As bold, colorful lights stream down from the heavens, Aishia, Rio’s contracted spirit, feels a spiritual jolt to her soul; there’s no doubt that something monumental is happening. Rio, who is together with her and his former professor Celia, rushes toward three of the lights and finds two youngsters from Japan held captive with many other children. After freeing them, Rio discovers something even more surprising: his childhood friend and promised girl, Miharu, is now also in this world with him. Along with the two middle schoolers (one of whom also has a close connection to Rio), two other high schoolers have been brought into it with Miharu as well. But for what reason? And why have they kept their bodies when Rio was reborn into a child’s? After meeting up again with Aishia and Celia, and hearing from Mahiru about the two who are missing, Rio and the professor come to this possible conclusion: the prophecy of the Legend of the Six Wise Gods, in which six heroes are brought to the land, is now coming true.
Seirei Gensouki returns! And it’s…confusing, at least at first. Viewers are dropped almost immediately into the action with characters who we recognize (Rio, Celia, and Aishia) and some who we don’t—namely Miharu and the other Japanese isekai’d characters. But this structure ultimately works out well; although I was expecting and hoping for a rehash of past events to start out season two, the animators decided to begin with a quick flashback into Rio’s childhood to refamiliarize ourselves with his past life (and introduce a new important character) before the power of isekai brings five school kids into the fantasy world. Later on, a little bit of rehashing is done over regular dialogue that works subtly—surprisingly since Seirei Gensouki is not a subtle series. Based on one of the older and most respected light novels in this established fantasy series type, it is as generic an isekai as you can get. And that’s just fine, because it’s such a lovely, warm show. The characters are lovable; the tone adventurous, fun, and comedic; and the story is exactly the stuff that we loved so much in isekai before thousands of series took us down winding roads. The first couple of episodes in this season seem like they’ll take us more into the slice-of-life arena, which is also terrific because Seirei Gensouki does that really well. I’m excited about the season, and especially to watch it in the dub version (one of the few series in which I do so), with veterans like Emi Lo voicing the characters and Shawn Gann at the helm as the ADR director. Hopefully, though, we get rid of the annoying double-voice effect that haunts much of this episode, confusing my ears whenever characters are speaking in the isekai world’s language in the presence of the Japanese-speaking characters. But other than that, I am fully invested in season two!
Seirei Gensouki Season 2 can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
