Tensei shitara Ken deshita

A nameless sword wakes up to discover he has been reincarnated from his former life as a human. With his power of telekinesis, he moves around this new world, acquiring several skills and abilities. When the sword comes upon a forest filled with monsters, he meets a young girl fleeing from a beast. Grabbing the sword, the girl easily defeats the monster. After introducing herself as Fran, she names the sword "Shishou" and officially becomes his wielder.

The two set out to become adventurers, but unfortunately for Fran, she is a member of the Black Cat Tribe—a Beastkin group with a bad reputation. No member of this tribe has ever evolved into a mightier beast, but Fran plans to be the first and achieve her parents' dream. As Shishou promises to remain her sword until she attains her goal, they form an unstoppable partnership of impressive strength.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Fran Main

Kakuma, Ai Japanese

Shishou Main

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Amanda Supporting

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Nell Supporting

Ookubo, Rumi Japanese

Gallus Supporting

Tsuji, Shinpachi Japanese

Dovy, Jean Supporting

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Dungeon Master Supporting

Sakaguchi, Daisuke Japanese

Allsand, August Supporting

Aoyama, Yutaka Japanese

Elevent Supporting

Yamamoto, Shouta Japanese

Krad Supporting

Yamaguchi, Tomohiro Japanese

Hieda, Kouki Assistant Producer

Kawasuzuki, Ibuki Assistant Producer

Kotaka, Tatsuya Assistant Producer

Takimoto, Rei Assistant Producer

Reviews

Jul 25, 2024

The_Walker

Recommended

"Reincarnated as a Sword" is what I like to consider "Isekai light", which is where the line between where a story can be considered to be within the "Isekai" genre or the more general "High Fantasy" genre IE Lord of the Rings is blurred. The reincarnation element exists in these stories, however it is only very loosely explored and not given much degree of importance, often taking a backseat to the rest of the plot. This type of writing often gives the impression that the only reason the author decided to include the reincarnation element is to make one of the characters more relatable, but ... otherwise you can tell that they really just wanted to write a non-Isekai fantasy so they included only the barebones.

This specific anime is one where the low attention granted to the Isekai element actually works in its favor, allowing the show to focus more on the second main character as she tries to grow from a young and weak girl into a capable adventurer to restore honor to herself and her kin.

The show however is not at all perfect and without clichés. The main annoying cliche being that the Sword/"Shishou" is just a little bit too overpowered for his own good, and the catgirl/"Fran" is just a little too weak without him. So under the hood this anime is actually an extremely generic fairly straightforward Father-Daughter drama plot with the Sword playing the father figure and the catgirl playing the daughter. It's just wrapped up in a Fantasy RPG setting package to give a plot that would ordinarily be very basic just enough action and spice to make it less boring and seem less predictable than it is. It's just good enough to recommend, especially if you happen to be a Dad yourself and have a daughter to watch it with for some feelgood relatable moments, just don't expect some deconstructive groundbreaking masterpiece.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 15, 2024

Legolaspt

Mixed Feelings

The premise and execution are surprisingly good; the fight scenes are quite good, the jokes land well and the animation is gorgeous. In general Tensei shitara Ken deshita is a lighthearted fun experience, something to turn your brain off and enjoy some action + comedy, and I find the comedy notably funny.

That being said, Tensei is not perfect. There are lots of expositive dialogues, and the presentation is very lacking. What I mean by that is that the story is fun and interesting, but it is presented quite poorly in regards to the storyboarding.

1st example of poor presentation: The show starts with a scene that, ... in chronological order, is the post-climax scene from the end of the same first episode. In this scene, the viewer is greeted with an expositive useless monologue by a narrator; and then the show immediately proceeds to a flashback. This may be the single worst first minute in television history. There was no need for this, and presenting the first episode in chronological order, without a narrator, would have been a much better and, honestly, obvious choice.

2nd example of poor presentation: The 2nd episode starts with an expositive powerpoint presentation.

3rd example of poor presentation: Episode 1 kind of repeats the same scene - the mc killing random monsters - over and over again, instead of progressing the plot or showing us more interesting scenarios.

4th example of poor presentation: Episode 3 has 4 scenes in sequence about buying stuff - which is half the episode - and these scenes are ok, but 4 in a row is too much, you gotta space them out or the viewer gets bored.

This pattern of weird storyboarding continues throughout the show.

obs: The idea of of presenting the ending of episode 1 - or smthg similar - as the first scene is to be used in order to provide a hook for tension, suspense or intrigue, so this scene must be mid-action, instead of the calm post-climax first scene presented in Tensei shitara, which also has an obvious path between the flashback and the fastforward, thus providing no tension or suspense. For good examples: American Beauty, Fight Club and Jujutsu Kaisen.

Also, the difference between telepathy and inner thoughts is not clear, which makes understanding certain scenes a bit of a hassle.

Now, I like that the Mcs are not overpowered and frequently struggle, also I like that the anime is somewhat dark.

Futhermore, the mcs are good characters overall. That being said, they are not perfect and there are some scenes in which I believe either one or the other should be acting different according to their characterization. Moreover, the worldbuilding is the generic isekai - it does some things well and others not quite so.

Tensei Shitara also does a great job of executing and of being creative in the ideas it puts forward. Creativity in the details is a major selling point of the show - both the combat system and worldbuilding are generic, but implemented with creative details, with much thought put into, making them both more interesting and fun.

Unfortunately, the last arc is somewhat weak and even more cliché, and it ended the season on the wrong foot, lacking plot development. Also fan service is quite rare, but when it is present and regards a child, it gets quite uncomfortable.

In the end, I would recommend watching a single episode to see if you enjoy the comedy and, if so, I believe this is a good watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 20, 2025

rotokun

Not Recommended

If you go into this thinking "it's gonna be shit but at least the mc is cute" then the only thing you WON'T be surprised by is how the mc and the sword don't ever use 90% of their abilities even when they're super obvious, such as healing when damaged to the point of fainting when the healing skill is literally maxed out. The abilities they do use usually are illogical and not explained, and they early on and frequently use "3 skills/elements at once and without chanting" then later on suddenly she has to chant for some basic stuff and also use a "split ... mind" ability to use two skills in a row? At least the mc is cute, but they don't even take advantage of that part.
visuals - decent
audio - generic to the point of funny
characters - bad
writing - bad

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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