Events
So I have serious problem with this one. On one side this show should be right up my alley — slow burn, an OP characters whose power isn’t the main focus, surprisingly mature relationships and topped with some really wholesome moments. On the other side — You can’t even say the script uses deus ex machina, it uses a whole deus ex manufactory to the scale that Henry Ford would be proud. On top of that...
A quick note before we start:
Many people use "Plot" and "Story" interchangeably. I ... do not.
I use modified versions of the terms used by Lisa Cron.
PLOT is the surface-level events. What, when, where, how and why (externally) things are happening.
STORY is why (internally) things are happening and what internally happens to the character during the plot.
Furthermore, I judge an anime by its own internal rules and genre framework. If a show sets itself up as a grounded military drama, I will dissect it using military and logical consistency. If it's pure psychological horror, I won't penalize it for not being a comedy. Expect my reviews to evaluate a show based on what it tries to be, not what you wish it was.
Furthermore, I will only review this specific show or season. If there is more info in the source material or other season… I do not care. I judge the product, not the whole ecosystem.
PART I – Story and Plot
This show has something a lot of anime from the last 15 years don’t – a story. And a pretty good one. A story about a 35 year old (this will be important for exactly the reason you think) war hero — Dias — that is awarded his own domain somewhere in the tail end of nowhere. Surprisingly his domain are just grasslands. No building anywhere, or at least so it would seem. Here we come to our first WTF moment. This is supposed to a reward, so why there is nothing here? On top of that Dias doesn’t get any sort of gear or even gold. That tells us a few thing. Either the king is a dick that wants him to die, just in case he would use his amazing power against him, someone is fucking with him, or the king didn’t know anything and someone else is trying to get rid of him. For the first 90 seconds of the first episode I call that efficient writing. We even get an answer to that later down the road.
By the ancient way of plot bullshit our hero, thanks to doing absolutely nothing, is taken to a hidden village of demihumans called “Onikind”. After spilling out his backstory like an NPC that encountered the protagonist of a Bioware game, and doing what he does best — fight — he becomes a friend to the village and even gets engaged… or married depends on who you ask, to a 15 year old girl named Alna. This is the moment I have to talk about something. Normally I think a 20 year age gap is disgusting in anime and I started with that thought but as the show progresses I changed my mind, at least to a point. Yes, the age gap is still a bit disturbing but this show does something that most other shows (especially isekai) don’t. Gives a pretty solid, logical, in universe reason for their relationship. On top of that this is probably the most mature relationship I have seen in anime in the last 15 years. Dias and Alna’s relationship is probably the best part of this show and it leaves a good 70% of romance anime on the market in the dust. I did not expect that and I might have had experienced cosmic horror because of that. I will speak more on that in the worldbuilding part.
The problem is that after he actually does something in the first episode to earn the respect of the onikind (kills a dragon and keeps a lot of materials that do a lot of heavy lifting logic wise later on) and bag Alna everything just happens for him. He needs more subjects? First his old comrade from the war — Klaus — joins him. An episode later a bunch of old women are saved by him and decide to be part of his flock. In episode 3 Dias buys 2 orphaned girls — Aihan and Senai — girls that are much more than meets the eye (Yes, I’m a G1 Transformers fan and I will use that line as I please) Now, if you know my reviews you know I have distaste for the way slavery is portrayed in 99,9% of anime. This is not such a case. This time the girls were sold to save them, by their parents and the trader took care of them… more or less. It is implied that they were under his care for some time and yet they were wearing the same clothes (more like sacks with holes) they had when he had acquired them. Now I’m no expert but if he had planned to sell them, then maybe getting them a more attractive wrapping would be a good idea. That said I like these two, they are surprisingly logically written and don’t spill their guts about everything from the get go. Hell they have secrets even at the end of the season. First a mature relationship, now characters that have internal logic. Is this show trying to get me to have a heart attack?
Dias befriends the ruler of a neighboring Kasdeks domain — Eldan — something that again, he doesn’t have to work for because the young man is practically a fanboy of his. Now Eldan is an interesting idea for a character with less than stellar writing, but I will get more into it in the Characters part of this review. Because of the free advertisement Dias gets in the Kasdeks domain 3 clans of small-ilk dogkin demihumans migrate to his domain. Once again, our war hero only needed to do two things: Jack and Shit. Those dogkin are probably the most original part of worldbuilding but also the most problematic when it comes to aesthetics. We also get a member of large-ilk dogkin as a free bonus. Something that Klaus will be more than happy about.
And now we come to episode 8. This episode showcases the best and the worst elements of writing. In this episode we witness a “war” (more of a skirmish but what the hell, they call it war, then so will I). On one side we get the most deus ex machina that deus ex machined in this show. Something so lazy and dumb that I couldn’t help but to be impressed by the heights the author will go to make Dias do close to nothing. Dias, Klaus and newly created squad made out of small-ilk dogkin face off against 3 forces (squads really) under the command of a pscho-princess. One is made out of mercenaries, the second is under the command of Eldan and the third are the private forces of the princess. So, how will Dias prevail? What manner of tactics will he employ to defeat superior numbers? Well… The mercenaries quit the job. It seems that a lot of them own Dias a debt as he saved mercenaries during the war. Eldan’s squad… sits down and has a tea break. That leaves only the princess’s squad and… it gets absolutely destroyed by the MC and his forces. That’s the worst part.
When it comes to the best part. The wives of the soldiers, under the command of Alna, use stealth and stay close to the battlefield in case anyone needs support. They even deal with the psycho-princess themselves. I loved that. It shows that there are women there that are capable of combat and don’t intend to let their husbands just die. In most other anime when we get a war, even a skirmish type like this one, women stay home and just worry about their husbands. Not here and I’m all game for that. Alna even scores a decent amount of money during the hunt for the princess. Seriously what gives? Shows that have much better writing plot wise have less good story beats than this deus ex machina fest.
The last thing I will speak of in regards of the plot is the bullshit of the last episode. Partially because there is not much to talk about in the episodes between 8 and 12 and partially because I should leave something unspoken in case You would like to experience this show for yourself. At some point Dias is given a reward of a sort for his deeds from a mysterious benefactor. That bounty is a seed and 3 leaves of a special plant. By the will of lazy writing our hero is also wounded and his wound starts to fester not long after. If you’ve read my text to this point you might already see where this is going.
Aihan and Senai, who at this point are pretty happy and integrated members of Dias’s and Alna’s family, plant the seed and make medicine from the leaves. Because the plant was a mythical universal remedy, Dias is healed by the next day from his illness. Let me spell it out for the people in the back. The MC is given a solution for a problem, just before that problem is even known. Not only that, his adoptive daughters know what to do just by looking at the sack the plant is kept. How? Because they have detective vision from the Arkham series. The plant just glows, though if the glow is seen only by them or is it something more magical that anyone could perceive is left vague. By the powers that be aka deus ex machina aka “I have no idea how to organically resolve something I set up in the previous episode” type of writing, the girls give the same medicine to Eldan. Surprisingly, but not really, that act cures him from his chronic illness and puts him in an interesting political situation, but that is not given much thought.
At this point it will not be a surprise that I have mixed feelings about the plot and story. Calling it a mixed bag is not a direct lie but it does not reflect the nuance of the plot. Right next to some amazing ideas, with solid execution, thing I yearn for in a lot of shows, we get things that are so lazy and dumb that I can only call them “baby’s first script”. The Story is solid, I will give credit where credit is due, but the plot… oh boy. I omitted the sheep like creatures called Baars but there is a plot point with them that kills not only the pacing but also the emotional weight of the episode it occurs. I will speak about them more in the worldbuilding part.
PART II – Characters
Here I will only talk about the most important characters story wise. It is by no means an exhaustive list, there are more characters that help to build the world, story and plot. There are just the most interesting and important from my point of view.
Dias — aka Dias the Blue, aka Dias the Kindly, aka No balls Dias (the genesis of this one gets my seal of approval and I will not speak of it out of respect for the writer’s good idea) aka The Kingdom’s heroic savior. Physically he is an imposing figure. If I had to guess I would say he’s 190 – 200 cm tall with massive muscles and skin carrying reminders of war. He is a simple man, I wouldn’t call him stupid, it’s more like during his creation someone forgot to put points in wisdom. It is seen the best in his way of fighting. If this was an RPG I would call him ma DPS Tank. He just charges and hits things until they are dead or no longer have the will or means to fight. Watching him fight an earth dragon (a giant turtle basically) was… interesting. He just jumped on its shell and spent the better part of a day just whacking it with his self repairing double handed axe (the size of a damn polearm). Yes, You have read that right, this absolute unit of a man has an absolute unit of an axe that can repair itself. Because we can’t have a protagonist that has to actually worry about his gear. That would have been silly. What do you think this is, a Tarkovsky’s movie?
That said his personality is a stark contrast to his physicality, a trope that is at this point a cliché but still find it endearing. After losing his parents he was raised in an orphanage and because of his upbringing he becomes a big brother / father sort of figure for the rest of orphans. Those who appear later in the show still call him “father” or “big brother”, it is a testament both of his kindness and respect his proteges still hold for him. There is a saying I like: “Respect is earned, not given” and Dias clearly earned his.
Despite not being a genius he is surprisingly clever when the need arises. His way of learning Aihan and Senai’s names was actually a good piece of writing. I was expecting something cheap or the girls spilling their guts after 3 seconds. What I got was far better.
His attitude towards Alna is actually logical. It starts out as a relationship that is a product of need, more than want. Without her he would have been dead and lost. After he proves his worth and she starts acting like a proper wife material he slowly but surely start seeing her not as a 15 year old that was practically thrust on him, but as someone who he truly cares for. I would even go so far as to say that at the tail end of the show he is more than aware of his feelings and keeps them in check only because of her age. His attitude is actually… maybe not great but better than in most shows – if anything will come to pass between them it will only be when she is 18. This part can be seen both as something positive and as negative and I don’t intend to tell you how you should feel about it. That said he respects Alna and defers to her when a serious decision is to be made.
The negative aspects of him are the fact that he’s a little too kind and too lenient when it comes to his adoptive daughters, leaving Alna to be the proper grown up and discipline them when the need arises. I’m far from saying that he should scold them but I am saying that he should be at least a little more strict. From a logical point of view his kindness is also a problem. He needs subjects for his domain and allows old women in need to become them. The problem is, as Klaus rightfully points out, they bring very little to the table. Dias’s decision is right on track for the type of person he is but it also shows that he is unwilling or unable to act more like a proper ruler. That said he never needs to. The world is more than happy to bend over backwards for him like a cheap whore on worker’s payday.
Alna — Best character in the show, hands down. She is a far cry from most female leads / love interests in most anime… with a caveat but You’ll know it when You read it. She’s a member of the onikind which really boils down to that she can use magic and has a horn in her forehead, almost like the creator was a fan of the “The Last Unicorn”, minus the childhood trauma (if You know, you know). The horn has different colors for different occasions but I’ll get to that in the Worldbuilding part of this text.
Now… I am not an anthropologist or a sociologist, my education was in social psychology with a little bit of clinical psychology thrown in there for good measure. That said, Alna’s evolution is actually pretty solid. Her relationship with Dias starts out almost like a punishment for her. But she changes her mind after he proves his worth, she begins to treat him like a husband. On top of that her vision of a wife is vastly different than the one other, less thoughtful anime, might have get you used to. She is far from a simple cooking, cleaning and stay home kind. When the war starts she recruits other wives and stands with Dias. On top of that, she is not idiot. Her squad was stealthed, probably because she knew of her disadvantage if someone would bind her in close combat. She sees herself as Dias’s wife (even he doesn’t just yet) and is acting like a wife from a nomadic tribe would. I liked that.
She’s also not a one trick pony. Yes, she cares for Dias and yes, she is an equal partner to him. And because of that she has no problem with scolding him when he acts like a tool or forgets something important. There is even a scene when she trains her hand by shadow slapping, just in case he deserves it.
When it comes to her flaws… she doesn’t really have any (apart from the 15-years-old can of worms that is). And that’s a problem all in itself. Listen, I would like a perfect wife as much as the next guy but they don’t exist. Alna is less of a character and more an idea. An idea about a perfect, young wife. She’s perfection incarnate to the point that despite being more cool headed and logical, she doesn’t kill a psycho-princess because Dias’s avoids killing. She even thinks of him after just hunting the said princess. She’s an amazing cook, she’s responsible for being strict with Aihan and Senai when it is needed and even acts like a teacher and advisor to Dias. On top of all that, thanks to her magic she’s a perfect person to haggle the prices with the merchants. When Dias’s wound starts festering she blames herself… for some reason, probably because the author thinks that’s a proper response for a situation outside of someone’s control. Unfortunately all that makes her flatter than she should be. She should be allowed to make mistakes and deal with the consequences of that. She is still the best character of the show and one of the best female characters I’ve seen in the last 15 years, but her perfection is her biggest flaw… I feel like there’s a lesson in there somewhere but I’m too autistic to see it.
Eldan — If Alna is the best character in the show, Eldan is one of the worst, or even THE worst one. His idea on paper is actually awesome. A ruler of a neighboring domain that spreads false rumors about himself to use them as a smokescreen for his true goal? Sigh me the eff up. That is an A-rank idea if I ever saw one.The problem is that it’s paired with D-rank execution.
He is an offspring of a human and a demihuman which makes him a half-demihuman. It comes with some perks and a drawback. He can change his form from looking like a human to looking like a demihuman. I imagine that skill comes in handy during negotiations with humans. The drawback is that the transformation exhausts him and makes him have a rather weak disposition.
One thing I will say I like that despite acting like a fanboy towards Dias, he is an incredibly shrewd politician. He uses circumstances for the benefit of his (and even Dias’s) domain. I would really like to see more of that side of him, but the author saw fit to give us only the loud annoying side for most of his screen time.
Klaus — Me talking about Klaus might be strange because he’s a minor character with little screen time but I think he deserves this spot. He’s much more interesting as a concept than one might think.
He’s an old war buddy of Dias, they fought together to defend hiding civilians against a whole squad of enemy troops. We first see him when the psycho-princess is trying to recruit Dias to her cause. A few minutes later we see him looking for Dias to join him as a soldier of his domain. What is really interesting is his motivation. He didn’t want to go to the front lines in case of a civil war. Some people might call him a coward, but if you are reading this text, then I know you are not such a simpleton. He fought during the war, when Dias’s domain is under attack he stands strong on the front line to defend his new home. The implication being he doesn’t have a problem with the fighting itself, but rather the reason for it. Or at least I interpret it that way and as a firm believer in the death of the author I intend to stick with that interpretation.
The second interesting part about him is that he was probably raised in the central parts of the kindgom. Places that treat demihumans as trash. That would probably infect his way of thinking but it doesn’t. Not only he doesn’t mind Alna but he even falls in love with a big-ilk dogkin demihuman. Something one might think impossible if he spent most of his life in the central regions. Now, there could be a lot of reasons why he is the way he is but that still doesn’t take away that he is a good idea with too little screen time. Also the dude has definitely ADHD and I love him for that.
Aihan and Senai (yes, they are a package deal because the writer didn’t see fit to make them actually two character, they are one character divided into two bodies for drama’s sake) — this time we get something different — a cliché idea with a solid execution. They lost their parents, they are members of a species of demihumans most never even saw. They command powerful magic and have trust issues. Hell yes!
For starter I absolutely adore the fact that they keep secrets from Dias and Alma, even after they started thinking about themselves as their adoptive children. It’s not because they are assholes, it because their parents warned them about humans and Dias is a human. For them he is a kind human but still a human so they don’t tell him about their magic. They even asked him if he would be sad if they kept secrets from him. He said that everyone has a few secrets (which for me implies that he also has them, just waiting to be uncovered) which reassured them. Despite that they still use it in secret to help Dias’s field grow crops.
The real problem with them is that they don’t use deus ex machina, they are a deus ex machina. They use the leaves Dias got as a reward to create a medicine for Dias and Eldan. And they solve a problem with Dias’s field, just like that. I really wished they would make more mistakes, maybe even overestimate their magic control and do something really dumb. As it stands they are a cool idea with a solid, but not exactly good execution.
PART III – Worldbuilding
This is the part that I have the most praise for. Unlike in a lot of other fantasy anime the author put some thought when creating this world. Even in the creation of my most hated element – the baars, but I’ll get to them.
For starters this show doesn’t use the tired old cliché of a medieval European town for its background. This time we get something much less common – the nomadic tribe lifestyle. The onikin that Dias encounters use yurts and thanks to that Dias’s first village, despite being a static place also uses them as their main architectural element. It is an interesting idea to use something that is meant for traveling to ground people in one place. I’m not sure if such a maneuver would last the test of time, especially when the village will start counting its population in dozens but for what we get it’s a solid choice. The real question is why Dias doesn’t even try to get at least one solid building built.
Alna’s horn along with its soul appraisal magic is an interesting but illogical idea. When used it glows red when someone is hostile, white if someone is harmless without hostility and blue if the person will bring joy or blessings upon the user. Later it is expanded that it glows red when someone is lying. Yeah… You see the problem? This spell is another deus ex machina, it does whatever is needed at the moment. It glows red when a merchant is lying and white when he’s telling the truth. Those things are completely different to the mechanics that we get in the first episode. The fact that someone will bring joy to the user is not the same thing as “That person is not an asshole”. Being an asshole and bringing joy though actions aren’t contradictions. To add to that, later down the line we are presented with the fact that this spell can be nullified or even fooled. So yeah… not a very solid idea.
The idea with small-ilk and big-ilk demihumans tell me one thing… someone’s been playing The Elder Scrolls and is a fan of Khajits. Khajits is a race with a lot of subspecies in it. Some look more humanoid with their bipedal chassis and the ability to use hands with opposing thumbs much the way humans do. But there are also those that look nothing like them, giant tigers and even house hold cats. They are all Khajits and each form has different strengths and weaknesses. The small and big ilks are the same idea but less fleshed out. The small-ilk are the subspecies that looks more like normal animals but has the ability to speak and is self aware. The big-ilk are more classical beast people with humanoid forms. The idea is solid but the small-ilk give the whole show an almost fairy tale vibe. Remember how Snow White talked with animals? Yeah… that was the vibe I got when I first saw Dias talking to them. In a more action oriented or shonen show that would be big problem. But because this is more of a slice of life fantasy show… it still looks weird but is more acceptable.
Fine… let’s talk about the damn baars… why the hell didn’t I just keep quiet about those little fucks? The idea of them in a weird one. They are self aware, they have their own language that small-ilk dogkin and Alna can understand and yet they are classified as animals. Why? How does that work? They even have their own way of deciding on a pack leader. Now… they have horns, just like rams. If they were simple animals they should use whatever evolution gifted them. One might think that their way of settling disputes would be to fight using those horns (just like rams). Nope. The author said fuck evolution, so their way of choosing a pack leader is… by singing. I’m not even joking. We get a 3 minute sequence when all we get is those damn things singing… why? Just… WHY?
PART IV – Themes
The main themes that are on full display are Fish out of water, Noble Savage, The outside savior and Found Family (I swear is there an anime that can do without this one? It’s everyone, like a plague). The main problem I have is with the noble savage and the outside savior. The onikin are positioned as people who are the enemies of the kingdom and are here illegally. Dias doesn’t really care, probably because he would be dead without them. But that still is a problem. It shows characters that are less technologically developed as uncorrupted by civilization and morally superior. That’s all well and dandy but it is stated that the onikin oppose the king over the sovereignty of the grasslands and they were even driven out. The only reason why they are here now is their magic that makes them invisible. So… what’s the long term goal here? I mean I know what the long term goal is – Dias is the long term goal but before him what was it? They just kept to themselves for over 50 years and used their stealth magic? I get that they are the noble savages in here but even the damn navi in Cameron’s Avatar had the brains to adapt their weaponry and tactics. This is less of a plan and more of a stage to make Dias awesome.
And here we get to the Outside Savior trope. Dias is the outside savior. For starters the onikin tribe was just sitting and waiting for a psycho lord to get a hold of the grasslands and find them. Come to think of it… why did the grasslands stand empty for 50 years? That’s a lot of time. Japan rebuilt after the nukings in far less time. Alna and her family were poor until Dias came along. I get that he’s the hero and I don’t even mind that he could be an element of the solutions to the problems but he is the whole deal. Without him the onikin would still live in fear of a potentially psycho lord and Alna and her family would still be poor because no one did anything. It takes away the onikin agency and makes them NPCs in a Bethesda game.
PART V – Conclusion
Do I think this a competently written show?
No, no I do not. Watching this is like watching a script made separately by two different people and stitched together at random. We have really good ideas for characters, solid plot points and story beats right next to absolute garbage execution. The MC barely has to do anything to profit. He just exists the world gives him everything – A young, competent and attractive wife, his comrade in arms, more subjects for his domain and even solutions to problems that have yet to happen. The only reason why I even give this show a “mixed feelings” rating is that I really think that it’s worth a watch for the good parts. It’s like watching a good writer smuggle his work into a bag of rusted nails.
If you do want to watch it let me get one thing straight. Do not watch it like a normal action oriented show, go in with the assumption that you are watching a slice of life. It will help a lot. This show’s lows are really low but the highs are worth it. Just don’t expect anything ground breaking. Well… at least it’s not an isekai.
