English Dub Review: Wise Man’s Grandchild “A Babe in the Woods Goes to the Capital”

Oh look, another isekai.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Shin is a young boy in fantasy land with a strange quirk about him. He has memories of life as a young salaryman in modern-day Japan in our world. Despite this strange reincarnation, Shin is surprisingly okay with all of this, having been adopted as a young boy by a kindly old man named Merlin. Merlin, as you might expect, is a sage skilled in magic, and raises Shin as his ward in magic and combat. Despite his age, Shin proves to be quite the prodigy, quickly picking up the ropes of magic without much trouble.

When Shin gets older, Merlin explains to him that he was adopted, which Shin already knew, apparently. After an attack by demons, Merlin found him stranded in the wreckage of a battle and took him on as his own. Shin explains that he still loves Merlin as his grandfather, and Merlin nearly drowns in his own tears in response.

At the age of 15, Shin has become old enough to choose his own path in life and meets with his adopted family to celebrate his coming of age. It’s there that we see the different people in Shin’s life, other than just his grandpa, including his uncle, Diseum von Earlsheid, who turns out to be a king. Merlin has Shin demonstrate his incredible magical abilities, and Diseum recommends that Shin attend the magical academy in his country to learn more of the world and strengthen his magic.

Shin accepts and is brought to the city by Merlin, who turns out to be a big hero from the old war against the demons that the country fought. Once there, Shin is free to explore on his own and start to see what it’s like to live like a normal person in the city. Naturally, he ends up getting lost and finds a couple of thugs terrorizing two young women. He fights them off and saves the day, but instantly falls head over heels for one of the girls he saved.

Our Take:

Well, this is a strange beast, to say the least. Just when I think I’d seen it all in the world of isekai, this oddity rears its head and reminds me that we can go so much deeper into the genre of living inside a fantasy world. Though one can look at isekais as a sort of figurative transformation, I had never thought I’d see one have a literal reincarnation from our world to another. That’s a pretty bold move, but one that leaves me somewhat in the dark about just what this show wants to be. See, I’ve watched the full first episode and am not really sure what the point of this show actually is. Its core conflict is a mystery, it’s the main character is ridiculously overpowered, and it’s tone is happier than anything else. I’m not sure one can really tell a story like this, but I suppose we’ll have to see how it turns out.

While watching, it feels as if the purpose of the episode is to just put our main character into a situation that’s as happy as possible. He’s extremely skilled in magic and fighting, has no major issues in his life to speak of, is surrounded by wealth and power, and has only one real personality flaw: he’s been sheltered his whole life and doesn’t know how to practical things. It seems like this is the setup to a comedy anime, where the logic or stakes of something is not as important as the fun we can have with the concept. If that’s what Wise Man’s Grandchild wants to be, that’s fine, but for a comedy, it didn’t make me do a whole lot of laughing. Sure, there are moments of brevity and silliness here and there, but they don’t bring the chuckles as a comedy anime should.

This first episode felt like the “cotton candy” of anime offerings. It’s light, it’s fluffy, it’s colorful and kind of exciting, but it doesn’t have any substance. Without conflict, without themes or some kind of hook to draw me in, this isekai doesn’t attract my attention as anything worth watching. It’s pretty and well-animated but has no driving force for those visuals to service. There’s still time, I suppose, for a plot to get off the ground, but this feels like a total waste of a first episode.