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

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Well begins his tutelage under the magician that found him, Alfred, even learning that his talents will surpass Alfred’s one day. However, he asks Well to keep his magical ability a secret, as it might cause a dispute between him and Kurtz over who will succeed the estate. Instead, he should become an adventurer!…or at least, he would if his family had enough money. To remedy this, Alfred teaches him flight magic in order to get into town so he can start earning enough to pay for tuition. But it seems some sort of magical affliction is overtaking Alfred, to the point that he’s putting Well’s training to an abrupt end after only two weeks.

As it turns out, he’s actually something known as a Whispering Dead, an undead spirit who died five years ago on a quest but clung to life by sheer frustration. But a Whispering Dead can pass on if their wish is fulfilled, and Alfred’s wish was to pass on his teachings, which he’s now been able to do with Well. But his spirit his becoming corrupted and soon he might start hurting people, so he asks Well to be the one to purify him so he can pass on. Well tearfully complies, so Alfred dies with a proud smile on his face.

Years later, Well has grown up a bit and begins his trek to become an Adventurer, having planted a tree on Alfred’s grave.

OUR TAKE

And I guess that takes care of the…prologue? First act? Whatever we call this, Well has officially become the correct character design as we see in the OP, ED, and the flash-forward at the start of the series, so now I guess the story can properly begin. I have to say, I wish we had just taken care of the kid stuff in the first episode instead of going over into the second, but I do also understand why this had to be its own episode. This mainly focused on Well learning magic from Alfred, including how he will probably be turning into a far greater magician at some point because he’s the Isekai protagonist and starting the story with max stats and all cheat codes turned on is pretty par for the course. Though again, the fact that this is technically an Isekai still factors very little into what’s going on, with the only real example of it being the scene where Well gathers Wasabi which Alfred eats without flinching, acting as set up for the reveal that he’s undead. Except Wasabi could also be some common thing in this world too, so even that isn’t necessarily something that only someone who has previous experience in modern Japan would know.
Even the title of the episode feels misnamed or mishandled. While there is talk about a succession dispute if Well’s abilities are found out by his family, there isn’t really conflict that comes out of it. Well doesn’t seem to WANT to succeed his father in their dinky manor, so Kurtz’ prying and worrying about losing his claim just come off even more petty and pretty much pointless. We don’t even know how this dispute would play out. Maybe if Well is found out to be more powerful, then their father will forcibly make Well the successor? But if Well doesn’t want it, would that even matter? He makes it clear by the end that his next goal is to be an adventurer, so how does the succession play into things at all?

Also, I think losing Alfred this soon was kind of cheap. Well is, as established, an adult living in a child’s body, so I doubt he’d have that much an attachment to some guy who he’s only known two weeks, even if he did teach him magic. The reveal that he’s actually some sort of magic zombie and that Well has to kill him DOES have interesting potential, but it comes off so toothless when he’s doing it when no one else is really at risk. Maybe it’s something to do with the budget, but I think it might have benefitted from Well having to stop his mentor from hurting people or even his family. As it is, it just seems like checking off the checklist for a tragic backstory. But we have a lot more of that to come in future weeks, as you’ll soon see.