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

So I saw the other reviews and found them incorrect in my view. This anime isn't perfect but it does have a lot going for it and kept me coming back for it every week. This anime is your typical ISEKAI which seems to be people's main complaint, however I have to wonder why people watch ISEKAI animes if they don't like the genre. It'd be akin to me listening to rap and saying that the majority of rap music is terrible and that no-pone should like it. Sorry for the rambling of anger towards stupidity I'll get to the real review now. Story (7):The story in this anime is pretty interesting as it takes the idea of a 9-5 worker becoming a noble who has no real power as a noble as he is the eighth son. Which is pretty interesting as that concept is pretty similar to being a 9-5 worker as you technically do have power given to you in the form of money but you don't have any actual power/influence. The story then through the use of magic has the main character go up through the ranks of nobility throughout the anime. This sounds like a cop out in a review but trust me if you watch the anime and pay attention you'll notice it's not really a cop out due to how the world is set up.

Now obviously I really love the story, so you probably are wondering why I gave it a 7. To be honest it's because I'm a realist, personally I give the story a 10 but for the sake of a review I have to give you an honest answer. The story with its good qualities does have its flaws coming from its attempt to juggle four plots at the same time. This juggling of four plots gives a story a minus 1 as it each plot has to take away from the other plots due to time, a personal preference, etcetera.

These four plots are as follows (in no particular order). One plot is a family dispute revolving around the eldest and the eighth son. Another plot is the king's and all the nobility's manipulation of the main character and his actions. Obviously another plot is the adventuring part of the story when the main character and his party go through various dungeons and forests. Finally, the last plot is the romance of the main character and his party members.

Another minus to the story actually adds to enjoyment to this anime. The anime basically starts last episode's final scenes (not exactly the same scene but very similar). The anime by doing this does take away some of the will they won't they from the adventuring throughout the anime. However, this anime isn't entirely about adventuring (luckily) so it takes the watcher out of the mindset of "will they survive" to "how do they plan on doing it".

The third and final minus to the story is the one and done episode feeling. What I mean by this is that each episode has a set goal to accomplish by the end of the episode and the majority the time its accomplished by the end of the episode. While this does add to the enjoyment as you don't usually get left off on terrible cliff hangers it does take away from some of the story.

Art (9): The art of the characters is great. The characters are pretty colorful. The scenery is well drawn. The buildings and the landscape also look very nice with a historical feel. I gave it a 9 due to small issues that I can't really explain (sorry).

Sound (9): sound as far as I found was perfect but I've got bad ears so I probably can't pick up on some qualities within the sound (sorry).

Characters (10): The characters in this anime are AMAZING. The main character actually has massive character development in how he views nobility, the world, his capabilities (outside of battle) and the people around him. The side characters actually have character development more than "OO I love MC I want to sleep with him". And this anime does something that I thought was basically impossible, I actually liked the loli character and wouldn't mind the main character getting with her. I'm not going to spoil anymore of the characters as I really want you to watch this anime and watch the characters for yourself.

Enjoyment (10): I've explained why in the character section and the story section (and I need to end this long review now).

Overall (8): I calculated this as most people care about the story over everything else so that brings the average (overall) down to an 8. Hope you liked this review and it was enough to get you interested in watching this anime. Hope you enjoy this anime as much as I did.