From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman – Episode 1

What’s it about? Beryl is a 44 year old owner of a dojo in the countryside whose father will not stop hounding him about getting a wife and child. His former student, Citrus, arrives one day to whisk him away to the capital to become a trainer in the capital’s army. Surely he’ll meet some hot babes there!

When I first was assigned this show, I assumed it was going to be a Narou isekai. I should have read the absurdly long light novel title (From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: My Hotshot Disciples Are All Grown Up Now and They Won’t Leave Me Alone), and I would have quickly figured out that it was my least favorite genre of show: a harem anime about a hapless man with every girl in sight flinging herself at him. What’s worse, is that it is not just any old girls who are throwing themselves at him, but his former/current students.

While it is often a teacher’s dream to reconnect with former students and learn they are doing well based on their instruction, what is not a teacher’s dream is having those former students express sexual interest. And every one of the girls in this show has no personality other than being obsessed with Beryl in gratitude for his teaching them. Citrus is the shy, delulu one, convincing herself that walking around and getting lunch with him is a “date” and eager to prove herself “worthy of him.” Surena is the headstrong, argumentative one, whose attitude melts the second she realizes her former teacher is in town—and what’s worse, we the audience learn that he was her adoptive father. Yet, once they both are in the story, the way they interact leave almost no trace of personality–they bicker the same way, and want the same thing from him. You get the gist.

It’s hard to even know what to say about a show that treats its female characters as essentially walking, fighting babymaking machines—which it is clear it will, given that Beryl’s father constantly reminds him of his duties as a son to produce grandchildren, and even fires him from his country dojo gig to kick him in the pants to have a wife and children. I guess this is an Abenime?

I guess I could say that the animation is fine–surprising coming from Passione. The fight that ends the episode shows strong use of 3D animation, which gives it a weighty, strong quality. I like the choreography, up until Beryl’s opponent does their special move, which just looks like a ballet spin in the air with their sword held out, like Link in Zelda doing his spin attack. It’s…silly, and anybody who has ever done a martial art could tell you because of lack of any connection to, well, the ground, the attack would have no weight. It’s very goofy. But anime fights don’t operate on logic.

This was boring and I will not be watching more.