Kunon the Sorcerer Can See Anime Series Review

The greatest (and saddest) irony of Kunon the Sorcerer Can See is that the show itself just isn't very pleasant to look at. While far from an artistic disaster, it is not hard to see the consequences of the obviously limited resources and time that the crew at Platinum Vision had to work with. The world of Kunon the Sorcerer Can See is consistently flat, lifeless, and uninspired. The generic design of the world, costumes, and characters certainly doesn't help, but I've seen plenty of shows that were able to at least somewhat overcome their terminally mediocre tastes with decent production values. Alas, Kunon the Sorcerer is the very definition of a budget anime, with limited character movement, obvious animation shortcuts, and by-the-numbers storyboarding that completely undercuts any visual potential this show might have had. It isn't necessarily an ugly show, at least not most of the time, but it never rises above being purely functional as a work of animation.

This is a shame, because the story being told through all of this underwhelming artwork actually does have potential. In recent years, the anime industry has seemed eager to tell more authentic stories featuring characters who live with different disabilities, which I think is a great development. A point in Kunon's favor is that it doesn't fall back on the easy tropes of melodrama and angst that some anime are tempted by. For as much as I love projects like A Silent Voice, I think it is good when media can also have stories where the drama isn't always so defined by the discrimination and isolation that these disabled characters face. While our hero, Kunon, is obviously affected enough by his inability to see that he makes creating magical ocular prostheses his life's goal, the show's tone is never too dour or maudlin. Kunon's defining trait, once he sets his mind on a more positive and productive path in life, is that he's just an incredibly optimistic and earnest guy. That's what causes characters like Iko the maid, Jenie the magic tutor, and Mirika the steadfast fiancée to enter Kunon's orbit.

I'll be honest: The slice-of-life-ish structure and lackadaisical pacing of Kunon the Sorcerer doesn't always make for the most compelling television, but what kept me engaged through the more dull and tedious sections was the simple likability of the cast. I don't think Kunon or his gaggle of gal pals are going to be anyone's all-time favorite characters, but as a whole, this cast becomes a little more than the sum of its parts. I particularly enjoyed Kunon and Mirika's relationship, especially in the first half of the series. One of my favorite trends in modern anime is the willingness to give the main character a proper, committed love interest…though it only tends to work well when the script doesn't get bogged down by the gags and tropes of Ye Olde Harem Anime.

This is where my compliments for Kunon the Sorcerer Can See must be tempered by further disappointments. While the first half of the series is perfectly acceptable, low-stakes entertainment (at least so far as writing goes), the show loses a noticeable amount of steam in its back half. It isn't just because of the developments that Kunon makes in his magical eyesight project, either. The fact is that the longer Kunon goes on, the more evident it becomes that this story only ever really had that one particular idea of its hero's disability to set itself apart. Once Kunon starts to learn more magic, meet more girls, and have more generic adventures at his generic magical school, you realize that you've seen all of this before. It wasn't even particularly interesting back when the tropes had only been ripped off a few dozen times, instead of the thousands of iterations we've seen at this point. Kunon's whole character basically gets reduced to that of every other flirtatious light novel protagonist we've suffered through over the last decade and a half, and the stories become lazier and lazier.

Kunon the Sorcerer Can See was never going to be a personal favorite of mine, but for a while there, I thought it could at least make a decent recommendation for fans of these kinds of light-novel fantasy anime who don't need to be as discerning about production values and animation quality. There really is the kernel of a legitimately good anime hiding somewhere in there, beneath all of the ugly animation and amateurish writing. Alas, by the time I finished this first season, I realized that Kunon is just another bargain-bin timeslot filler that is destined to be forgotten by all but the most dedicated and hardcore genre fanatics.