What Is It About?
Shingo Ichinomiya was a young and single salaryman. One day he falls asleep to find out that he now lives in another world in the body of a 5-year-old boy. He is a part of a poor family, which has many kids, with him being the youngest son, which makes any hopes for a bright future for him near impossible. However, Shingo has an aptitude to a magic. Will it help him to succeed in the new harsh world he lives in now?
The main protagonist of the 8th son? Are you kidding me? Is your favorite corporate slave, who is drowning in the routine life. One day, he becomes the archetypical protagonist of the “Reborn in another world” sub-genre of isekai stories, except he is not quite reborn. Shingo Ichinomiya simply gets sleepy and wakes up in the body of Wendelin von Benno Baumeister, the 8th son of an aristocratic family in a fantasy world. At first, Ichinomiya thinks it is just a dream, but then finds out that it is his new reality. On top of that, he is the youngest son in a poor noble family, which means that the youngest son gets nothing and will have to build his life all on his own.
And that is it. While it is quite obvious that a story like this just reminds you of every single isekai story that you have seen so far and you will be right, if you say something like that. The storyline of The 8th son? Are you kidding me? has way too many cliché and does not give the viewer reasonable answers about its world. One of such examples is the fact that Wendelin had a whole life until Ichinomiya randomly stole his body and identity. Nothing is explained about it: how did it happen, what happened to the 5 year old kid, did he just vanish from the world and get possessed by Shingo Ichinomiya, why would someone do that, and many many other questions. Therefore, the storyline suffers from too many flaws for it to be somewhat interesting and reasonable for the viewer to follow.
The animation is adequate and the art is quite pleasant. There are many castles, cool-looking backgrounds, characters that look unique and pretty. Another thing I find important to mention is that there is no fanservice in this series at all. OST wise, the series is average at best.
Character wise, Shingo Ichinomiya/Wendelin von Benno Baumeister is your typical isekai main character. I did read neither the novel, nor the manga, but how he is displayed in the anime is just ridiculously bad; the anime does not even want to do anything for the viewer to like the show’s main protagonist. He is you typical Japanese salaryman, who works too much and never gets the appreciation he deserves for his work. He is not needed, if he vanishes, no one will ever remember that there one day was a Japanese named Shingo Ichinomiya. Anyways, having overworked one day, Ichinomiya finds himself reborn in the body of Wendelin, beginning his new fantasy life.
Criticism
I will not try to hide the fact that when the series began, I had quite big hopes for it. I mean, who would not? Just watch the first episodes and you will understand the hype. However, at some point, it just ends and you understand what this series is: it is your isekai story you have seen 1000 of times already. Its storyline does not give way too many answers for it to make just a bit of sense. Both main characters, as well as supporting characters are just plain boring and it gets even worse, when the show gets harem elements and becomes kind of a romcom than anything else.
All in all, a huge disappointment. The show did have an amazing start, it was interesting, I wanted to keep watching it and was looking forward for every episode. And then the series tries to be everything and fails in that miserably. Would I recommend this show to anyone? Probably not. Only if you cannot live without ‘isekai series’, or are ‘gotta watch them all’, the completionist dude, dudes.
5/10; not recommended.
