From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman (2025)
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Season 1
Director: Akio Kazumi
Studio: Passione, Hayabusa Film
Starring: Hiroaki Hirata, Nao Toyama, Hitomi Ueda
Episodes: 12
Synopsis:
A middle-aged swordmaster from the countryside is recruited by a former pupil to train her knights in the capital.
Impressions:
This is another one of those series that I've seen in the bookstores for years but have waited for the anime adaptation to check it out. I was hearing some praise for how swordsmanship is handled, so that further piqued my interest. Now, let me preface this by saying there are some anime shenanigans when it comes to the swordplay, but a little more legwork has been put in than what we usually see. You may or may not appreciate the harem elements with just about all of Beryl's former pupils being hot chicks who are hot for teacher and him being the typical oblivious male lead (though it may be deliberate on his part). All the intrigue in the plot should be enough to keep you hooked, but I honestly think the character work is just as much reason, especially the budding father-daughter relationship between Beryl and Mewi. The action scenes are quite nice. For the ones with larger groups and more complicated choreography, they switch to cel-shaded 3D models that might concern you at first, but they blend in pretty well and move fairly fluidly, so I can't complain. I enjoyed this a fair bit, but I wouldn't quite say it crossed the line to being a must-have. It's definitely worth checking out, though, so give it a watch.
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