Shikkakumon no Saikyou Kenja

Have you ever played a difficult game and wish you could've defeated a boss easier? Ever wish you could've just cleared a game without dying once? Well, look no further than Gaius, aka Matthias Hildesheimer who reborn as a sage embedded with powerful magic and skills. Welcome a show about a young man who was once powerful still remains powerful. Now, I don't want to knock down expectations but just reading the synopsis invokes a dull feeling. You're likely expecting a character who's going to treat every fight like a walk in the park. And honestly, you're not wrong from the truth. You see, Mathias representsthe iconic Mary Stu type of character that you may find in some isekai. The recurring trope has been a mainstay in some isekai series in recent years after all. Mathias really is a testament of being the 'final boss' in this show itself. The English translated title sounds paradoxical in the fact that we have a character as the strongest sage but with the weakest crest. He did reincarnate into a new body for specific reasons but nonetheless, the title of the show itself sounds ironic. To further this point, Mathias doesn't have any special physical traits if we judge him on the outside. He looks like an ordinary boy with a somewhat mysterious aura behind his personality. Obviously, he has a history but the show decided that to be less relevant and focus on his present goals. And like most fantasy adventures, he gains companions. I won't say this anime is a exactly a harem but we do have one guy surrounded by three girls: Lurie, Alma, and Iris. Oh, before I forget, Iris is actually a dragon but takes on the form of a cute girl with scarlet hair and big appetite. You may wonder what their roles are in the show and believe me, it's irrelevant to explain. That's because the anime wants Matthias to be the shining superstar. Every episode follows a similar loop-formula where we get to see Matthias show off as an overpowered sage. There's not one battle where he truly struggles. As a matter of fact, you better be used to see one-sided curb stomp fights in the most straightforward way possible. There's also a lack of diversity in combat and action scenes as well. You'd think this anime would at least show the full extent of Mathias' abilities in some way but no, sorry. Like most fantasy anime with magic elements these days, we also have an academy that teaches various branches of magical arts. Take a good guess who the best student is. That's right, it's Matthias. He makes everything look easy ranging from clearing quests without breaking a sweat, defeating demons at ease, and humiliating adversaries such as Erhard like it's not even worth his time. Because of these traits, Lurie and Alma admires him and wishes to learn to be just as strong as the sage. Iris, on the other hand, joined him because of their past history together. Together, this group pretty much carries the show on their shoulders with Matthias being at the captain. Look, I'll just say this right now. If you somehow managed to make it past the three episode mark, then there's some chance you may finish the show without questioning your sanity. Do you want an anime with a deep and complex story? Is character development something that interests you? Or perhaps a meaningful relationship between the main cast? If any of those questions are in your head, then look elsewhere. This show sells itself as a depressing adaptation that will quickly wear itself out. You're not going to enjoy the anime if you grow tired of Matthias being the alpha male beating demons everyday. Sadly, that seems to be a main focus of the story as we see Matthias dominate them. It's like playing a video game on the easiest mode and realizing it was a mistake by taking away all the challenging fun aspects. I don't think there's much to address about the animation quality either as J.C. Staff seems to be working their hands on making this as credible as possible. The character designs, backgrounds, and world fiction elements adapts content straight out of the novels. The female cast are decorated with JRPG-ish looks and giving them different weapons and attributes associated with their fighting styles. In terms of choreography, only the various magic crests and techniques in the show attracts attention. I would be lying if I said I enjoyed the action scenes. Because let's face it, we know pretty much how every fight goes with Matthias being the protagonist. This anime didn't get much hype ever since it was promoted. You don't see it mentioned more than other shows this season and nor should it be. We've seen how anime like this before and to be honest, I'm very glad it's just 12 episodes. How many episodes can you really watch Matthias obliterating his opponents until he's satisfied? I know I can't for too long.

for a tl;dr I LOVE LURIE, she is everything an anime girl means to me! Story moves interestingly, enjoyable around the quick pacing, and I am in complete agreement to how Matty does things, leader type strong and wise with much foresight. I like to see this type of goodness happening with my Isekai anime XD Onto the actual review, I worked exceptionally hard on this review because The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest is my favorite anime and I further associate it as the perfect anime that describes me and why I love anime. Lurie is adorable and bit of an airhead. She got such ashy pretty face and opens my closed heart as waifu. She is why anime girls are the prettiest! In the anime, Matty and Lurie like each other although they're too shy to admit it. When Matty teaches Lurie magic and holds her hand, they're really shy to the touch and gaze XD I love the Matty X Lurie blushing moments. Much of my love to the anime is me seeing Lurie and being happy about it. Like when Matty told Lurie and Alma to cast sleep magic from behind the rocks in secret to put the bandits to sleep and Lurie accidentally made themselves fall asleep too. She is so cute asleep that I want to kiss her, even Matty points out that seeing her, he doesn't want to wake her up. Iris is a dragon Matty knows from his previous life, provides a lot of the comedy moments, and is very cute, funny, and clumsy in human girl form. She can’t fully control her strength and trips up a lot haha =) Initially from her appearance she looks weak and harmless. Bad guys would want to target her so Iris is often the bait. Little do the bad guys know that she is really a dragon and the strong one like Matty and they get what they deserve. Alma is tomboyish and a fantastic friend. When first introduced, she was troubled cause she wanted to help Lurie. Alma never gets seriously angry when pranked by Iris, or overprotective of Lurie, she teases Lurie a bit. She is beautiful (not sure if she really cares though), open, reliable, and gives Lurie the courage that she believes in her. By nature, Matty's trump card is his clairvoyance since Matty's previous life as strongest sage reincarrnated into an ordinary person. I like his kind of OP, he is not unconscious of his power like a stupid fool nor does he purposely try to hide or show off his power for NO reason, but he reveals his power in moderation. In his new world, his crest was thought to be the weakest and incantation-less magic was considered wrong, he demonstrates through action and teaches to correct that train of thought and helps everyone in the Academy get better than focusing on being hero. Matty knows his power and holds strategies in accordance to clearly assessing situations and threat levels. I enjoy that manner of thought. The party that Matty forms with Lurie, Alma, and Iris as Matty remasters his abilities, they grow together like childhood friends under the guidance of his talent and knowledge. I like the comfort of seeing pretty Lurie and Matty getting together with cute Alma and Iris on an adventure. Matty would never make Lurie and Alma battle something they couldn't handle. In it lies Matty's OPness, Matty usually fights in moderation, but should there be a serious need to a decisive battle like the Void Eater monster that attacked the Academy, Japanese word is 決戦 "Kessen", Matty would stand in and finish it. It's heartfelt to Matty's character. Iris can swamp everyone easily too as a dragon, but Matty organizes it so he and her fight in moderation so everyone has something to do and Iris doesn't get in over her head and get hurt either. Lurie, Alma, and Iris are all important to him and I'm sure if he the weakest, his dedication to his friends would still be the same. The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest is my favorite to watch for people that like Isekai and go on an adventure, meeting your waifu, holding her hand to teach her, fall in love with her, and fight alongside her, all while everyone around supports you as a couple. For my waifu Lurie 10/10

Isekai, or rather, reincarnation shows can be both good and bad. Case in point, the recent most famous of them all: Rifujin na Maganote's Mushoku Tensei, which is the undeniable platinum standard to follow. And over the years, many people have become mangakas and novelists just to have their ideas shuffled into the ever growing source material form, and one such person of interest is novelist Shotou Shinkou (or going by his official pen name, Shinkoshoto). This madlad has penned no less than 8 series to his name, and all of them (LN and manga adaptations combined) are released year after the next circa. 2015(technically 2016 is a jump) to now, and concurrently serialized in various magazines. But sadly, with his first break-out series: Shikkakumon no Saikyou Kenja a.k.a The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest, being his very first work starting in Syosetu in December 2016 to get J.C.Staff's subpar adaptation, the red flag lies in the details. And more than writing this much novels consecutively, this just goes to show that while novelist Shotou Shinkou can write all he wants, the matter of the fact is that he doesn't know how to write a good concise and compelling story, and basing off from the tropes that have already existed to make a predictable story, already decent with padding to make up for the fact that he's suffering a burnout. If this is the case, then the next anime adaptation of his 2nd work: Tensei Kenja no Isekai Life a.k.a My Isekai Life produced by Revoroot that's coming in Summer, could be the same quality as this. But back to Shikkakumon. Rightaway, I'm getting flashbacks of the comparison between this and Summer 2020's Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha a.k.a The Misfit of Demon King Academy, and I'll just straightaway say this: ALWAYS take Maou Gakuin, you'd doing yourself a better service as Shikkakumon is basically the same average story, plotline, character personalities but executed immensely poorly. In storytelling, the "Show, Don't Tell" Golden Rule exists so as to give the audience sensory details as compared to needless and mindless exposition, and Shikkakumon absolutely failed that test by speedrunning the source material (LN and manga considered) in the premiere episode to useless jargons and details that can be skipped to enhance the world-building (which in fantasy shows like this is already considered predictable). And even more blatantly, lets the exposition be also explained by the MC Matthias Hildesheimer, he himself being the strongest sage Gaius in his previous life before the eventual trope of reincarnation as the boy with the weakest crest. These so-called "Marks" are pre-determined at birth so categorize people's knack for magic, and each of the 4 Crests signify different uses, the Fourth being the best (for frontal assault etc.) and the First being the worst (for magic support). And Matthias for one, acquires the 4th Crest, which should be the strongest of them all but ended up being labelled the opposite, despite being a ridiculously OP sage in his past life. And this is where another opportunity presents itself: the magic of the future has significantly been downgraded to the point where magic can be used anywhere, anytime, and anyhow may it seem fit. Couple all these problems together, and the newly reincarnated Matthias "Matty" Hildesheimer must make things right while facing the prospect of demons on the loose nearly thousands of years into the future. It's pretty much a given that fantasy stories like this would have the OP MC couple together with his harem of girls, and Shikkakumon is basically no different from the trope. Being the strongest Sage that literally only a few people would've heard of the Gaius name thousands of years later, Matty lives in full view of the new future's development overseeing how the world got to the point of absolute deterioration, he's basically the new land's dictator that every word of his is absolute. Yes, even above the king, to which I'm thinking that a 12-year-old like Matty can be intelligent enough to rule, but not in a situation like this. The harem of girls are also as basic as it could get for being both a romantic interest and suitable allies in Matty's conquest to correct the magic teachings the easy way in and out. And unfortunately, both Lurie Abendroth and Alma Lepucius were the classmates that that Matty singled out because he felt that they have potential, but also being his guinea pigs in the process to always be led by whatever situations they face. Even with most of the teachings guided by Matty, he is a madman to put the plans into action, forgoing any suggestion that is raised and making sure that his opinion only matters because of his own know-how. It's like adding characters that are purposefully made blank and is only supported by the MC to be his right-hand men as helpers, not that Matty ever minded if he needs ANY help at all, and ultimately used for entertainment and proof of power. The only person that's worth any level of enjoyment of the show is with the Black Dragon Iris, a dragon that has long lived since Matty/Gaius's time and the only one that knows of his true sauce. And when she is transformed down to a human, she is the epitome of hilarity as her powers go berserk, going with the flow with whatever Matty asks her to do, and above all, just doesn't give a heck about her surroundings. She's the sole reason why this show works: a lazy, but cute dragon waifu. I could not even fathom to begin to say that J.C.Staff is becoming the studio where lots of works are hemorrhaged concurrently and produced below expectations, this is turning out to be quite the shoddy work quality that only ages even worse to the point of being D.O.A. And honestly, coming off from director Noriaki Akitaya whom is also directing Slow Loop this season and once helmed fan favourites like Bakuman and OreSuki, working on more than a single show shows the limitation of not just directors in manpower, but also the extent of the changes done in the final product. And it's for this reason that Shikkakumon really suffers from the get-go, because he and his staff team could not understand how to translate LNs into anime, of which this is his very first attempt. All other sources are fine, it's just that LN adaptations may be this director's Achilles' Heel. Not even the anime's OST is enough to save this show, of which while I feel that fripSide's current-day songs are getting a lot more muted in content, both OP and ED songs are average at best, though Yuki Nakashima's ED is certainly one bright and cheerful song I can appreciate it's use of here but not one that warrants a second listen. Generic anime are a dime a dozen, even more so if it's an Isekai, of which the genre has not been fully suppressed yet of getting adaptation after adaptation to showcase more mediocrity. Shikkakumon is just garbage-tier Isekai, and coming off from someone that really loves Maou Gakuin because of the immense personality values it has, I'm sorry to say that you won't find it here.

In as few words as possible, this is an adequate take on the "strong hero reincarnates" genre. This series likely won't wow anyone with its visuals, storytelling or characters, but it's solidly structured and avoids the major pitfalls a story like this might have otherwise fallen into. It's even occasionally clever with the way it builds up its setting and characters, without being pretentious about it. So even if you like to engage with media on a deeper than surface level, you'll still find a few things to enjoy here. Overall, the story has an enjoyable arc in which things gradually get more tense, and character interactionsand story beats, while sometimes on the cliché end of things, do generally feel meaningful and/or deserved. It's not the kind of series I'd go out of my way to recommend to people, but I definitely enjoyed it a fair bit and it's left me wanting more. It's the sort of thing I'd watch on a quiet afternoon in May in a comfy armchair with a cup of strawberry tea.

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