English Dub Season Review: New Saga Season One

Overview:

During a dangerous mission, Kyle Leonard ends up in a clash with the demon king that brings him to the brink of death. As Kyle realizes he has lost everything he wanted to protect, a mysterious gem transports him back in time before the conflict even started! Now with knowledge of future events and a strong desire to save his loved ones, Kyle sets out to become even stronger to prevent the extinction of humanity.

Our Take:

This show was ultimately enjoyable but felt like a waste of potential. New Saga isn’t the first anime to deal with time travel in a fantasy setting, but I like how it’s handled here. I’m a big fan of “do-overs,” and I like that Kyle gets one. As you can imagine, knowing how things will go can lead to some beneficial advantages but also some awkward turn of events. Since he knows what will happen, he’s able to save his childhood friend, Liese, whom he had feelings for, but she was killed in the previous timeline. This time, he’s able to save her, but this leads to some awkwardness because in the last timeline, he fell in love with an elf named Urza, and having feelings for them both leads to some mishaps for the guy.

It’s not all romantic hijinks, but where this series excels is in its characters. Kyle’s friend, Theron, is a favorite of mine. This is where the disappointment sets in because if you have compelling characters, then the narrative is already at an advantage. While I wouldn’t say the story is bad by any means, I would say it takes too long to start getting anywhere. For an anime that’s only twelve episodes long, that can be a problem.

Anime are often just advertisements to sell source material. I feel like a broken record because so many of my reviews have mentioned this recently. But if it’s a problem for one, it’s a problem for another, and I know I’m not the only one who’s bothered by this. Being in the west makes it especially annoying because a lot of times we don’t have the source material available, so if we really like a story, we don’t have any options to continue it. That’s why that even though I enjoyed New Saga, its lack of an ending and no access to the source material, and a second season nowhere in sight, set it back for me.