Episodes watched: 13 (completed first season)
The Plot
Every otaku dreams of waking up in their favorite world. Well for one mecha otaku, it becomes a reality. Dead and reborn as Ernesti Echevalier, his life becomes less about a programming job and modern life; and more about gundam-esque mecha referred to as “Silhouette Knights”. Ernesti turns out to be a genius in this life, as he was in his previous, and quickly becomes a snowballing force of creativity and eminent power struggles that ultimately reshape this new world he’s been granted a chance in.
!@!// Potential spoilers! Beware! yE’ve been warned! \\!@!
When I first decided to watch Knights & Magic, I was skeptical, but bored. It looked like something I’d likely be into, but I hadn’t picked up a mecha anime in quite awhile. However, I’m glad I did, as I quickly burned through the first season in a night and a day, and feel an overwhelming thirst for more engineering battles!
The show did, at first, seem somewhat disorganized or off – the transition between his modern otaku life into the world of silhouette knights was an adjustment that took more effort for the viewer than I liked. However, once the ball starts rolling and you can get behind Ernesti, he is a character that is super easy to support. While he’s a genius and seems to roll through everything he attempts, he also holds high regard to modesty (when necessary) and friendship. The writers definitely set Ernesti up as a character you’d love to hate because how of good he is, but just can’t because of how likable he remains.
The supporting cast of the first season was also super cool. I really liked the interpretation of the dwarves and how they were naturally inclined to being great engineers. It’s typically a given, but still nice to see that attention to details are not lost. That said, dwarves working on giant battle mecha like a professional pit stop crew will never get old. There were no characters that I felt were really unnecessary, each playing their role to develop the story in a relatively quick fashion.
Though the story progressed quickly, it made it seem slightly more immersive as Ernesti took on engineering tasks that would have realistically taken great periods of time. The results are always worth seeing, as each new edition becomes cooler and cooler to behold. The villainous plot intersections that happen throughout the show are a good wake-up call from the happy-go-lucky vibe that the scenes with simply Ernesti happily crafting new mecha ideas tend to create.
All in all, Knights & Magic was a surprisingly nice anime. I had genuinely no hopes going in that I’d be anticipating another season of the show, but here I am, tapping my forefingers together in pseudo-patience as I foam at the mouth for more Ernesti and mecha action! Well, it’s not that serious, but it was still a nice anime.
Ephemeral Fixations 