Skip this preface if you want to get straight to the review
Now to the scoring system
-I may be a bit biased on the scoring as I actually really liked this show, personal preferences will be marked though-
-Contains slight spoiler for episode 1 and further unmarked slight spoilers-
Premise
A guy dies and reincarnates as a baby.
The wizard and hero Merlin finds him and decides to raise him to a very powerful boy.
The boy has a peaceful upbringing and one day he gets send to a magic school and finds friend.
The story continues with him and his friends having fun, improving themselves and occasionally fighting versus underleveled enemies.
Characters
The characters are overall amongst the most likable characters I've seen in my recent Animes, though none of them are complex. There also is no character development as most of the characters are more or less adults and aren't really flawed in their personality.
The main character actually isn't that dense and only lacks some world trivia knowledge, but this isn't a major part of the story as you might would expect due to other Isekai.
E.g. In "The hero is powerful but is too cautious" the whole story revolves around him being cautious.
In this story, the hero is introduced as very powerful but lacking of common sense.
His lacking of common sense is merely touched by upon the story which helps to make this story less frustrating, but makes the main in return less recognizable and boring.
[E: I'm reediting this cause of english errors, but honestly got no idea what I meant to explain with this paragraph. I don't remember his lacking of common sense as I described it as a major part of his character, so let's leave it at that.]
He also loves his grandfather (Merlin) and grandmother (Melinda) and is generally a wholesome guy.
The powerful wizard Merlin. An old hero who loves the main character as his grandson. He taught him all that he knows and also learned from him.
The powerful wizard & co. Melinda. She's also a hero, but she gained her popularity from all the other things she's done. She used magic is revolutionary ways and more or less watches over Merlin and her grandchild because she's competent and they aren't.
Aug, the Prince, is just an Angel. He's the best girl and one of my all time favorites. Due to that I restrain from evaluating his character.
Just know that he is a kind guy with a good heart and a bromance kind of relationship with the main char.
Because they are a couple characters you can't remember the names of (you, I of course remember all the supporting characters names) and won't want to read in a review I'm trying to make it short.
The girl with blue hair is shy and very kind.
She has a total crush on the main.
The girl with red hair is kind and a good friend of the blue haired girl.
The girl without control of her power.
She also has a breast complex.
The blonde loli #1 with a breast complex (pettan).
She gets into rage quickly.
There are also 4-5 other characters but you get the grasp.
They're a class full of stereotypical characters with different but blant personalities which all share one thing tho. They're likable.
This makes the world, which is rather simple, colorful and enjoyable.
I won't go into the antagonist as this would regular contain spoilers. Just know that he's also a rather simple antagonist. Simple not as in "He's evil because he's evil" but as in he isn't a 5 head genius, does human mistakes, isn't overpowered but is still a worthy antagonist with motives for his doings.
Plot
A classic medieval world.
There are multiple countries occurring in the story but they aren't really touched upon.
This show isn't political and the countries are more or less just vibing in the world.
The story has a clear antagonist.
It does not revolve around fighting the antagonist but there is at least a valid reasoning for that (ignoring the antagonist for almost all of the story).
This is something the show is very good at, giving reasonings for things that would frustrate without proper reasoning and evading things it can't explain which makes this blant Isekai world feel somehow "complete" and gives a feeling for roundness.
The anime has powerfantasy, friendship, improving skills and weapons, adventure and improving bounds.
All in one this is more of a story between friends instead of an adventure. It still feels like an adventure though, but the focus isn't on reaching the goal but on the way to the goal à la epic theatre.
Animation & Music
I can't say anything about that except that the animation is good and the music is decent. Both fulfill their roles and the animation is definitely on the higher end which you notice. There isn't anything more I know about that and worth to mention for me so let's continue.
Other notable aspects
This Anime resolves a lot in progress. Progress as in there's nothing that sets them back in any way which is frustrating in other Animes.
There is no sudden quest they have to do or a sudden danger to which a whole episode is dedicated to. Everything continues clean and this is actually a much bigger positive point than you might think.
Also I mentioned that there aren't that many annoying tropes. There are tropes like the all-mighty main Isekai protagonist, but I rather meant annoying tropes like (These are real spoilers. Only read them if you've finished the show or don't care that much about one spoiler)
The interesting thing is that this Anime is no satire.
We've really had almost no Anime without even one of these annoying tropes which wasn't a parody where tropes don't count cause satire.
The fact that this Anime has none clishés or almost none makes the Anime feel so much "cleaner".
This is something the Anime shines in. It feels very clean to watch. Explanations are given, very few/almost none negative tropes, progression, no sudden interference.
Also the characters are really likable which needs another separate mention.
To whom I'd recommend it
People who don't care about character development and just want a good and likable character cast developing in other ways than personality. Keep in mind that you thus don't really feel close to the rather blant characters .
If you're fed up with frustrating things this Anime will probably still have some frustration for you, but if you're just a bit fed up then you'll have a good time with this Anime.
These are the main two points making this story strong, the enjoyable characters and the clean storyline.
If any of these did not sound likable to you, I wouldn't recommend Kenja no Mago / Wise man's grandchild.
If you're still interested just watch one or two episodes.
I had the feeling that it got a bit boring further down in the story but you get a very good grasp after just one or two episodes. The worst that can happen is you watching 40min of an Anime that you'll mayble drop.
Closing words
I'm happy that you read all of this. It was fun writing this and thinking through the story and the episodes once again. If you've enjoyed it or didn't then leave a rating and I'd be happy for suggestions for improvement.
Have a good day and stay healthy!
[E: 3 years after writing this I finally found out that you mark spoilers as -!Text!- and not as -!!-Text-!!- o-o]
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