Alderamin on the Sky

[Kraco]

"The Katvarna Empire is at war with the neighboring Republic of Kioka. In the Katvarna Empire, the lazy, woman-admiring Ikuta hates war, but due to certain circumstances, he grudgingly takes the High Grade Military Officer Exam. No one would have expected that this 17-year-old young man would eventually become a soldier called a great commander by others. Ikuta survives this world engulfed in war with his superior intellect." -ANN


Genres: drama, fantasy
Links: AniDB | ANN | Official



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I decided to have a look at this after Shinta's praise, and I wasn't disappointed. I immediately thought about the Legend of the Legendary Heroes when watching the episode. The characters aren't exactly similar, but there's the lazy but obviously highly competent dude and the swordswoman from a noble house who's keeping him in check. Fortunately their relationship seemed to be more mellow. This show also benefits from the main character only being selectively lazy as he finds within himself plenty of energy for flirting with girls. As welcome as that aspect was, just as splendid was the moment when he did what the others never could have done and made the haughty princess shut up.

This episode only left me with positive impressions. Although for fairness's sake it's pretty funny how the sailors didn't furl the sails when the ship was hit by the bad weather. It's like they wanted to sink.

Production valued seemed quite standard, but got the job done so far. There wasn't any action yet, so it's hard to judge for now. I'll keep watching for sure.

[David75]

I also thought it was passable for a first ep, and that is great praise compared to the pile of poop we are getting this season.
I do not expect much let's hope it remains entertaining.

[neflight86]

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"In the "military history fantasy" series, the Katvarna Empire is at war with the neighboring Republic of Kioka. In the Katvarna Empire, the lazy, woman-admiring Ikuta hates war, but due to certain circumstances, he grudgingly takes the High Grade Military Officer Exam. No one would have expected that this 17-year-old young man would eventually become a soldier called a great commander by others. Ikuta survives this world engulfed in war with his superior intellect."

from anidb

Episode 1

genres: adventure, political, military, fantasy

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A pretty strong cast carried this one for me (for the first episode, at least). The 'lazy genius' trope is in full effect, but there is enough else going on that the show hasn't yet begun revolve around a boring power fantasy. A good pace and a generally serous, but not too serious tone is agreeable, and looks like the beginning of something worth watching for adventure fans. Recommended.

[shinta|hikari]

There's already a thread for this. Reporting for merge.

[neflight86]

Oops, just saw it. Sorry for the confusion.

[shinta|hikari]

Np, common mistake. I know I've done this more than once.

[Kraco]

Episode 2 - HS




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That was a pretty nice trick. Exactly the kind of stuff I want to see in shows like this. The MC is quite hard to judge, indeed, the other characters got that right. At least he seems to have far deeper reasons for his plans than simply some fleeting distaste, unreasonable pacifism or whatever. I'd like to know why he stays in the empire, though, and didn't follow his teacher to the republic. He doesn't even have his mother, that is, his only family, to keep him back now, but he has plenty of reasons to dislike the empire. He didn't want to try to change it, either, instead wishing to live a quiet life. It's indeed weird and twisted. Nevertheless, I like this setting.

On the other hand, I don't much like the play with the word scientific or science as it seems kind of goofy and artificial under these circumstances, so I hope it won't have any real role in the story, or at least until the setting changes, which it shouldn't with the folks heading for the military school.

I wonder if Yatori likes Ikta. If they were mere childhood friends, you'd think she would draw the line somewhere in continuing to look after him, especially when their original goals were totally different. Now his rash nature might jeopardise this very promising start she suddenly got handed over to her, even if it was all thanks to Ikta's nefarious plots. Being official soldiers and knights to boot now, they can't get away with not keeping themselves in check. Yet, Ikta is forced to serve there now, against his will, so wouldn't he logically try to get himself removed from the school? Yatori couldn't very well go along with that. She would need to distance herself from him in order to chase her own dreams.

[Ryllharu]

Alpha male lead character, a lazy genius with impulsive violent tendencies. Of course Kraco will be all over this series.

I'm rather fond of the style overall. It feels very Byzantine, with hints of steampunk (despite the magical sprite connection). It's a huge mishmash, but it actually works really well.

Personally, the standout character is the Princess. Ikuta is standard lazy genius LN hero. Yatori is standard violent heroine. But the Princess has some nuance thus far. She views her own country as horribly corrupt, but wants to reform it from within, and while she's young and prone to outbursts and rash decisions, she's on par with Ikuta's military savvy but with politics and associated machinations. Ikuta and the Princess make a great pairing (not romantic, but overall).

I also liked the way they handled the sniper getting his first kill. It shocked and horrified him. There went so much unsaid with that exchange. The calm way that Yatori and Ikuta handled it meant they'd both killed before, or seen enough death that their actions didn't phase them. Similarly, the Princess had never directly caused someone to meet their end. The whole sequence was really well done.

[KrayZ33]

I really like the maincharacters in this show. I even share a surname with one of them, heh.

Yatorishino is an excellent female lead character too.. and extremely beautiful.
I love their style of clothing and the Imperial Guard looked badass.

[Munsu]

Caught up, and this one I like. The violence in the 2nd episode was promising to see and cemented it.

Story wise it feels quite disjointed for now, but I'll forgive it. Certainly enjoying the characters so far.

[Munsu]

Here's episode 3:
http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=832730

Downloading now.








Edit: Well, entertaining episode overall and Solork is Boss, yet it was merely a setup episode so not much to go on. Clearly in the training phase of the show, so not much to care about all told at the moment.

The note passing scene between him and the Princess during class was golden.

[shinta|hikari]

Ikta is the Boss.

The narration is spoilery, but it makes his bad assery even more bad ass.

I want to rape Yatori.

[NeoCybercoin]

Eh you'd have to overpower her first. Good luck with that. Think she will only ever accept Ikta the way she talks about him.

[Ryllharu]

This series sure is slow, but not in a bad way.

Each of the episodes feel very dense, and that's something I always interpret as a positive sign (with the exception of a couple specific genres).

Good tactical shows are rare. It's a hard balance to keep over the long term, because the hero often starts to develop plot-telepathy. Ikta explaining his rationale to the side characters or audience stand-ins helps alleviate that. So far, it hasn't felt like too much exposition when he does it either. Good stuff.

[shinta|hikari]

Eh you'd have to overpower her first. Good luck with that. Think she will only ever accept Ikta the way she talks about him.

I want to. Doesn't mean I'd try. Not until after I drug her.

[Kraco]

Let's hope Ikta will acquire competent opponents later. It's far too easy to look like a genius if the enemy is a simpleton hothead. Although that being said, it's appropriate the opponent this time is like this due to being a regular bully. I hope they won't be stuck in the academy so long we would get the much more nefarious irregular bullies. That being said, it's quite funny Ikta needs to count on Yatori to make the bullies even capable of falling into his trap in a timely manner. I imagine Yatori won't be going all out trying to avoid difficulties. In this particular case she can probably accept a lost battle as long as she gets a good fight. Not that she would lose her individual fights.

Ikta's attitude really makes this series a success. The rest of the characters so far are quite forgettable. I hope Yatori at least gets a chance to shine a bit on her own, not only as a part of Ikta's plans.

[Buffalobiian]

I want to. Doesn't mean I'd try. Not until after I drug her.

Pray to Katsurai Yoshiaki and maybe he'll write you something.

Next weekend is going to be soo long away.

The narration is spoilery,

That's a given though. I never once expected them to say "The mock battle was Ikta's first taste of humble pie"

[KrayZ33]

I totally love the fact that they are commanding troops. As simple as it sounds, (and I don't know if it'll change in the future) it's so much better than seeing generic adventurer shows.

I don't really know how to explain it, but I have a lot of fun watching this so far. It's... less childish(?)? That's probably not the correct word for it, but the main characters in this show are so much more interesting than the ones from Tales of X, No Game no Life, Overlord or Gundam etc.
It's so much more entertaining than 'that show with the cat/beastmen girls/guys that had a human that lost his memories that was supposed to be a general or something' (<--- totally forogot the name of that show) even though they should be fairly similar

[Buffalobiian]

I don't really know how to explain it, but I have a lot of fun watching this so far. It's... less childish(?)? That's probably not the correct word for it, but the main characters in this show are so much more interesting than the ones from Tales of X, No Game no Life, Overlord or Gundam etc.

"less childish" is one way to put it. These characters are more worldly and are a bit more than than "great minds that beat people in games/stats/military".

The other shows you had:

1) gamer wants to play more games to win (also freaks out if he's not in line of sight with sister)
2) gamer wants to find the rest of his guild (also internally freaks out and makes NPCs love himself)

Gundam tends to vary.
I don't know much about Tales of X stories. The few I've encountered were adventure stories with pretty clear goals.

It's hard to articulate how a MILF hunter is more mature than a sis-con, but there's that.

[shinta|hikari]

Him not being a virgin is one reason.