English Dub Mid-Season Review: The Strongest Sage With the Weakest Crest Episodes 1-8

Overview

Based on the Japanese light novel series, written by Shinkoshoto and illustrated by Huuka Kazabana. The story follows the adventures of a young gifted pre-teen kid named Matthias Hildesheimer (aka “Matty”) as he heads for the capital to take the entrance exam of a magic school academy and to display how hyper-capable he is, he dispatches a monster, enchants a sword, and passes the exam with flying colors. How does the bearer of the “Crest of Failure” have such power?…



Our Take

In a nutshell, the story is about your by the numbers, power-fantasy badass of a protagonist named Matthias. A preteen kid who enrolls in a magic academy. All of this seems simple enough, at least until you learn that Matty has some tricks up his magical sleeve, and shows that other types of ancient magic are possible despite what the magical symbol called the “Crest of Failure” on his hand claimming otherwise.

For the first eight episodes of this show, we are given a clear idea that nothing is what it seems in this magical world with schools, dungeons, monsters, with the primary threat being demons that are secretly influencing society while hiding in plain sight. Giving the proceedings an undercurrent of corruption and classism going on within the hierarchy of the land they live in.

During Matty’s time at the academy, it turns into a borderline “harem” story as we have the character dynamics of one dude surrounded by three girls: Lurie, Alma, and Iris. You may wonder what their roles are in the show and believe me, it’s irrelevant to explain. That’s because the anime wants Matty to be the shining badass leader.

Jokingly since it’s only 3 women that accompany him, you might as well call these ladies “Matty’s Angels”. Oh, and before I forget, Iris is a dragon that magically takes on the form of a cute redhead whose design and personality are kinda similar to the character “Rimmu” from Dungeon of Black Company with much of the humor of her character being not only her extreme appetite but also not knowing her own strength while getting used to walking around in a bipedal body.

I don’t think there’s much to address in terms of animation quality either as the animation team known as “J.C. Staff” (Who famously did the wacky anime sex-comedy “Shimoneta”) seems to be working their A-game as their character designs, and backgrounds are seemingly hand-drawn with zero CGI designs whatsoever compared to more recent anime who attempt to use cel-shading and is fairly consistent with not that many noticeable flaws in my opinion.

Overall, with 4 episodes left, I can say the show is compelling and watchable enough to a certain degree. Even if the storyline feels repetitive at times, at least there is no insufferable drama or forced harem dynamics as only one girl within his circle so far seems to have the hots for Matty but it remains to be seen if it’ll lead anywhere. Also, with a newly introduced upper-tier Demon that was somewhat revealed at the end of episode 8’s cliffhanger. This creature seems like an interesting challenge as this so-called Demon who’s watching behind the scenes seems to know more about Matty’s secrets than he’s letting on…