Spring 2025 Impressions: The Beginning After the End, Wind Breaker S2, From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman

The Beginning After the End

Short Synopsis: Super powered king from one world dies and is reborn as a super powered baby in another world.

Lenlo: At first I thought Saikyou might have been onto something, having your MC be from the same world they are reviving into gives them a connection to the world, the opportunity to make up for past mistakes. They would have some actual investment in it, knowledge of the setting, with concrete goals from the start. By shoving him into a completely different world though, they remove all of that, making Saikyou no different from any other mediocre OP MC Isekai bullshit. The lead being an ancient king is nice enough I guess, it’s better than a petulant highschooler. But that really starts to be undermined after the like… third “He shit himself” joke. It feels like everything interesting about Saikyou’s premise was left behind for the sake of making it as easily digestible as possible, resulting in just another fantasy Isekai show. So yeah, hard pass.
Potential: 5%

Mario: I guess it strikes me how plain the whole episode is. Down to the title, it presents itself as a rip-off of “Beyond Journey’s End”. Its premise reminds you of a tame version of “Jobless Incarnation”, and even the world has elements that you’ve seen somewhere else. And even though I prefer this MC more than the one in “Jobless Incarnation”, the production just can’t hold a candle to that show. And because we are stuck in his head and his narrative the whole time, other characters like his father and mother don’t feelmulti-dimensional at all. I guess we will get more to the meat of it once he gets older and travels around, but for now there is nothing exceptional in this show that would keep me coming back. For hard fans of isekai only.
Potential: 10%

Wind Breaker S2

Short Synopsis: High school delinquents get into turf wars and talk about friendship, S2

Lenlo: As expected, Windbreaker escalated to mortal combat pretty damn quickly. Metal baseball bats and wire wrapped wood? That can legitimately kill somebody. Don’t get me wrong, the fights, the choreo, the OST, all of that’s still good. The production of Windbreaker is still just as it was before, so if you’re just in it for the action I think you’ll get what you want. I just worry that Windbreaker is going to lose what made it work for me in the constant escalation all Shounen have. Some of it was here, the short glimpse into how flawed an organization ruled by fear can be was nice, and I liked how it pushed Sakura away from the leader since Windbreaker’s focus should be more on the community and what these fights represent, rather than the fights themselves. But I can’t help this nagging feeling that the series is going down the classic shounen rabbit hole. Hopefully it proves me wrong, I’ll definitely be watching it to find out.
Potential: 50%

From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman

Short Synopsis: A swordmaster from a country village is summoned to the big city to serve as its knight corps’ instructor.

Wooper: Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman opened with the adult hero’s elderly father pestering him about potential grandchildren, which made me wonder what kind of show it might be. Would it treat the experience of being middle aged in a youthful fantasy world with some amount of realism, or would it surround this barely-greying sword instructor with potential mothers for his offspring? I needn’t have wondered – it was the latter, of course, and shortly after that initial conversation with his dad, the first of the series’ cast of cute anime girls showed up at their door. Then he was whisked away to the city where he met another, and another, and there will doubtless be more beyond this episode. The show frequently trots out a gag where he doesn’t pick up on any of the female lead’s obvious signs of attraction, as if that makes its intentions any less transparent. Maybe he’s just distracted by the fact that she and the other prominent women’s outfits are designed strictly for sex appeal, despite the fact that they’re all accomplished swordsmen in their own right. Some props are due for the slick 3D models used during the duel between Mr. Bumpkin and the knight corps’ second in command – positioning the camera between them for most of the fight made it more intense than expected – but as for the story and characters, there’s nothing here to recommend.
Potential: 10%