When You’re A Mecha Otaku That Gets Resurrected Into A New World Where Mechas Exist – Knight’s & Magic Impressions

I picked up Knight’s & Magic on a whim after correctly understanding the summary that was written. Some part of brain put the thumbnail and the summary together to make me think the main character was a Mecha and also an Otaku. Shortly after I was corrected by Nick, he said the main character is an Otaku that loves Mecha. That makes much more sense. My initial thought was “oh another resurrection in a fantasy world that happens to be at war with someone/something. It’s probably not worth my time.” After watching four episodes, I can 100% say that I’m completely on the fence about it.

Within the first 5-6 minutes, they push us towards how this story will play out. We see our a main character is a genius programmer hard at work and immediately after we see how much of a mecha otaku he is. This life doesn’t last long as his death and resurrection comes quick. He’s now a young, silver haired boy named Ernesti Echevarria, aka Ernie or Eru, living in a new world. He awakens on a carriage with his mother and grandfather as they get attacked demon beasts. Ernie’s eyes glare wide open when a robot comes to save their lives. In this world, the mecha are known as Silhouette Knights and the pilots are known as Knight Runners. This is the moment Ernie declares his future to become a Knight Runner.

This series did us viewers/fans a favor and cut all the bullshit. They time-skipped twice, 3 years each, with just a hint of story in between. They showed Ernie’s drive and conviction towards his dream “career”. Being the absolute mecha-nut that he is, there was nothing that could stand in his way. So he studies and tries to advance through the Knight Runner Academy as quickly as possible.

Here’s where the show gets interesting. The class goes on a field trip that was supposed to be within a safe area but something riled up all the demon beasts and they came stampeding into their camp. We soon find out that it was a Behemoth marching towards them, destroying everything in its path. Luckily their senpais were along for the camp and they hold off the behemoth to get the young ones to evacuate. But one senpai was not so brave and ran away from the fight. Ernie left the evacuation carriage to go help but ends up fighting the runaway senpai. He knocks him out and steals his mecha. Being the genius programmer he was, Ernie finds a way to pilot the mecha despite his short comings and joins the defense against the Behemoth.

This fight reveals more about the mechas and what they’re capable of in the hands of Ernie. He makes them move at a more agile pace which gives him a great advantage against the Behemoth. He does eventually defeat it with some help from the capitals reinforcements and his senpais. Naturally this event put him in the spotlight and grants him an audience with the King. The King grants him a reward for his accomplishment. We all know that Ernie wants to build his own mecha but for that he would need to know the secrets of its “heart”, the Ether Reactor. The King is amused and says it will be granted so long as he can build a worthy body for the heart.

This is where the anime takes a turn in a different direction from what we’ve seen previously. We just had a high paced, action oriented, boss battle and now we’re stuck in the city for the next two episodes. Ernie teams up with some classmates and engineers to help him build/fix the mechas he broke, to make them better. Overall they make a lot of progress and incorporate new things based off of Ernie’s previous mecha otaku knowledge. They decide to test out the new model in a sparring match and it goes pretty well except it expends too much magic, making it immovable after a short time.

The show continues in it’s casual phase and there’s a hint of evil afoot but nothing comes of it as of yet. And every time it might seem like Ernie’s in trouble with some higher ups, he kind of talks his way out of it. His mind is only focused on making his own mecha and he has taken every opportunity to help that dream come to fruition. After speeding into so much action, the series takes a steep drop into a steady row as that mock battle was the only real action to be seen. At the end of episode 4 however, we’re left to suspect an upcoming war. I’m hoping things will heat up again and they can keep it consistent.