Wise Man's Grandchild

Oh no! Another isekai harem show that does not bring anything new to the table and is just lost in the sea of all the other isekai harem shows that the industry is already pumping out! That was definitely what I was thinking when I saw the genre, poster, and synopsis. But this anime proved itself otherwise. Do not come into this anime expecting for a complex plot with heavily fleshed out characters. This show was designed to fool you into thinking that it follows the usual anime tropes but suddenly it pulls out something totally unconventional. It's not exactlya parody of the isekai genre, to me it's better than that. This is a show that initially pokes fun at the very overpowered MC showing it's prowess at comedy but suddenly dives into romance, drama, and action at such an incredible pace that it actually does not destroy the comedy built at the start. Definitely try this anime if you're looking to just relax and watch a show that is not only very funny, but having an MC that's dense and not that dense at the same time; coupled with a cast that may be a bit shallow but definitely enriches the anime.

The Isekai genre has a problem. It's a problem that has been going on ever since 2016 with the release of Konosuba and Re:Zero. It is also a problem that more often or not ruins the industry image from outsiders as many people from other mediums would say that the anime medium is vapid shit that has no substance base on the self insert/waifu pandering that were shown by various Isekai anime. Wise Man's Grandchild is the embodiment of this as it's not only a horrendously made anime that is void of passion and creativity it also shamelessly represents everything that is wrong with this genre. The plotcentres around a self insert Gary Sue named Shin Walford who is reincarnated as a baby in a fantasy world after getting ran over and killed by truck kun in his previous life. He is soon adopted by an old wander named Merlin Walford and soaked up Merlin's teachings, earning him some shocking powers and abilities; however when he turned 15 Merlin realised that he forgot to teach him quote "Common sense and social skills'. Unquote. I wish I joking. Anyway with the help of Merlin's friend Shin enrols into Shin into a prestigious magic academy where he can not only socialise with people but to also hone his skills and abilities. Thus he's adventures begin. If I had to describe the story in one world is lazy. You know when you have that one 12 year old in class that constantly shares their bad anime fanfics to you. That's what this show is. It's a collection of generic anime cliches and fantasy isekai story elements that don't mesh well together thanks to the shows vomit including writing which I will get to in a bit. There are no stakes whatsoever as the protagonist would overpowered the villains at any time. The setting is a generic boring setting before. There's no world-building to speak as the show rather spends it's time on sick self insert pandering. It wouldn't be so bad if the writing was so trash. You cannot watch a single episode of Wise Man's Grandchild without face slamming your head on a iron table. This is only enhanced by the 12-year-old tier fan fiction dialogue which was downright painful to watch on screen. The worst thing about Wise Man Grandchild is how lazy it is. I know I just described the story as lazy but this is only the thick of it as it not only rips off plots from other isekai/fantasy anime it also reuses locations with little to no changes. My favourite being Kazuma's Mansion as despite being slighting brighter as well-having adding and removing a couple of outdoor mansion decoration the mansion is the bloody same. I understand that drawing hundreds of backgrounds for an anime is hard, especially on a tight deadline and budget but nobody has been stupid enough to recuse background scenery from other isekai animes as plan B. It's like I'm watching a anime equivalent of a asset flip of steam. The asset flip and poorly written story is made worse with the soulless characters are a void of personality. Shin is a boring Gary Sue who is overpowered and has no flaws. He has a personality of a brick and he has no motivations other to project his friends and city because plot reasons. The supporting characters are just a collection of bland anime stereotypes that you have all seen before. You have the shy blue hair girl with big boobs, the tsundere red hard girl, the yellow hair kindhearted best friend boy and couple of old farts. How lazy and uninspired can you get. Finally we have villains and to be honest the less I speak about them the better because you can tell what type of villains they are going to be based on the amateur hour poster that was done in Photoshop. The presentation is a mixed bag. While the animation is subpar and fight choreography at times is laughable the character designs, background scenery and lightning were pretty solid minus the stock images. The soundtrack had as much passion as the plot and characters. It uses various generic fantasy tracks that don't keep the viewer interested due to how bland they are. This is only made worse by poor direction as various times it doesn't know how to properly place it's own tracks to create tension to the fights and narrative. Both the opening and ending themes are generic pop songs with meaningless lyrics. The voice acting for both languages is alright but nothing too special. Wise Man's Grandchild.exe has stopped working. Wise Man's Grandchild is what happens when you have no creativity and passion. It is an infuriating garbage fire that relays on cliches and tropes just to please the lowest common denominator of anime fans with it's cringely dialogue and fan fiction writing. Wise Man's Grandchild may decent production values and voice acting but it ultimately don't matter if your plot and characters were at the bottom of the barrel. The only thing that you should do as Wise Man's Grandchild is concerned is to stay as far away from it as possible as this is just another Isekai anime that has no soul and passion. Avoid the series like the plague and watch That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime or Konosuba instead.

If a 5 year old asked me to explain what “Kenja no Mago” is, I can easily sum it as “isekai trash”. They may not understand the term ‘isekai’ at first, but they know what trash is. It’s a shame for me to say this because Kenja no Mago could have been an actual hit, something special even. What it ended up instead is garbage that I doubt even a 5 year old can enjoy. Without jumping too far ahead, the isekai genre often consists of several ways to set up for is main story. The protagonist usually gets transported to an alternate world. In somecases, they meet their tragic deaths at the hands of Truck-kun. They gain some sort of RPG-like power by some mysterious entity. From there on, the protagonist lives in their new lifestyle while making new friends, enemies, lovers, etc. Oh and before I forget, isekai usually loves to go with harem involving female characters who wants to get into the main guy’s pants. It’s the sort of dead horse ideas that makes many isekai shows as blend as they are today. Kenja no Mago has a protagonist named Shin Walford who used to be a hardworking man in the real world. He gets killed by Truck-kun, reincarnated in a fantasy world, and grew up to be a strong person. This sound sort of familiar now? Oh wait, I forgot to mention that Shin is ungodly powerful for someone of his age. Make no mistake, Shin is an overpowered protagonist who shows little vulnerability. He’s like the Hulk Hogan of the early 1980s and isn’t going to put over anyone. Watching the story start off this way already set offs some red flags. Honestly, Shin isn’t much of an appealing protagonist to begin with. The show makes it clear that he lacks social skills and this is thanks to being raised in the wilderness. My first impression of Shin is that he is a young man trapped in a toddler’s body. Except here, Shin is stupidly powerful. His first encounter with the timid Sicily girl is laughably awkward. It’s one of those ‘love at first sight’ moments as both characters fall for each other. To put it bluntly, it seems the creator didn’t want to build on their relationship together. It’s just handing it over. It doesn’t help that she is extremely shy who often puts on her embarrassing face whenever getting close to her knight in shining armor. This isn’t a ‘will they or won’t they’ scenario type of story. This is just Shin and Sicily destined to be lovers like it’s some sort of fake Cinderella tale. I wish it was much more than that. Thankfully, the show contains more than these two lovebirds. From the main cast, there’s August von Earshide, Maria von Messina, May von Earsheid, Alice Corner, Lyn Hughes, Yuri Carlton, Oliver Schtrom, and among others. If you guessed it, then yes, some of these characters came from noble families. Because in fantasy worlds, there are what people call ‘status’. Shin is enrolled in a prestigious school to develop his social skills. What does that really mean? Well, it means this show is saturated with goofy moments and absurd amount of comedy. Honestly, I wonder what this anime tries to even be sometimes. A parody? I don’t think so since it doesn’t truly satirize the isekai genre. Konosuba did that with fantastic results. Then, it got me wondering if the anime is trying to bring something fresh to the audience. That can’t be yet either since the amount of ideas listed can be fit with any isekai shows nowadays. So what the hell is this show trying to be? Then, I realized something. The real problem with Kenja no Mago is it’s just plainly stupid. That’s the simplest way to describe it. It tries so hard to be funny that it loses its focus. Even with the serious storytelling on occasions, the comedy immediately puts the anime back to square one. Character such as Oliver Schtrom had my interest at first but after seeing him fall in despair and his true intentions, he became nothing more than archetype villain; not the creative type either. In fact, a 5 year old could make up a villain about as interesting as Oliver. The rest of the cast are hardly interesting with August’s casualness or Maria’s outspoken personality and fangirling over others. Characters such as Alice or May display childishness that gets in the way of others. And of course, there is Silciy and Yuri. The show seeks to make both of them look as attractive as possible. For Silcily’s case, it’s to make her look like a lovely doll with the elegance of a stereotypical young lady. In Yuri’s case, the show gives her cleavage as Ms. Fanservice. Almost every shot I see her in the show makes it seem like the camera is flirting with her. When you get a main cast like this, there’s little room for creativity. The adults are even less interesting with their formal ways of speaking. Trust me, it’s like listening your least favorite music on repeat. With Silver Link in charge, I had to lower my expectations a bit before the anime started. The promos and visual content reveals a generic style for its character designs. Even the battle segments in the show gets tedious fast because you can almost guess who will win. The character expressions are too cartoonish to be taken for laughs. It’s like the Disney type of humor aimed for children if that’s the target audience. In the meantime, I can’t even give much praise to the voice acting. With characters like Shin with a lack of social skills, the lines also sound laughably absurd. Creatively speaking, there’s some room for world building as it sticks to its core fantasy elements. At the same time, I do want to give some praise to its magical content as well. There’s a diverse range of magic in the show that makes an isekai be what it is. Oh Kenja no Mago. This is not a show I would recommend people unless you’re under 12 years old. It’s the type of anime that anyone could’ve written with no creative thought. To be honest, you can watch this anime at 2x times the speed and feel like you won’t miss much in the end. If Nobunaga-sensei no Osanazuma is the worst show of the year so far, it looks like it has some competition.

This show had so much potential. Sadly for us, the viewers, authors of this anime were high on summer shoe fumes when they wrote the script. Premise is not bad at all and main character being stupidly overpowered doesn't necessarily mean a bad show, just look at One Punch Man. However they messed up every single character to insurmountable degree. Everyone is constantly buys ooo-ing and wow-ing our protagonist that they are lack time to use their brains for a moment. Grandson is no better either. One moment he'll get lectured not to show off as that could cause international scandal, very next moment he goesand does it. In short, it needed so little to be good and it ended up being so bad because of fan service basically. Should you watch it? Yeah if you like dumb fun and have nothing else to watch.