Review of The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?
I'm sure everyone is no stranger to the usual cash and grab garbage anime that shows up every season that people only watch to "Pass the time," Hachi-nan tte, Sore wa Nai deshou! somehow manages to prevail above them all and disappoint me on a cataclysmic level. I expected nothing and yet I was still let down, at any rate, let me begin my review. Our main character Shingo Ichinomiya is the common everyday salaryman but he suddenly dies at the age of 25 he then wakes up to find himself in the body of 6-year-old, Wendelin Von Benno Baumeister, who he later finds out containsan unprecedented amount of magic inside his body, which essentially makes him one of the most powerful people in the world after he learns how to use magic of course. That's essentially the gist of the story, it’s really no different from the usual isekai anime, so you can pretty much fill in the lines as you go.
The story suffers in many ways, one prime example being that they had too much material to fit into a 12-episode cour and because of this, the pacing is absolutely atrocious. What's more, too many questions are left unanswered about the show, for instance, what are the power rankings in this world, What happened to the boy who previously owned the body, are there other people like the main character in this show, and the list goes on. Because of this, the viewer is left both perturbed and bewildered however, I’m quite sure most people lost interest in the show at around episode two.
The animation is neither substandard nor worthy of meriting an award so I would say it was fairly adequate. However, almost every fight scene involved some form of ghastly CGI, and having both styles on the screen showed the drastic difference in quality like that of heaven and earth. It was so bad it made me wish that this show would stop implementing fight scenes because watching it was akin to torture. And on a personal side note, for some reason the creators had an inordinate infatuation with dragons, it seemed every time they could put a dragon in the story they would.
Like the animation, the voice acting was neither terrible nor incandescent, it was alright, and considering what went on in the show, I doubt they tried very hard. The music left no impression on me and I sometimes forgot it was even playing, but then again, I don’t think any of us were expecting to get our hairs blown back by the OST.
Unfortunately, The characters were both bereft of any defining characteristics and did not leave an impression on me just like this animes’ OST. Lets start with Ena, Ena is one of the several female companions who “fights” alongside the MC, she wields a spear and comes from a long line of spear users and conveniently becomes one of the MC’s wives despite not having any actual feelings for the MC (simply for the sake of creating a harem I would presume). Other than that bundle of uninteresting information there is really nothing else to know about her. Elize, is the teams priest. She was the first one to marry the MC purely for political purposes but magically develops feelings for the main character because like her, he is mentally a child, did I forget to mention she is 12 years old! Louise, almost drawn to mirror her personality is the dumbest looking character in the MC’s merry band of children, she uses martial arts and is used for comedic relief when the story becomes unbearable to look at, however, it produces the exact opposite reaction, all I feel is deep resentment and annoyance when her character manages to slip on to the screen. You then have Elvin, a character who I feel was put into the story so they can say that the MC’s squad isn’t only filled with girls, he uses a sword, other than that there’s really nothing else to know about him. Then you have Wilma, she arrives late and other than the fact that she uses an axe and always feels hungry like others I agree this character truly encompasses everything that is wrong with this show. Finally, we have The Main character Shingo Ichinomiya or Wel as the other characters often call him, is by chance probably one of the most boring main characters to everbe thought into existence. He is neither adroit nor meticulous in how he approaches situations and despite having 25 years of experience in another technologically advanced world, he still somehow manages to act like a prepubescent Man child and not further the technology or academics of the world he finds himself in. As a matter of fact, he has several chances to bring about change or bring something from his world but the only thing he can think of bringing to this world is Japanese cuisine. If not for the fact that he possesses immense magical prowess he would be more useless than his companions.
In closing, Just DON’T watch it. I can’t be franker than that