English Dub Review: The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me? “A Loner? Are You Kidding Me?”

https://youtu.be/OSeWPRh8rDU

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Well starts his time at the adventurer’s academy, but he’s completely forgotten how to communicate with people, which is bad since he’s going to start needing to form a party soon. Rumor spreads about his expertise, including to three other students, Erwin, Louise, and Iina, who interpret his social awkwardness as him testing them on being his party members. All three of them are younger siblings, making them unable to inherit their families’ estates, but they’re also all the most adept in magic in their families, which led them to be isolated. In their quest to impress Well, they end up surrounded by wolves, which actually gets him to save them.

Later, all the students get invited to meet a duke, which might open their opportunities to being retainers. Though in reality, the duke is using this to meet Well, but Well invites the three to join him in their meeting. There, Well is introduced to Brantack Lyngstad, Alfred’s former teacher, who has recognized that Well is the one Alfred has passed on his magical knowledge to. This meeting shows the three friends that Well is actually just like them, so they stop looking at him like a celebrity and decide to be friends instead, forming a party of four. Also, as Alfred’s last protégé, Well inherits his estate. Including his giant house.

OUR TAKE
Okay, I’m seeing now that this show is probably gonna be a slog. First there was the thing about how this being an Isekai show was basically shrugged off from the get go, but now it’s starting to seem like even the title isn’t really significant, since Well just inherited Alfred’s money and livelihood and has now no reason to fall back on being the 8th son as being an underdog. Heck, you could say he stopped doing that last episode when it turned out he was going to be the even stronger than Alfred. We do get a bit of this examined through Erwin, Louise, and Iina (all of whom have pretty wafer thin characterization from the get go) being the youngest children of their own families, but I doubt that’s going to really impact things going forward now that they’re with Well. I could kind of see the beginnings of a theme about how birth order shouldn’t determine one’s destiny, but considering Well was born with Max Level magic which then led the greatest teacher to him and got his money through no real effort, it’s easier to say that you just need to hit the genetic lottery and know the right people.

But there are also some issues in this episode specifically that really worry me for this show. The main one being that despite this being only the third episode AND the first set in the show’s present day, Well was a pretty passive character throughout it, even leaving out the bits about Alfred. Erwin, Louise, and Iina (who I expect I’ll have to refer to in a group forever given how they don’t really stand out from one another) basically take the limelight in their plotting to get Well’s attention, but this leaves Well in the passenger seat instead of maybe, I dunno, having his own plot about trying to be friends with them and failing for a bit until they learn to just TALK TO EACH OTHER? I get that the joke is that they think he’s scouting them when really he’s just a normal guy, but it basically gives him nothing to do and, more importantly, no active way of showing his own personality and character in making friends. He only really attracts them due to his reputation, not anything he actually chooses to do until he invites them to a meeting they have no business being in and then do nothing. I feel like that would have been a perfect opportunity to show how they are a good fit for him on a team as opposed to him just carrying them, but I guess this show isn’t about that either. This will certainly feel like a long series to get through for the remaining nine weeks, but it seems it’ll be a great masterclass on how not to write a story.