Preview

40 Comments

  1. Mah mech boner is standing erect and gives its solid approval for this anime… In the past I love building gundam models and customizing. That feeling of excitement, and nights of headaches as you try build a model, I felt all of that again in this episode. It definitely brings me back to that time. I am in love with this anime… Forget the effeminate MC. If he do badass, IT IS BAD ASS

    Jeffers
    Reply

  3. This was a fun episode, but it also cemented that source character development will take a cut and back-seat to mechs. I’ve read some of the source so that’s fine for me, but I can see people not in love with robo-fighting jumping ship, which is too bad.

    I’ll definitely keep watching because Ernesti’s mania is hilarious, but while I’ll enjoy the robots, expectations have been appropriately lowered. Just to around Undefeated Bahamut Chronicles though, not as low as Dragonar Academy. *cold shiver*

    Aex
    Reply

    1. ^ Exactly this – I’ve noticed the writing tends to rely more on big action pieces, robo-R&D, and Ernie’s insane zeal, to move the plot. Character development is pretty sparse, compared to works like Re Zero.

      On the plus side, at least Ernie has clearly defined goals and ambitions for a WN protagonist. Better than say, some other WNs where the MC’s goals are basically “bumming around whilst being OP in an RPG fantasy world with guilds and game menus”.

      zztop
      Reply

    1. They’re rushing towards the Ikaruga.
      It’s understandable since most of the early chapters are nothing more than overextended technical jargon and the Ikaruga chapters are where the mecha porn is at its hotest.

      Ginobi47
      Reply

    2. The anime’s likely 1 cour, hence the fast pacing (Still no word on official episode count).

      Currently there’s 7 LN volumes available. Vol 5’s the best stopping point plot-wise, as Ernesti’s improvements in previous books will be practically applied to events of Vols 4-5.

      Vol 6-7 is part of an ongoing arc that’s still being written, so that likely won’t be adapted.

      zztop
      Reply

      1. Ah, I thought only 6 were out. The translation I’ve read is only through volume 4 I believe with 5 on the way. Hopefully I’ll get to read it before it’s adapted. Does vol 5 end that particular arc? Or is it still ongoing in 6 and 7?

        seltzermx
        Reply

  7. In a way Ernesti invented artificial muscles being strong like tendons. But they need to invent stronger Bones to support the new stronger muscles.

    example:
    https://randomc.net/image/Knights%20and%20Magic/Knights%20and%20Magic%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2012.jpg
    With the new tendons muscles, The arm can lift more weight, but the “bones” and joints are crying “mercy” here :). Well they need to reforge the Bones and joints. So yes, they need to make a new Mecha from scratch

    in a way:

    The Muscles are strong, but the Bone and joints are to weak

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

    2. Err… they did finish coverting the Tellestele though? A more fundamental change to the metal frame will probably be necessary to develop the flying Silhouette Knights in the OP, but they’ve already managed to reinforce the frame of a pre-existing model enough to withstand the stress of the woven crystal tissue.

      PurpleBomber
      Reply

      1. Yeah pretty much they’ve done as the Tellestelle is bascially a proof of concept test models.

        Eru just basically took advantage that the Academy’s Karrandors had to go extensive repairs and replacement after fighting the behemoth to install the changes as otherwise the academy wouldn’t have the resources to spare to build test models from the ground up.

        Show Spoiler ▼

        Devastator001
        Reply

    1. That’s actually an innate problem of the Tellestarl series, they all high output units which makes precision moves nearly impossible. (or only possible once you get a feel for how the augmented frame reacts to your control inputs)

      Show Spoiler ▼

      Devastator001
      Reply

  9. Well if Ernesti came from Earth, he might be familiar with Mechwarrior/Battletech. The strand crystal concept was also used in that series.

    So now he just needs to choose between Standard or Endo-Steel structure and then Standard or Ferro-Fibrous armor.

    But yeah not kidding, even the manga slowed down the pacing to give a bit more personality to Ernesti.

    Dude
    Reply

  11. Sometimes I wander when, if ever again, we’ll get a mecha anime with protagonists that look more like they are in their 20-30ies rather than in middle school or kindergarten…

    Bors
    Reply

      1. Love Thunderbolt, but it’s basically a merchandise vehicle that throws us a bone just once in a while since 2015. And if you mention Super Robot Wars, might as well go all the way back to The Big-O and Votoms…

        Bors
        Reply

  12. After seeing Ikaruga’s face it’s been nagging me for a while on how the overall head design was familiar, then it struck me! It it’s similar to Aquarion’s over all head desing XD

    Devastator001
    Reply

  13. https://randomc.net/image/Knights%20and%20Magic/Knights%20and%20Magic%20-%2003%20-%2038.jpg

    There’s always an industrial spy who thinks he’s not getting paid enough or that it’s not “fair” for one nation to have all the goodies…

    This is also a curse of industrial progress in war. Just when you think you have an edge, the other country copies it within days or weeks.

    Ernesti’s already getting major powers interested in him. His best friends’ father wants them to spy on Ernesti for him, the Duke in charge of the special Ether Engines for the mecha sees someone stepping on his monopoly, the King sees a potential enemy if Ernesti ever turned to politics, and now the neighboring countries are finding out there’s a prodigy in their midst.

    jhpace1
    Reply

    1. Perhaps this could also be some Arc enemy members, so their sworn enemy do not get ahead of themselves

      Like the Clan Houses in the US Battlemecha Universe. So they do not need to be Enemeys from other countries. Is the Main enemy not the Monsters anyway?

      Worldwidedepp
      Reply

      2. It’s more of Fremmevia being lax in the security with the western countries as they have no interest in the lands to the west of the mountain range.

        Although the anime didn’t cover it much. As the Eastern and western parts of the continent are divided by a huge mountain range. Fremevia is the only country on the eastern side of the mountain range and occupies a wide though narrow strip of territory hugging the mountain range as it was the only territory the previous crusade vs Demon beasts they manage to hold before further attacks into Demon beast territory became unsustainable.

        Fremvia has an alliance with the Kingdom closest to them on the western-side as means to help keep the other kingdoms from interfering with their duties of fighting the Demon beasts.

        Devastator001
        Reply

  14. I thought the initial production choice for speeding through some of the early years and schooling made sense, but I can’t say I like what they did here.

    In the show about designing mecha, the designing of mecha (and the associated troubles) IS the main part of the story. Eru has all these ideas (not necessarily superior, but willing to think out of the box), and it was a delight to read the LN as he was demolishing common sense of the world.

    Blue
    Reply

    1. If i would invent Mechas, i would only let them Jump. Why? Jump do not need that much Fuel then keep it Flying. Or Ernesti somehow invent a trick that the Mecha Power reactor is fueling directly the Trusters. So the mecha do not need to carry extra Jump/Fly fuel, somewhere

      Worldwidedepp
      Reply

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