Needs a Title
Putting the “ass” back in “Procrastination”. If you misspell “procrastination” with an extra ‘s’. Y’know … ’cause otherwise it wouldn’t make sense … not that … oh forget it.
Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari, or Saint Knight Story in an Alternate World (or The Tale of the Holy Machine Wielder from Another World), is a 13-episode series about Masaki Kenshi. I honestly couldn’t come up with a decent summary, so I instead went to Wiki. Here:
“Kenshi Masaki is a 15 year-old boy that unwillingly traveled from his home on Earth to the alternate world of Geminar. In Geminar, the countries wage wars using Seikijin, humanoid weapons that were originally discovered within ancient ruins. After being tricked by a mysterious organization into participating in an attempt to assassinate Lashara Earth XXVIII, the young princess of the Streya Empire, he ends up captured after he chooses not to kill her. When Lashara hears the truth, she decides to help.
Disguised as her servant, Kenshi moves with her to the Holy Land, a virtually impregnable fortress that serves as an academy to train Seikijin pilots. With his kindness, tenacity, and skills that vary from cooking to advanced techniques of survival, Kenshi eventually becomes a celebrity in the academy, becoming the object of affection of many female students and making some of the male students envious. However, the same organization who deceived Kenshi is secretly working inside the academy, and a widescale conflict is about to begin”
I think I missed something before Isekai, because the Wiki article refers to a lot of people who never once appeared in the anime. As I mentioned, there are 13 episodes, and each episode is 45 minutes in length (including OP, ED and teaser). Unfortunately, I would say that almost half of the show’s air time is spent with near pointless filler. I suppose it’s supposed to be character development and give the viewer a sense of the world, but personally I found some of it to be annoying. There were no beach episodes, but there was a bath house episode.
However, despite all that I haven’t said, Masaki Kenshi is damn near a god. He can go unarmed, toe-to-toe, with multiple armed opponents and beat them all. He can outfight a sword master with a blade, he’s athletic beyond normal and knows what to look for when foraging. He’s also a god in a Seikijin cockpit, held back only by the limits of the machine itself.
The machines are quite interesting: they start out as skeletons surrounded by an energy bubble. When a pilot (normally female since males with piloting abilities are extremely rare) enters the bubble to activate the Seikijin, it takes on an armoured form unique to each pilot. I’m talking colour schemes and all the little extras like pauldron spikes or a fluffly tail, elbow blades, you name it. Thus each Seikijin can be identified almost immediately since no two are alike when piloted.
Despite all the uniqueness to the mechs, all of the characters are surprised when a white Seikijin and a black Seikijin appear on the scene. Turns out they are portents of things to come, and in this case it could be the apocalypse. It’s interesting to hear that particular story explained, but by that time there isn’t a lot of screen-time left, and what should be an epic fight is merely a great fight.
Of course, watching Kenshi fight inside or outside of cockpit is always rewarding. At one point, Kenshi forms a sword out of a stone relic and uses it to fight the big bad.
Normally I don’t watch new anime. I rely a lot upon the advice of friends and podcasts. Isekai is a bit special in the fact that I decided to watch it based solely on a fan-made Isekai trailer.
Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari joins Wolf’s Rain and Outlaw Star in the category of shows I started watching due to YouTube.
I give this show 3.5 Seikishi of Light out of 5. Less “look at everyone fall for the protagonist” and more “look at the protagonist fight in his white Seikijin” would have been better. I will say that despite everyone liking Kenshi, he does deserve most of the attention everyone gives him. He is no wuss, boy, NO WUSS!
–CanadaMan eh?
