Knight's & Magic

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.

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.

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.