Wistoria: Wand and Sword – Episode 1

What’s it about? Will Serfort made a promise with his childhood friend, Elfaria, that someday they’d be able to join the magic tower to see the sunset together; but that proves to be a difficult commitment to keep, since he’s unable to use magic.  As a result, Will is always on the verge of being expelled from the Regarden Magical Academy, which leaves him no choice but to fight against monsters in the school’s dungeon in order to earn extra credits.  

I know this is a shallow statement, but everyone in this premiere looks so pretty.  They could easily start an idol group and no one would be surprised in the slightest.  For a second, it’s easy to forget the basic magical school setup we’ve seen over a hundred times.  Despite being a generic story, Wistoria has the potential to do something original with Will’s character.  Usually, fantasy stories already have established different categories and schools for their characters depending on their abilities.  Will’s journey could absolutely be about him creating a new academy for warriors and how they could work together with mages in battle.  That might not sound exciting for some viewers, but at least it’s something different.  

I’m hoping the series goes in that direction because aside from being a nice person who can fight, there isn’t anything remarkable about Will’s character at all.  He’s the usual underdog often seen in these fantasy stories, which doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It’s definitely a nice change from overpowered edgelords with a harem of girls.  Thankfully, none of the women here are sexualized and it seems that Will and Elfaria share a loving bond with each other.  Sure, there might be some romantic tension later on with other characters, but for now everyone seems to be on good terms.  

There isn’t much I can say about the terrible teachers and bullies, except that I’m glad none of them have that particular stretchy jackass face that make me want to scream.  It’s almost hilarious how much the bullies go out of their way to try to get Will expelled, and it remains to be seen if they’ll develop beyond their archetypes.  The animation itself is simply gorgeous and it truly makes me feel like there’s more to the worldbuilding than it lets on.  The colorful visuals are stunning and it helps that the fighting scenes are fantastic.  I never would’ve guessed that Wistoria would be the show that would deliver stellar action sequences, which goes to show you should never judge a book by its cover.

Overall, Wistoria is a competently told take on a familiar story that might make a nice casual viewing for action fantasy fans.  I’m not sure if I’ll be sticking around to see where this goes, but I’m glad we’ve avoided the worst that this genre has to offer.  If nothing else, I call that a win.