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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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
I pretty much agree. If you spot any sort potential in the set-up, you can be almost certain that there’ll be no follow-through. I didn’t mind, though. It was a nice pick-me-up show. I’m not sure I’d have liked to binge it; it’s a show I looked forward to but wasn’t missing terribly when it wasn’t on. I think for me it was the perfect weekly watch. (And in any other season than the recent spring it might have been among my favourites, even.)
Also, I really liked Sei’s glasses/pony-tail look, and was always disappointed that they ditched it when the opening reminded me.
Finally, I really liked the side characters in this one. My favourite was probably the older alchimest in that last mission arc.
I kind of feel like this is the anime to binge on a Saturday if you have had a horrendous work week. Just sit back and let the calm roll over you.
I was also disappointed with Sei’s appearance change. She ended up just so generic looking.