The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan – Episode 1

Content Warning: Fantasy gore, blood

What’s it about? Noel dreams of surpassing his legendary grandfather in infamy and strength. Only it turns out he has the skill of being a Talker, one of the weakest class skills of them all. But Noel isn’t going to back down from his dream: instead, he plans on relying on his silver tongue to gather the greatest around him on his rise from weakest yapper to stronger lip flapper! 

---

The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan (hereafter Most Notorious Talker because geez, these titles…) is a fantasy series, outright: there’s no Japanese youth being spirited to another world, no classroom of plucky, clique-y kids being devoured by a magic circle. Nope, we’re going straight fantasy here, with an adaptation of a light novel series that leans a bit darker than its contemporaries right from the start.

But I’m not trying to be a notorious talker myself: I’m much more of a charming chatterer. Either way, let’s get right into the review since this series is completely new to me and I’m excited to share what I think!

Episode 1, “Why the Weakest Aims to be the Strongest,” starts off with a little background on this new world. It’s a place filled with mana-charged gates that allow vicious beasts from the Abyss to cross over via Voids. As you can imagine, it’s a realm filled with fear since humanity has very little recourse against a foe that can manifest seemingly at will. Noel, our protagonist, knows that quite well as he watches his grandfather, the feared and famed warrior known as Overdeath, head into what feels like his final battle. Sadly, it is, which forms the foundation of Noel’s present.

Flash forward two years and Noel’s lips are moving as he commands others and guides them through the fiercest battle. It’s strategies on top of strategies as he and his three companions slice and dice a hive of Lesser Vampires while guiding viewers into the dangerous world of adventuring within Most Notorious Talker, which seems to hold more and more secrets as the premiere progresses.

I’ll be honest here: this episode has so much information. It’s wall-to-wall world building and establishing all the lingo and jargon needed to navigate this world, as well as demonstrating the diversity of beasties and a VERY CUTE MOUSE CARRIAGE DRIVER. (Swing back to him anime, please, please, please! I wanna know about anime Stuart Little!) But seriously, there’s so much chatter about this and that happening that you’re going to want to pin your eyes to the subtitles most of the time just to keep up.

Truth be told, it feels like the biggest infodump I’ve personally experienced in a while, and I think that’s where people are going to feel split on this premiere, unless they’re fans of the source material. A new viewer is likely to find themselves in one of two camps: thinking ‘wow, this show is putting the “Talk” in “Talker”’; or just kind of accepting it as part of the genre’s trappings. I, myself, am in the latter group. I’ve come to expect this and can handwave it easily, since it’ll hopefully open up the second episode for more of Blue Beyond and Noel’s explorations.

Outside of this, this is a pretty rote adaptation that’s easy enough on the eyes, though I’ll always feel like novel illustrators never get their due. Studio Felix Film is…suitable enough for this, though it doesn’t even match the visuals of Aharen-san. Still, that’s fine, as is the kind of basic OST. It’s decent enough: there’s nothing I’ll remember here, but I supposed it’s better not to stand out in a bad way versus blending into the background.

So here we have another fantasy entry: not an isekai, but just a straight fantasy leaning a bit more horror than your typical humdrum entries this year. It’s also an adaptation of a light novel and manga series that’s currently localized by an American publisher, so even better right? Well, it depends on your tastes.

I think there’s appeal here for sure: I’m always a fan of straight-up fantasy stories over isekai when it comes to stories with cis male protagonists, my love of the pseudo-isekai, wholly VRMMORPG series Infinite Dendrogram notwithstanding. I just think it’s more interesting to see a youth in a world not like ours versus seeing a misanthropic teen boy from our world at the helm of the story. Here, we have a protagonist who combines a bit of both, though I would say Noel’s attitude toward the class system are quite valid, as are his kind of moody vibes. I would be if my grandfather died in front of me.

There’s also, at least from my perspective, a stark lack of the unfortunate “boys will be boys” leering that happens a lot in series. It’s not to say that won’t come–this is just the premiere–but it’s nice to see a cis mixed-gender team where the female mage is like…reasonably dressed and treated as competent. Hopefully this isn’t a case where it’s different in the light novel in a vicious way: I’d like to just think light novels are actually capable of respecting women.

Yet all of that doesn’t explain my actual feelings, which are…I kind of liked this. Why? Well, what does appeal here to me is the magic system and concept of a Talker, which feels like a fantasy wordsmith. It’s just spells said out loud on paper, but it’s how it’s scaffolded and put in place that’s intriguing. It’s enough of a gimmick that I found myself content with this being a series I likely won’t revisit outside the season, but don’t regret watching and will probably add to my seasonal watchlist.

Overall, a pretty okay premiere that skirts a lot of the troublesome bits of the genre and sets up a potentially interesting story as things progress. I’m going to stick with it, just to see what happens and to tick off my “easy viewing fantasy” box on my watchlist this season. Maybe you’ll find The Most Notorious “Talker” Runs the World’s Greatest Clan to be a good fit for you as well.

We’re having a giveaway! Starting October 1-5, sign up for a year’s subscription on our Patreon at the $5 tier or donate $50 to our Ko-Fi and choose an item from an AniFem staff member’s collection as a free gift. Missed the deadline to pick for yourself? That’s okay! Subscriptions after October 5th will still get a gift – just we’ll choose for you.