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The line that separates mediocre stories from great ones is often remarkably thin, resting on the strength or weakness of a handful of core elements that make it work. True enough, this isn't the case for all stories: Neon Genesis Evangelion is so uniquely brilliant that it is genuinely challenging to enumerate the ways in which its excellence is generated. But in the vast majority of cases, the answer is simple. Most stories are variations on one another, distinguished not by their striking originality but rather by the expertise of the craft put into them. Tensei shitara Ken deshita, henceforth Reincarnated as a Sword, could ... hardly be more cliched if it tried. And yet, I had a good time with it—no, a great time. And it all boils down to craft.

Storytelling, so says Hollywood script doctor John Truby, is the art of "selecting, connecting, and building a series of intense moments." It is not only about identifying an exciting story, a plot that goes from point A to point B, but about realizing what parts of this tale make it worth telling. The artist is both God and tour guide of the world they create, responsible for conjuring up a fascinating setting with compelling characters and ensuring that the audience is shown the parts of this world most rewarding to see. The number of shows that focus on the least rather than most riveting character among their cast is staggeringly high. Reincarnated as a Sword is not one of these shows.

What sets this show apart from its peers is that it sports a well-written and unique central relationship. While we're introduced to many characters throughout the show's run, none hold a candle to our two leads. There's never a moment when it feels like the show would be better served by being about something or someone else. To explain why this is the case, we need look no further than the premise itself: reincarnated as a sword. This, by all accounts, ought to be a horrible gimmick devised to serve no greater purpose than to help the story stand out from other stories in the genre, but it isn't. This is because Shishou, the main character, is not the protagonist.

A protagonist is "the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text." We may be tempted to read "leading" as "one focused on most," but that isn't what it means. The leading character leads. Their desire propels the story further, their agency animates the plot. It is Fran, not Shishou, who is our protagonist. An enslaved person who is able to free herself from bondage with the help of Shishou, Fran's quest is to become the first black cat to "evolve." While Shishou is technically able to move about the world thanks to his telekinesis powers, he derives pleasure from being used by a sword-wielder, as that is the purpose for which a sword was crafted. (How very Aristotelian.) As such, he pledges himself in service to Fran, sharing his powers with her so she might one day achieve her dream. Thus, the story is ultimately her story.

The twist that makes this work is that we experience Fran's story from Shishou's perspective. We're shown his inner thoughts and, on the rare occasion that he and Fran become separated from one another, the show follows Shishou rather than Fran. This is a very interesting way of framing the story, but it runs the risk of making the story spend more time with the less interesting character. Reincarnated as a Sword manages to avoid this by making him, as his name would suggest, a mentor figure to Fran. While this puts him in a supporting role rather than the lead, it also makes him an authority figure attempting to guide Fran rather than simply her subordinate helper. He is therefore afforded a kind of agency that supporting characters typically lack. And, while Fran's opponents are primarily those who confront her in combat, Shishou's primary opponent may actually be Fran. Her ignorance and inexperience are the primary obstacles he strives to overcome.

Without many alterations, this show could have been written from Fran's perspective and it would've been fine. But, by telling her story from the perspective of another character, we experience this familiar dynamic in strange new ways. There may be nothing new under the sun, but examining them from a new perspective can lead to new experiences. By framing its story in such a peculiar way, Reincarnated as a Sword elevates itself to rank among the best the isekai genre has to offer and I can't recommend it highly enough.