Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. It’s always interesting to see the work of authors. While an author will always have that one manga or novel you associate with them, some authors have other works that are less known to the public. Whether these works are better or worse varies from author to author. Take Rui Tsukiyo who wrote Redo of Healer only to turn around and write The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat. One of my favorite isekai stories. Or how about the legendary duo of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata who made great hits like Death Note and Bakuman only to give us Platinum End. Let’s not forget Tatsuki Fujimoto, who gave us the sadistic manga, Fire Punch, and then went on to write the sadistic Chainsaw Man. Finally, there’s Fujino Ōmori who made a name for himself writing Danmachi and then went on to write today’s anime, Wistoria: Wand and Sword. Released near the end of 2020, Wistoria was Fujino’s second ever work. It came out in the pages of Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine. Best known for Arslan Senki, I’m Standing on a Million Lives, and Attack on Titan. Despite being released in the pandemic, the series would go on to build a following in 2021 and, five years later, would get an anime produced by Actas and Bandai Namco Pictures (Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun and Gintama). Being a fan of Danmachi I was curious to check it out and I’m here to give my thoughts on it. Let’s enter a world of wands and swords. This is Wistoria: Wand and Sword.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “Fire and Fear” by PENGUIN RESEARCH. Overall, it’s alright. The lyrics are very good and match up well with the MC. I know a lot of people liked this song, but it never really hit that second gear for me personally.
The ending is “Frozen” by True. Love the acoustic guitar and how the lyrics match up with the MC’s main love interest. I also keep getting some major FMA vibes from this song for some reason. I don’t know, does anybody else hear it?
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts by introducing us to a world of magic. In this world, magic reigns supreme and mages study and train hard for the goal of becoming a Magia Vander, the title given to the strongest mages in the world. At the prestigious Regarden Magicial Academy (Go Goats!) we meet our main character Will voiced by Kōhei Amasaki who dreams of becoming a Magia Vander. The only problem is he can’t use magic and gets bullied because of it. However, he’s still determined to reach the top because of a promise he made to his childhood friend, Elfaria, who is also a Magia Vander. Now because he can’t use magic he falls behind in his grades but makes up for it by defeating monsters in the dungeon for credits (he can’t swing a wand but he knows how to swing a sword). One night, his bullies head into the dungeon to defeat a monster before Will but have no idea what they signed up for. A strong monster appears sending one of them flying (yeah he’s dead), I don’t know what happened to the other, and the main bully, Sion voiced by Masaaki Mizunaka, desperately casts a fire spell that has no effect on the monster (rip his head off). Will arrives just in time where at first he actually considers letting the monster kill Sion (a realistic thought. Sion’s been a prick to him this whole time and even if Will were to save him he won’t show gratitude or change his way of thinking. He’ll continue to look down on Will), but steps in to save him (could you at least let the monster break a few bones or rip an arm off). We see Will fight where we learn he’s incredibly strong, as tough as a dwarf, and has perfect memory. Once he sees a move he’ll know how to dodge it next time. He easily defeats the monster making Sion look like a bitch (scene here: https://youtu.be/u35HLkvmoj8?si=6uncyr8EgXDbUlSl).
In episode 2 we see that Sion’s minions somehow survived and believe he’s the one who took out the monster from last episode. Sion is taking the credit but knows the truth (and it pisses him off). One of the teachers named Edward who is directly opposed to Will being in the school goes to the headmistress and demands that he be expelled despite learning about his skills last episode. She says no and lets him give Will a supplemental lesson to test his skills for himself. Edward’s test is for Will to hit him once (every student’s dream), a task easier said than done. As the test begins we discover that Edward also tried to become a Magia Vander and came pretty close. He failed at the last step so his disdain towards Will starts to make sense here. He was born with talent yet still failed, so what hope does Will a person who can’t use magic have at becoming a Magia Vander (MC passive skills)? Once Will is finally able to have a sword, he’s able to break through Edward’s shield and survive his barrage of attacks to finally land a hit (scene here: https://youtu.be/TE6IiPtwaMg?si=nDLj5CWJAZ2QFkjL, what say you now?).
Nothing much happens in episode 3. While Will is in the dungeon hunting frost monsters, he saves an underclassman named Iris (scene here: https://youtu.be/Ol1viIaLH9U?si=i97ObSt_oaaNYoLF). At first, she seems harmless, but in truth, she’s actually a watcher for the Magia Vander sent to spy on the students and see who’s worthy. She reports to the Magia Vanders how impressed she was with Will but they either reject him or don’t care.
Episode 4 sees Will in a tight spot. He’s still a couple of credits short from moving on to the upper institute. His only hope lies in getting scouted at the magic festival and entering their tournament which he doesn’t want to. While working at a tavern, students from the academy enter (I guess there’s no legal drinking age) and insults the dwarfs. Will takes exception to this and demands that their leader, Julius, another high-ranking student, apologize for his remarks. Will makes quick work of his lackies humiliating Julius who decides to freeze up the whole tavern with Will and everyone inside (scene here: https://youtu.be/XglCBfjQNrw?si=LbLK2QteLvEs-0N6). But he stops realizing that won’t be enough to quell his anger and instead demands that Will enter the festival’s tournament so that he can humiliate him in front of everyone.
Episodes 5-8
The festival begins in episode 5 as Will keeps his promise and enters the tournament. Now because he lacks the credits needed to participate in the event, he had to form a team with his classmate Colette voiced by Satomi Amano who has a crush on him (a girl in the sky and a girl on the ground. He needs a girl in the sea to complete the set) and Sion who is still salty over the fact that Will saved him, is stronger than him, and is looking pass him to focus on Julius (my advice, get good). So, the tournament they’re participating in is called Crown Attack. The students in a team of three must go through a series of obstacles to reach the arena and seize the crown. Will’s team makes it through all the obstacles with ease with Will being the highlight. Yet despite their hit and run strategy, Julius somehow managed to make it to the final leg of the race before them (scene here: https://youtu.be/BHkeq1oluI0?si=okaQXD7aGrvjMgpq). Before Will can take on Julius he first has to contend with Sion who has reached his boiling point and attacks Will demanding a fight (you are one petty person).
Episode 6 gives us the fight between Will and Sion where we find out Sion is a big tsundere. When they were kids, Sion actually tried to befriend Will by making him his underling but Will was too focused on looking ahead toward his goal (so all this time you wanted Will’s attention and kept picking on him to get it? You might just be a psychopath, Sion). Will admits that he’s always wanted to get some measure of revenge on Sion (then do it. Now is the time. Humiliate him in front of everyone. Then do the same thing to Julius) and when he finally sees how serious Sion is and how much he acknowledges him, Will finally stops running and decides to fight. He slices through Sion’s guardian fire bird (classic) and goes in for the kill but gets stopped by Colette (damn it, woman! You blue-balled me). It turns out the Julius they were facing was just a fake (scenes here: https://youtu.be/f_7MnCR19Wc?si=CYOKrD4zogLg76Ln and https://youtu.be/JoNXvXa016c?si=Wsn-I6I4OtLKQGmF&t=89). The real Julius has made it back to the arena and is about to take the crown. Colette tells Will to go on ahead while she takes care of Sion. As Julius is about to claim victory, Will arrives and openly challenges hm in front of everyone.
Will finally gets his revenge in episode 7 as he takes on Julius and his stooges. Will not only beats them but he pretty much destroys Julius (he embarrassed that boy in front of the student body. Made him look like a damn fool. His school life is over. If I was him I’d be embarrassed to show my face in public. Scene here: https://youtu.be/V0G11uX3RhU?si=lgaRD5CuDvLUVDps). Of course while everyone was enjoying this spectacle, another team swooped in and claimed the crown for themselves (where were you on that Sion and Colette?).
Episode 8 starts with the dwarves hosting a party in honor of Will for defending their honor. After this, students are getting ready for the All-Student Praxis, a week-long event of dungeon crawling (sounds right up Will’s alley). Everyone is asking Will to join their party after seeing what he’s capable of doing (and now every jackass in the school is hoping to use that strength to slide by). Colette goes on a date with Will the next day but Rosti, Will’s roommate joins them because he loves him (scene here: https://youtu.be/ExU9zTxzmns?si=SPtn8XUTqYmCFvKK). At first, I thought he was a girl in disguise, but nope, he’s a guy. Will even confirms this. It’s jumping ahead but it is hinted that Rosti is actually an ice clone created by Elfaria to keep an eye on Will and stop girls from getting too close to him (sounds crazy but she really is obsessed with Will. Like she loves him more than anything in the world). Will gets approached by Lihanna the top student of his gradewho wants to form a party with him for the Praxis. Not only did she reach out to him but she also reached out to Sion, Julius, and Wignall (the mage who stole the crown last episode). Despite their differences and possible disdain for each other, they all agree to team up as they know this is their best chance to achieve their goals. Colette also joins the team, and the day of the praxis arrives to end the episode.
Episodes 9-12
The praxis begins in episode 9. Not much happens in the first half of the episode. Will’s team gets far ahead of the other teams as they’re big game hunting and Will doesn’t get a chance to show off (scene here: https://youtu.be/vNIUj55frK0?si=EByXCOuP-Vj3i4CK). Things start to pick up in the second half as the group gets attacked by an unknown monster and falls deeper into the dungeon where they get separated. Colette and Lihanna are stuck somewhere, Sion and Julius are surrounded by monsters (hope they get eaten), and Will has to protect an injured Wignall who still acts like a pompous elf despite being injured. Will manages to show off his skills here and guide Wignall through the floor and even saves him from the monsters with ease. We also get to learn a little bit about Wignall. Apparently, he’s considered a failure among the elves (so he’s like Will except… unlikable).
So in episode 10, Wignall goes on to explain that he’s known as a laggard, a failure. All of his kin have gone on to ascend the tower except for him (and yet you have the nerve to look down on Will). The reason for this is because of his illusion magic. He can only give his illusions immaterial forms as opposed to giving them physical forms (he’s all show and no substance so to speak). We see that it’s not just him who gets looked down on, Colette also feels the same. Even though they’re considered talented mages by their peers the Magia Vanders don’t see it hence why they haven’t been allowed access into the tower as of yet (you’re simply a big fish in a pond. You don’t know how vast and great the ocean is). Will continues to fight protecting Wignall (he finally gets a chance to show off) and defeating monsters which catches the attention of the dungeon who decides to stop playing around and sends a Balkar (you know how in JRPG games you come across monster who are way too strong for your current team but you fight them anyway in the hopes of getting better rewards and exp? This is the anime’s version of that). Physical attacks do nothing against these things (well they are made of fire) and they’re resistant to magic attacks (let’s see how they handle water). The only thing that they’re weak against is elf magic (and seeing as how we have an elf who just explained their magic sucks, I say we’re screwed). Thanks to encouragement from Will, Wignall is able to save them both and they become friends. They find Sion and Julius who just got done defeating a whole pack of monsters and then save the gurls (I mean girls) from two dark mages who were responsible for this whole mess (I do like how one of them is a headless mage with a head fetish). The dark mages escape but summon the monster that originally attacked the group.
Episode 11 gives us the big fight between our mages (Will included) and the monster. Will takes the point of leadership in this fight as he’s earned the trust of everyone (begrudgingly for some). The fight as a whole is decent but despite their best efforts they’re still not strong enough to beat it until Rosti secretly tosses Will some magic crystal. Combining that with his sword, Will creates a magic sword (did nobody seriously think of combining magic with weapons in this world? That’s like the first thing everyone does). With this magic, Will manages to defeat the monster and save everyone (scene here: https://youtu.be/u35HLkvmoj8?si=y6B10SQ5JUN2uT1J, he is going to get so many points and ass for that).
In the final episode everyone is still in shock at what they just witnessed. But it doesn’t last long as more monsters show up and nobody has the strength to fight anymore (hp is low, mp has been depleted, and we have no potions. This is every JRPG gamer’s worst nightmare aka the first dungeon). Just when Julius is about to die (I see this as a win), the group gets saved by Aaron Masterias Oldking the leader of the Magia Vander and strongest mage in the world. He praises the group for their battle and one of his followers named Finn takes an interest in Will (scene here: https://youtu.be/wH9dCSc5O6E?si=jdZUmOpHaWPAOOvN). The students leave the dungeon where thanks to the efforts of the professors none of them died. However, eleven professors died (undervalued and underappreciated when alive, but valued and appreciated when dead. The morals of this world are twisted indeed). After this not much happens. We do learn a little more about Finn who comes from a tribe of dungeon explorers who help guide people through the dungeon and can’t use magic either. He seems to have some connection to Will and plans to keep meddling in his affairs from now on.
Final Thoughts
Wistoria: Wand and Sword is an okay anime. It’s like Mashle if it focused less on comedy and more on the adventure aspect of a magical world. Each character plays their part well. Will the underdog in a world that writes him off, Sion a hothead who acknowledges Will but still won’t accept him, Colette that one friend who secretly likes him, and the others who either reject Will or come to acknowledge and befriend him. Not the best when it comes to depth but a good colorful bunch (literally) who each have their own goals and struggles that they deal with.
The animation is alright. Not too special. Although I did like the character designs. The magic in this anime is pretty basic. Nothing all that mind blowing or original. The fights could use some work. The only fight I really enjoyed was the one between Will and Julius. It was satisfying and shot well. The music left no impact on me. I actually feel like they ripped it from other fantasy animes.
Final Score
My final score for Wistoria is a 5.5/10. I prefer DanMachi over this, but I think this anime has potential to grow a fanbase just like DanMachi did. A second season has already been announced so we’ll see if this anime can deliver. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.