Name: Primarily a comedic gag show, but hey: at 12 episodes, it doesn't really have time to get stale
Item: The Royal Tutor
Rating: 74
Author: Kalladry

Waifra

Primarily a comedic gag show, but hey: at 12 episodes, it doesn't really have time to get stale

An enigmatic professor who’s often mistaken for a child is hired to tutor four problem princes who’d rather do anything but study with a teacher.

Ah, the miracle teacher who sees through student struggles and pain to connect with them and teach them both their lessons, and how to open up. I love this trope–who wouldn’t want a teacher who not only knows their shit, but knows how to teach said shit, and also realizes the depths of your potential and helps you realize your passion and build on it?

This is primarily a lighthearted, humorous series. Despite the fact that the princes are being tutored because their father the king kinda thinks his adult firstborn (these are princes #2-5) might not be fit for the throne, we don’t get into politics, and barely get into court factions and rivalries–and even then, it’s basically just one guy close to Prince #1 (no, literally his name is Prince Eins) doing his best to make the younger princes less desirable by digging up scandals occasionally. I’ll touch on the serious aspects a little later.

At its core, you’ve got 4 teenage princes in late-1800s pseudo-Austria who have chased off their previous tutors for an unspecified length of time, but it’s been a while since they had consistent, proper schooling. Their new tutor is a no-name man who looks about 12 years old, who has to not just teach the pampered dorks, but convince them he’s worth listening to. Also at its core is a show so dedicated to the joke that the tutor is an adult! but small and looks like a child!!! that he’s often animated as a chibi and shown interacting with the world in a way only possible if he was actually 2 feet tall.

It’s a gag but you know what? It made me laugh. So: good gag. (Plus, at 12 episodes, it doesn’t really have time to get tiring.)

Looking at the princes, you’ve got Kai, who doesn’t have Resting Bitch Face so much as Resting Murder Face, a contrast to his love of all things small, soft and fluffy; Bruno, glasses-wearing nerd supreme; Leonard, the sweet-toothed, athletic airhead; and Licht, the irrepressible flirt. The tutor, Heine, has to understand what makes each one tick and help them be better people in the way that all great-teacher-trope characters must. That’s not a criticism.

The anime is very light. You’re not going to find out if any of the princes are chosen to be heir. Instead, the episodes are filled primarily with Heine teaching them Something Useful (such as “this is what non-palace city life looks like” or Conversational Basics 101), and the princes, y’know, being dorks about it.

Now, it’s pretty clear early on that Heine has a secret. I mean, look at this face. This is the I am so much more capable and dangerous than you think anime face.

I won’t spoil the show, but we find out in the first couple episodes that a) Heine knows the king on a first-name basis, 2) the king and Heine are pretending they don’t know each other, and 3) Heine took the job with the understanding that if the truth about his past ever got out, he would quit.

oh ho HO that is some mysterious backstory there! Now, the manga is ongoing and to date Heine’s history is still unknown. We’ve learnt about some of his talents, but not how he developed them or where he met the king, much less how he formed a close friendship.

The anime has actually gone and given Heine a backstory to explain everything, so by episode 10 (of 12) we are solidly in anime-only territory. This isn’t a bad thing–in fact, I think the decision makes the anime by itself have a pretty good story arc, letting it close without a cliffhanger. A good decision for an anime that is unlikely to ever get a second season.

Verdict

English dub? Yes. It’s solidly good–I think they sound more like college adults than teenagers, but they didn’t sound jarring. I loved Bruno’s voice. His voice actor often–not all the time, just on occasion when the emotion levels called for it–showed Bruno’s ridiculous emotional devotion to Heine. Heine’s VA also conveyed his excellent deadpan.

Visuals: Shiny! I mean, all the time. Their hair. So shiny.

Worth watching? Yes, it wraps up nicely, and while the final episodes get a bit more serious (as they finally delve into Secrets and History that it’d been hinting at forever), the majority of the series is just nice stories with happy endings.