English Dub Season Review: I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The study of magic requires aptitude, effort, and the right bloodline.  One sorcerer loved magic despite lacking the bloodline and aptitude for it and died wishing he’d spent more time studying in life.  He awakens as Lloyd (Meg McClain), the seventh prince of the Kingdom of Saloum, with all his previous memories intact.  Blessed with a strong magical bloodline, he uses his gifts to master the study of magic.

Our Take:

I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability is an anime adaptation of a light novel series written by Kinky na Circle and illustrated by Meru.  It is directed by Jin Tamamura and written by Naoki Tozuka.  It is produced by Tsumugi Akita Animation Lab.  Shigeru Nishigori handled the character designs while R.O.N of Stereo Dive Foundation composed the music.  The opening theme song, “Kyunrious,” is performed by Kaede Higuchi, and the ending theme is “Happy no Hiketsu,” performed by Akane Kumada.

Have you ever wished you could’ve done something more in your life?  You loved something so much, yet you didn’t have the time to invest in it before your tragic demise.  Well, one person has, and his lack of practicing his favorite skill cost him his life.  Fortunately, thanks to the power of reincarnation, he has another chance to fix that mistake by putting in a lot of time and effort studying the thing he loves the most: magic.  This concept sums up the latest reincarnation/OP anime featuring one of the longest titles in history.  It also has one of the most interesting controversies I’ve ever experienced, making this series questionably uneasy.  However, after watching it, I believe its choices are the least of its concerns.

The first season of I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince consists of an ordinary sorcerer with no bloodline and aptitude reincarnating as Lloyd Saloum.  Lloyd is the seventh prince of the Kingdom of Saloum who spends his days studying and improving his magical abilities to the point of becoming overpowered.  His love for magic leads him to befriend numerous allies, including Tao (Veronica Laux), a Qi master, and the Assassin’s Guild in the second half.  Lloyd then tests his OP magic by facing against three powerful demons.  One of them is Grim (Sara Ragsdale), a magic-manipulating demon whom Lloyd tamed in the first episode, resulting in him becoming the boy’s familiar.  The other is Pazuzu, who ambushed Lloyd and his monster-hunting team during their expedition.  Finally, the last few episodes have Lloyd’s powerful magic tested by Guisarme, who stole the body and teleportation power of the Assassin’s Guild’s leader, Jade (Ethan C.).

I’ve watched plenty of anime involving reincarnation and OP characters to know how this show’s structure functions.  You’ve got an ordinary protagonist who gets a second chance to improve his mistakes in their new life, resulting in them gaining unusual amounts of power in the process.  It also provides specific elements similar to Sweet Reincarnation, especially Lloyd.  Lloyd is equivalent to that show’s protagonist, Pastry Mille Morteln, in which both focus more on their favorite hobbies than their duties despite their magical skills.  Pastry is obsessed with making sweets, while Lloyd loves studying magic.  If you’ve watched these two shows back-to-back, you might see what I’m talking about, especially when both characters are forced into situations to reach their goals.  However, those similarities result in the downfall of 7th Prince, which mindlessly follows through its cliches rather than reinvigorating them.

Despite Meg McClain’s solid voice work, Lloyd is the type of OP character whose immense strength and skill struggle to compensate for their bland personality.  In fact, his only personality is his unhinged obsession with studying profound magic and manifesting it.  This leads me back to my comparison to Pastry in Sweet Reincarnation.  While Pastry admires making sweets, he often puts his obsession aside to focus on selflessly helping his friends and family.  This makes Pastry a likable child protagonist who learns to put others’ needs ahead of their own.  Lloyd’s need for improving magic overshadowed his character progression, or lack thereof, resulting in a thinly written character whose selfish gain and stakes felt less rewarding than their OP moments.  With a second season already announced, for better or worse, the show should have an opportunity to improve interest in this mighty young prince.

The supporting characters also didn’t have as many memorable moments as the show wanted them to be.  Grim is a former demon turned familiar who plans to rule the kingdom until Lloyd bests him. He only serves Lloyd until he finds a solution to control the boy’s mana, only for him to admire Lloyd’s insane yet courageous actions near the end.  Sara Ragsdale made a decent effort in voicing Grim, although the character’s high-pitched voice in his familiar form occasionally made it difficult to understand his dialogue.  Tao is a fighter striving to improve her Qi technique.  Unfortunately, she only appeared in a few episodes where she only serves as the show’s comic relief, in which she unthinkingly searches for her love, Roberto, who’s actually Lloyd in disguise.  The worst part of this character is that her running gag can get tedious after a while.  The only supporting character I tolerated the most was Sylpha (Morgan Berry), Lloyd’s maid and a skilled swordswoman.  Despite being another piece of fan service and her weird obsession with Lloyd, Sylpha’s skills with a sword elevate her serene yet badass persona, especially in “Sylpha’s Blade”.

As for the humor, the show has several moments that were quite amusing, including the Chibi-styled designs for the characters and mini-shorts between the episodes’ plots.  However, the rest range from forgettable to questionable, mainly from the shotacon sub-genre.  Before watching the series, I read a few comments from several users accusing it of “sexualizing“ Lloyd through his character design, especially his exposed legs.  After watching the first few episodes, I can easily understand the concern of making a young boy look “sexy”.  The problem with that is how the other characters react toward Lloyd.  The kingdom’s maids, including Sylpha, occasionally lust over Lloyd, putting him in uncomfortable positions like being pressed against their boobs.  But that’s not the worst part of this controversial attempt at shotacon humor.  The biggest offender of this series comes from “Sisters, Monsters, Spellbound Swords, and Brothers”, where Lloyd’s sister, Alieze, enthusiastically kisses Lloyd on the lips.  It’s one of those moments in anime that caused me to ask myself, “Why did they consider this okay?“  If it’s reformatted as a parody of the shotacon trend, I can see it being a bit more humorous. However, since it’s a regular reincarnation/OP series, it’s actually more gross than innocent, especially since they’re both kids.

The animation by Tsumugi Akita Animation Lab also served as one of the show’s brighter moments.  The chibi style was brightly colorful and cartoony despite being overused, and the action was entertaining and vibrant with its mixture of 2D and CGI, mainly for the final few episodes.  It’s far from perfect, though, as a few moments in its style were affected by its oversaturated coloring, including one in “Sisters, Monsters, Spellbound Swords, and Brothers”.  Besides that, the animation is another example of a show’s presentation compensating for its execution of the narrative with its visual style. 

Overall, I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince is a royal pain in the reincarnation/isekai genre, and it’s not just because of its “controversial“ approach to its young protagonist.  But I would be lying if I said my experience outside the series wasn’t interesting.  While I wasn’t impressed with what it offered, reading the comments complaining about Lloyd’s “sexualized“ design and “pedophilia“ elements is undoubtedly more amusing than the show itself, even though some were a bit exaggerated.  Aside from its tolerable voice cast and colorful animation, the anime fails to be as magical as the other shows with similar concepts regarding its formulaic execution, bland protagonist, and questionable humor.  A second season has already been announced, for better or worse, so maybe it’ll have a chance to invigorate my interest in this bizarre and mildly uncomfortable concept.