Kenja no Deshi wo Nanoru Kenja

With a dignified veteran's body and a long white beard, summoner mage Dunbalf was one of the strongest player characters in the virtual reality online multiplayer roleplaying game Ark Earth Online, even heralded as a one-man army. Together with the "Nine Wise Mages" and King Solomon, they formed the mage player Kingdom of Alcait. But one day, Dunbalf and the other Nine Wise Mages suddenly go missing, leaving no trace behind.

In an effort to spend his expiring credits, Dunbalf had purchased a cosmetic kit and tinkered with his character; however, he accidentally fell asleep during the customization process. Upon waking up, Dunbalf not only notices that the world of Ark Earth Online has become more realistic, but also discovers that he has turned into a cute girl! After reaching Alcait, he learns it has been 30 years since he supposedly disappeared.

Now tasked with finding the other missing mages by King Solomon, the avid role player proclaims his new identity as Mira—the Pupil of the Wise Man Dunbalf—and ventures forth to prove his legacy.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Mira Main

Oomori, Nichika Japanese

Solomon Supporting

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Luminaria Supporting

Hinata, Minami Japanese

Zeph Supporting

Saitou, Junichi Japanese

Pam Supporting

Kino, Hina Japanese

Mariana Supporting

Horie, Yui Japanese

Tact Supporting

Izawa, Kanomi Japanese

Fricka Supporting

Sakura, Yae Japanese

Soul Howl Supporting

Hirakawa, Daisuke Japanese

Emera Supporting

Natsuyoshi, Yuuko Japanese

Shimosato, Satoru Producer

Yoshida, Kento Producer

Arai, Kousuke Producer

Satou, Shunsuke Producer

Reviews

Jul 1, 2022

Tiffanys

Recommended

I'm not sure why there are so many abysmal reviews here on MAL. I thought it was a wholesome enjoyable little series. Fun to watch and easily bingeable.

I do wish they'd made somewhat of a bigger deal about everyone being trapped in the isekai world, not being to log out, what's surely happened to their bodies in 30 years, and so on. Those facts are utterly glossed over and all but ignored. And I don't really like that.

That aside, it was an enjoyable watch. Though expect somewhat more of a wholesome entertaining experience like Bofuri rather than something hardcore and super serious like Overlord.

I can ... understand why some people complain, as not a whole lot happens if you're looking for X and Y major plot points and resolutions and such. It's somewhat more of an adventure, and still very much still working on the primary task having not really made much progress as of yet. Sort of like you might expect in a 200 episode shōnen but of course this is only 12 episodes so they haven't gotten all that far into it. They've only really just begun unraveling some of the mysteries, and barely brushing the surface of some others.

The main character's absolutely adorable by the way. Maybe not quite Bofuri adorable, but still pretty darn cute.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 29, 2022

Clobbopus

Mixed Feelings

Generic. That's a word your going to see a lot in this review because that perfectly describes it.

Going into the season this was honestly one of my most anticipated shows. I had discovered this show when I had just finished reading “The boy who cried wolf tells a lie today also”(which to this date is one of my favorite manga) which got me a bit interested in the Gender Bender genre. The premise for this show sounded intriguing and I was excited to see what it had to offer. As you might have guessed I was disappointed with the result.

The show makes little ... to no attempt to take advantage of its Gender Bender gimmick. It's mainly used to help hide the MC’s identity which he didn’t have to be gender-bent to do anyways. Other than that it's just used for some bad fanservice scenes. Added to the fact that it’s really just complete generic.

Art:3
If you didn’t know already this show uses CGI. It's not good CGI like some other shows have either. It’s just really bad CGI. It's clunky and looks super awkward for the most part. Even without the CGI, the art in this show is just so bland. It does nothing to try and catch your eye. The character designs are also bland. None of them are really bad but none of them are good either.

Sound:5
For the most part, there was either an awkward silence or just are really generic music track playing. Nothing was really memorable at all. The voice acting was fine but not really anything special. The Op and Ed were pretty nice tho. But in the end, they aren’t anything special either. Just overall very generic

Characters:3
I usually find my main source of enjoyment in anime to be the characters. A good cast of characters can bring a show up from a 6 to a 9 to me. This show just didn’t have it. The only characters that I even remembered besides the MC were the MC’s maid and this weird girl who was a pervert to the MC and was in like 2 episodes. The characters are just so generic so they ended up being super forgettable. I know I have been using the word generic a lot but there really is no better way to describe the characters and really the show as a whole.

Story:4
There is no story. If there was a story I just failed to notice it. The majority of the show just consisted of the MC doing various miscellaneous tasks. Then showing other people his op skills which was almost always some sort of CGI monster. I'm honestly fine if a show is like this. This season's “In the Land of Leadale” pretty much did the exact same thing. But that show had lots of other things that made me interested and enjoy the show. This one simply did not.

Enjoyment:6
It was sometimes entertaining to watch. But honestly watching any other anime you usually give me more enjoyment. There were some nice scenes but it was usually outweighed by the show having a whole bunch of nothing to offer.

I honestly don’t really mind shows that are generic too much. Normally a show like this would be around a 6 for me. What was really disappointing is that this show could have been so much more. I think the perfect way to show what the show could have done is to compare it to fellow winter 2022 shows “Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout” and “In the Land of Leadale” which are fellow gender bender and VR MMORPG Isekai respectively. I honestly don’t think either of these two anime are all that amazing. But they play their respective roles so much better than this show does.

Starting with “Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout”. This show is generic in every possible aspect except with the Genderbender aspect. Unlike this show, it takes full advantage of it. Almost every joke in Fantasy Knockout is based on the gender-bent character. Sometimes it does get old but it has likable characters and great production values to back it up. Something that this show lacks completely. Even the way they travel is affected by the gender-bend. The majority of the obstacles and enemies they face are only there because of one of the gender-bent dude. By doing all this the show ends up transforming from something generic to something completely unique.

Going to the VR MMORPG aspect side. “In the Land of Leadale” also does a much better job than this show. Like this show, the VR MMORPG is used as the source of the MC’s op powers but it's also used to introduce the protagonist's children. Her children serve as the main focus in the earlier episodes and there are lots of wholesome interactions with them. They also have something that this show lacks: Personality. It gave me reasons to care about the show. It also was pretty easy to understand what Leadale was about and what it was trying to be. On the other hand, I am honestly not sure what this show was trying to do.

I haven’t read the light novel but I’m sure that it's much better than the anime. Defiantly in the art aspect just by looking at some of the illustrations. If you for some reason still have interest in this show just read the light novel instead. Other than that just watch “Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout” or “In the Land of Leadale” instead.

Overall 5/10

Don’t waste your time on this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 29, 2022

SpRayquaza11

Not Recommended

TLDR
I watched this since it was there in Muse Asia, and I had never thought id ever have a more enjoyable time watching YT ads than anime.

Bad CGI is forgivable but the laughable amount of still frames, the same soundtrack being used everywhere even though it does not even fit, convoluted storytelling with several boring infodumps that only get MORE convoluted and stupid as the show progresses. everything about this show is lazy. The only plus I could see is MC having a pretty nice wardrobe and looking anywhere from slightly adorable, to the borderline-hentai-manga-loli type of cute in her numerous outfits.


Full review:-

I ... feel bad for people who are using subscription services since this is clearly not what they signed up for.

The new feeling of my internet bandwidth being “wasted” emerged when I watched this and I got it for FREE on YT .

It's hard to even quantify and remain unbiased because this “show” hardy even passes to be called an ACTUAL ANIME.

you will have a hard time finding any actual 2D animation other than generic mouth movement with faces that remain expressionless most of the time.

There is no reason to even bother to call it a video at times, any ATTEMPT at an action scene is always either a CGI mess (which is almost on berserk 2016 level) or absolute STILL frames with a lot of cringe background shouting that is just pictures FFS XD.

A seasoned anime trash watcher can call this bullshit out in the first ep XD. The whole of the first episode is spent describing the game and why MC is good and OP with boring dialogue, annoying CGI battles with carbon copy D&D Monsters, wherever CG is not possible minimal or no animation with still frames are fed right in. The rest of the half episode you witness ZERO dialogue whatsoever, I wonder if they simply forgot to record. Generic Loli walks round sniffs flowers, panties grass, and pissing. I SHIT NOT that's what she does for the rest of the episodes and even her eyes arent drawn XD.

If for some magical reason you decide to continue……

The show has Info dumps that get so god dang boring, you keep moving in circles, it feels like doing side quests in a fuckin RPG, the MC basically gets ordered round to find this guy then that guy then this guy, and on and on it goes, that is the only excuse the show uses to drive the plot forward, IF this is how the manga or LN also progresses, I have no clue why it is even remotely popular.


Plot:- (4/10)
NO just No, one would probably find a more compelling story on a free Japanese V novel.

VA, Sound, and OST (4/10)
The same loli intro scene from episode 1 OST keeps playing loops even if the scene totally does not match. Standard RPG type ED and OP which are good but forgettable after the first hearing, not to mention the stupid as fuck walking simulator ED scene which totally kills its replayability chances. The MC VA is pretty good at the character archetype she trynna plays the rest are as generic as they come.

Animation and art (3/10)
ALL the Budget is spent lewding the loli which too is pretty low quality by today's standard.

Character (2/10)
At least their names are funny IG.


Watch the first episode, LAUGH. DROP. Forget. the end. Don't suffer as I did.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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