English Dub Review: Wise Man’s Grandchild “The Unconventional New Student”

It’s the worst that anime has to offer.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Shin is entering the magical academy to try and better his magical skills and learn how to live in the normal world. Before he arrives, he is immediately adored, meeting two beautiful women, Sizilien and Maria, who are also both students at the academy. Sizilien is clearly in love with him, even though Shin is as dense as they come. Once they arrive at the academy, Shin meets two more people, Kurt, who’s a noble braggart, and August, who is a pretty cool dude. August turns out to be Shin’s uncle’s son, basically making them cousins, and the two become fast friends.

Classes soon begin, and Shin impresses everyone with his incredible magical abilities, and soon becomes one of the most popular people in school. Later that evening, he uses his incredible magical powers to enchant his uniform to ungodly levels of strength, even though the academy has asked their students not to.

The next day, Shin is speaking with Sizilien, who is becoming so enamored with him she can barely keep her clothes on. They’re interrupted by Kurt, who gets angry at Shin for speaking to Sizilien, who is apparently his betrothed. Shin and August deal with him without much trouble. Shin then offers to make ultra powerful clothes for Sizilien and his friends, which they graciously accept, even though his grandmother, Melida, warns them of how insanely powerful Shin is and how much of a blessing this is for them.

Our Take:

This is the worst kind of show. An anime that has no basis to exist other than sheer, unadulterated wish fulfillment for the people watching it. This “Comedy” is nothing more than a 22 minute session of isekai bullshit designed to make the viewer project themselves onto the main character so that they might pretend that they, too, are an insanely overpowered mage in a perfect fantasy world. Experienced anime viewers will know that this is nothing new, as wish fulfillment is the bread and butter of most isekai, which this show decides to go full throttle towards. There is nothing here of value. No conflict that is anything more than window dressing, no characters that are interesting beyond their pleasant and obvious aesthetics, no major themes that have any bearing on the story. There is so little here that’s even worth critiquing because the show concept is poisonous to the touch.

Watch as Shin the unbelievably talented college student is beloved by all and is challenged by nothing. Watch as he defeats every obstacle with ease and makes friends with grotesquely beautiful women and every person he comes across except the obvious villain. Fall asleep as each and every moment of this episode is dedicated to discussing just how amazing Shin is and how powerful he is and how kind he is and on and on and on and on. I was groaning so much during this episode that I thought my jaw was going to be dislocated.

Some might say that this isn’t supposed to be taken seriously because it’s a “Comedy”, but the main difference between this and an actual comedy is that comedies are actually funny. This is no “Dragon Maid”, this is no “Sakamoto-kun”, shows that have actual comedic grounding in their core ideas to make them interesting. I didn’t laugh once during this entire episode, I didn’t even smile. I was nearly seething with frustration that this waste of time is getting an entire season, and that it even exists at all.

It’s almost incredible how bad this show is. How it incorporates the worst aspects of an isekai while failing to capture any of the potential positives in world-building or conflict it might have. It’s just one awful scene after another, with nothing funny or interesting to latch onto unless you just absolutely need a show to make you feel good about yourself. But you know what, even kids shows understand the need for conflict in a story, even shows for toddlers will have their characters face some kind of challenge. This show is less than that. This show wishes it could “Dora the Explorer”, it wishes it could carry the dramatic weight of “Blue’s Clues.” But it can’t, and it should be ashamed of itself for even existing.