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EP. REVIEW: Wise Man's Grandchild


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Iron Maw



Joined: 29 May 2008
Posts: 482
PostPosted: Sun Apr 21, 2019 12:22 am Reply with quote
zztop wrote:
Iron Maw wrote:
zztop wrote:

- Other male characters get to take the spotlight and shine. It's very rare for shounen webnovels to have a male supporting character ("the cool bro") that gets to contribute to the plot. Majority of these novels will have just have the male MC surrounded by his contributing girls while the side males get put aside, since 1 guy; many girls is often the appeal point for male webnovel readers.

(Supporting males exist more in shoujo/otome webnovels, not just to appeal to women readers, but also to introduce male characters without breaking the commitment to the female MCs one true pairing with the designated lead.)


This only really true of harems tho. In shounen manga and such it's very common for other male characters to shine. Also harems usually only exist because there is no commitment until the very end of story (if any at all). You make sound if the MC is picking one girl and chasing the next one afterwards. The romance are just teases and nothing else.

Beyond that none of what you said necessarily means this will be a quality story. It just means that it is slightly wishfullment than some of it's peers. It doesn't mean writing itself will be any good or any of characters raise much beyond their archetypes.


My apologies, I should've explained myself better for those points. Razz

Shounen manga like Black Clover do make their male characters shine, like Asta and Yuno. I think you might be conflating shounen manga dynamics with webnovel dynamics.

I was specifically referring to Narou webnovels aimed at male readers (what I refer to as shounen webnovels) working more on wish fulfullment harem dynamics, like what you see in titles like In Another World With My Smartphone. Plus those harem romances will end up turning into full on romances with all the girls (at least for those webnovels.)

I agree that what I said doesn't guarantee quality, this is just to show how the author chose to shake things up a bit. The fact that other readers point this out show how often most recent webnovels tend to follow certain cliches and tropes established by previous, more successful webnovels. For example, author sees people like reading titles with harems in them, so they'll also use harems in their works to get reader attention and popularity as well.

I hope this clears up any confusion you might have had on my post.


It did thanks. That makes much more sense. Smile
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Gohanangered



Joined: 06 Sep 2018
Posts: 39
PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2019 7:34 pm Reply with quote
First things off, the sub of the fmc is sicily not what they put down. I hope they fix that at some point. Second someone said in the comment section about harems being no commitement. Go read some of the LNs of the harem animes. The anime adaptations don't usually do a good job with that genre because they only get one season to tell any of the story. I can give examples of harems where the mc actually makes commitements to multiple female characters. High school dxd(spoiler[engaged to 7 so far]), testament of a new sister devil(spoiler[marries 5 and gets them pregnant]), Campionespoiler[(marries 5, has a few kids]), in another world with my smartphone(spoiler[9 wives and 9 kids]) masou gauken(spoiler[chooses multiple females]). That is just a few that the mc actually commits to the female characters. But you have to read the LNs, not mainly focus on the animes. Third you will find out in this series that the villian as a pretty legit reason to be evil. Fourth unlike other op mcs, this one shows actual emotions and doesn't look like a robot at times. Fifth the mc enjoys coming up with new magic and even tries to explain it to his friends, thus explaining it to us as the readers or viewers. The only thing i haven't agree with so far in what they did was tone down the violence. There's at least to incidents they did so, the carriage scene where merlin finds him, there's dead mangled corpses all over in the manga and it's shown. And the fight with the 3 people harrasing maria and sicily, the mc beat up the blonde so badly he thought he killed him in the manga by slaming his face right into the ground. But for some reasons those two were altered. But anyways overall you'll see this is a pretty good story. Which early romance, compared to having to wait like 200 to 300 chapters for anime development in some mangas i've seen. lol Sixth, not sure who it was, but how can you complain about sicily, spoiler[she is very loving, adorable, and very friendly. The only time she gets mad, is when someone hits on shin. Otherwise never shows any anger]. Unlike some of female characters in many animes. Which i don't like the ones that are pron to anger in general. Anime hyper
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MiloTheFirst



Joined: 10 Dec 2014
Posts: 429
PostPosted: Tue Apr 23, 2019 8:25 pm Reply with quote
after checking the first couple episodes I find myself rather disappointed, the premise actually seemed interesting and I can get behind an OP protagonist as long as the story actually has something to say, after all want/having to become stronger doesn't have to be the source of conflict for every story, but they don't seem to even be trying, they are just going through a check list of common tropes in the most bland way posible.

now, for some reason they decided to make this an isekai even-though the protagonist remembering stuff from his past life should be at odds with the premise of him being inept at social conventions, I could understand him not knowing medieval-ish(?) etiquete but straight out being oblivious of comercial transactions and such after been an office worker at a Japanese corporation no less is a pretty hard sell. some guys are saying he doesn't remember his previous life that well, just that it was a thing that happen, but just on episode one he seemed to remember magical girls shows and that hydrogen and oxygen were stuff that existed and how they produced combustion, so no.

People give Isekai a lot of shit but they are not by definition inherently poor in writing quality, besides they wouldn't keep making a ton of them per season if people didn't buy them which they wouldn't do unless they clearly enjoy them. that been said it is very hard for me to defend the storytelling of this show when it just decided to sit down and go full autopilot with its genre tropes, the unnecessarily douchy noble kid constantly putting on a ludicrously cartoonish evil face was the cherry on top.

at the very least I have to give them credit for not having video games mechanics such as MP or levels but that is quite a low bar. to be frank for this premise the show had to take itself either very seriously (taking an existentialist angle) or very light hearted (like a sort of self aware comedy sitcom), it seems to be going for the later but so far it isn't doing that well at it. I hope it gets better, I'll give it another episode or two for the time being
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Gohanangered



Joined: 06 Sep 2018
Posts: 39
PostPosted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 1:19 pm Reply with quote
Milo your wrong on a couple of things, there's even a video on youtube where it explains shin could end up being one of the best op main characters of any series. Just from the stand point in how he doesn't act like a robot emotional like other op main characters alone. Second this has way better relationship with the mc and fmc then most stories out there. Especially the ones that drag it out for 200 plus chapters. You know i don't even have to name an example on that front alone and how many people i see complain about relationships drag out with any story that has romance in it. Third the main villian you get into his story has a pretty legit reason why he became evil and it's understandable in how he turned evil in the first place. Fourth the characters are pretty unique in their personalities from many other stories i've seen. But alot of the other stuff i can't go into, but i know about because i've been following the manga for close to two years and know some of the info that hasn't happened yet from the LNs this is based off of. The only thing i would be disappointed in would be some of the violence was toned down. But that's about it anime wise. Sub wise i don't want to bother mentioning the sub error of a characters name. Because funimation knows they messed up but are probably too stubborn to fix it. lol
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MiloTheFirst



Joined: 10 Dec 2014
Posts: 429
PostPosted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 5:11 pm Reply with quote
I get you really like this show but you are just stating your opinions, you are not laying a single rationale to sustained them. let me show you how to do it.

Quote:
"there's even a video on youtube where it explains shin could end up being one of the best op main characters of any series"


this doesn't mean anything, anyone can record themselves saying anything and upload it to youtube, the fact that someone took the time to do it doesn't validate their claims

Quote:
Just from the stand point in how he doesn't act like a robot emotional like other op main characters


firstly, not being emotionally distant doesn't automatically make him not-bland as a character, which so far he absolutely is as shown in his continuos routine of "good guy does something kind because that is what the story expects him to do". secondly an OP main character being stoic doesn't make him poorly written, they become a harder sell for the broader audience granted, not a lot of people will be able to relate to them but that doesn't mean they don't have any depth behind their personality, take for instance Yuuji from the Grisaia franchise, he is stoic AF but that's just who he is, later episodes showcase how his early development reinforced that personality but throughout the series his character is solid, not just lazy writing, for a an example of a robotic OP MC poorly laid out you can see at Tatsuya from mahouka.

Quote:
Second this has way better relationship with the mc and fmc then most stories out there


according to who or which metric? I have also read my fair share of mediocre japanese ligh novels (not that I didn't enjoy them) and at least half of them try harder than this series. so far all I have seen is mr bland good guy falling in love at first sight with literally the first big breasted girl his age he meets, it doesn't help that she was introduced to the viewer literally with a shot to her breast before her face. then all their interactions have been shy girls get awed to the op-ness of magic-jesus and develops a crush. Sure, this might not be in the ranks of another world with smartphone, or rhapsody march, but you seriously need to do yourself a favor and read/watch some actually well written stuff

Quote:
You know i don't even have to name an example on that front alone and how many people i see complain about relationships drag out with any story that has romance in it


yes you have to, otherwise your statement remains a hollow opinion without merit. since we are talking anime adaptation lets compare apples to apples and name a few: Rakudai Kishi, the mc and main love interest both have their own motivations and struggles, in the final episode the guy asks her to marry him. Black bullet, people joke about the mc having a loli harem, but he just see them as his protégé, from episode one to the last one there is a single girl (this one is his age, btw) he has a crush on and he actually makes advances on her but the plot push them apart due to the differences in their sense of justice. Rokka no yuusha, just go and watch this one, I don't want to spoil it.

Quote:
Third the main villian you get into his story has a pretty legit reason why he became evil and it's understandable in how he turned evil in the first place


neat, now lets hope they make a good job at showcasing this when the time comes, on the meanwhile they need to work on making sure people stick around until then

Quote:
Fourth the characters are pretty unique in their personalities from many other stories i've seen.


Then i guess the matter at hand is that you haven't seen much. I admit, just 3 episodes is very little to properly judge the depth of every character, but hey when you turn this around they already aired 25% of the season, they should have advanced on their growth by now which doesn't seem to be the case. so far we just have a generic teasing routine between MC and the Prince, a generic energetic redhead chick, a generic frail shy girl, that accomplished the grand achievement of confessing to seeing an opportunity in asking a guy for help. like seriously what the fudge, I am guessing this scenario was better explained in the light novel but they totally failed at showcasing the sinfulness about asking some guy for protection, she hadn't manipulated him, guilt trip him, seduced him, nor did she demand for the very best he could hand out. she just came up to him and directly asked him if he could help her with this one problem to which he decided to do so... how come did things played into the scenario where she is crying and feels shameful for "using the guy", was she planning to never speak to him again after he handed over the goods? was she planning to sell the thing or warmonger? was mr jerk noble kid never that much of a threat and she just saw this as an opportunity to make the mc see her as vulnerable and seduce him into elevating her social status? the show certainly did nothing to suggest either of those, the whole scene only played into the power fantasy element

look, maybe the source material really is better written than what we got here, but let me remind you that this review is about the anime as a stand alone piece, you are still welcomed to bring in comparisons with the source material but understand that it working better there doesn't excuse the anime adaptation for doing a poor job at storytelling
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 5:53 am Reply with quote
Lol, it looks like their sensei was modeled after Gavin Newsom (CA gov.).

Well, that certainly escalated quickly. Shocked Ironically, spoiler[when Kurt's father turned out to not be Lucius Malfoy, I realized he was likely a mostly innocent victim under someone's control], but did not expect that outcome.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18135
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2019 4:19 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, I was caught off-guard by the latter half of this episode, but in a good way. I definitely didn't expect that spoiler[the father not only wasn't pushing his son into this mode of thought but also actively tried to stop it] or that it would get so intense so fast. It was a major system shock for a series that I would have described as "pleasantly bland" up to that point.

And yeah, I absolutely agree with Rebecca that our prince is up to something. I don't think it's necessarily harmful, but too many of his actions seem too calculated for it just to be playfully messing with his new friend. He's an opportunist for certain.
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michizure



Joined: 28 Jun 2006
Posts: 177
PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2019 6:53 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
...it is an unappealing choice. The same goes for the romanization of Sizilien's name. Both presumably went through the original creator, but they stand out in a not-great way.

I stumble over that every time. The original appears to be シシリー, so the "Sicily" that appears elsewhere seems more natural. If the author really did intend it to be "Sizilien" it was an ugly and unfortunate choice.

(Maybe the author was a fan of Sizzle Lean -- “Move over, bacon, now there’s something meatier!” Doesn't seem very likely, though, or very flattering to an otherwise nice character.)
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Norm the genius



Joined: 07 Dec 2018
Posts: 91
PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 8:11 am Reply with quote
3 episodes seen and I can conclude that that the part of Isekai is purely anecdotal and that this is mainly an anime of a magic school with the MC and his companions fighting against enemies known here as demons and demonoids ( like most of the other animes of the magic school where the MC and his friends must fight against X enemy as examples are like the magical terrorist group of Rokudenashi, the aliens of Hundred and the monsters in Seiken Tsukai World Break, just to mention Some)
There really is not an "isekai plot" because the protagonist does not use his knowledge of past life to improve anything, it is only a pretext that he uses his scientific knowledge with his powers but could simply say that he is a genius or is Overpower.
In addition the prota does not have a harem because only one girl has romantic interest the other women have the MC friends so that there is a couple for each.

I am sure that if the anime had not been sold as an isekai surely people would have a better impression of this
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2599
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 11:14 am Reply with quote
michizure wrote:

(Maybe the author was a fan of Sizzle Lean -- “Move over, bacon, now there’s something meatier!” Doesn't seem very likely, though, or very flattering to an otherwise nice character.)


It keeps making me think of the word "lizard," which then has me picturing her as a lizardwoman. Maybe it's an upcoming plot twist...?

Norm the genuius wrote:
I am sure that if the anime had not been sold as an isekai surely people would have a better impression of this


Here, anyway. My best guess is that the author was told to add in the isekai element to make it more appealing to readers in Japan. Of course, it's early days yet, so the rebirth aspect may become significant later on. (Not holding my breath, though...)
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borisdrakoni



Joined: 27 Apr 2019
Posts: 49
PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 12:11 pm Reply with quote
michizure wrote:
I stumble over that every time. The original appears to be シシリー, so the "Sicily" that appears elsewhere seems more natural. If the author really did intend it to be "Sizilien" it was an ugly and unfortunate choice.

The funny thing is, Sicily can be spelled Sizilien in German. Maybe they decided to go with a German spelling since her family name sounds vaguely German? For an English translation, though, Sicily makes way more sense.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4784
PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 2:42 pm Reply with quote
Princess_Irene wrote:


Here, anyway. My best guess is that the author was told to add in the isekai element to make it more appealing to readers in Japan. Of course, it's early days yet, so the rebirth aspect may become significant later on. (Not holding my breath, though...)
I'm enjoying Wiseman's Grandchild a lot more than I thought I would and I'm a fan of isekai shows in general but it is kind of a sad statement about the state of fantasy anime and light novels that this is the only way to get a fantasy series greenlit in this day and age.
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Lord Vaultman



Joined: 03 Mar 2017
Posts: 810
PostPosted: Fri May 03, 2019 7:47 pm Reply with quote
I said it once in this thread and I will say it again. The main villain who we just saw in episode 4 has a very intriguing backstory. (I read ahead). If the anime gets far enough (based on the OP I think they will) yall will enjoy this even more
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Fri May 03, 2019 7:57 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, I was really pleased that not only did they hone in on Schrom right away, as any detectives worth their salt would have done, they also were not fooled by him, which actually fooled me, since they almost always are in these stories. And they played him superbly!

I think I'd call it a "visor." Sunglasses don't really work here either - though I guess he probably wishes he'd had some sunglasses during Shin's attack (and some SPF 9000). I'll see myself out now...
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steelmirror



Joined: 22 Oct 2015
Posts: 342
PostPosted: Sat May 04, 2019 12:43 am Reply with quote
I agree with everyone who has commented on how disappointing it is that the school is just Japanese high school but with magic, how low effort the romance has been, how damn many characters are shoveled into every episode, how pointless the isekai set-up has been to what should have been a straight fantasy story, etc, etc....

But I'm still enjoying the show just fine, which is surprising. I was expecting to drop this one early. I think, for me at least, it's because so far the show has managed one great success that just about makes up for all its failings, and that is that it has managed to not be dull. Lots of shows about magic schools or OP protags with harems just feel like they are treading water by this point. Wise Child has at least managed to feel like it's covered some ground plot-wise, and even thrown a couple of mild surprises out to boot. I care very little about any of the characters, but collectively they manage to be inoffensive enough and capable of just about filling out their genre-mandated roles, so they haven't annoyed me yet, either.

It's still not what I'd call a good show, but in a middling season it's at least not a boring show. That can go a long way.
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