Reviews for Management of a Novice Alchemist
Back to AnimeIf you're wanting something cute, adventurous, with a slice of intense and sad story put into the mix. Then this is the show for you. Story and characters: 7 Management of a Novice Alchemist follows Sarasa who from the start, has had it pretty rough. From having a sweet childhood pretty much ripped away from her, with her only shining light, is following in the footsteps of her parents, in having a shop of her own. To want to become the number one alchemist out there. Something that she'll stop at nothing in order to achieve. It's a sweet and sad coming of age growth story, thatis fun to watch.It honestly reminds me of a usual cute girls, do a particular theme kind of show, but in this case it's adventuring, and mainly centered around one key element in Sarasa becoming the best alchemist that she can be.
The cast is filled with a very bright bunch, very lively characters that shine through with their personalities, and make the anime honestly sweeter than it can be at times. Which you'll tend to love if these kinds of shows are for you. You've already got Sarasa,whom she is the sort of character, that you would want to root for, and hope she does well, after the hardships she's had to suffer. Plus her eye swirls are super adorable!
Art and sound: 8
Honestly is a really big highlight for me. The show really knows how to hit home when it comes to it's production and look of certain things. Using a certain tone when detailed creatures, and the effects they pull off. A massive shoutout goes to how they handled Sarasa during her past. How things may look gloom, but as she's gets further and further to where she wants to go, things seem a lil brighter, which is quite a nice touch. With a good sound portion, to really smack the atmosphere home. It's really well done.
Management of a Novice Alchemist won't stand out as a super amazing show, but what it is, is a tale of a sweet journey that'll be sure to be filled with many ups and downs. We can only hope for Sarasa's sake. There are more ups then downs. A good watch for sure!
Wow, the new Atelier game is looking great! Oh wait...wrong material, we're talking about the anime version if there ever was an imitation of it, but in all the good and bad ways possible...which was just a plain ol' fantasy snoozefest. It's almost a given that the SoL a.k.a Slice-of-Life genre can do no wrong, only except that the other genres overshadow it to showcase a bunch of features that ultimately weigh to nothing. And this is such the case for novelist Mizuho Itsuki's series that is Shinmai Renkinjutsushi no Tenpo Keiei a.k.a Management of a Novice Alchemist. As one of the many stories under theShousetsuka ni Narou a.k.a Syosetu banner, this does feel like a stereotypical adventure-cum-fantasy setting that there're so many copycats like it floating around, but how this source material stands out enough to get an anime is just beyond me, because let's be honest: this series is just the turn-off-your-brain kind of comfy show, where you need not question the story/plot, but just enjoy as it is: a CGDCT-like (but is not marketed as one) coming-of-age story.
Picture yourself as a kid standing between your parents, dreaming of all the things that you want to become when you grow up, all from a sweet childhood memory. And now, enhance that image when all these things are ripped away from you, feeling dejected about what the future holds, only to be picked up by a stranger that teaches you to be his/her apprentice in a craft to help mold your future. This is the female MC Sarasa Feed in a nutshell, under the tutelage of her teacher, the masterclass alchemist Ophelia Millis. Once an orphaned kid, and now on the road to become just like Ophelia, Sarasa works hard to achieve that dream, only to realize that the journey to becoming a masterclass alchemist is not as easy as it seems. With that in mind, Ophelia issues her a tall order: as a graduate from the alchemist academy, the starting point is by opening up shop and establishing a business of her very own. Only except that the shop's location is way out of town, and having little resources to work with, the learning lesson is that everyone has to start from somewhere, and Sarasa literally starts from scratch. Oh, did I forget to mention that Sarasa is an OP character? Bet you didn't see that coming.
For the most part, the show does what you expect: a largely simple slice-of-life show where anything and everything can happen since there's essentially no story or plot to begin with (except the MC's "becoming a masterclass alchemist" part), and that by itself can feel mundane, especially when the characters aren't the particularly strong suit to begin with. Sarasa's helpers of the young Lorea, along with daughters Iris Lotze and Kate Starven of noble stature are a fun bunch to watch, but while I get this fuzzy feeling of just living life together, as time passes, it changes from fun to pure toleration of the sobering truth that there really isn't anything much to the characters either. Most of the "cast" are fellow villagers making appearances every now and then amongst the 4 girls and helping them with the alchemist business. And as stereotypical as this is, it just lacks excitement and misses the "oomph" factor of what defines a work, though in Mizuho Itsuki's case, the novelist is content in staying true to the bread-and-butter ideas of the burn-in of daily life, which is a decent idea, but shows the lack of creativity to spice the source material, leaving it devoid of any staying power. If the show hasn't got a word to describe itself, it would be "standout".
The more I learn about studio ENGI working on series that it was chosen to adapt, it has always been a very inconsistent record of adaptations, from good stories stymied by bad animation or bad stories with just a heck little care put into it, and I would say that the latter is pretty much true about the show. I wasn't hoping much from director Hiroshi Ikehata anyways, so this show was certainly a dud in the most average way possible, and not a good one, even though it is enjoyable in spots, provided it's constantly like a bait-and-switch in the on-off position. The OST is also average as heck, with Aguri Oonishi's OP and Nanaka Suwa's ED just sounding kinda repetitive and nice respectively. Both are decent songs though, and nothing more else to add to the roster.
There're 2 camps for this: the recommendation goes for the light-hearted setting and the calm and collectiveness that it emits, or the mixed reception that aside from the good points of both the show and its source material, there exists a hollow and empty shell to provide more ideas, that weren't explored on. As for me, I just found the show mildly enjoyable, that slowly was subjected to boredom. Maybe you have a different experience than I did, and that's the subtle diversity of our perceptions.
But if there is one certain thing that this show has it going for: the 3-episode rule definitely applies here, and your mileage will vary.
Oh god i almost commited seppuku while watching this... At first it looked like normal cgdct but then it came out like absolute nonsense. Characters are flat like animal on highway and story is practicaly none. Almost 3/4 of time you watch infantile dialogues and the rest is ultimate walk in the park for mc. Oh and not to forget you know how its named "Management of a Novice Alchemist"? It has really nothing to do with any management or being novice and its not even about alchemy. Yea you will see some some kind of transmutation circle 2-3 times and some scenes with cauldron but thatsall.
"Hey you forgot rate things like animation and music" - Nah it was mediocre through and through.
For me its 3/10 and nothing can convince me otherwise.
8.5-, Wasn't just a moe anime. This anime was quite a mix of things. I was expecting a more moe happy cgdct anime, but right off the bat you get this sad to depressing backstory of Sarasa, which while it fortunately turns around for her and things are great. It continue when as other reviews have mentioned there is a bit of a tonal shift episodes later and continues to happen throughout the anime periodically. You get an interesting mix of things like Slice of Life and Action, Moe and gore/blood, Happy Village and Brutal Capitalist, and way more with a good part revolving around economicsof goods and services. Still it keeps it mostly lighthearted often moving past those feelings to focus on more about the ingredients for alchemy which give it a good introduction to the fantasy elements in this world. Along with having an upbeat village full of happy characters steers you away from realizing initially how kind of shady and a bit bleak this world is.
The main part that I see is this anime is it feels more towards adult/dark humor undertones and wouldn't be good if you were looking for only a more lighthearted and moe anime. Sometime Sarasa will say some random comment and it is just unexpectedly more of an adult take that it catches me off guard, sometimes I find those comments pretty funny too. With the discussions of money to jokes to the messages it tries to convey, it feels a bit different than a standard moe blob of a show. It does lack in having a good story flow would be my biggest gripe which to be fair it's a slice of life, so I wasn't expecting much in that regards. But the moments it does have some sort of story it was entertaining it just didn't flow very well in concluding them as there's some loose strings with questions unanswered. The OP was also great has an upbeat energetic vibe to it.
Overall, it was fun to watch and I would say actually slightly improves each episode. The few times of action it had was surprisingly good especially the last episodes. In general the art and animation were pretty good backgrounds, characters, and the magic were animated well. Better than I was expecting from ENGI which has had a mix record as a studio. The world is interesting being it's fun to see how the economy and ingredients from monsters for this fantasy world work. I would say this for most people would be a solid average or slightly above anime being it just is such a mix of things, but it does them decently to well. Following the three episode rule would be a good inclination of what the anime has to offer initially, as I do believe it gets slightly better as it progresses once everything has set a foundation.
Ah yes another fantasy in this season that i cant count how many are there in this season, But u said there is something that so generic all season right? yea im fine story being generic as long as they know what they are doing? they want do not serious at very first beginning or want to take it serious as the story advance to next level. This one was okay because its not try to be serious and its generic af so dont bother about story, just enjoy cute girl doing cute thing. Yea im really tired with many isekai/fantasy plot try to beserious but fail to be serious
Lets be real, real review here, its about pharmacist/alchemist/apothecary/doctor etc life, who try to have slow life in very far away from city and living up in village. Story itself revolve about being good person in village not try to be hero and slay demon etc. I cant tell more about the story because i think everyone know the story doesnt standoff anything, its basically same formula like previous season story (literally same thing only different is mc girl) Story itself actually make my brain turn off because yea like i said above "Its not trying to be serious" so i can tolerant this story because of it. Character itself quite charming like likeable probably waifu of the season (maybe, maybe not)
TL:DR Its good story about cute girl doing cute thing, dont expect something bombastic because its slow life story. Turn off brain and enjoy cutie doing cute thing.
I put it mixed feeling so yea you decide it, i give it score 7 because yea in term of how calm it is, it is so calm.
Well this is end line of review, gonna say this "My opinion sometimes trash and sometimes not take it as grain of salt and ADIOS!"
the story is nothing impressive a young girl going out on her own to do alchemy in a rural village, the story does have a couple of fight scenes but not the focus, also no major villains or anything like that, its a good anime when you're bored and want to just watch some nice relaxing story with nothing really going on, I really liked it 9/10 would recommend for people who don't really like action anime and have nothing better to watch. recommend for the targeted audience other than that, its girls just living together, working to improve the rural village, and just lotsof nice and relaxing content
Look, if you're here you probably already aren;'t interested in an astounding plot or complex character development. For all intents and purposes, it's a cute seratonin booster anime that follows the mc as she makes random nonsense, tries to earn money, and helps make her community a bit better or saves them entirely. The characters are cute, the story is enjoyable to follow if it's in your taste area, and the tempo is often quite relaxed. It's not going to be anyone's top anime of the year, let alone the decade, but it's definitely worth a watch if you just want something to relax andenjoy.
Don't take it seriously and it'll be a 10/10 for the evening binge. If you want to critique everything and want a serious fantasy anime it's a 4/10. Seriously, if you came here expecting anything besides a slow serotonin booster with a straightforward plot and some cutesy moments, this anime isn't for you.
Review (short ver): In a nutshell: I Am NoVIcE ALcheMIST PROS +Very relaxing and cute +Cute girls doing cute stuff and Alchemy combination done right +surprisingly good alchemy genre, if it remembers that part --- CONS -wish they wouldn’t forget being alchemy genre at times ---Review (comments/longer ver):
Story
I mean, there isn’t much to really talk about story. We have a premise, where young girl had a situation in a life, had a lucky encounter, had strong innate ability and then everything got served on a silver plate. We pretty much got a cute girl managing a alchemy store on a country side with cute girls, creating cool stuff with sometimes cool logic and we have the whole alchemy fiasco. Material gathering, magic infusion, making stuff and so on. Whilst just chilling around, talking, doing nothing and occasionally having few challenges. I mean it’s nothing serious, it’s just relaxing, fun and enjoyable to watch.
Only gripe I have is that although the alchemy aspect itself is pretty fun when they actually focus on that, at some points it feels they kinda forget about the alchemy aspect and get lazy about it. But when they actually show early on and at some later episodes the alchemy element, it’s actually pretty fun. Gets me into mood to play one of atelier games.
Character
We have cute and cheery cast, with few more mature side character stereotypes. But for the most part it’s a bright group of friends enjoying their daily lives at alchemy store. Growth is pretty much them getting closer and we learning a bit about their past and them growing a bit better managing their store and giving ideas to thrive better. What else do you need from this genre?
Art & Sound
As far as animation and art itself goes, nothing too special. Not bad nor amazingly good, it is just good enough for the genre and the contents of the show. Didn’t feel like it needed particularly “better” anything. But I did quite like the sound design. The choices for soundtrack, ambiance and music overall felt fitting and pleasant. The voice acting was also quite nice.
Enjoyment & Overall
All things considered, I pretty much binged it few evenings, felt relaxing and soothing to watch. So yeah, I enjoyed it a lot. If you like cute girls doing cute stuff, and them just messing around in a store, gathering ingredients, tossing stuff pot and creating occasionally some weird goods that helps village life and such and occasional potions and then simply mess around, then why not.
Total Score 8/10
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Review info
Reviewing Info: How I rate/review stuff is explained on my site. In a nutshell: My personal opinion has much heavier weight over "objectivity."
Review layout: Ugly non-formatted hopefully MAL friendly layout
Review type: Anime
Note: Still testing review layouts. This line will be removed when I’m satisfied with the layout.
Isekai this, fantasy that, every season has them nowadays. It's not surprising that the viewers are beginning to get bored by them. Therefore, these anime are trying to become 'special', in such a way that people do get interested, a way to separate them from the other anime. Recently, fantasy or Isekai anime where the protagonist opens a shop are becoming relatively popular, bringing contrast to the usual action that most have. These shows are mostly cute little shows, letting the viewer enjoy the mundane life of a new store owner. This show, Shinmai Renkinjutsushi no Tenpo Keiei, is one of them. So, did this showmanage to become 'special'? Yes, in terms of concept, and no, in terms of execution. I'm honestly surprised that this anime managed to make a show unique, and clichéd at the same time.
Story:
There isn't that much story in this anime, after all, it IS a slice-of-life anime, so I won't be too critical on that. The story follows the mundane life of Sarasa Feed, a beginning alchemist who recently opened a store. Having lost her parents to bandits, she is taken in by an orphanage at a young age. Inspired by an alchemist who visited the orphanage, Sarasa decides to become an alchemist, and follow in her parents footsteps. After graduating from the Royal Alchemist Academy, her master, Ophelia Millis, gives Sarasa the opportunity to open a store in a peaceful village, far from the capital. But to her surprise, the building is in a terrible state. After receiving help from the locals, Sarasa's store is finally ready to open for orders. The rest of the story (literally after like 12 minutes) will be about Sarasa Feed running her store (though barely even attending it) with her new best friend, Lorea, an honest girl who decided to help her out with the store, and furthermore accompanied by Iris and Kate, adventurers that help Sarasa gather her materials for her alchemy, while working hard to pay of their debts.
The characters of this anime are pretty flat and unoriginal, especially the protagonist, who obviously looks likes she's from Atelier. To add on that, she's OP. Yes, a SOL anime about running an alchemy store, and the protagonist is overpowered? Yeah. The anime doesn't even elaborate on why that is the case, she just is. Lorea isn't as bad as the other characters, neither is Kate. Iris on the other hand, is a stereotypical klutz, always messing things up. She is usually the person that causes the problems. Not to mention that all the characters have a lot of energy, and always seem to be happy and proud. Sure, not that weird for a SOL anime, but when they do get 'down', the situation is very forced, to a degree that you can't even take it seriously.
This show is very predictable, filled with clichés, and not funny whatsoever. Of course, the latter is subjective information, but this anime has the objective of making the viewer smile, and that didn't happen to me. Basically every episode has the same layout: they first show a problem, then give a 'plan' on how to handle it, and lastly they deal with it without any problems. It gets predictable, and that's already from the very beginning. As I mentioned before, Sarasa is really overpowered. The anime makes a big deal of certain troubles, but the viewer can already guess that Ms. Protagonist is going to save the day valiantly and everything will be all right. Most anime at least let the main character have trouble, or even fail once, so they will come back stronger and to keep the show interesting, but this anime never does that. Because of that, the fights aren't thrilling at all, nor does the viewer feel hyped up by the combat, because Sarasa is so strong that she finishes every anime in one or two strikes.
The last hope, the CGDCT, the SOL, is that good? It's so-so. It has it fair share of problems, but it's probably the best, and most important part of the show. It isn't an action anime, that's already a given. The viewer may find themselves enjoying the conversations between characters, but there are some problems with this as well. As mentioned before, the character designs are bad in terms of appearance and personality, they're overall unoriginal. Most conversations are rather annoying, like for example: for a surprise the side characters exclaim loudly in a 'Eeeeeeeeh?!?!', and for receiving a compliment, it's the usual 'Haha, you flatter me~', dyed with an embarrassed expression. These stereotypical conversations may be very boring if you don't turn off your brain entirely.
Now, whether I recommend it or not, I don't say it's a terrible show, it's just that it's not that good compared to other similar shows, like that one of a witch that lived for 300 years, only killing slimes. The former is a good example of what this anime failed to become: a cute slice-of-life anime, with a slight 'action' subtext, whereas this anime was inconsistent in that perspective. I recommend to only watch this if you are certain that you can enjoy this, because this show is not entertaining for everyone.
TL;DR: This is a flawed show that can be perceived as boring and predictable, and only ever enjoyable if you turn your brain off. This isn't a good show, but some may be able enjoy it.
N.B. I am not an experienced reviewer, simply a regular viewer of anime, so I'm sorry if this review wasn't useful, or was poorly written.
Full Moé Alchemist. Management of a Novice Alchemist is fine. Inoffensive, mediocre *sigh* light novel anime like this are a dim a dozen these days, and whilst some of them are poorly written, animated crudely or accidentally indorse slavery in some way, Management of a Novice Alchemist is just a show about a cute girl and her cute friends doing cute, fantasy world things whilst running a fantasy world shop. Just to clarify, whilst it’s writing is on the whole inoffensive, it’s art and animation can use some work. It looks like every other half baked light novel adaptation despite is poor lighting, shading and awfulline art which only highlight the genericness of the supporting casts character designs. Sometimes the animation will randomly crank it up to 11 during an action scene, but overall it’s very unimpressive.
I also believe that the alchemy Sarasa practices isn’t really alchemy at all. She just uses magic, but calls it alchemy in the show?… I don’t know, it’s a weird nitpick I couldn’t look past.
This all isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy my time with the show. I like core quartet of Sarasa, Lorea, Iris and Kate. They don’t exactly fit into your standard moé blob archetypes (expect Iris who is the -meathead, act-first-ask-questions-later, eats a lot and chokes on food- type) and watching Sarasa grow her business is on the whole, enjoyable if you like that sort of thing. However, fantasy light novel, moé blob shenanigans does eventually wear thin if you don’t have the art, animation, music and interesting personalities to back it all up. It also doesn’t help that Sarasa is grossly over powered, meaning any enemies or obstacles that get in her way will be dealt with swiftly by the end of the episode no matter her threatening to herself, the village or her friends it may be.
If you’re looking for a good moé blob show to watch and brighten up your day… then you can find much better ones than this. May I suggest Lycoris Recoil, Bocchi the Rock, Do It Yourself, Encouragement of Climb, or maybe even Endro? However if you’re okay with something completely inoffensive, a bit stinky looking and will make you ask frustrating questions over the definition of alchemy, then you might like Management of a Novice Alchemist.
5/10 Mediocre.
[Prelim review: 3/12 eps] Currently, this seems to be a typical slice of life with adventure and fantasy. There's monsters, gatherers/hunters, and a MC who is spectacularly good at fighting. It certainly can be called generic, as many elements do not stand out. This seems to be one of those anime that serves as a relaxing relief to the other more intense anime this season. Story (6): Initially, the story was fine. We get a setting and background of the MC [Sarasa] who is going out on her own in the countryside. However, with the airing of the third episode, I felt a subtle tone shift instory telling. The first two episodes were nice and relaxed with decent character interactions. However, the third one was less relaxed and more tense, which is inconsistent with the other two.
I did not read the source material, but the pacing and tone feels off to me, and it remains to be seen if this type of storytelling will become dull.
Art (6): The art is nothing special; typical fast production-style art. I think the art for the character feels "cleaner"; the edges/outlines of the characters doesn't feel "jagged", for the lack of better words. So it is better in that sense.
Character (6): So far, no real character development has taken place, which is as expected. However, I feel as though there is a bit too much talking from the MC. It could be from the choice of the voice actor making the MC sound sort of mechanic and tedious. So far, nothing stands out to me. Even the character interactions of the "main party" is currently stiff, and hopefully that changes.
Audio/Music (6): The only reason why audio/music is a 6 is because of the MC's voice acting. Otherwise it would be a 7. Good OST, OP, and ED.
Enjoyment/Overall (6): I did enjoy watching the first three episodes. If you are someone who do not like generic, adventure-fantasy world settings, this is not for you (probably most people). The story feels like it has potential to get duller. The characters currently do not have development and their interactions do not feel "welcoming"; not at bonding stage yet. Sarasa's voice acting leaves a lot to be desired, as it sounds monotone (she has a lot of lines... can there be less speaking and more world building).
It's not just a slice of life, it's about the first steps into adulthood. In the very first episode, we see what it's like to start your own business, to be part of a new community, and then in the following ones to change other people's lives out of simple charity. This does not stop others from trying to destroy your business, con you or eat you alive with debts. Kindness is not enough, in this life you gotta be smart. One of the disadvantages of not keeping up with several anime during the season, regardless of the score, is to miss certain adaptations that hide somegems. This anime may not have good animation, it may get repetitive at times, and it may simply be tedious. Sometimes I had to force myself to keep watching it, but I'm glad I did. But for those who seek something beyond distraction, they can find several genuinely beautiful moments, such as the intimacy between Sarasa and her teacher, or the last episode, which against our common expectations, is not about a supposedly epic battle, but about a moral drama that any of us can have: facing the past and choosing the future path.
While it's a rather blatant rip off of the Atelier franchise, and as such made on a budget, this is a fun and charming show with enough comedy and personality to keep most passive SoL fans entertained. Recommended for: - fans of SoL - fans of the Atelier franchise of games, particularly fans of Ryza or Sophie as protags. - fans of CGDCT shows - people who just want to chill with anime - people who like OP protags Not recommended for:- people who want a plot or action.
- people who have a high standard in their animation, it's not bad but it's budget.
- people who like complex world systems.
- people who like gritty fights and action.
Art : 4/5 BGM : 3/5 Story : 3/5 At first episode, i thought the pace was too fast, since suddenly her parents got killed by the bandits and she sold off to the orphanage. And also the dialogue was pretty fast, and i thought the MC actually someone else, since she have the "NPC" face xD but after the first episode anything was just a normal anime with Alchemist Life in it, it was pretty good, the art was pretty decent, i didn't actually hear the bgm clearly because i didn't use speaker or headset, but some of it was hearable and it was pretty decent too,the story was actually pretty boring because she rarely going on adventure except for gathering materials, it was enjoyable but for some it might be boring.
Thanks for reading this review.
Reine Murasame :3
Ima START and END with this. Better animation than tbate. Here we go. Story was very unique. I like how she was a little socially awkward, and started opening up. It wasn't all that predictable, only when the tropes showed up on screen. Those were the most predictable. Like iris slipping the pendant into the magic circle. I still liked it because it was stupid, and stupid things are funny to me. The art style is very fitting for the story. It's not meant to be grim, so the lighthearted, pastel-like art makes it seem as if it's meant to be cute, but serious when itwants to be. One thing I will say is that takes away from the serious tone it's trying to implement sometimes. Doesn't feel serious if its just "ooh look at me hyper voice!" But I love sarasa. The characters were well rounded, but they had flaws and strengths. Sarasa was smart, but socially awkward. Iris was strong, and helped with gathering using her knowledge as a gatherer, but wasn't that intellectually capable. This gave her nl room for improvement on that part. Kate was the mediator, but sometimes she would join in iris' antics, which made me question her intelligence as well. (Still good characters)
They reacted to it very realistically, except for Sarasa. She just goes, "oh that monster? I think ive seen it before. Let me go kill it." The only time she seemed surprised was with the salamander, she told them to run for it. That gave me a reality check, and told me that Sarasa in that moment was not all powerful.
I think you'll enjoy the series based on what you like to watch. If you like a mix of shoujo(bit of it in this show), and some fantasy, I think it'll be interesting. But if youre not into moe/cute style anime, it'll be hard to take this show into consideration seriously as I do. Although it can be argued that its not a big component, its definitely there.
Better animation that tbate though. Thats all that needs to be said.
at first i thought it gonna be a good economic anime, but with the time flow, the plot became plain, and i unsatisfied with the ending, i mean you can take the feed company ownership and let the worker do the management, you control it remotely, since the first 3 episodes was is about basic economic, so i thought it gonna be more logical as/in "practical economics" but yeah it became a plain story and dead character development in the other hand, it has sweet environtment and loveable character design. overall from me is story: 6 plot: 5 character design: 7 character development: 4 graphics: 5
Unpretentious Reviews Management of a Novice Alchemist is an odd anime, and unfortunately not in a good way. Still it has some nuggets of harvest-able experience. After all, I have watched it twice, so it isn't TERRIBLE. The show has both "Wow!" and "What?" elements--unusual for most shows, especially ones that aren't the best like this one. First, the "What?": In like, the first episode, there's this weird capitalist semi-soliloquy in the middle of a life saving procedure that doesn't fit at all. And throughout the show there's a capitalist theme about profits and such. It feels like the creator ofthe show has some strong feelings about wealth, and they bolted an anime to it. It might as well have said "brought to you by United Healthcare". It especially doesn't make sense in a world where it takes a month of travel to get from one town to another. Currency and enumerated debt just wouldn't make sense in such a world. I found the anachronism kind of irritating, but it also made me thing of a fun game called Recettear, so there's that.
Now the "Wow!": There's this particular background music. Several variations of the theme are played throughout the series, more heavily in the first half of the season. The theme is so good. It has no business being included in this anime. It's better than the show, and could be a theme song for like Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter.
The OP music starts with a motif that reminds me of the Crash Man level in Mega Man II. Overall though neither the OP or ED were interesting enough to re-watch or download the music for. That's pretty much all I can think of. Even though I rated this show a 5, I'll likely watch it again again; there aren't too many "roll my eyes" moments, and it's easy to watch. Most shows I rate a 5 I'll never watch again.
Story: The story is rather bland but it's great as a palate cleanser from other shows. Everything goes the main character's way, which isn't bad in what feels like a fantasy slice of life. Characters: while there isn't much character development in the show, I enjoyed the characters for what they are. The supporting cast made me laugh with their antics and I wanted to root for the main character to solve the issue of the episode. Art Style: Pretty colorful with from what I can tell little CGI. No real gritty scenes shown in this show. Wrap-up: While nothing to write home about, this show works asa great palate cleanser from some darker or sadder shows. Which is why I gave it a 7/10.
This anime was okay. It's not great, but it's not as boring or annoying as a lot of recent anime similar to it. The characters are cute, there's some humorous moments here and there, and it's one of those anime that I think a lot of others would have made Isekai even though there was no need for it; true enough yes, it's not an Isekai, and it works just fine for what it is. I have to admit that the cheeriness and joyfulness of the characters doesn't quite cross the line to being obnoxious and is actually pretty charming and infectious.But even with all that being said I still can't say this anime is amazing, it's just kind of okay.
The is among the most average bland isekai. If you are looking for a palate cleanser or a mindless show to watch, there are better ones out there that are actually worth your time. My gripes with the anime - The sad backstory was just a means to get her to open a shop. When you think things through, it is sad for the sake of being sad, and she decided to open a shop because their parents had a shop. It is not clear what really motivated her to become an alchemist. does she want to save people, does she want to become rich? What isthe connection between the death of parents and alchemy?
- OP MC. Again, if done right it is quite entertaining to watch. But tell me why the village living in the edge of the forest, which has a good sect of gatherers, are so poorly informed about the monsters that surround them? They should know this place like the back of their hand and yet, it has to be the MC that has to tell them. How does this make any sense? This is a lazy attempt to bring spotlight on MC.
- When one of the character is injured and comes for treatment, the issue of cost comes up. Ok, the alchemist needs to be paid for her service, cool. But then again, the whole village practically offered their services for free as a welcoming gift. It makes me think that the MC is inconsiderate and petty. Yes items are expensive and she needs to make a living, there is a conversation that needs to happen. But there are so many better ways to do this without making the MC look petty and then copping out latter by having the MC reveal that she'd have offered her services for free anyways.
- MC is OP because she can alchemy. Is magic innate to people or alchemy. Can others use magic or only alchemist? If alchemy allows you to be strong, why aren't there more fighters pursuing alchemy? How does the MC master the sword and physical enhancement in one day?
Personally I cannot stand when MC is OP because the anime actively dumbs down all the supporting characters to the level of potatoes.