Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter

“Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter” is what happens when You have ideas for only 4 episodes and have to wing the rest. Have You seen “Assassins Pride” or “Wise Man's Grandchild”? Well this is basically an amateurish amalgamation of the worst part of them but somehow creepier and with even less logic in its plot. Yes. I was surprised as well. Another thing that surprised me was that this show, despite being awful, has some very good ideas for its stories. It just wastes them by treating them superficially. Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”.Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page… I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them: “What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.” “STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”. I’m gonna start with this: After episode 4 nothing truly interesting happens. For those 4 episodes Allen (the MC) has a clearly defined goal — teach Tina (the duke’s daughter) to use magic. Something that is positioned as, if not impossible, very close to it. We even get an info dump that she had other teachers that just gave up on her. That is a very nice set up. Not only do we get a clear goal from the get go but also a warning that it’s not going to be easy. So far so good. Even better — Tina herself has low hopes about her using magic. She’s a hard worker but despite all the time, blood, sweat and tears can’t cast even the simplest of spells. That is good. We get not only a one sided challenge for Allan but also some psychological problems with Tina. I liked that. On top of that Allan doesn’t just wave his finger and magically (pun intended) resolves Tina’s problem with magic. He is shown to actually try different methods (even if they look the same on the outside) to make her cast a spell. We even see him do his research in the duke’s library. Could his research and thought process be more fleshed out? Absolutely, but not everyone is a methodology freak like me, so I get why it’s not. Nothing to complain about so far. So what’s the problem, you might ask? Well… in the end Allan both figuratively and metaphorically waves his finger and magically solves Tina’s problem with using magic. I was pissed. It felt unearned. What’s the effing point of setting up a proper, methodical, close to scientific method of achieving a goal when at the end of the day You will just flip Your d**k and solve in one of the most anticlimactic ways I have ever seen in anime? I guess I’m myself to blame. I allowed myself to be fooled by previous episodes and the fact that the protagonist was actually proactive and involved with the mystery of Tina’s magic problems. Of course there was a set up for what he was going to do. A lazy one but still a set up. Of course everyone with room temperature IQ knew that he will use that “forbidden” method. I have no problems with that. What I do have a problem is that it solved ALL Tina’s problems. Why? For eff’s sake why? Why not make it just the first step? Why not make it that this would only allow Tina to use magic in this very scenario with Allen? Why not make her train to be able to stand on her own two feet? Why not make it that Allen has to now think of the way to help her do that? No. Alan just fixes everything at once. This show has really bad writing from that point on and I really couldn’t be bothered to get invested in anything that happens for the next 8 episodes. There is a rather pathetic scene in episode 5 that illustrates how bad the writing gets. It’s also a scene that killed in me any hope that the show will even pretend to be character driven. Tina (who is a kid) kisses Allen (who is probably in his later teens). Now hold on. Before You make a judgment I want You to know... It gets worse. Oh god it gets worse. Tina reaches towards Allan, he (with a stupid facial expression) bends over and dares to play surprised. It was rather painful to watch. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Why the fuck did he even lowered his head? With their difference in height if he had stood tall she wouldn't have been able to kiss him. But no. The writer is so dumb and inept that this was probably the only way to make the rest of the show possible. At least it’s the lowest point in the writing. There isn’t anything as stupid as this. Some moments come close but fortunately are at least a little bit better. As for the good ideas for stories that I mentioned earlier they all are connected to the supporting cast. The best one is when Stella —Tina’s sister — has a crisis because of how powerful Tina has become. She is filled with jealousy and feelings of inadequacy. It even has a proper, rather nice, set up. Everything, even an amateur writer, would need to create a compelling, character driven, dramatic arc. But this is “Private Tutor to the Duke's Daughter” so we don’t get anything like that. What we do get is another example of one, simple, not very compelling talk solving almost everything. One talk and Stella gets the courage to stand tall and confront her sister, her best friend and her feelings of inferiority. For effs sake. We do get some cheap scenes of her and Allen training but that’s not nearly enough for me to give a damn about what will happen. Who the hell cares that she trains her combat if we get nothing about her coping with her feelings or even using training to not think about them? It’s all so shallow and pointless in the end. And that is the arc that ends this season (I doubt it will get season 2). Why? I get that, apart from the first, this is the most emotionally compelling arc but the execution of it is still trash. What happened to the writers responsible for the first 4 episodes? I know they dropped the ball at the end but they did an adequate job earlier. Make them write the last arc. At least it will pretend to be good. The world building isn’t any better. For starters. Why do some mages use wands and staves and some don’t? Allen doesn’t need any sort of tool to cast spells. Tina learns to use spells and we see her use them without the help of a tool. So why does she use a staff later? If the reason is only because it’s a memento of her mother, then that sucks as an explanation. Her sister uses a wand but I doubt she needs it. There is no clear reason for that. So why? Another thing is that magic seems disjointed from the world until the writer thinks of something. Simple example. Allen exchanges letters with his friend but he doesn’t really need to. He is able to create a magical bird that carries messages. So why use letters? Doesn’t seem to be much of a use for them. At least for him. There is a point at which we are informed that beast people are discriminated against but… we don’t really see it except the scene when we get that info dump. We don’t see anyone displaying negative actions towards Allen’s sister who is from the Wolf Clan. We don’t see anything of that sort in the city or at school in general. Why even have this element of the world building if You’re going to just forget about it the next moment? Why make him a substitute teacher at school if You’re only going to use that once? What is the point? His lesson doesn’t even matter. It does tell the viewer about spell classes but that’s it. That’s info we could get any other way. We don’t see him teach any other time so why? Is it to make him stay close to Tina? He already has a reason for that, making him a teacher changes nothing. Yeah… I’m not even touching with a 50 meter pole the subject of Allen entertaining his loli harem instead of shutting it down the moment any of the girls display any sort of affection. It’s just creepy. It’s all just so lazy and surface level. The show starts off as an interesting, almost a mystery and devolves to a bland, generic and boring slob from episode 5. Everything in this show You saw a million times already in (I hope) much better shows. This one is just a waste of time.

This show is a hard one for me. It had a great premise and I was amazed at 1st episode. They use magic but they have early 20th century technology like cars, steam trains and central heating. The MC is not a teenager but late 20's mature man, the spell system was great and the animation when they are using magic was looking great. Then episode 5 came and went and with it the quality of anime dropped drastically... I will speak more about this in story part of the review. Animation and sound - animation is average with the exception of magic use. You can tellthat they put efforts into battles and magic spells. All of them were enjoyable watch. Music is industry standard, which is a bit disappointing as this is fantasy and I expected some sort of memorable epic music. Oh well.... Overall - animation and music is industry standard with the exception of magical scenes. Characters - I like Allen as a character. He is late 20's and despite losing the prestigious place in the kingdom he does not let that beat him down and looks forward with optimism. He is a tutor now and he is really good in his work, watching him feeling satisfaction while watching his students grow is priceless. Tima, Ellie and Lynee also grow and develop their skills and personas under his guidance. The rest important ones are Lydia, who is his future wife and she is very yandere about it, Caren who is his adoptive sister and Stella who is Tina's older sister. They are all fine in their own roles, with only Stella getting some development. Overall - as far as Characters go MC is a very good one, a nice change of pace form OP character or edgy teenager. The rest are unfortunately not so great, depending on your taste in character tropes. Allen has to carry the whole show and it shows... Story - Now, the story's premise is great and while it is only that - a private tutor to the Duke's daughter, it works. Having to teach Tina and Ellie and seeing them grow and overcome their obstacle is fantastic watch. Some hated this part becasue they do not know how relationships and crushes work, but despite that first 4 episodes were quite enjoyable. Then episode 5 came out and... the show quality dropped from 7 or even 8 to downright 4 or 5. They introduced a lot of other characters, a yandere future wife and added harem tag on top of everything. Add to that jealous royalty and increase idiocy of everyone by the factor of 100 and you will get 2nd part of this show. My only question is: why? Why a reason to turn this into shameless harem? Where female characters lose all their intelligence lusting over MC who can see all of that, but being responsible adult declines all of that. If this how remained what it was in the 1st 4 episodes and just stick to the three established characters and their journey this would be much more enjoyable show. Now as it is, it is a mess. Story - Strong beginning then everything crumbles after episode 5. At least for me. Overall grade - 7. And that is being generous, I personally gave it 8 becasue first 4 episodes and some of the later story points are really keeping with me but the rest is a mess. Realistic grade for something is 6 to 7, it was a promising show that sink into generic harem show really fast. Which is a shame as MC is great, setting is great, magic system is fantastic and the battles were good. As for recommendation... This is a really hard one. Giving how it is in the later half I would say that if you dislike harem shows and all the tropes it comes with one this is an easy miss. If you like fantasy setting and do not mind harem that much I would say give it a show just to enjoy magic system and battles alone. They have set up cliffhanger for the next season. While I doubt it will get it at all, I will watch S2 just to see if the story will improve form there or not.

8/10 for this anime Yes, I will give a little review for some points in this anime. It started with Allen being a private tutor for the Howard family with his 2 little students. The development of both of them is good enough to be able to keep up with ALLEN perhaps. As for the storyline I'm relaxed, it's good but not bad either, I don't know why so many people hate it. For graphics and animation, I give it an A because it is very good!. The drama in this anime is quite simple and simple is good enough. I hope Season 2 is produced assoon as possible. The opening song is very good and meaningful, the ending song is quite good. THX

This is probably going to annoy some people, but I could draw a lot of parallels between this show and "Assassin's Pride" from 2019. The tutoring aspect of the story, the fact the setting is kind of industrial-era with magic (not quite magipunk), the fact that the student fawns over the teacher and develops feelings (as does almost everyone else), the fact that the (initial) main female lead has difficulties accessing her latent abilities, the fact the MC has a love-interest set-up from the get-go, that all the other girls fawn over as well, etc, etc. Yeah, there are definitely a lot of similarities here. After watchingall 12 episodes of "Private Tutor", I can also see where a lot of the criticism and complaints are coming from; I too found the first 4-5 episodes really good. The pacing was excellent, the story was interesting, the dialogue was endearing and charming, and the characters were all well-written and fleshed-out. Nary a complaint from me over the course of this initial arc, and if it had ended there, well, I might make an argument that the anime would have been better off for it, despite being so short. However, we then get into the other 7-8 episodes, which are all focussed around the academy and various conflicts that happen therein. We get introduced to a load more characters, some of whom do not end up with enough screen-time to get properly fleshed-out, while others end up being the focus for differing lengths of time. Not only this, but the MC goes from being a guy whose singular focus is helping his student through her issues and unlocking her potential, while struggling to find a way to do so, to a guy who somehow has the answer to every question, can overcome any obstacle, can do anything and everything in regards to magic, despite constantly saying he's not very good at it, and also ends up with every girl aged 10 and over fawning over him like he's Prince Charming incarnate. It honestly feels like someone, whether the author (although I hear the LN is decent), or a director for the anime got to Episode 4-5, thought "this is way too interesting!" and suddenly decided to pivot to making a mostly-generic fantasy harem anime. It's really kind of baffling. This isn't to say that there aren't still good moments in these 7-8 episodes, but it's just not as solid compared to the first 4-5. I would also say, lastly, that the graphics and animation quality also dips in those later episodes, lending at least a bit of credence to my opinion of a re-write or studio interference. Overall, if I were to rate those opening episodes, I'd give them an 8/10 (maybe even a 9/10), while the remaining episodes would be 6/10. I think 7/10 "Good", but "Mixed Feelings" is a solid representation of the show as a whole. Not at all unwatchable, and I found it enjoyable enough, but it's not going to be a story for everyone. Bit of a shame really.