JAINITUOS ANIME REVIEWS – SAIHATE NO PALADIN (THE FARAWAY PALADIN) – FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Saihate No Paladin (The Faraway Paladin)

Genre: isekai, fantasy

Studio: Children’s Playground Entertainment

Hello my friends. Welcome to an other entry blog.

Now, it is a time to come back to all ways of do blogging, at least from me. And while I was receiving my second dose, I was able to use that time to watch some good anime, and have a good time, especially from this spring/winter, depending the place of the world you are in now. And one of the anime that I was curious about was one that I chose regarding the Chosen Ones (Well, not really).

And now, it is finally time to watch, since I consider I watched enough for an entry.

Behold…

SAIHATE NO PALADIN

But before I continue, I must ask you the typical questions:

Are you guys ok? Feeling happy?

If the answer is yes, then I am happy, especially since I now have a peace of mind due to the shots.

Now… let’s go in the ultimate life-changing journey… of the comfy of the bed. This is The Faraway Paladin.

PREMISE

Saihate no Paladin is another isekai story, written by Kanata Yasugino and illustrated by Yususaga Rin, and tells the story of Will, a young man who died and reincarnated in another world, like I said, an isekai. In this new world, he is raised by three undead creatures, Blood, a skeletal warrior who teaches him to use weapons in combat; Mary, a mummified priestess who teaches him daily-to-daily tasks, and to pray; and Gus, an spectral sorcerer who teaches him magic and sorcery.

After some years, Will finally reaches adulthood, and then he must make an oath to a deity of his choice, in this case, Gracefeel, the Goddess of Light. Shortly after, Will start going on this journey of life, to learn the truth of this world and of his tutors, with the help of many sweet companions, Meneldor, an elf, expert on archery and Will’s best friend, Robina, a traveling trobadour, and Antonio, a hawker and skilled negotiator.

Oh… And Will adopts the names of his tutors and a tribute, calling himself William G. Maryblood.

One interesting fact is that Saihate no Paladin was heavily influenced by another isekai anime I reviewed months ago, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation. In fact, the author, Kanata Yasugino, mentioned his work and quote:

«Mushoku without ecchi».

Here is a little article explaining it.

The Faraway Paladin Was Heavily Influenced by Mushoku Tensei

To be honest, this article got my attention more than the premise itself, encouraging me to watch Saihate no Paladin in the end. But I will talk about it later.

Regarding Saihate, this adaptation is going to have only one cour – that is 12 episodes, and it is produced by a studio I swear I never heard of before – Children’s Playground Entertainment. Actually I found the name pretty funny, and it is not because it is producing an isekai story, or because I think they produce children stories. It is because I find the name a bit… unconventional. I do not know how to speak it, but half of me thinks the name is good, and the other half thinks is lame.

Sort of.

Anyway, Saihate no Paladin is available at Crunchyroll, and the opening theme – «A sacred heart» is performed by Hikaru Masau, a.k.a. Helical, and the ending is performed by Nagi Yanagi, and it has a fancy name – Shirushibi, or Mark of Fire.

Now, let’s go with…

STORY

One thing I definitely agree with the article, is that Saihate no Paladin has a lot of influence from Mushoku Tensei, and for me, that is a good thing because definitely Mushoku Tensei is one of the best anime of 2021, you watch the series, and you get the vibes immediately. Nonetheless, I caught four big differences with the work of Rifujin na Magonote and its adaptation. And I will put them here.

1. While Mushoku Tensei takes its time to make the main character, Rudeus Greyrat, grow, at least physically, Will basically becomes a 15-year-old adult in three episodes.
2. Mushoku Tensei focuses in the life of Rudeus Greyrat, in a matter of bildungsroman, Saihate no Paladin centers on a hero’s journey.
3. The plot of Mushoku Tensei is about Rudeus’s desire to life properly again, while Saihate no Paladin focuses in the mystery of the world Will was reincarnated.
4. We, as viewers, knew what kind of life Rodeus got before, but the previous life of Will remains a mystery.

Also, the fact that there are three undead creatures raising an human boy, and the truth behind that adds a lot of personality and uniqueness to the story, and despite these two episodes are not precisely of battles and war, they do not lack of action; better yet, none of them are slow. As a matter of fact, episode one has a lot of development regarding Will and his family, with all of them, and the events of those relationships are interesting enough to be convincing, and while we watch the episode, we come to know the personalities of Gus, Mary and Blood.

Gus being the grumpy, yet likeable old man; Mary being a mother figure, and Blood the builded warrior with a heart of gold. They might sound as stereotypes to many, but for me, they fit their roles pretty well.

So yeah. If you enjoy these types of story, you will like Saihate no Paladin, but for those fans of action and adventure, this might be frustrating, depending in your state.

Furthermore, another big difference between Mushoku Tensei and Saihate no Paladin is the animation, and the atmosphere. While Mushoku has rough lines and opaque colours for highlighting the realism, from my viewpoint…

Saihate no Paladin is more colourful and bright, like a hint for the vision of adventure.

But one thing is for sure. The first two episodes has a lot of mythology. because Will gets a lot of knowledge regarding the deities of this new world. Volt, the God of justice and Lightning, similar to Zeus; Mater, the Mother Goddess; and Blaze, the God of Fire and technology.

Also… very curious names.

And for those who may noticed… Saihate no Paladin does the opposite of Mushoku Tensei in terms of world-building, because while the latter develops a lot of races and ethnicities of the new world, Saihate no Paladin creates a beautiful mythology that feels similar to our world, yet believable and proper to the new world.

So yeah. Both series have their strengths that make them interesting and their own merit.

By the way, just look at the cover of the first light novel.

When I saw it, I thought we will face a pretty dark story with a lot of violence and war, like Goblin Slayer and The Rising of the Shield Hero, but then…

And I thought… Am I watching the right anime? Perhaps I miss something. This is not a bad thing, but I wanted to share it with you.

Oh well!!!

CHARACTERS

I already mentioned what I think the characters, at least the mentors, Gus being the irascible, yet likeable old man; Mary, the mysterious, but sweet mummified priestess who loves Will as her son, and Blood, the giant warrior with a heart of gold.

And now… let’s get this over with.

• 

• 

AINZ-SAMA!!!

Yeah. The good ol’ Ainz Ooal Gown. I also noticed it.

Also, the presentation of Will is pretty solid, due to the glimpses of his previous life, in fact, there is a scene in which you see some keepsake, like the main character was cremated.

And overall, Will is a likeable protagonist. At first I thought he will have some deep voice, possibly played by Yuichiro Umehara (Goblin Slayer), or Yusuke Kobayashi (Re:Zero & Dr. Stone), but it sounds more like Ayumu Murase (Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun), and that adds a lot of humanity to him.

My only disappointment is that the companions of Will did not appear during the first episodes. This is more my failing, of course, so I will give my time to watch more episodes.

Perhaps, I will end up liking them as well.

CONCLUSION

Saihate no Paladin ended up having a lot of cool things, the animation, the characters, the plot, the world-building, and the premise. I say it again, those who enjoyed Mushoku Tensei will have fun with this series, especially for the upcoming episodes.

In fact, I will go now and watch the rest at Crunchyroll…

HECK WITH THAT! LET’S DIE AND GET REINCARNATED, SO A SEXY DARK-SKINNED DEMONESS WILL RISE ME.

I CAN IMAGINE HER!!!

HERE I COME…

…

WOW!! This new world is not what I imagined.

But… where is my sexy dark-skinned foster mother?

Oh!!!

JAINITUOS ANIME REVIEWS – Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-Kun!! First Impressions

OH MY DEVIL!!!!

Hey Guys, this is Jaime again.

Welcome to another anime review. And this time, I am focusing in a little entry that has kept my attention since last October, but that only I was able to see carefully right now.

And that is…

WELCOME TO DEMON SCHOOL! IRUMA-KUN (Mairimashita! Iruma-kun in Japanese).

But before I continue, I must ask you… The Question.

Are you ok? Feeling happy today?

If the answer is yes, then I am happy as well.

Having said that, let’s go with the review.

WELCOME TO DEMON SCHOOL! IRUMA-KUN

Based on the manga written and illustrated by Osamu Nishi, the story is about Iruma Suzuki, a 14-year-old boy who, incredibly, is sold by his own parents to a demon, called Sullivan, who, again incredibly, welcomes him into his family and adopts him as his grandson. Much to Iruma’s surprise, he is also enrolled into the Babyls School for Demons. And despite having adapted so quickly, Iruma-kun must fight not to let the other students discover he is not a demon, otherwise, he will be eaten. That’s right!!!!

But he is not alone, he has very special friends, like the popular Asmodeus Alice, the wacky, yet adorable Clara Valac, and the imposing and shoujo manga fan student council president, Ameri Azazel, with whom Iruma-kun will live all kind of wacky situations.

Iruma-kun is produced by Bandai Namco Pictures (Aikatsu!, Gintama)

Ok. First things first. As I said before, while i was watching a lot of anime through Crunchyroll and YouTube, I met a lot of references of a new anime series, from which I could only get the words, Demon School,  and then I thought:

Wow!! Is this a spin-off of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba? Awesome. I’ll watch it.

NAH!!! Just kidding! I didn’t thought that. But I decided to leave it for later, for I was watching other anime and focusing in reviewing other stuff. Nevertheless, the more I was into winter/summer anime, the more I was finding clips from Iruma-Kun, so I decided to do my best to watching it. And then, finally, at the beginning of this 2020, I was able to see some of the episodes of Iruma-Kun.

Now, I am more eager to watch it complete, because I really loved the animation and the character design, as well as the characters. Especially this adorable, sweet thing…

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you…

CLARA VALAC

Let me tell you, I got the great feeling that this waifu (Yeah, she has the standards of an amazing waifu!!) will bring a lot of energy and life to Iruma-Kun with her antics and personality, especially because, according to Raim-sensei, she is, and I quote…

«More innocent than a baby, with a 2% of sexiness»

From the moment I saw her face, and read this, I immediately LMFAO to death, and I currently do every time that she says… IRUMA-CHI or AZZ-AZZ. From the beginning, I knew that this character will be a breakout one, and of course, I was right. Every time you see her, she is so simple yet so childish that you want to see and know more from Clara. But the best part is that she is never obnoxious. There is a purpose in everything she does, believe it or not, and there is some cleverness on her character… Kind of.

But I can assure that you will indeed love her. And don’t let the excitable girl trope fool you.

Speaking of interesting female characters, we also got…

Ameri Azazel

Before I start with her, you must know that she is voiced by Saori Hayami, the same seiyuu of this lovely lady.

YUMEKO JABAMI, from KAKEGURUI

I immediately fall in love with everything related to Saori Hayami. I am kind of her Number 1 Fan!

Anyway, Ameri is the textbook representation of the student council president; strict, stern, doing things by the book, and of course, insanely well-endowed; think about either Eri Ayase or Dia Kurosawa from Love Live!!! But deep inside that authority, she is actually a fan of shoujo manga, but there is a problem… She can’t understand Japanese, so she get Iruma for…

You get it.

And we got…

Asmodeus Alice. 

The best student at Babyls and the son of the noble Asmodeus family.

Of course, he is the pretty boy that begins as the rival of Iruma-kun, but then they become best friends. And just like with Clara and Ameri, as soon as the story established the kind of relationship Alice will have with Iruma-kun, you get to love this character, because the story gives him a motivation, and, combined with his powers and design,  you get a great male character.

One thing that I could not stop wondering is that neither Alice nor Ameri wear the school uniform. This is only mere speculation from me, but it’s because their respective position that both are required have very imposing design, and, honestly, after imagining themselves with the school uniforms, I don’t think either Ameri nor Alice will give the same impression.

Any way…

Naturally, I will not forget our male protagonist, Iruma-kun,

There is something very interesting I noticed about him. I mean, 14 years old, average teenager, very gentle personality, excitable, and blessed with a great power.

You know who I am thinking about?

Izuku Midoriya

And their facial features are very similar.

NOW!! I am not saying Iruma-kun is a rip-off of Midoriya. He is not. But that, for me, both have so much in common that I simply could not let that pass. Nonetheless, I think both are really wonderful protagonists, and their journeys to become something amazing from the opportunities they are granted is what make them more enjoyable to watch.

BRAVO!!!

My apologies. I know I talked too much about the main characters, but that’s because they are great, at least from my perspective, and all of them make Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun more entertaining. I love this series, and I deeply regret not to include it on my What to Expect this Summer/Winter 2019 entries.

Perhaps I should say:

OH MY DEVIL!!!!

Finally, the art is beautiful, the backgrounds are cute and badass, and for me, more is about to come.

CONCLUSION

To sum up, Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun is a worthy entry for you to watch this 2020. Regardless or not you like this high school drama stories, you can definitely take a couple of hours to see it by yourself.

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-Kun is currently available at Crunchyroll