Roast or Recommend: Chivalry of a Failed Knight

For my debut Roast or Recommend, I will be reviewing an anime. 

This is an anime I just recently discovered and watched after I took a chance on it. That anime being Chivalry of a Failed Knight. 

This anime aired in 2015 and is comprised of just 12 episodes in total. 

This anime is that it is set in an alternate world where people called “Blazers” have abilities that allow them to summon weapons, which is known as a device, from their soul. A guy named Ikki Kurogane goes to an academy that trains these people with the abilities. Kurogane is an F-Rank Blazer, which is the worst a person can be, making his nickname “The Worst One” fit. Also, while everyone has other magical abilities, Kurogane has very little, cementing his nickname more. 

The story follows his rise from “The Worst One” to perhaps something greater. 

I think the thing this show does best is it’s plot and story progression. For starters, following the story of the worst at the school and seeing that growth is always an underdog story a lot of people can get behind. 

However, the story has a lot of other layers as well. The anime’s main love story is complicated with a brother complex mixed in with an international incident that threatens to split apart everything towards the end. 

Though I also like that the main relationship becomes a thing in the middle of the series and it leads to consequence and drives the story along instead of it being the destination that the show is leading towards, which is something a lot of anime does. 

There is also a big tie to family in this story and overcoming being betrayed and basically abandoned by the people who were supposed to be closest and to be protective. 

This is an ultimate underdog story in many ways if I ever saw one. Our main character Ikki overcomes so much throughout the story. 

The characters in this show might not receive as much depth as they deserve with it only being 12 episodes, but they were interesting for the amount of time they had. 

Growth and development of the characters in general was one of the biggest issues of this anime. I have seen other shows of similar length do a better job in that short of time. They didn’t capitalize enough on this part as they sacrificed it in order to tackle other conflict and provide more action and romance. Some of the characters stagnated at times. 

The other problem was that the actually main antagonist of the anime was sprung up late. They were hinted at prior, but even the hints were pretty late. There were a couple of minor antagonists throughout, but the real antagonist was there and gone so quick that they aren’t really memorable. I like the idea of keeping the antagonist hidden in the shadows as long as possible, but in a 12 episode anime, it doesn’t work quite as well. They just don’t get the time they need for us to understand their motivations. Instead, they are shallow and look pure evil instead of just misguided or something else.

The animation of this show was good. It was a bit different art-wise, but the animation was still very crisp, clear and beautiful to look at. They did a great job with the quality when it mattered most as well. Some of the most emphasized scenes got their due. 

This anime is mainly categorized as an action and romance anime, and it definitely does those things well. There’s action throughout the entirety of the show, but there is plenty of romance mixed in as well. The romance isn’t over the top and doesn’t drown out the action though, which is wonderfully done. It’s just enough romance to not take away from the action but still be able to function as its own plot device. It definitely does enough of both genres it’s aiming to fulfill, but they are done in a nicely-balanced way to keep the story fluid and never dull and redundant. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this show. The art style was interesting, in a good way, and the animation was crisp and caught my eye. The idea behind the story and how it was executed was very good as well. The characters, while flawed, were still interesting, intriguing and seemed to mesh well together. The action was awesome and the romance mixed in was a great touch.

My main issue, however, is that I wish it were longer. I know it follows source material, but I wish they had some more episodes to draw out deeper concepts instead of broadening them and rushing them. Also wish they had more episodes to give us more development for the characters as well, and make the climb of Ikki from the worst to something better seem more gradual than all at once. More episodes would have also made the romance seem more realistic instead of really rushed as well. I love where the anime ended, but I wish they just had more time to draw it all out more. 

Despite its issues, I would certainly highly recommend this one. If you want something you can watch quickly that still gives a layered story with good action and interesting characters, this show is for you. And if you enjoy a good romance that shakes it up a bit, this is good for that too. 

It’s not the most relaxing watch in the world, but it also isn’t anywhere near the heaviest. It does lean on the mature side though (they even warn you of that before each episode). So consider what you are getting into before watching. 

Overall score: 83/100

Final verdict: Recommend