English Dub Review: Wise Man’s Grandchild “A Starlit Pledge”

We did the hot springs episode, now it’s time for the beach episode.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The training camp continues to great success, with both Merlin and Melida serving as excellent teachers for the students. Their powers are increasing tenfold as each of them learns from Shin how to enhance their abilities through enhancement magic. However, Shin remarks that they’ll need to become much stronger if they want to really stand against the demonoids, even him. Shin unleashes a spell he considers to be his most powerful attack yet, which impresses his classmates even further.

Later, Shin and August are summoned by August’s fiance, Elizabeth, and his little sister, May. The two are furious with him for leaving them behind while he went off to camp and proceed to give him a mighty tongue lashing. Despite August’s protests, they get August’s father’s permission to come to camp with them. Shin, August, Elizabeth and May then have a fun day out together on the town before returning to camp.

Later that evening, Shin and Sicily get some alone time in a gazebo to enjoy the night sky together. With the mood just right, Shin admits that he loves Sicily, a confession with Sicily returns in kind. The two are interrupted by their friends, who were listening in on their conversation, and announce their new relationship.

The episode then finishes things up with a volleyball game between the young mages. They demonstrate their new powers within the game, making for a ferocious battle between them. Afterwards, the gang goes to bed, where nighttime shenanigans ensue.

Our Take:

It’s almost hilarious how fitting the timing is on this particular episode of Wise Man’s Grandchild. Just as I had criticized the show for being as generic as generic could be as it runs down the checklist of “Profitable anime tropes”, it hits the next obvious cliche on the menu: the beach episode. You’d think that they’d wait a little bit on hitting another groan-worthy trope so soon, but when your show won’t last past one season I suppose you do what you’ve gotta do. Most everything I’ve said in my review last week still stands here, as does the major criticisms I’ve had of this show in general. However, there is a little bit more to look at here, since we’ve got a couple new characters added to the embarrassingly large cast.

August’s fiance, Elisabeth and his little sister, May are the new ones added to the mix, and they fit nice and neatly into their obvious roles. Elizabeth is an overbearing tsundere who is constantly ragging on August until he shows her an inkling of an affection and she melts into a pile of blonde pudding. May has little character at all besides being a little sister stereotype who reveals her function in the plot when she asks Shin if she can call him “Big brother” within two minutes of meeting him. Japan, your sibling fetishes will never cease to bother me.

We’ve got a quote-unquote, “Big”, moment in the story in the form of Shin’s confession to Sicily. Of course, it doesn’t go off without more hijinx taking place, but that doesn’t make their relationship any less forced. I’m still not entirely sure what Sicily’s character is beyond being arm candy for Shin, and it’s not like their potential relationship has had any real challenges. What’s worse, though, is that crossing this barrier undermines one of the main themes (And I use that word loosely) of this series, that Shin is awkward with people. That aspect of Shin’s character was dropped pretty quickly, but consider it dead in the ground here, because now he’s got an enormous group of friends and a girlfriend who’s hopelessly in love with him.

As for the rest, you’re just looking at more colorful noise, with the high point of the episode being the small, but well-animated magical volleyball sequence at the end of the episode. I would rather this was a show about magical volleyball players than anything else, since it’s one of the few things about this episode that’s actually entertaining.