Chivalry of a Failed Knight - Reviews

Alt title: Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry

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Goukeban's avatar
Jul 6, 2017

As clichéd and by the number as Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry presents itself, it also seems to be an anime that challenges its own status constantly. By looking at its plot summary and art direction, you would be forgiven to toss this series along with the generic crap that piles the charts of every season. With that in mind, what could be then a valid reason to give this show the merit of a review?

Well, I’m glad you asked, little voice in my head, let me explain.

Story and Characters

From any angle you look Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry (this one is quite the mouthful, I’m gonna call just Rakudai for short) is following the clichés of the Sorcery School genre so strictly it seems as if it has a checklist of the tropes required. We have:

-the hardworking but underestimated protagonist who happens to be somewhat oblivious to girls affections;

-the pink-haired upstart tsundere, largely known for being among the most talented and powerful on the student body;

-the Imouto character, whose main purpose is to give the series its incest undertones;

-the playfull and not-at-all subtle homosexual side-character who just so happens to be someone you should not underestimate;

-the one-off enemy that is going to be discarded for the sake of raising the protagonist;

-a setting based on a school with modern aesthetic, that teaches its students about the handling of magical abilities;

-a tournament centered plot were the main characters bet their academic future and pride.

Now, what makes Rakudai an interesting beast to tackle is how it seems to be at odds with its own clichéd nature. The series displays a weird brand of self-awareness where it doesn’t necessarily belittle or parodies such tropes, but seriously plays them to the best of its abilities. Mostly. You can see this manifested in how the characters are presented and treated, going back and forth between the predictable instances of their archetypes and legitimately thought-out character moments.

Starting with the easier one, Ikki, the protagonist and Failed Knight of the translated title, who starts as an underdog but reveals to be actually pretty strong. Surprised? Neither am I. Granted, the series doesn’t make him simply a powerhouse for poorly established reasons or goes out of its way to avoid any kind of tension during battle, it shows him as a deeply hard-working individual who struggles against tough enemies, even showing that his strongest moves have their limitations, so a Kirito he isn’t, thankfully. In some instances the writing even makes fun of how quickly he becomes popular among his schoolmates. Personality-wise, he was given a sense of humour and empathy, enough to make him likeable and play well with the other figures.

Following is Stella, the resident tsundere. Now, even being a staple of anime, the tsundere archetype is a tricky one to write. Doing it right, the tsundere can develop into a well-rounded and likeable figure, in the molds of Taiga or Meryl Strife. Doing it wrong though, the results add the potential extra-damage of being not only a poorly-written character but also an awful individual as a whole, ruining the chances of the audience connecting or growing to like the character.

So how does Stella fair? Let’s take a look at the first episode before anything else: for once, after the obligatory accidental peeping scene, she is introduced in a comedic sequence so that it’s easier in get accustomed to her demeanor. Following that we’re shown her motivations for being in the story and the episode ends by displaying her kinder side towards the protagonist, while not in his presence mind you. Now, I think this is noteworthy effort, because far too often writers only worry about introducing the tsundere by her aggressive traits. Introducing Stella in this manner helps to understand that all the traits presented are natural sides of her personality that don’t conflict with each other. Later, when in her tsun-side, she acts more flustered than abrasive, making the transition to her dere-side natural.

Now, one common practice to make the tsundere likeable to the audience is to give her a quirk, so what would it be for Stella? She’s horny. No, really, the majority of the initial sexual tension between her and Ikki comes from her desire for his body.
—[Minor spoiler ahead}—
This later takes a different form when their relationship develops and leads to their most interesting moments as a couple. Being Stella a more sexually forward individual than Ikki, the two have to work out their expectations in regards to the relationship, strengthening their bond and ultimately providing better understanding of where their morals lie on. All that aside, it’s unexpectedly refreshing to see a light novel adaptation having teenagers deal with such a strong subject like sex in a tasteful manner.
—[Minor spoiler end]—

The Imouto in the series is also played in that strangely self-conscious manner. Usually this archetype is used to give incest undertones to the anime, here it’s not at all in undertones. She starts her role by kissing her brother in front of other classmates, openly declaring her love so that everyone can hear it and playfully talking about sleeping together. I realize this might be a problem to some, but as long as it doesn’t devolve into tasteless pandering I appreciate when a series cuts the bullshit and plays with a trope.

Now and then, Rakudai has these strange moments that handle plot points in a way that could be classified as meta-humour, although this might be a dangerous statement to make. I say it can be seen as meta-humour because they play with expectations the viewer creates after having already seen similar situations. We’ve seen new characters end an episode talking about fighting the protagonist, so we expect them to be a future threat, not the punchline for a joke (which, you might notice, was a wasted opportunity for more effective build up, not gonna lie), and we’ve seen countless anime feature pool/beach episodes, so we expect them to have pointless fanservice and dumb hijinks, not legitimate character development.

Around episode 6 you’ll probably notice that this series is more focused in interactions than in any on-going main conflict. While the interactions are nice to watch and even charming from time-to-time, it leads to one of the main problems with the series: it introduces characters that play their arc but might get forgotten in the long run. Some adversaries, for example, become throw-away characters and might as well be classified as filler. Being this only the first season, Rakudai might be trying to pull a “Index” and stack up in characters that become recurrent in the long run, which is a better option but comes with issues of its own.

Presentation

This I’d say is the anime’s most glaring weak-spot. Rakudai uses the style that is by now a given for light-novel adaptations of this genre, which in some instances can make the series indistinguishable from other titles: figures use futuristic-looking uniforms in white and black shades with minimal variant details, scenarios are mostly light colored, with the exception of battle stages, presented in dark tones of green and blue, powers are undetailed but given noticeable lighting, etc.

The same goes for character design: Ikki is thin, has dark and spiky hair; the tsundere has pink hair tied in ponytails, large, soft and bouncy breasts (I won’t complain about that!); the Imouto is flat-chested and carries a uniformly bland color pallet; the supportive gay friend is fabulous. Being a Silver Link series, though, it’s nice to see it was done by the side of the studio that understands contrast, so we luckily don’t have a Chaos Dragon this time. Seriously, that show looked awful!

On action sequences there are issues with framing: a lot of attention is given to the special powers, but they take too much of the scene, and adding it to the manner in which those sequences are cut, makes for somewhat disjointed and hard to follow action. On a plus side, when the focus is on character movement it’s very fluid and pleasant to look at, mainly during swordfights. Wow, here I go being boring again!

The opening is interesting because the visuals have a slightly gritty vibe to them, but the song sounds not really upbeat, but energetic and stimulating, possibly to evoke a competitive thrill going into the anime. The ending is a slower, somber piece accompanied by some… enticing visuals. Can’t go wrong with that.

Personal ramblings

Rakudai Kishi no Calvary was a show that played constantly with my expectations. At many points it seemed like it was going into shit-territory with its setup, just to pull it back and make a fool of me by presenting a legitimate good and entertaining moment. I can say I had an equal amount of enjoyment from watching the show as well as I dissecting it.

There are many factors that can make a work for me, but hardly ever break it. One that is fundamental to me and can easily do both are the characters. Bad characters can sink a series with good premise and waste solid potential, as well as good or even great characters can help a work with a tired premise to rise above mediocrity, even if it doesn’t mean becoming a landmark for its media, but just a solid piece of entertainment.

The saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” seems to be getting increasingly meaningless as it has become easier to spot a generic, effortless and vapid cash-grabs in the current anime scene, so it’s really pleasant to find once in a while a show that throws you for a loop and is worth looking at and analyzing.

?/10 story
?/10 animation
?/10 sound
?/10 characters
7.5/10 overall
JVAnimeReviews's avatar
Jan 17, 2016

For a video review, check out my Youtube channel. Link on my profile page.

Chivalry wasn’t on my To Watch list for the Fall season but after a recommendation from one of my  YT-subscribers Red Tuesday. He recommended it to me because I lacked some romance anime’s and he thought that there would be romance in Chivalry. So let’s see if he was right.

Positive

*The first positive point I want to mention was the animation. The animation of the fightscenes was really good, the attention to detail was astonishing. We get the first real fight scene in episode 3 and when I was watching it my hopes started to rise again for Chivalry. Because after the first 2 episodes, I actually had lost hope. But more about that later on. 

The 3rd episode was a turning point for the anime and the first sign of it improving was the animation that really pleased me in that 3rd episode and in the fight scenes after that. And the best episode, also thanks to the unique animation, was episode 11. That was the best episode of the entire anime, hands down. The animation was so different that episode and the development of Ikki was so good.

*Another thing I really like in anime, is to see a good and fleshed out brother-sister relationship. Maybe that’s because I have a little sister myself but that’s something that’s an extra positive point if I see that in an anime. And the relationship between Ikki and Shizuku was really well done. At the start I feared the worst for this relationship because of the way Shizuku was introduced into the anime, but more about the start of the anime in the negative part of this review. 

So I thought that I was going to hate their brother-sister relationship but I was proven wrong. The further I got into the anime, the more I started to appreciate their relationship. It was really well done and it made me enjoy this anime that much more.

*Related to Shizuku I have another positive point and that was that Shizuku got her own episode where we really focussed on her and learned about her past and her reason to be at the festival. It gave Shizuku the necessary development that she deserved.

*But the thing that I liked the most about Chivalry was our main male character Ikki. To be honest at the start of the anime, yes there it is again, I found Ikki to be a total retard. The way he behaved, the way he spoke and just his overall personality annoyed and irritated me. 

But then, in episode 3, Ikki made a 180 degree turn. His personality completely changed from being a total retard to a very devote, introvert but badass character. Ikki was such a badass in the rest of the anime and I liked his personality so much. You know from previous reviews that badass male characters are my favorite male characters and Ikki definitely fitted that profile. 

And the development of Ikki went into a climax in episode 11 as I mentioned earlier. Wow, wow, wow, that was the only thing I could think when I was watching that episode. How we see Ikki almost reaching his mental limits and almost breaking down was the best moment of the anime. So yeah Ikki, I loved you man, thanks for being such an awesome character.

*Now the next point hangs somewhere between positive and negative. I didn’t really care for the romance between Ikki and Stella. Their relationship just never really sucked me into it. But, there’s a big but, the conclusion of their relationship at the end of the anime surprised me. I did not see that conclusion coming and I was like “Ok, that’s a bit radical all of a sudden, but okay.” So the romance was average with a surprising twist at the end.

Negative

*Then it’s time to talk about the things that I didn’t like in Chivalry and I have to start by talking about the first 2 episodes because I mentioned these quite some times already throughout this review. The first 2 episodes of Chivalry sucked, they truly sucked. I found the characters to be absolutely retarted and the way how the relationship between Ikki and his sister Shizuku was developing had all the signs of becoming an incest relationship. 

*But the thing that made me almost drop this anime was the fan service and the over the top ecchiness and sexual related content in these first 2 episodes. OMG, there was just so much fan service in these episodes and I hate over the top fan service. I thought “Oh no, not one of these again. Not another anime that’s going to try to attract viewers with fan service”. 

So I was pretty much ready to drop this anime but as I said earlier, the 3rd episode was a turning point. It was as if the creators suddenly realized that they had to do something to save this anime. And luckily they did save the anime by Ikki not longer being a retard and making the brother-sister relationship go into a more sensible direction.

*But unfortunately for me, they didn’t drop the fan service. Well not entirely that is. In some episodes there were still some over the top moments with as epiphany the scene in the cabin. I face palmed my self so hard during that scene that I almost broke my nose. That scene delivered nothing extra to the anime or to the blooming relationship between Ikki and Stella. That was a desperate attempt of the writhers to go back to their old habits. No, just don’t please. Thank you, moving on.

*And a last negative point was that I found the final battle of the anime to be quite anticlimactic. I was expecting a huge and awesome fight especially because of what we had seen the episode before that. So I would have wanted to see a longer and more intense end fight.

Conclusion

So as a conclusion, Chivalry was one of those anime’s that started out really  bad but improved the further it went. It started of as an over the top ecchi anime but developed into a good anime with strong characters. And that’s why I’m going to rate Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry at 3,5 stars. I eventually enjoyed this anime and I hope there will be a second season because the Seven Stars Festival still has to start.

7/10 story
8/10 animation
6/10 sound
8/10 characters
7.3/10 overall
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devishjack's avatar
Feb 11, 2024

Alright, let's get one thing straight here. THIS is the best anime ever. Now, let's go over why that is.

So, we start we a harem, right? WRONG. Chad MC says "no" and speedruns tsundere route. BAM. Got a girlfriend and the show isn't even halfway over. Dad tells him he can't become a knight? nah, he'd win. His wife get's assaulted during a hostage situation? He slices bullets in half and takes the bad guys hand as a prize (not in the gay marriage way, but literally dismembers the guy). Trans wrongs? nah, MC says trans rights. Nothing compares to this masterpiece of a story.

But you can't have a perfect story without perfect characters. Big titty red-head tsundere? check. Emo shy girl with thick thighs? check. Little sister with- WRONG. She get's thrown out faster than me after I've had a little too much to drink at a gay bar. Nothing compares to the character writing in this show.

The sound? I'm deaf so I don't know. But I bet it goes crazy.

And the animation? I'm blind, but I bet it goes crazy too.

overall? 100/10. Signed by Helen Keller.

alright, I actually want others to see this review and give this anime a chance. So let's be serious. The story really is good, and probably the best part about this show. It might not be the best story ever written, but it's motivating as all hell. Every time I finish watching this show for the 400th time, I find myself going to the gym and hitting on men. And the fact that it isn't another generic harem show and the MC actually settles for the red-head so early on is a breathe of fresh air.

The characters start off generic as well (tsundere red-head, brother complex sister, emo girl with thick thighs) but they all get their moments to shine. They get actual motivations and depth. Which is more than I can say for most harems. And trust me on that, I've watched my fair share (about 134 harems and counting).

I can't say much for sound (since I actually have tinnitus) and I've never been one to scrutinize animation. But, the animation does feel a little out-dated.

Still, for being such a great anime with tags shared by such garbage anime, I'll give it a 10/10 (also since I've actually rewatched this like 15+ times).

10/10 story
10/10 animation
10/10 sound
10/10 characters
10/10 overall
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JustAkeno's avatar
Jul 18, 2021

It's a normal anime that pretty much anyone can enjoy. Not revolutionary or unique, and it doesn't have that of a crazy story. But, it does not do anything inherently "badly" or "wrong", therefore I don't really have any complaints. 

Did I search for a second season hoping there was one? Yes. But am sad that there isn't one? Not really, as I can just search for a similar anime with ease if I wanted to, perhaps that one having multiple seasons instead. And I already did find some, so it does show that the anime does not offer anything that other anime don't.

6/10 anime. Would have been 5/10 but that +1 point is because I did ultimately enjoy the anime.

6/10 story
5/10 animation
6/10 sound
6.5/10 characters
6/10 overall
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PhoenixIgnited's avatar
Dec 12, 2015

Story :

Battle school anime, which is a popular setting these days. Great character development, with one incest kiss that caught me off-guard. The protagonist knows how to speak up and share his feelings, some might be able to relate to his situation. Romantic development done well, very enjoyable to watch.

Animation :

Decent, not as bad as the shounen anime's (naruto/Fairy tail 2014) and not as good as MADHOUSE anime's. 

Sound :

-- nothing special--

8/10 story
7/10 animation
6/10 sound
8/10 characters
7/10 overall
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