English Dub Review: The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent “Companionship”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Sei Takanashi explores adding herbs to food which amazes the taste buds of the people in the Research Institute. She meets the person she saved with her high-ranking potion, Albert Hawke. He offers to escort her with his men on her trip for medicinal herbs in the forest. His group gets a taste of her cooking and it leads to an investigation on the effects of her cooking on their physical condition.

Sei meets a young girl in the library. Elizabeth Ashley and they become friends. One day the two discuss an issue about Elizabeth’s friend, Nicole who loses confidence in her appearance because of a popular girl at their school. Sei agrees to make a lotion to help with their acne and when Sei meets the girl she encourages the younger lady to use it for herself rather than others. Afterward, Elizabeth asks about her budding romance with Albert which makes Sei embarrassed.

Our Take:

This week’s episode was a sweet beginning to Sei connecting with the world’s inhabitants. The episode also compares the two worlds’ advancement with Sei’s knowledge on herbs as a hobbyist to the researchers. It’s nothing new in the isekai genre to show the difference in their experience. However, it’s interesting in its focus on herbal medicine rather than government or technology. In addition, Sei notes the difference in her exhaustion between the two worlds. Like any other isekai protagonist she holds no impactful reason to go back as she has no way of getting. Her comment on no one greeting her after coming home is a major hint at her loneliness in her original world.

The episode had a few cliche romance tropes that portray Albert as a love interest for Sei. He’s literally riding a white horse which is a classic in romance. He even goes out of his way to interact with her more on the trip to the forest. The conversation with Sei’s boss and childhood friend, Johan Valdec (David Matranga) being his wingman was amusing as well. The anime does a nice job in the execution of those moments for us to enjoy watching their romance start.

Aside from setting Albert up as a love interest, there’s Sei getting used to the world she’s inhabiting. Her friendship with Elizabeth is a cute and subtle way to mark how she’s changing physically. For example, she no longer needs her glasses to see and the appearance of her skin. Their girl talk was nice and mundane in comparison to the discovery of Sei’s cooking abilities and the subsequent ban on Sei cooking in public for the fear of people wanting to use her.

Furthermore, there’s Sei’s cooking from the reward the Research Institute got from healing the Third Order. I must suspend my disbelief over the fact that no one has ever thought to use medicinal herbs in cooking in the kingdom before Sei arrived. It is a convenient way to show more of Sei’s unusual abilities beyond making potions, but the execution is a bit shaky in that regard.

Overall the episode was good at setting up the first meeting between Sei and Albert and gives simple advice on being confident in one’s appearance.