TLDR

Me and my friends share the same anime opinion most of the time, but my god, was he wrong this time around. From the cringe dialogue to the disconnected plot, I just couldn't get around to enjoying Chivalry as he did. There are definitely some elements that entertained me, but for the most part, this show was a letdown for me

PLOT - Average

In terms of the story, we can break it up into two parts: the plot and the romance.

The romance is delightful. As a standalone, it's super high quality with rich interactions between characters and situations. I enjoyed Stella and Ikki's dynamic a ton, and they made a significant amount of progress with only 12 episodes. In addition to Stella, we added the dynamic of Shizuku, who played the little sister role really well. I couldn't tell you how shocked I was when she went for the mouth-to-mouth kiss in the first few episodes, lol. Overall I think this was easily the best part of the show, and without it, my rating would be at least 6 points lower than it is now.

With that being said, we get to the not so fantastic part of the story… To put it bluntly, I did not enjoy the core story of Chivalry. I felt like the overarching motivation of "becoming the best swordsman" even with no magic ability was kind of cliche. I enjoyed Ikki's backstory at first but midway through the show; it just felt like everyone was sucking him as if he were some kind of deity. Furthermore, I think the plot points needed more episodes of buildup as 12 was nearly not enough. Even the main villain of the show Kuraudo (skull tattoo), didn't feel threatening at all to the story. So overall, Chivalry was a double-edged sword. When Stella and Ikki were flirting on screen, it was super cute and mushy. However, when Ikki was interacting with other characters and trying to make his way to the top, I thought it was fucking stale, predictable, and boring.

Art - Average

For the first nine episodes, I thought the art was pretty average. The picture quality resembled the year it came out, and none of the fights really wow’d me if I remember correctly. During the last two episodes, they decided to flip the switch and completely go crazy by adding these effects to the fights that I really enjoyed. Most of the fight vs. the President had a black/red gradient that I surprisingly enjoyed, and Impressed this show pulled it off.

Sound - Average

I think the audio for Chivalry is pretty standard, and there weren't a ton of moments where the audio blew me away. The opening is ok, the OSTs were average, and everything in between didn't jump out at me. One thing I can mention is how much I loved Yuuri Oriki’s voice actor lmao.
Characters 7.5/10

Character - Good

As I mentioned before, the characters are the best part of the show. For the most part, they blend well with Ikki complimenting his personality and dialogue to create some romantic situations that even my top-rated romances haven't done.

Nene - I just wanted to talk about her character design omg!! It is by far my favorite in the entire show. She is super small, and it all works together to create this beautiful aesthetic!

Shizuku - One of the better little sister roles I have seen in recent memory. I thought she would be SUPER bold after that mouth kiss in episode 2 but she kind of calmed down once Stella stepped into the picture. She was my second favorite character, and I'm glad she added much-needed spice to the story and interactions.

Stella - Literally the only reason I watched this show. My friends were saying how good of a tsundere she was, and MY
GOD, did they tell the truth. Something that separates Stella from most tsunderes I've seen is she mainly initiates the intimate situations. She asked Ikki to have sex for crying out loud lmao. She was an AMAZING character, and to top it all off; she was a badass during her fights.

Ikki - Honestly not a bad main character. Most of the time, I don't care for male leads, but I think Ikki showed some promise early on. I love his backstory going from nothing too insanely ripped, lmao (kind of following the Rock Lee path). It connects with me because I'm going to the gym, and I loved to see people obsess over his body. This bit got old later on because it felt like a blind suck fest which I didn't like, but overall he wasn't terrible.

Positives

As I mentioned before, the character interactions and romantic appeal SAVED the show for me. Stella did such a great job at being a tsundere, her conversations with Ikki were super cute, and I loved seeing her get flustered. It was a terrific conclusion to the season with them getting married, and as a romance alone, I would rate it a high 8.

I just wanted to give them kudos about the ending. I was told going into the show that it had no conclusion, but I was thoroughly impressed to see a nicely wrapped story. Ikki had a fantastic fight with the strongest character in the show, and his relationship with Stella came to a climax with him marrying her.

Gotta put a little side note here to mention the fanservice :) So many panty shots of Stella Jesus christ, my man.. She's bad as fuck. It was an excellent little addition to the story, and the charm kept me going through the rough plot.

Negatives

My biggest problem with the show is that it feels cringe. I'm not sure if that's because I have been watching other shows, maybe it's changed my perspective on anime. I don't have any specific examples, But I just know that I winced so many times at the dialogue and developments taking place while watching the show. This dude gets imprisoned and treated like shit for kissing a princess? Then gets this bullshit where if he doesn't win against the council president, he gives up being a knight? Nah, dawg, they are trying to create artificial tension. In addition, I HATE the chad archetype and how people fucking drool over Ikki like he is christ himself (more on that in the characters section)

The last main negative is that this show doesn't offer much besides the character interactions. If Stella was not in this show or didn't do as good of a job at her role, this show would easily be in the 60s. I could count on my hands how many times I enjoyed plot-related sequences or fights. Most of the time, the rating would continue to drop until Stella interacted with the MC.

Conclusion

Throughout the first nine episodes, I had some pretty mixed opinions about the direction it was going. Apart from the romantic appeal between Stella and Ikki, the actual plot was cringe and cliche to me. From the dialogue to plot points, everything just felt half-assed, and I think a big reason for that was lack of build-up. Fortunately, the last three episodes were really strong in both fighting and visual aspects that I didn't see in the first nine episodes. I was told there was no ending for Chivalry, but I'm pretty satisfied with Ikki beating the President and marrying Stella. Overall I think this show is excellent when Ikki and Stella are interacting with each other, she is a great tsundere, and I love their dynamic. Everything else is pretty, eh lol.