Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru 6d2lw

This adaptation is an absolute train wreck. It's as if the studio didn’t even bother reading the original manga before butchering it beyond recognition. Everything that made the story compelling — its well-paced development, nuanced characters, and the balance between humor and action was tossed out the window.

The anime is filled with absurd shortcuts, slashes through the plot, turns meaningful dialogue into bland clichés, and completely drains the story of its soul. The characters are unrecognizable, the emotional high points are rushed with zero impact, and the animation feels hastily thrown together with what seems like leftover budget scraps.

This is no longer Katainaka no Ossan, ... Kensei ni Naru. What we got is a watered-down, hollow shell of the original — a soulless adaptation seemingly made just to cash in on the manga’s popularity, with zero respect for the source material or its fans.

In short: if you’re a fan of the manga, skip this. It does it no justice at all.

This anime has been given bad reviews because the manga is considered better due to more scenes of character history and more details. I think that's a very unfair measure of judgement because 99% of anime that is based on a manga would be the same way, ESPECIALLY if it weren't a guarantee that the anime would last more then 1 season.

I think an anime should be based on it's OWN MERITS. Thankfully, another reviewer thought similarly....and he also came away with a positive review of this anime.

Now on to the point of my view of this anime. When I learned it was ... based on an older MC who once lived a secluded life, but is thrust into a more populated area in a medival/magic world..........another anime came to mind. That was "I Parry Everything".

I have to be honest, "I Parry Everything" was an awful, awful anime. There wasn't one good thing about. The MC was perhaps the dumbest MC I can recall in anime that I've seen over 25 years. Even Goku from Dragonball would be considered a genius in social settings compared to the MC of "I Parry Everything".

I don't mean to get side-tracked, but I say all of that to stress that this anime is THANKFULLY considerably better in every way than "I Parry Everything".

In THIS anime there is a "crispness" in the art that is better then the generic/cheap style that plagues a lot of other anime. The animation may not be the best of the best, BUT it also is above average. One thing that I despise in ANY anime combat scenes is a lack of animation or boring fights. Thankfully, I'm spared of that in this anime.

The MC, Beryl, is a modest, but very skilled swordsman. He underestimates his strength due to a lack of experience and NOT because he's an A-class simpleton in any believable way, like the MC from "I Parry Everything". I do find the character of Beryl endearing.

Then there are the side characters. I think Beryl's father and mother fit their role very well, even comically well when comedy was required. There are a few characters that Beryl would be reunited with due to them being former students.

My initial concern with those former students was if they had something going on about them that wasn't about idolizing Beryl. Thankfully these former students do have their own motivations and aren't just a "cheering squad".

Although, this anime is not going to be "top of the mountain" in the world or anime and gain a ton of attention, it is worthwhile to watch with hopes that it will get more then one season........and I will look to read the manga after I finish this season's episodes.

If you have read the manga for this show, I recommend not watching it.

The show has removed/changed every notable scene that made the manga so great. Every fight, the climax has been changed to a much more basic and uninteresting form compared to the manga. Small scenes that help depict how amazing the main character is, have been removed. Pretty much all the moments I loved rereading in the manga don't exist in the anime and it's dissapointing.

If you have not read the manga, then the show is a fine low mid-tier non-isekai isekai.
Hopefully they are simply reordering the events that occur and later ... we see the cool scenes again, but the ones existing have already been changed so chances are unlikely.

Man I am so disappointed. It is not like the manga for this story is incredible or anything but it is incredibly entertaining and I really like how the characters in it are portrayed. In the manga you are convinced of the skill that Beryl has. You are shown why his students ire him not by words but by actions. The action scenes are incredibly dynamic and intense. The pacing is great and it is just generally a joy to read. There is an eye for setting up moments as well. The anime throws basically all of that out of the window. And leaves you ... with on paper the same story, but with none of the quality. I suppose that even without this it is still decently enjoyable. It looks pretty good animation wise and I still like the concept, but man is it bland like this. Please go read the manga if you haven't.

I haven’t read the manga, and that’s probably why I have a positive impression of the anime. Honestly, it’s a strange show—it doesn’t offer anything particularly outstanding. You won’t find amazing animation compared to other series, nor an intriguing, complex plot that grabs you right from the start, and the side characters haven’t exactly shone so far either.

But honestly, who cares, as long as you’re enjoying it—and that’s what really matters in the end. And I have to say, after just three episodes, I’m incredibly excited for the next one.

The main focus of the anime revolves around the hero, Gardenanda, who’s already in his 30s ... and has spent his entire life in a village where he teaches kids swordsmanship. Since he’s never seen the world beyond, he believes he’s just an ordinary swordsman like any other.

However, it quickly becomes clear that’s not quite true—his students turn out to be some of the most renowned swordsmen, and no wonder, considering they were taught by a master.

It’s definitely worth checking out at least the first three episodes—you’ll know after that whether it’s worth continuing.

This anime is very bad, although I haven’t added all my anime to MAL, I’ve seen hundreds, this anime has managed to hit every single terrible cliche I’ve seen. It’s basically a harem, but it tries to be an action anime. It keeps on following the same repetitive idea of somebody doubting the MC then him proving himself. If you’re an avid anime watcher, I would not recommend. The story itself is unique only in the aspect that the MC owns a dojo, other than that it’s the standard OP MC with underrated skills trashy type of anime. It almost feels like a trashy isekai ... but it’s not. The art style is mediocre, the characters are shallow, with basic cliche backstories on how they met their master. The only way I can see someone enjoying this anime, is if they are new to anime or a seasoned veteran, otherwise a very hard watch.

Thoughts after watching 3 episodes:

Story of yet another middle-aged, strong but naive as hell, kindhearted, yes-man MC surrounded with a flock of young girls (mostly his former students) with barely any meaningful plot or character development.

Occasionally there are some flashbacks to link another girl to mc, and we also have mandatory powerful loli character. Also in each episode mc is challenged to “prove his strength" (but of course he stays naive about his abilities regardless the outcome).

Actual art, animation, sound, OP and ED, etc. all are pretty standard for this type of anime.

If one likes harems and naive protagonists I'd say go for it, but ... for the rest of us, nah, better watch something else :)

2/10


Edit: watched up to 10 eps now - all my previous points still remain.
We did not get any story other than "new ep, new girl for harem" :)

The show has been exceedingly disappointing thus far.

Every major point where the main character shows their prowess has been either dulled down or just completely changed to remove focus from him. So many details were changed that the characters in the show are mere husks of what the manga characters are.
I really wanted to like this, I did. I hope that the episodes will do the manga some kind of justice but as things are progressing right now, the odds are abysmally low.

If you have not read the manga, this show is a mid tier adventure fantasy anime at best. If you have read ... the manga, keep watching if you're holding out for the slim chance the anime will improve, if not then just save yourself the time and avoid the adaptation.

The adaptation completely butchered both the story and the characters, and the animation quality is also steadily falling as the episodes progress...
The scenes they actually bothered to put in are changed in subtle ways that completely change their meaning for the worse...
Originally, the biggest point was that everybody was hyper competent, as elites and leaders in their field, but Beryl, as their master, and someone who spent his whole life training and fighting, was just that little bit better...
Opposed to this, in the anime, most people are bumbling morons, and Beryl just craps all over them...
Among the biggest victims are the rookie adventurers, who are ... depicted as idiots charging into danger, and then getting randomly ganked by a monster...
They also crippled and butchered the first main storyline of the manga, by leaving out or ruining every single important villain, and robbing Lucy of her real introduction, and the introduction of the magic system...
I will not watch the remaining 4 episodes, as this is not the story I wanted to see any more, and I have no interest in the abomination they have created...

Absolutely disgusted.
After much thought, that's what I decided to open my review with. Do you know how someone who excitedly started reading manga having seen couple episodes of this anime feels now? Absolutely disgusted.
After I watched first two episodes, I was basically hooked on the premise. The anime didn't feel like your typical mind-numbingly dumb seasonal fantasy anime and I was so excited I started reading the manga from the start. I waited excitedly for a new episode each week.
Do you know what I was met with? Disappointment. Who the fuck directed to change so many aspects of the anime which made the source material ... so fun and unique?? Watching the episodes, I'd excitedly wait for the moments with interesting and impactful encounters... only for them to be completely removed from the anime. I won't go into spoiler terriroty, so whoever has read manga (and you should, if you haven't) will probably sympathise with me when I say I almost flipped out at the bar scene in Episode 4 with Beryl JUST HAVING A DRINK. Like what was even the point of showing that??? That and other VERY important stuff being cut from like Episode 3 with the Blacksmith. This is very important because it sets the scene, it sets the tone and guess what? It sets the characters.
This adaptation is just disgustingly repulsive. Because it took something VERY interesting and dumped it out as forgettable, just your average shitty seasonal fantasy anime. 1 star is generous for this monstorisy. I'm even contemplating dropping this garbage so my enjoyment of the manga isn't tainted.

Read the manga (or even the LN)

It's completely alright as a standalone anime, doesn't really do anything great but also nothing terrible. Something to watch when you're bored, have nothing else to watch and want some easy to digest medieval fantasy.

As an adaptation of a manga it's one of the worst I've seen. The manga's most defining trait is in how action sequences are portrayed. Every fight is beautifully choreographed and the swordsmanship and movements is drawn with immense detail rather than flashy effects. The anime on the other hand removes most of the sequences that distinguished the manga from every other medieval fantasy. Scenes that aren't straight up removed ... are reduced to the point you can't see any of the original work in it.

While I understand that the emphasis the manga puts on choreography isn't feasible when considering budget and time restraints for the anime studio I can't understand why they'd even choose to adapt this manga in particular if this is what they were gonna do to it. The manga is heavily carried by how it's drawn, from the choreography in fights to the portrayal of the characters' emotions, it is the one way it distinguishes itself. If all of that is removed then what's even the point in adapting it to another medium.

ok the plot was setting up to meet his students and to make old man mc well known that he is OP (apparently) and they execute it well enough but my complain was even though they did it right they still didn't do it well enough on showing how OP he really is as himself, i mean i get that because its swordsman theres nothing supposedly flashy and he's not a mage that just by learning a OP spell he is instantly being viewed as "OP character" BUT come on! its an anime so its fiction!, make it at least flashy/fictional!, if they don't do ... it then whats the point in characters hyping up the mc that hes op asf (which is happening constantly when he get involve in a fight lol)

at this point im just blaming their animations for being plainly just shaking their swords when fight start though sometimes they do cgi when fight start but not worth to highlight it

ALSO maybe its just me but i think their "course of action" in this anime was just to focused on the story itself (which is mostly just talking to bishoujo's or just dragging people to forced them to know how op he is lol) at this rate this anime have potential to become worst than trash isekai and the only redeeming factor is they have cute character girls

overall worst anime, so dont watch it

I've read the manga and it is one of the better depictions of fighting choreography, with a story that is at the very least quite decent, if you ignore the parts where every single one of his students are drooling after the old man.

What the anime has done is manage to downgrade in every aspect. I guess compared to some other shows to come out this season, you can at least, instead of trying to force yourself watch powerpoint presentation.

I would on this show, if you're expecting something good to watch. If you're into reading manga/comics then go read this one instead.

"The Illusion of Choice"
There's a term I coined called "The Valley of Mediocrity", it stems from the fact that a lot of webnovel stories are born from one very interesting idea, but once that idea gets exhausted (Sometimes it's after it's first volume, sometimes after it's third-fourth... sometimes after it's first chapter) it essentially becomes a boring and generic story... until the author has a second idea (Which in normal situations would've been another webnovel), though that's not guaranteed to happen 100% of the time.

Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru is like that: Sure, the flashback sequences for each of the characters are interesting, we're ... really sold in the idea that he's a DILF, he met quite a bunch of interesting people in his life... but after that, where do we go? If I had to base myself in the fight against the griffin, I would say we're likely going in a very generic route, since so far it has not sown any seeds for a greater, overarching plot.

So why "Mixed Feelings" and not "Not Recommended"? Well, a couple of reasons: There's some good work being put into some spots — the CGI by YAMATOWORKS is top quality, some character designs are interesting, it isn't an isekai about an OP protagonist (Low bar, but hey, that's where we're at nowadays), rather choosing to go for the route of someone with realistic sword skills, and the poses/forms are quite nice to look at.
It has a mixture of things that make it go just BARELY above the line that I want to give another episode a chance. Since this is Preliminary Review, this "Low 6/10" isn't the rating of the four episodes so far, but rather something that also takes into the "potential" for this anime to become something bigger, as in "If things go right, this can become a 6/10 anime".
Granted, "potential" wanes after every episode if it isn't used. Since contrary to some other reviews, I have not read the original manga nor Light Novel, this comes from a place of thinking that maybe, just maybe, with one or two good episodes it can go to a nice direction.

Is that optimism? Maybe, but one can dream.

I see everyone who read the sauce dislike it and who didnt like it (mostly)...I did not read it and can say its not bad anime, but I would not really recommend it to anyone who isnt desperate to watch something new and didnt already clear their whole backlog.
I will make this quick, its just another "Clueless OP MC with harem", but instead of being a child its a boomer. This makes it better but also slightly worse than the rest of this genre. PROs: The case being adult makes it we dont have to see the same gags recycled here, its less loud and ... naive...which leads to CONs: Since the cast is adult you expect more from them, but its pretty much the same shizz with bunch of beauties in their 20's tryin to get their teacher who is in his 40's. I dont have any issue with the age gap and if you desperately need something fresh in harem, go for it. But something about 45-ish year old man being unable to speak up and clear any of the MANY "funny plot armor" misunderstanding rubs me the wrong way.
Long story short, not great, but slight better then rest

Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru aka If Paul from Mushoku Tensei became an upstanding citizen. It's a fairly simple premise, a 30 something year old man named Beryl is a country bumpkin swords instructor. one of his former students, a woman named Allucia who's now the commander of the knights comes to visit him and let's him know that he will become the new swords instructor for the knights. That's about it. He meets more of his former students at the kingdom, who of course, are all women.

First off, the animation is pretty good for a generic fantasy and they actually blend CGI into ... some of the scenes well, it's almost unnoticeable. That being said...the actual plot is kind of nothing right now, 3 episodes in and there isn't really a goal, just kind of running around until they encounter a monster or a group of bandits, which they only cut to the aftermath for some of them.

The characters aren't nothing too special either, they have more to them then most of these fantasy shows, but nothing that makes me care for them. Allucia is the stoic commander who lets herself have fun when off duty, Surena is the tomboy of the group who's very competitive but behaves herself around Beryl, Curuni is the bubbly one who is this shows closest thing to a catgirl, and Ficelle is the calm and collected one who can use magic and teases Beryl sometimes.
None of them are bad characters, just kind of...boring. Hopefully I change my mind on Surena next episode, but I'm not holding my breath.

Beryl himself isn't that exciting to watch either, he's just a humble guy who's always professional and wants nothing more than to help his students, which makes him an all around nice guy, but it makes for a pretty boring main character who never gets angry. I appreciate that he's not an OP character though, he's just a swordsman, he doesn't have magic that can blow up the sun or anything like that.

Overall, Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru isn't a bad show and has potential to get better, but right now it's just kind of boring where most of the well animated action scenes come from practice matches between him and the students and his former students. Although the one he had with the loli great mage or whatever she is was pretty good.

What's going on with Japanese studios?
This adaptation is so different from the Manga.
Action scenes are so watered down.
Clothes nerfed.
Like the duel between Lucy Diamond and the Paul greyrat, the Manga has so much detail and action and bam! Anime adaptation looks rushed.
to the point where I need to drop it and just focus on the Manga.
What a wasted anime adaptation.
It usually is okay if they change minor details but atleast stay close with the action scenes of the source material like Mushuko Tensei.
This is about a Masterswordsman. Detailed action scenes matter.
I guess I will just rewatch other animes. NO banger yet ... this 2025.
Patiently Waiting.

Yoooo!!!! Pretty great so far.

The main character is a humble man. Who feels his years are up. His life changes when his former students consider him a master. His life changes when he realizes his value from the perspective of his students. The show is exceptional about teaching humility and is very funny. No overthinking in this one. The show is very chill and cute characters. Some awesome sword wielding and some rat abuse (lol) no rats were actually harmed in the making of this anime.

I never read the manga so I can’t compare the two.
The animation is pretty good. The faces actually have ... features. You would be surprised how some don’t.

This is an incredibly watered down adaptation of this story. I pre-read some of the manga before it released to determine if it was worth my time, but this studio took whatever was cooking and shut off the heat. The fights are so incredibly bland in the anime that you'd think the director was going for the slow-life genre. The novelty and ideas that the author originally had surrounding combat aren't captured here in the slightest, it doesn't have the heart of the original story. As it stands, this story got dragged down into the trash isekai tropes territory. If they had just tweaked their ... adaptation just a little, this would've rocked.

The good, the bad and the meh of Old Country Bumpkin.

Note:
I've really enjoyed the anime.

It's good enough that it has never interested in what happens in the light novel series.

Onto the good, the bad and the meh!

The good:
...
The main character is relatable. He's a career sword instructor who lived in a small town. Every time he runs into a former student (he has alot) who is successful (also alot) he is genuinely happy for them. He is just a nice guy in general.

He doesn't do a soliloquy that lasts a minute each time there is danger. Yes he has moments of inner monologs. When someone is attacking him he's not hesitating and getting really into morality.

It's an instinctual attacked me, I'm doing what I can to protect myself if that means killing him I have a clean conscience.


The meh

It's pacing is all over the place and it has very low stakes. It's similar to Frieren in that regard. It is not as good as Frieren by any means. The low stakes keep it grounded though

The bad

Every female character has a crush on him. Especially his former students, mercifully he has no interest in any because they're way younger and he would find that creepy. Still annoying that it has a harem aspect. Final complaint the world building has been fairly non existent. It's been very focused on his day to day stuff which can be mundane.

Overall I would recommend it, but knowing what you're getting into will greatly effect your enjoyment. Overall 8/10 for me.