Anime Review: From Old Country Bumpking to Master Swordsman

 After seeing a few clips on twitter, I decided to go ahead and give this anime the old college try. The fight scenes were really well done - they used CG, but you can barely tell to be honest. They did something extremely convincing with after effects to make the CG look hand-drawn. Not sure what the process is called, but I like it. The battles across the last couple episodes showcased it the most.

Despite pretty much all the women in the show having a crush on their former teacher, I felt like there was very little chemistry between them, and ultimately he never hooked up with any of the eligible ladies, instead spending most of his time with his adopted daughter character, basically turning this into single dad the not-so-isekai fantasy. It's a real shame, because the female cast of the show had really good character design! I especially liked the short haired girl hauling around a zweihander and using it properly!! I felt it was really ironic that the reason he got sent to the city in the first place is because his parents back in the sticks wanted him to give them a grandchild, but instead of getting together with any of the women, he just adopts a random kid who was in over their head.

The focus really is on the old country bumpkin himself, and he's a bit of a Hary Sue. I wouldn't call him an overpowered protagonist, but he's certainly got skills which surpass the other folks in this universe. Rather than a 'Master Swordsman', he felt more along the lines of a master martial artist; instead of specific sword-oriented special abilities, he's just really good at reading the environment and his opponent, and then using his sword in *just* the right way to strike at their weaknesses. I appreciate this take on a swordsman type character. Although there were definitely a few instances of him doing some outrageously out of character stuff (like cutting down a tree in one strike). Overall he felt like just a normal old guy who's good with a sword, which when you get down to it, is the point of the series I suppose.

Overall, I didn't hate this show, but I didn't love it. The characters were pretty bland and one-sided. The villains were very typically tropey. In the end, I kinda just didn't mind this show, but I don't think I'll think of it a season or two from now.

5/10