What’s it about? In a world where demons destroy everything in their path, Kyle finds the might to put down the Demon King. Yet his efforts seem to be all in vain when he finds himself four years in the past facing down the same enemy. Or are they? Armed with his past life and previous experiences, Kyle is determined to use his second chance to do things right and avoid a grim mark on the annals of history.
I’ve always been a fan of girls with swords, particularly Tamora Pierce’s Alanna the Lioness. A girl forced to play by the rule of an all-male order of knights, Alanna finds herself rewriting what it means to serve her kingdom by her blade and through her femininity. This continues into later entries in Pierce’s series, revealing a knight who is at once a warrior, a woman, and a mother. It’s a deeply feminist way to look at the nature of power in a marginalized hand while also examining what a knight can and should be in a world where the god’s chose their warriors at whim.
That’s…not what New Saga is about. New Saga is definitely about a guy named Kyle who has a magic sword, though no purple-eyed cat included. (That’s for the Tamora Pierce fans in our audience!)
Question is, will I find myself liking this sword-wielding young man, or will I wish I just had a Tamora Pierce book in front of me instead? (Jokes on you, I always want a Tamora Pierce book in hand!)
This premiere kicks off in the midst of a climatic battle between the demonic forces of evil and the righteous forces of the humanoid heroes. Flames scorch the earth. Blades collide with the sharp sound of metal on metal. In the midst of it, a young man named Kyle advances to the final chamber, blade set on the Demon King. It’s not a fun battle either. as Kyle’s comrades fall one by one to the dark forces. Clad in a paladin’s armor, he stands alone as the final wall between humanity and being overrun by demons. The threat is no longer knocking at the proverbial door: it’s fully invaded Kyle’s home and it’s going to take all he has to defeat the evil before him.
But time itself has one more trick up their sleeve, it seems, for sole survivor Kyle: the clock turns back to four years ago, giving him the chance to change fate itself and hopefully, butterfly effect his way to a much, much happier end.
It’s interesting watching New Saga after Clevatess, a premiere I actually quite liked, and I can’t help but compare them. It’s not necessarily fair, but when you’re working with two fantasy series that align in a lot of ways–demonic wars, utter destruction, sole survivor heroes–it’s hard not to draw parallels.
Where Clevatess is interesting, but suffers from tonal imbalances, New Saga is very, very routine while having a very established tone (negative) that relies on slapstick antics to undercut scenes where serious emotionality could actually move the story forward.
It’s kind of tragic, too, because the opening is actually really effective: you feel Kyle’s pain, and while you may not know him as a character, it’s emotional enough that I locked in to see the “twist” of a new-game plus play out. That said, I’m not locked in enough to want to even give this an entire season watch, unlike Clevatess, though I’m here to at least see it through to episode 3.
Still, I don’t think this is a bad premiere, just underwhelming past its initial ten minutes. While it fleshes out the “party kill” trope by showing that it’s each party member’s choice to die versus a simple sacrifice for the protagonist, I felt deeply underwhelmed by what followed. I know that’s partially because we’re in the setup stages of Kyle getting used to being four years in the past with all of his previous knowledge, but still…I kind of expected to feel a bit more.
That said, this is just the foundation, and now that we’ve established the rules of this world and the larger big bad’s place in the plot, I expect this show to develop into much, much more.
Fantasy anime are a dime-a-dozen these days: you don’t have to look forward in a season to find enough series that can satisfy even the most nebulous desire. This isn’t a ding, but rather, the current state of anime: fantasy, especially isekai fantasy, are having their time in the limelight, and for better or worse, it doesn’t seem like this is going to change until the source materials do. When that’ll be, I don’t know: anime is both hobby and industry, and the latter’s bottom line will almost always win out.
Ultimately, while New Saga is definitely a cut above the most rote “male protagonists is centered in a vaguely European fantasy world plot,” I found it lacking. This premiere is mostly world-building and by proxy, a lot of info-dumping. My hope is that this will change because I found those first ten minutes really compelling and want to see Kyle’s second chance go much better. Hopefully by episode three I’ll want to stick around.
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