Eva’s First Impression
Man I can’t tell you how excited I am to be finally watching this. I’ve been counting down the days since last week! This is a series that I have been reading since late 2018 and I am incredibly fond of it, so lets get down to it!
The Kingdom of Salutania is a land where they have lived within a shroud of miasma and when it spirals out of control, it warps the bodies and minds of living creatures, bringing forth monsters that ravage the world. In order to keep things in check, a Holy Maiden called the “Saint” would appear and use her power to protect the Kingdom. However there’s a problem. The Holy Maiden has yet to appear, and so the Kingdom’s Sage came up with a plan to attempt summoning one from another world.
Meet Takanashi Sei, a twenty years old who had just returned home from work only to be summoned to the Kingdom of Salutania! Upon her arrival she realizes she isn’t the only one who had been dragged over, when the Prince declares the other girl (Aira) is the “Saint” they had been looking for and takes her away while ignoring Sei’s existence in the process. Naturally after having received that kind of reception, Sei has no interest in sticking around. However now stuck in a foreign world, and knowing nothing about it, her options are limited and she has little choice but to remain within the safety of the palace walls. And since she has yet to be determined whether she is the Saint or not, with nothing else to do she wanders around and comes across Medical Flora Research Institute. There she meets a fellow researcher Jude and the director Johan, who later offers her a job and accommodation at the institute. Soon she learns how to craft potion and learn basic magic, and hilariously come to discover that her potions are 50% more effective than the standard.
It is rather unfortunate that they didn’t highlight Sei’s mischievous side when it comes to how obsessed she is with crafting potions. In fact because she is able to produce so much and ends up getting carried away, she actually would go as far as hiding her excess quantity to try and steer out of trouble. As Jude pointed out, Johan scolds her because if someone doesn’t keep her in check, they will run out of supply! HAHA! Sei’s bad habit is actually driven by her motivation raise her Pharmaceutical level so she can finally craft mid and high grade potions. It took her three months, but but by having crafted enough potions, she was able to get to the level to finally produce a high-grade potion. However unlike the low-grades, she can’t mass produce them without any problems, so they are still exceptionally rare and difficult to do.
Luckily her abundant supply of 50% more effective low/mid grades (which cannot be sold to the public) proven to be useful when Knights from the Third Order return from their mission to subjugate monsters in the West Forest after facing a horrific attack by a Salamander (a fire breathing lizard, different from a Dragon). Among the gravely injured was the Order’s Captain. Had it not been for the extra 50% boost, the Captain may have not survived, or at least may not have been completely healed to the extent he had been.
I already knew coming into this that this series was bound to have a slow and somewhat quiet start. Though to my surprise, they didn’t feature Sei’s thoughts as much as I thought they might. As result, I felt they made her come off a tad quieter person than she actually is.
But the one the thing that actually bothered me the most how they cut out what is arguably one of the most memorable scene: the part where shortly after the Prince drags Aira off, Sei actually grabs an official and interrogates him for answers. Heck, I am still shocked that they chose to cut that out, so naturally I am disappointed we don’t get to see that animated. This also reduced the significance as to why the palace officials are willing to go the extra mile in order to make her comfortable, besides the fact they have inconveniently summoned her from another world.
Thankfully they didn’t opt out her anger entirely, but they certainly made it a lot more quieter and less showy, which I felt took the fun out of it. And I say that because the way the scene in the novel played out, it was a lot more dramatic and lively. I only give a few chapters for an Isekai series to appeal to me, but this moment was what made me more excited for what to come. That being said, those who haven’t read the novels or read the manga adaption may still be impressed by her quieter, yet realistic frustration and isn’t going to roll over and accept things as they are without raising a fuss to some degree. The fact she stood up and walked away mid-conversation of the explanation showed us that she’s thinking, “Screw this! I’m leaving!” After-all, she was dragged into this world against her will, completely ignored by the Prince, and has no way of going back. But at the same time, she is sensible. She comes to terms it is too dangerous for her to embark on her own right now, so she accepts the offer of being given accommodations within the palace.
But one of the things I did really like and thought was a clever way to work around the info cut was the way they inserted some self-explanatory clues in her home and office prior to being summoned. The game controller on the floor shows us she plays games, and we can see she is interested in plants as she has one on her desk at work and at home too. These little details like that can really go a long way, so I thought that was a nice touch! This also explains why Sei already knows some fundamental knowledge about plants like Lavender and why she feels so at home at the Medical Flora Research Institute.
That being said, this is only the first episode so I hope that they will show off more of her personality and point out her habits within the next two episodes. It would also give a lot more context to why she behaves the way she does, such as mentioned earlier, why she is so driven to produce so many potions to the point Johan would scold her for it!
Another thing that struck me as I was watching it was the vibe. I’m not sure how to explain it, but it kind of felt a bit more serious? Maybe it’s just me, haha! Curiously, they opted not to mention how one can check their magic stats yet. (I’m talking real basic details, HP and MP stamina, skills and magic attribute, it doesn’t really go any further than that.) Of course there’s no harm in leaving that out, especially since it will most likely be mentioned next week.
I do want to address what might come as a bit of a surprise to some, is how they have yet to confirm Sei is in fact a Saint. The end of the episode highlighted while they have suspicion she might be, but the truth is they have yet to confirm it. The reason why that is will likely be explained next week, but they did actually drop a clue to how that came to be the moment she had been summoned (Hint: The man on the floor). The other girl, Aira is in the same boat as Sei, except she is being managed by the Prince (who made the assumption on his own), so she is already currently undergoing training for it. Frankly in a way, thanks to be ignored, Sei has been able to pursue a relatively more peaceful start as she adapts to her new reality.
Overall I would have to say the premiere was fine, but I still think it could have been better if Sei’s personality was able to shine more. But that doesn’t take away from how stoked I am about this adaption. It’s gorgeous, both musically and visually (oh man I can’t wait to see more of the monsters in action, they look so good right now)! Right now I think the biggest question on my mind is how they plan to pace things out. I just hope we are going to see more active interactions rather than pan overs that didn’t exactly help with that leading up to the time skip which happened in the last five minutes of the episode to squeeze in the end of Chapter 3. There are a lot of fluffy goodies between my OTP to look forward to, and I’m really excited for it, so I just hope they do it well.
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I personally hope Seijou’s anime is a decent-ish success, to encourage the production of more anime adaptations of otome/shoujo light novels. It’s ironic that even though there are many such novels and manga out there, very few seem to get anime (likely because risk-averse producers in Japan don’t think it’ll sell well with their main (male) consumer base).
A few titles I’d like to see get anime include Tearmoon Empire (comedic misunderstandings and 2nd life chance), Accomplishments of a Duke’s Daughter (political intrigue and romance), and House Albert’s Daughter Wishes for Ruin (a would-be villainess who’s too tsundere to actually be a villianess). Do you have any favourites you’d like to see adapted?
There’s also an ongoing manga-original spinoff for Seijou that focuses on Aira’s POV, if you’re interested.
I find it a nice addition, given how Sei-centric the source novels are.
Unfortunately it’s not translated atm. I recommended it to some fantranslation groups via discord but still no takers (one group even openly said they weren’t interested; which was ironic since they were fantranslating the Seijou manga…)
Me too! I’m delighted to see more josei novel series being adapted! I’m almost a little sad to see it’s only going to be twelve episodes. I hope it does well enough we could see more in the future. I suspect we’ll probably see up to Volume 4 adapted (the 7th volume is coming out soon, so I think it’s for the best for the time being.
Please have a second cour in the foreseen future, because of reasons). I have rough idea which episodes certain events might transpire, so I think it’ll be possible to fit that much into 12 episodes.I can see Accomplishments of a Duke’s Daughter possibly getting an adaption. That’s one of the earlier ones I’ve read around the same time I got into Seijou. Another series I am a huge fan of that is Kusuriya no Hitorigoto. I’ve been reading that novel series since 2019 and absolutely love it to bits. I’ve seen mixed messages online how it’s supposedly getting an adaption but it also hasn’t been outright confirmed because it was a leak? Anyways I hope it actually happens. I also really hope it’s English localization will get a physical copy because it’s a series I want to put on my shelf. Hmm, and I’d probably throw in Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon. I think that’s about it for now. I’m not following too many web-novels at this time. There are a lot series that have been localized that I haven’t seen any fan translations for coming out in the upcoming months, so I suspect this list will grow by Summer hahahaha!
Well that can’t be helped, but at least we can take a peek at the RAWS to satisfy our curiosity for the time being! I’ve actually learned about it recently too when I was browsing around. I’m happy to see Aira get a spin-off since I would like to see more of her story as well!
I’d always assumed the anime would cover up to Vol 2, given its ending feels like a rather good cutoff point. Not sure about Vols 3-4 since that was more like a story arc unto itself.
Hmmm… I think you are right about that. It really depends on how they pace it though. Initially I thought maybe they’d aim to wrap up vol 2 around ep 6, but as im flipping through the volume again, yeah it really would be a tight squeeze. So it would probably be wiser to only stick to Vol 2.
Vol 3+4 would be better off saved as a second cour after-all since it would benefit not having to be rushed. Not to mention i would hate to see them cut out the romance development in favour of squeezing more arcs into 12 episodes.
Bwahahaha, nevertheless I can’t help but be greedy for vol 3-4 content to be covered! 😂
I haven’t read the novel, but I read the manga. So far, I’m liking it. Although, yeah, I was disappointed that the part Sei was angry was not included. When I first read the manga, I was worried it would be one of those Isekai where the protagonist became an OP hero or the sort and ready to save the world or something. I was glad that Sei was more realistic in her reaction to the situation. And the people around her knew that when they summoned her, they’re not really considerate of her feeling or situation.
When I read this part, I can imagine placing myself in Sei’s place. I felt like telling them straight to their face “Have you never considered the one you’re going to summon also has family and friends in their world? They have their own life to live. The least you should’ve dome before summoning is ensure that they can go back home once your problem is over!” And I also wanna kick that stupid prince.
But at the same time, I understand that the people of Salutania are desperate for help. And they did feel guilty for dragging Sei into this without considering her feelings and situation, so they tried their best to make it up for her.
That was the hook that sold me, her realistic frustration. =3= Seriously how could they cut out the best part?
But yeah another big reason why I like this series is because it isn’t filled with annoying characters doing stupid things, so it makes it a relaxing read. It was quite assuring to see the officials doing what they can make up to her and Aira for dragging them into their mess.
I knew something felt off – lacking – with the post-summon scene. I agree, it’s really a bummer that they didn’t animate that confrontation. That complaint aside, I was pretty happy with how the first episode turned out. Looking forward to your weekly reviews!
I wonder why they decided to cut it out? It’s exactly the kind of spark the scene needed, which would have encouraged many people to stick around past the five minutes. It seemed almost as though they were banking on the moment the Prince went up to Aira and ignored her completely to do the trick.
Thank you! I’m super excited for this one~ Let’s hope for the best!