I feel like this series had a really solid start, but failed to carry the momentum once the MC got comfortable in the city. There was barely any combat, and multiple massive buildups that didn't lead to anything more that a few minutes of the MC showing off before things either ended or the fight was cut short. Seriously, the final fight had THREE EPISODES of buildup, a big introduction to the character the MC would be fighting, HALF AN EPISODE dedicated JUST to this new character's backstory... all for roughly FOUR MINUTES of slow, predictable combat where nothing of actual note happened.

It says a lot when the best parts of the series (and most of the run time btw) doesn't include the titular character. What's there is good; great world building, excellent politics, it feels like a living breathing world... but It's not about The Water Magician. In fact, I and many others would argue he's the worst part of this show. He shows up, says something stupid, and disappears unless he has a few minutes of combat. If I wasn't so upset at how poorly written he is, he'd be a completely forgettable background character.

Our actual MC is Abel, the hero to a small city that washed up on the north shore of his home continent after getting shipwrecked. He's recovered by a mysterious and incredibly powerful magic user that lives somewhere previously thought to be uninhabitable, and manages to convince this mage to join him on his journey home over a dangerous stretch of mountains. They're attacked by monsters more than a few times, and after observing this mage's inhuman power, Abel does his best to ensure the mage is content living in our hero's city to ensure the kingdom has a nuke in their pocket should they ever find themselves at war.

When Abel moves, the story moves. When something important happens, it's either because Abel made it happen or he is called to resolve it. Everyone loves him, everyone reveres his name, he's called upon for basically every major incident the city faces, and the guild master nearly has a panic attack when he doesn't arrive home since his death would mean mass despair for the city's adventurers. Abel is the one to stop his bone headed friend from plunging the world into war over the fact his buddies got the worlds tiniest cuts in non-vital areas. It's only when Abel can't handle things that Tuxedo Mask... I mean the Water Magician appears to save the day before saying something dumb and then proceeding to not appear until someone remembers the title of the anime. Just change the name to "Abel the Hero" or something more generic, because The Water Magician is a glass half empty.