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3 months ago
5
I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince So I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability (henceforth 7th Prince) is an anime that, on paper, sounds cool and, dare I say, relatable enough. I mean, if we were all fortunate enough to be reincarnated into wealth and power, wouldn't we all throw ourselves headfirst in our loves and hobbies? Such is the case for 10-year-old (at least physically) Prince Lloyd de Saloum, who used to be a commoner who loved magic, but didn't quite have an aptitude to match. But now, reborn as the seventh Prince of his kingdom, he spends his days completely immersed in the study of magic. And what's more, as Prince Lloyd, he has a lot more magical potential than he ever did in his previous life.
If you read that and were hoping for some kind of anti-capitalist commentary from this anime—something along the lines of how money can't buy happiness, but it can buy the time, security, and resources that'll allow you to pursue happiness—then unfortunately, you're going to have to look elsewhere. With a premise like 7th Prince's, it's fruit that's hanging so low it's practically on the ground. Yet despite how painfully obvious this is, to say nothing of how this could give this show some much-needed punch, 7th Prince never really goes for it. Or rather, 7th Prince doesn't really go for exploring any of the admittedly cool ideas that it has, this one—which is instead relegated to being a light subtext—especially. Similarly, even by the end, we know next to nothing about this universe's magic, even though it's Lloyd's dedication to it that forms the skeleton of this anime. Instead, rather than putting the world it built under the microscope, 7th Prince is more interested in having magical fights for some reason.
Don't get me wrong: Lloyd wanting to study how any given spell or type of magic works is the driving force that usually propels things forward. But I kind of buried the lede in my plot summary—usually, Lloyd's learning about something happens either because of or by way of an explosive magical battle. If nothing else, rest assured if his wanting to learn about a specific thing doesn't start with a magical battle, it'll at least end with one. And such is Lloyd's incredible magical talent, that he's able to master things ridiculously quick—say, mid-battle. So by the end of 7th Prince, it more closely resembles a run-of-the-mill power fantasy than anything else.
To be a power fantasy about overpowered protagonists isn't an inherently negative thing. But it does mean that you'll be fighting a much more uphill battle to stand out, given the glut of such anime there are in general, but especially in the past few years. And that battle, at least, is one that not even Lloyd and his magical genius can handle. For better or for worse, this anime checks off all the boxes for a standard-issue adventure anime without ever bothering to venture outside of them: for example, 7th Prince has got the overpowered protagonist with little or no personality beyond a single-minded pursuit of their goal (in this case, studying magic), a cute mascot character (two, actually—and I love the vast sea of fluff that is the dog so much. A+ design there), and women fawning over said overpowered protagonist for no strong reason.
You read that correctly, by the way—even though Lloyd is physically 10 years old, the trope of the overpowered protagonist being surrounded by women who are thirsting after him is still there. And I don't mean that in a “women are flirty with him to be playful or tongue-in-cheek” sort of way. I mean that in a “for example, there's one moment where Lloyd's maid—a fully grown adult woman who's functionally his mother—fantasizes about Lloyd smothering himself in her breasts” sort of way. There's one moment toward the end where someone asks one of the women about it, and she doesn't really have a response—as though this anime is admitting that there's no substantial reason for it to be like this, beyond perhaps “Well, every other overpowered anime protagonist has a personal harem, so Lloyd should have one, too, his physical age be damned.”
Still, somehow I've got this far without tackling the most basic question: is this at least fun to watch? It has interesting ideas that it leaves out to rot, but does it at least make up for it with exciting fight scenes? Is the animation good? Does it just get you feeling hype? And the answer is (drumroll please)… meh. Only about half the time are the fights any fun to watch, and it should be noted that all the fun comes from the sheer spectacle. Lloyd is so obviously more powerful than anyone else that it really zaps a lot of the tension that might've otherwise added to the experience. Still, the animation—in particular for the magic—is just colorful and sparkly enough to remind me that for all its shortcomings, visually this show is all right. Nothing spectacular, but I think it makes up for that by being mostly consistent. Plus, it's got some great silly faces in there, prime for being turned into reaction images and memes.
On the topic of production value, the music is decent. The opening and ending themes that err toward generic, but the background music has its moments. Meanwhile, the voice acting is pretty decent across both the dub and sub, but the Japanese cast is simply too stacked—Lynn, Fairouz Ai, Rie Takahashi, Nobunaga Shimazaki and more—for me to have the guts to deny them their prize.
7th Prince has some cool ideas that I desperately wish it pursued to any meaningful extent. But instead, we got a royal snooze fest. Everything this anime had that could've set it apart all goes to waste. We're left with a brightly-colored husk of a series, which prefers way too much to be safe and trope-y.
