Chivalry of a Failed Knight

Summary: >

Ikki was an outcast in his family, which had a tradition of mage knights. Through luck and determination, he was allowed to enter an academy to study to eventually become one. There he meets Stella, a hot headed princess from another country who will become his new roommate. At first the two were at odds, but over time fell in love. Both declare they'll make the finals in the Sword Art Festival, where the strongest apprentice knight is determined. Ikki is nicknamed "the worst one" as he ranks lowest in the class, but Stella still believes in him.

Thoughts: >

The Chivalry of a Failed Knight is yet another title assembled from popular plot devices taken from the "build your own tired anime" lego bucket. It's a little troubling how forced and poorly implemented it is. Some can't get enough of these shows, and it's not bad by those standards. For everyone else, it may be painful.

So Ikki isn't ranked by the school because they "can't evaluate his performance" for some reason. This among other back story is designed to make him seem like he's had such a hard downtrodden life, and to empathize with someone who otherwise has god like powers to always win. There's also a time limit on his power, because if he didn't have that he'd be overpowered right? While Ikki is a bit generic, he does have a personality and a bit more depth to him than I would have guessed. That helps this show out a lot because the characters don't fare well.

The main girl is Stella, you know the hot headed princess who is uber powerful but strangely submissive around Ikki, but don't get the wrong idea because it's not like she's a tsundere or anything? Yeah. The romance between Ikki and Stella is what I'd expect written from a boy who will go through puberty any day now, but at least they do have an actual relationship. (Forced and often dumb as it is). Both Stella and Ikki are weak characters, but the formality of being a couple is a nice change.

Much of the story attempts to force empathy by absurdly overdone hardships endured by Ikki. These are then often spun around so he's later worshiped all the more. The way it integrates with the story is rickety, but it holds up (barely). The fights don't have much intelligence to them, but they're done well enough to entertain. Other features vary. This anime looks pretty good, and the animation complements it well enough. The opening theme sounds like something you'd hear at a karaoke bar.

When you glob all this together it's an unruly mess, but still might be the kind of unruly mess an anime fan could love (particularly the horny teenager variety). Parts of this anime are just so dumb, and fan service so trashy even that gets kinda tough to chew. The real problem with this anime is not the characters themselves, but how they interact in ways totally unnatural. If you can get over that, and the fact that this anime does nothing new, it's entertaining enough to pass the time.

Screen Caps: >