Review of The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?

“The 8th son” is what happens when You have no imagination, no original ideas and was force fed the most generic, middle of the road fantasy anime in existence for the first two decades of Your life. One day a young office worker dies after completing a hard day of work. It’s never stated outright but we can easily assume that karoshi claimed another victim. He wakes up in the body of a 5 year old boy. The seven years he spends on understanding his new environment and training in magic, which is a rather rare skill in this world. Due to events, mostly, beyond hiscontrol, he gets dragged in a number of political plays and even becomes a key figure in a political move that will determine the future of not only his house but the whole region where it resides.

I’m going to say it out right. This anime has some very good ideas, ideas that could truly put it above other isekai anime from the last decade. Unfortunately, the writers do absolutely nothing with those ideas and just stick to the road most travelled. But, I’ll get to that. For starters let’s look at the members of the cast that actually matter to anything.

Wendelin - the main protagonist. Once a simple office worker, now a OP AF magic user with more money and women to know what to do with. Basically a standard issue, boring avatar that the viewer can project himself onto. When he was 5 the world pretty much started to bend over backwards for him. It started when he was found (because of course we can’t have an MC with any kind of active motivation. That would be silly) by a powerful mage that offered to teach him for no charge. Yes, it is explained why, but it doesn’t make it any less of a plot convenience shit. After that is just one success after another. He even gets a new “mentor” figure who, despite not teaching him directly, at least tries to teach him how the world of nobles work… and how to become filthy rich in less than a week but that’s neither here nor there. Of course, like most isekai MCs go he has no personality. He’s kind, shy, helpful and all that other boring stuff you've seen a million times. To complete isekai bingo… he has no ambitions or long term goals.

Elise - Another boring cardboard cutout that I could live without. Elise is a holy magic user with the ability to heal wounds. Something even out MC can’t do. She’s also Wendelin’s… fiancée. Yeap our “hero” got engaged almost as soon as he flew out of the home nest. She’s kind, boring, shy, a bit introverted and lack anything that could make her an interesting character. If You ever wanted a wife that would make You a cup of tea while healing You with magic and be practically a “yes girl” You will probably like her.

Brantack - an old mage with a taste for alcohol. He was Wendelin’s master’s master. He seems to truly care for for his disciple’s disciple but that doesn’t really stop him from manipulating him info situations that could be described as a pain in the ass.

That's it. There are 4 more in Wendelin’s coterie but truth be told they are just there to take up space. None of them have anything close to plot meaning. All of them are cardboard cutouts with no personality whatsoever. A dude with a sword, a chic with a spear, a chic that punches and a magic chic with a giant weapon. You saw it all in other shows.

I mentioned that the show has some good ideas that are underutilised. The main one is the succession line. The show makes a big deal about it in the first episodes but later just drops it. It is mentioned from time to time but with no real impact on anything. We are led to believe that benign anything other than a first in line is a bad thing but we don’t truly see why. We don’t get to witness the social isolation or even any kind of drawback to benign second, third or even eight.

The other pretty solid idea was the political game that is played in the background of the main story. Despite Wendelin being blissfully unaware of it, he is constantly a pawn in someone else's game. I would love to see more of it and how different games impact not only the main cast but the kingdom as a whole. Unfortunately the writers weren’t interested or competent enough to show us this side of the coin.

What we got is a pretty standard, deprived of any kind of tension, middle of the road show. It’s not horrible but it’s not good enough for me to recommend it to anyone unless You just want to watch something You saw many times over just with a new coat of paint over it.