English Dub Review: Knight’s & Magic “Robots & Fantasy”

This show hits all my nerd buttons.

Spoilers Below

Kurata is a wizard of a programmer and a total otaku for Gundam Models. Oh, and he’s a pancake. A car mowed him down on his way home from getting more models. That’s it, the show’s over. Now for something we think you’ll really like. A noble family is riding down the road in their carriage when they are attacked by flying bug monsters. While at first, they can hold their own, a huge one comes by and chews through their carriage, dropping their child to the ground. A pair of giant robots, Silhouette Knights, come to their rescue. Something pops into place for the noble boy. Little Ernesti Eschevallia is the reborn soul of Kurata, and he sees riding one of these Silhouette Knights as the reason he was reborn! He immediately dives into all the training he would need, including that of magic. When he discovers that magic really isn’t all that different than programming and that he’s a genius at! He shoots ahead in his classes, especially after he invents a whole new way to make a magic rod. By placing it inside a rifle-like shell, and attaching a bayonet to it, you vastly increase your ease of casting, and still have melee capabilities! The only problem, he’s tiny. The kid looks and sounds like a girl, even when he reaches twelve, and the standard cockpits for the Silhouette Knights are for big burly dudes. So, he decides he’s going to build his own from scratch!

Until he does that, Ernesti’s class has to go on a training trip between his class and the high schoolers. There, he discovers that his two best friends are illegitimate children, and their older sister is of noble blood. He isn’t quite equipped to handle feeling like this, even though he’s already lived as an adult. Fortunately, the man who saved him long ago is there, protecting the caravan, and offers him a moment in his Silhouette Knight cockpit. This moment is enough to drive the need to tears. Then, the alarm sounds. a stampede of demon beasts is heading their way! The high schoolers set up a blockade while the Knight Runners cover the caravan’s escape. Ernesti has a request, however. Since his friends’ sister is currently in the blockade, and the three of them are equal (even better) than their upperclassmen, they want to join in. The teacher knows better than to argue with Ernesti at this point, and the wonderkid joins the fight. But why are there so many demon beasts? He’s got a bad feeling about this…

From the moment we get to meet Ernesti and watch him learn magic, I got hooked on this show. Is it stellar writing? Maybe not. It’s solid. While I have no problems with how this episode was written, I think I might need more time to see how the writing goes to be able to tell. Is it eye-popping in its animations? Well, it’s not shabby, I’ll give it that. It does blend CG into its traditional animation smoothly, and I only noticed the difference because I was specifically looking for such things. The action was well done, and I never noticed any repeating cycles. The art style is used mainstream lineart, but has a great focus on colors and highlights. Ernesti’s eyes are shockers every time he’s on screen. Does this show have amazing voice acting? First, I have to say that I’m going to give them some leniency. They have to get into the swing of their characters. The performances are far from flat, though, so I’ll be looking to see how this cast is going to grow into their roles. Ernesti is, again, the shining example. Justin Brinner and Alexis Tipton did good work on the boy. His excitement carries over well.

So, what was it that got my attention? The universe. As I said with Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor, I’m totally stoked when a fictional universe treats magic not as an arcane, unknowable art, but as a real force that can be harnessed as technology. This universe does that hard core! I find myself absolutely fascinated by the logic behind the magical sigils they create to cast spells. They animate as they construct, which shows that the shapes most definitely hold patterns with logical purpose, and are linked to platonic solids, which are symbolically representi- Oh boy, I’m afraid I’ve gone full nerd mode on you all. You get the idea, though. This universe makes logical sense to me, even though we’re talking about a fantasy universe. Giant robots? Yeah, they run on magic. That’s why they aren’t in a fully industrialized society. That and their magical technology has stagnated, with designs being followed to the letter, rather than advanced upon. This is where Ernesti shines. He takes the modern day Japanese philosophy of always improving everything and applies it to this world. He wants to advance everything he touches, bringing it up to the levels he’s used to seeing from video games and anime. Not only that, he finds new applications for the things he creates. By having two gun blades, one at each hip, he’s able to use them to blast out air at high speeds to push him around like rocket packs. I could go on, but this universe is one I wish I could live in! I’m ready and willing to dive into this anime, it’s already surpassing my expectations! I give it nine magical mecha out of ten.