Alternative Names: Wise Man's Grandchild
Score: 5/10, 3/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Isekai, Action, Comedy, Romance, Magic
Summary: After suffering a tragic accident born from being overworked, Shin is reborn as an infant child in a world where swords and sorcery are the bread and butter of everyday life. Found in the remains of a wagon train that had fallen prey to a demon bear attack, Shin is adopted by the reclusive and retired hero of this world, Merlin Wolford. Knowing little about how to raise a child, the famous wizard does his best to simply train Shin to be the best wizard, swordsman, and enchanter he can possibly be. Unfortunately, all this advanced training has turned Shin into a master of the arts without any practical knowledge of the society he'll eventually be a part of. So, as Shin finally comes of age, both he and his tutors are forced to ask if Shin is ready to go out into the world. Or, more accurately, is the world ready for Shin?
Review: Simplicity, I feel, is something of an underrated quality in anime these days. The need for spectacle and novelty have become so ingrained in the creator's minds that they've forgotten how effective and compelling an honest, straightforward story can be. For example, Shield Hero perfectly showcases how melodrama and needless drama can poison people's ability to enjoy what it has to offer. Yet, in it's simpler moments, when Noafumi forgets that he's an edgelord and acts like the hero he's supposed to be, the show proves that it actually has something going for it. Simple dramas, simple comedies, and simple romances help creators lay the groundwork for more complex ideas and, ideally, help the series engage a wider audience that doesn't need to be part of one specific niche of the anime community. Simplicity makes shows accessible and builds fan bases. To offer another example, KonoSuba functions so well as a comedy because of how simple and familiar its premise is. From that simplicity, it builds a comedic repertoire that speaks to the fans of the very genre its premise is built on. Of course, simplicity can also be a negative though. There is a reason, after all, that "simple" is often synonymous with "dull" or "stupid." Being too simple can be just as poisonous to a series as being too complicated. Rely too much on old, tired ideas and fail to make something novel or engaging and you run the risk of boring your audience. Unfortunately, that's more or less what went wrong with Kenja no Mago.
Prepare for that to happen a lot with this series.
To be more specific, the problem with Kenja no Mago stems from the fact that every single aspect of its being can be defined as "simple." It has simple characters who engage in simple action, simple romance, and deal with an incredibly simple threat. There is very little nuance to the story of Kenja no Mago and what little intrigue there is is almost instantly undermined by the fact that nothing is ever at stake. Stakes are, understandably, an issue that hinges a lot on how willing the audience is to suspend their belief and not overthink a story's plot--do that and you almost constantly struggle with the fact that a series will just end when its main character dies. Yet, in this series' case, the lack of any stakes is almost impossible to ignore because there is no fantasy to this show's power fantasy aesthetic. At no point are we led to believe that its main character is ever actually threatened or given a problem he can't solve. It is an all but stated fact that this world and everything in it exists solely to be handed to Shin Wolford on a solid gold platter because he might as well be this world's new god. That might sound like hyperbole but it really isn't. From his birth, Shin is given every opportunity to succeed and constantly goes beyond mastering what he is taught, creating new forms of magic and strategies, simply because the plot says he can. There is no logic or reason behind his innate skills other than some lip service to him conveniently recalling some basic science from his previous life but the result is still ultimately the same.
There is never any doubt that Shin will never actually be challenged because, I kid you not,
Shin starts the series having created this world's first equivalent to a Nuke.
The closest thing we ever actually get to a justification for Shin's incredible level of power is the simple fact that he was raised and taught by the elites of this fantasy world. Having been adopted by the retired hero and unrivaled magician of this world, Merlin Wolford, Shin understandably inherits his foster grandfather's magical prowess. Since Merlin has no clue how to raise a kid, though, he turns to his ex-wife and master enchanter, Melida Bowen, for help, justifying Shin's skill at enchantment. With the understanding that he'll likely turn to heroics as he ages, Merlin also arranges to have Shin trained in swordsmanship and turns to yet another famous friend, the "Sword Saint" Michel Colling. Add all that up with the fact that Shin was raised with the king of the world's most prosperous country, Earlshide, as an uncle and his incredibly talented attendants as playmates and you understand how Shin was fated to be groomed as Earlshide's next hero. Yet, even with all that context, Shin's skill constantly surpasses the skills of his legendary tutors simply because he can. Funny as it might be to have him leave these legendary figures speechless as he drops magical nukes and enchants his clothes to make him functionally untouchable, we are ultimately left to conclude that there is nothing Shin Wolford isn't capable of.
Add his Nuke spells to his more personal jet show and vibro-blade spells and it's made even more clear that nothing will ever have a chance of beating Shin in combat.
So, just like that, any stakes this show's action might have ever possessed are instantly gone because it is just a point of fact that Shin is too powerful. So long as he exists, nothing will ever actually be a threat. There are, of course, ways to work around having such an overpowered character but the show never uses these tactics--only makes vague references that they could happen but just never do. For example, the series could stand on the ground that Shin is only one person and can thus only solve problems in his immediate vicinity. That problem gets solved, though, thanks to Shin's ability to teleport at will. Another option would be to have people deceive and use Shin since it is established that he has zero social skills or knowledge of how society functions in this world. Yet, just as easily, the show throws that away by having the Earlshide royalty swear that they'll never try to press Shin into service or turn him into a tool to boost the nation's prosperity. The only other option, then, would be to lean on that first problem and pacify Shin by threatening those close to him. This tactic is, in fact, the closest thing this show gets to establishing any drama in the series but even it falls to pieces as the show makes an answer for this problem too.
More than that, the cast who would be the targets in that scenario literally force him
to account for that possibility and solve it as best he can.
Following the trends of its contemporaries, Kenja no Mago mainly centers around Shin being a student at a Magic Academy. Being who he is, though, Shin is automatically made into the school's top student by an incomprehensible margin and also the most popular student next to his best friend and foster-cousin, the nation's prince, August von Earlshide. So, following that line of thought, it'd reason that Shin would make a ton of friends who would become prime targets for Shin's would-be enemies. Yet, as I said, that problem is instantly solved by these same students suggesting that he just teach them magic, thus turning them into weaker versions of himself--functionally making them only vulnerable to the show's main cadre of villains. In other words, there's simply nothing that will actually serve as a real threat to this series or its characters. Everything and everyone is and will always be safe so long as Shin and his band of magical trainees exist.
Heh. It's funny because it's true. That's how comedy works, right?
Now, to give the show credit where it's due, it does have some good points that make its lack of a threat or stakes tolerable. For one, the show's comedy isn't bad. It's simple, straightforward, and repetitive but it does its job. Each member of the show's cast has a couple of good gags going for them and an individual reaction to how stupidly powerful Shin is. With at least 14 characters to bounce off of, excluding Shin, it's fairly easy for the cast to just shoot off their gags as the story progresses without getting old. For another thing, the show's romantic hook isn't all that bad either. Thanks to Shin's lack of social grace, its easy to enjoy watching him stumble through the ins and outs of wooing his significant other. Again, though, the romance itself is fairly straightforward and lacks any hitches or drama that won't be solved the minute they crop up. Blessedly, there's not even any rival for Shin's affection throughout the entire series. While most of the female cast look good and have their charms, it is made clear that Shin only has eyes for Sicily. Meanwhile, Sicily, for her part, is so pure and innocent that she's never fallen in love with anyone until Shin white-knighted his way into her life. This, of course, ultimately means that there are no stakes in this dramatic arc either but that doesn't make their awkward courtship any less engaging or adorable.
I'm a hopeless romantic, though, so it just figures that I'd prefer simple, straightforward romances.
So, as I've said, simplicity can be good for some things but it shouldn't be present in every aspect of a series. If a series makes its action too easy and removes any stakes from its drama, everything just kind of falls apart unless it's all being played for comedy. That's just not the case with Kenja no Mago though. There's clearly supposed to be a focus on this show's action and dramatic sequences based on how the cast treats things but it's impossible to share their worries when the series has gone out of its way to neuter those same threats. The demonoids are obviously supposed to be a threat but the impact of that threat falls apart the minute we see Shin's students one-shot dozens of them for training purposes. In all fairness, though, the show does mainly content itself with maintaining a carefree and comedic tone. Easily, 80% of any given episode is dedicated to Shin and his friends playing around and laughing at show stupid and stupidly powerful Shin is. That still leaves 20% for the show's toothless drama, though, and that's more than enough to spoil the show's fun. So, as much as I might enjoy this show for its simplicity, it's still functionally worthless as a series. Nothing about Kenja no Mago is new or particularly interesting. Anything it does well has undoubtedly been done better by dozens of other shows simply because they probably didn't shoot themselves in the foot when crafting their action and drama the way Kenja no Mago does. In the end, this airy nothing of a series was little more than a mildly sweet palate cleanser and I don't expect it to be anything more for anyone else. So, if you want a light and fluffy nothing to watch as a wind-down for the day, you probably won't find anything better.