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The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent Series Review – And Perhaps The Most Impressive Thing Is The Title

Posted on July 12, 2021July 9, 2021 by Karandi

I’ve said before that reviewing a series that is just all right is significantly harder than reviewing a series that is either very good or quite terrible. The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent is very watchable, even somewhat enjoyable, but never rises above being all right in story, characters, animation or literally any other measure by which one would judge an anime.

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent is the very definition of an ‘average’ anime.

The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent defines average in anime. — ^{Aww… but it is kind of sweet.}

For those wondering, The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent is another isekai anime. It has two points that distinguish it slightly from the standard model in that firstly the summoned protagonist is a woman (though this is becoming more common particularly in stories that have characters reborn inside novels or games that they are familiar with) and secondly there are two characters summoned simultaneously (though again this has also been done as have entire classes of students being isekai’d).

However instead of the usual power-fantasy fare that an isekai would serve up, we instead have one of the most low-key power fantasy’s ever.

Sei, our main character is insanely over-powered. You realise she is from nearly the beginning and as she actually learns more about her power it just becomes a given that she is in fact an incredibly OP character. Yet despite riding out with soldiers into the wilds at various points the series can’t even make a pretence at tension. These are more excursions for the sake of a scene change rather than any kind of obstacle that need to be overcome.

The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent has a fairly blunt protagonist. — *^{Sei in one of her rare grumpy moments.}*

Dewbond from Shallow Dives in Anime likened the story to a fairy tale, and realistically that’s kind of what it is.

Sei is whisked away to a kingdom in a far off land away from her tiring life as your standard office drone. While she isn’t initially recognised as the ‘saint’, the second summoned character having that thrust upon them, Sei is allowed more freedom to choose her own path in this new world.

As such, she explores working in an institute making potions and studying herbs, she teaches people to cook food that she likes, and she helps others when they are injured.

Naturally one of those she helps from the brink of death turns out to be a charming captain who becomes the primary love interest of The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent and their romance kind of flows along more or less unhindered.

Sei and her love taking a tour of the town in The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent — ^{Let me give you a tour…}

However, just as this anime based on a light novel makes a small attempt at avoiding being another isekai story by changing the gender and number of characters summoned, it avoids the standard fairy tale in that Sei isn’t initially recognised as the chosen one and the brat prince pursues the wrong girl and isn’t the love interest.

In a story that put more weight on some of the inter-character conflicts, this could have been quite the interesting diversion for exploration and yet it becomes basically a side note. It is a plot that The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent plays out and resolves without any actual conflict and largely without any consequence other than the prince character all but disappearing after having limited impact on the story.

Equally, Sei originally starts out as a glasses wearing and plain looking woman (that was the reason the prince overlooked her arrival in the first place and pursued the other girl). Yet all too quickly various story contrivances make her face and hair look shiny and youthful and her glasses become unnecessary. Sei transitions into the most generic of kind-of-pretty anime girls and any unique identity is thus lost.

And lost also is any chance to explore a different kind of female lead or to play any contrast between Sei and the pretty girl the prince chose, Aira (who more or less vanishes for the majority of the story, gets a brief focus and then becomes just another side character who may as well not have been summoned from another world).

Handsome man intervenes - From The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent. — *^{This is as much conflict as we’re going to get.}*

This is pretty much the pattern of The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent. They introduce ideas that have potential but then the story seems determined to remain calm and even. Sei performs miracles and yet the other characters react so calmly it is impossible to really feel how incredible her ability is.

Even the climax is marred by characters saying words that seem like they are amazed but the tone feels like they are discussing someone preparing a cheese sandwich.

The Prince acts like a complete jerk and then they spend an entire episode providing a rationale for his behaviour, try to make it a noble gesture, and then just kind of whisk him away apologetically like they are worried that this small conflict may have somehow damaged our calm.

A second character is summoned so surely there’s a space to compare two characters, potentially a rivalry, or maybe even a deep friendship? Instead we get almost no interaction between the two before Sei reaches out a hand to Aira and Aira ends up being just another background character of almost no importance.

A point emphasised again toward the end of the season when the two women are standing side by side talking and the various guys come up to them and only greet Sei. Aira may not as well even exist and removing her from the story would barely cut even an episode from the run-time.

Saint 1 — ^{That is true, but your motives are still pretty weird.}

None of this takes away from the fact that watching The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent is pretty fun and relaxing. Sei is an entertaining, matter-of-fact character and seeing her genuine joy in her new life is certainly charming. The people who she interacts with are all very pleasant and visually there’s a kind of sweet aesthetic going on here with bright colours and music that just kind of carries you along.

It almost covers over the fact that so many scenes in this anime rely on stills with panning rather than animation and we get a lot of close-ups of faces probably because when characters are seen in motion there’s some interesting things that happen to their facial features.

It isn’t that The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent is horrendously animated or ugly. Far from it. It is just that there are obvious short-cuts being taken in the animation and they are relying on the charm of these characters rather than spending a lot of time or money on the animation. For those who are charmed it will be fine but for those who watch anime for the animation, they may find this one lacking.

The cool and calm one in the group of men surrounding Sei in The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent. — ^{This is his surprised face.}

Realistically, if you are up for watching a calm and soothing story about a girl going to a magical land where every guy who speaks to her is a different kind of hottie and wants to help her do whatever she wants, The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent will work for you. There’s a lot of fun to be had in a very low-key kind of way and it is very bingeable as I discovered when I tried to watch 3 episodes for watch-or-drop and ended up watching the fourth just because.

If you are wanting something with some action, drama or tension, you probably should look elsewhere.

With that said, I’d love to know your views on The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent so be sure to leave me a comment.

Images from: The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent. Dir. S. Ibata. Diomedea. 2021

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Karandi James

Watch or Drop? The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent

Posted on May 7, 2021June 23, 2021 by Karandi

Saint Ep1 2 — *^{Oh, someone got isekai’d again? Why doesn’t Japan investigate this given they must have a massive number of missing persons.}*

Watch or Drop? Rules

Rules modified for the Autumn 2021 season.

The anime must be new (not a sequel or spin-off).
I’ll watch as much as it takes to make a decisionas to whether the anime will be added to the watch/review list or dropped and forgotten. For good.

Saint Ep2 1 — *^{I wouldn’t dream of it, Sei.}*

First Impressions:

I really shouldn’t set myself rules for anything because the simple idea of watching three episodes of a show in order to write a watch or drop post means that all those shows I don’t get through the first episode of never really get a write up – unless I write a feature explaining my overall feeling about a particular studio – and then there are shows like this one where episode 3 finished and auto play kicked off episode 4 and I was just happy to sit and watch.

It was odd because I’ve read very little about this series and even after watching it, when I actively went hunting for posts giving first impressions of it, I didn’t find much chatter or content. The few reviews I found were very similar and generally didn’t like the way the magic was explained and felt the first episode was a little dull or aimless and very few expressed any desire to continue watching.

My first impressions definitely conclude that magic makes absolutely no sense in this world. The explanations they give are very generic and void of actual detail that would explain anything and by and large stuff happens because its supposed to. In a more serious fantasy work this would be a black mark against the world building and pretty much be the end of being able to take it seriously but here it kind of feels more like the setting is just supposed to be a generic backdrop and it serves enough of a purpose.

These first few episodes are very easy to watch, demanding little from the audience other than relaxing as Sei goes about her new life and a potential budding romance. There’s a bit of intrigue with the other girl who was summoned, as well as the overall politics going on in the palace but its very much in the background at this point. Basically I found the experience very soothing and was pretty happy to turn off my brain and just watch Sei helping others.

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Series Positives:

This story absolutely wouldn’t work for those who do not enjoy Sei as a character. While Sei is pretty ordinary in terms of being yet another Japanese office worker who gets isekai’d through a summoning, the fact that she is female and originally dismissed by the Prince as the Saint so is left more or less to her own devices means we aren’t instantly forced into a ‘you must save the world’ scenario and it is nice to see an older female character rather than a high schooler.

Sei is also just a lot of fun. She’s practical and has a wealth of knowledge about various things including herbs and cooking (convenient skill set really) but she’s also wanting to learn more about the world in which she finds herself and over the course of these early episodes learns a range of skills from potion making to enchantment and then healing. She also takes the time to teach a few people how to cook because she largely finds the food lacking.

They balance out her incredibly power and fairly wide knowledge pool by making her relatively inexperienced in relationships (not completely brain-dead mind you but still blushing at hand-holding). Very soon she meets her literal knight (though not in shining armour) and the romance that is budding here is pretty adorable and I really hope it is left to grow and no stupid idiot gets in the way of it.

Saint Ep3 1 — *^{These two are super adorable.}*

The other positive I’d highlight from these early episodes, other than the generally peaceful mood that they cast upon their viewers, are the various supporting characters. They all start out relatively generic but over the first few episodes they begin to take on more distinct personalities and from Sei’s friends at the research institute to the mages who watch her learn to enchant to the girl she befriends at the library as well as the soldiers of the third unit, they all kind of begin to take on a bit of life and make you want to spend a bit more time in their company. I’d be lying if I said they were full fleshed out and realised characters but they work in the context of the story and at the very least they are pleasant to spend time with.

Series Negatives:

I will agree with the other impressions I came across that The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent is a little bit… lacking in excitement. There’s no real spark or hook and there’s little driving things forward even if we are getting bits and pieces of information that indicate we’re heading to something. It all just feels very languid which would normally bother me a lot more than it seems to be here. A lot of the interesting bits happen off screen, like the knights getting attacked by a salamander or the next expedition where so many of them come back seriously injured. We don’t even know what attacked them only that Sei was there to the rescue once they returned.

Saint Ep4 6 — *^{Big smiles for guys in a hospital.}*

Equally, visually this one is fairly unimpressive. While there have been some beautiful stills the anime relies heavily on using a montage of stills when conveying a sequence of events such as the date our titular saint goes on with the captain. It works and looks good enough but it is clear even early on that this one is cutting corners on animation. With so little actual action it isn’t the end of the world but it would have been nice if this one was a little more visually impressive.

Verdict?

Given I couldn’t have stopped watching at episode 3 even if I tried, and I only stopped at episode 4 because at the time of viewing there was no episode 5, clearly I enjoyed this. It is slow and meandering but I really do like Sei and I’d love to see more of her and Albert and just more of what Sei gets up to in this world as she learns more about her powers. I’m not expecting an epic fantasy but a romantic slice of life with a female protagonist I like sounds just fine. I will definitely be finishing this one.

Other Impressions:

From Ace – First Impressions: The Saint’s Power is Omnipotent

Honestly, I was struggling to find episode 1 views that didn’t just call the show boring or aimless. Then again, searching in the WordPress reader for either the English or Japanese name of this anime didn’t bring up a lot of content so either it has a different name somewhere or not a lot of people have given it a shot.

Images from: The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent. Dir. S. Ibata. Diomedea. 2021

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Karandi James

Domestic Girlfriend Anime Series Review

Posted on October 14, 2019January 30, 2022 by Karandi

It Just Sort of Happened

I’m still not sure why exactly I watched Domestic Girlfriend from start to finish. High school romantic drama isn’t exactly my favourite, relationships between students and teachers definitely aren’t something I jump into watching, and relationships between siblings (even step siblings) equally aren’t exactly an appeal (even if I don’t blanket drop them). Domestic Girlfriend has a whole bunch of elements that are questionable right off the bat and some viewers will walk away, and that’s fine. For whatever reason, I decided to give this train wreck a watch though and found that while it is definitely a soap opera and like watching a train derail in slow motion, there’s something quite compelling about that.

Domestic Girlfriend Episode 3 Natsuo and Hina

At the heart of the story is Natsuo who after a group date ends up having a one night stand with Rui. He’s suffering from an unrequited love for his teacher, Hina and Rui is a suitable distraction with something about her reminding Natsuo of the girl he likes. Rui seems to be a serious girl but for whatever reason has decided she needs to know what it is like to be with a guy and so the two have their one night and then they both move on with their lives. Only, as so often happens in fiction, their single parents have apparently been seeing each other and are now moving the whole family in together on first meeting. Naturally, Hina also turns out to be Rui’s sister. Awkward.

What follows is a round of secrets, misunderstandings, teenage angst, emotional repression, poor choices, and occasionally sweet moments where characters are actually open and honest and momentarily have a real connections before it all gets swept away by the next poor decision. By the time Hina and Natsuo actually start a relationship, which is definitely a bad idea given the circumstances, things are already spiralling down and when they are inevitably found out by the school there’s no surprise at all.

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What is more surprising is that despite these characters being forced along by the drama of the plot and essentially never getting to make the right choice because that might actually help things get to a pleasant resting point, I don’t hate these characters. They work in their roles and in each moment their actions seem true enough based on what has come before. Okay, if these were real people they would probably always be dysfunctional because they don’t think things through anywhere near enough, but in the context of this story they work and there is real chemistry between them. Particularly the trio at the centre with Rui, Hina and Natsuo.

There are a few moments where the anime does go for more sexualised content and not the usual played for laughs anime kind. This may put some viewers off but honestly if the fact that both sisters are pursuing their step brother and one of them is his teacher didn’t already put you off it seems unlikely over-hearing a woman masturbate is going to. Still, it is worth putting the warning in there that if you don’t like that kind of content then maybe Domestic Girlfriend just isn’t going to work for you.

I will however bring this to a close with the biggest positive of the series. That is, the OP. I absolutely loved this opening song. It just feels so raw and emotional and absolutely fits the feelings sitting underneath the actions of these characters. Seriously, if you missed this OP during the Winter 2019 anime season you should give it a try because it was amazing. While that might not be enough to make you watch the show if melodrama isn’t your thing it is still worth talking about. Particularly as it hits the one minute mark.

Okay, Domestic Girlfriend isn’t an anime I’d absolutely recommend, however if you are looking for a romance anime and you don’t mind one that doesn’t exactly get its happily ever after, then Domestic Girlfriend isn’t bad. While it certainly won’t work for everyone, the story does roll along nicely and in the one season we get a suitable amount of development and a reasonable amount of closure by the end. The characters could have spared themselves a lot of the drama that unfolds by making a few more sensible choices but we could say that about a lot of shows.