English Dub Mid-Season Review: Spirit Chronicles Episodes 1-6

Overview

Based on the Japanese light novel series written by Yuri Kitayama and illustrated by Riv. The story follows a 20-year-old college student Haruto Amakawa who dies in a tragic bus accident, what he doesn’t expect, however, is waking up in an unfamiliar world in the body of a young boy named Rio. As their memories and personas begin to fuse, Rio realizes that he now also possesses magical powers. He is relieved to find that his burning passion for revenge against his mother’s murderers has not subsided, despite his newly changed identity.

Not soon after, Rio comes across the kidnapped princess of the Bertram Kingdom and saves her without hesitation. To express his gratitude, the king grants him the opportunity to enroll in the Bertram Royal Academy. Believing this to be a new chapter in his life, he is excited to study at this prestigious academy, but life here proves to be difficult for him, a slum-dweller surrounded by the majestic children of nobles…



Our Take

Once again we delve into another Isekai show that feels like an amalgamated pastiche of other popular light novel/anime/manga franchises that came before it. Our lead protagonist Rio/Haruto isn’t a moody jerk, nor does he do anything particularly fantastic. But if you like watching a “hero’s journey” and finding out what the character can do and how he handles situations, there is a fun watch to be had for the first 6 episodes. The story is about another well-accomplished protagonist dude that died in the most over-exaggerated and ridiculous bus accidents I’ve ever seen. As it felt very Final Destination-like for an Isekai of all shows and would’ve been plausible in a show like Death Note.

Much like So I’m a Spider, these other characters who just so happened to also share the bus with Rio/Haruto were also reincarnated and are in the middle ground of possibly remembering who they used to be. In some ways, the story feels like it’s cherry-picking elements from other popular Isekai shows such as Rio’s black & blue trench-coat that makes him look eerily similar to Kirito from Sword Art Online, Rising of the Shield Hero with Rio/Haruto being falsely accused of an atrocious crime by a kingdom run by a shitty ruler along with the existence of demi-humans/animal People but with a touch of Hidden Dungeon only I can enter with its classism of his “rich kid peers being assholes to the commoner” trope.

The first six episodes are an excellent start, even if it stumbles a bit in places. By the 3rd episode is when the story starts to take an unexpected direction that may make or break the proceedings as the character development is all over the place. Aside from the handful of pretty women that sometimes accompany Rio, the rest of the characters are cartoonishly evil and needlessly bully the main character for being different which gives the show very little nuance. Not to mention the nods and references to other Anime/Manga franchises can feel too on the nose and can be hard to ignore after seeing so many anime isekai/fantasy stories before this, We can only hope that this show will manage to completely set itself apart as the show progresses…