Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Anime has been known to go through its fair share of trends over the years. One trend they’re having right now is middle-aged protagonists. Over the years, Japan have been adapting animes where the protagonist is either in their late 20s or older. You could argue that this was their way of reaching the older audience who thought they were outgrowing anime, tired of seeing the teenager character in their stories or fighting the stereotype of: anime is for kids. Whatever, the reason, these animes have surprisingly found an audience and the one that got my attention is, From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman. Based off the novel written by Shigeru Sagazaki in 2020, the series shows us how a man who thinks he’s unworthy can shine in the world and the impact he has on others. The series would go on to gain recognition in 2023 thanks to the manga adaptation and became a must-read title. In 2025, Passione teamed up with Hayabusha Film to turn it into anime where it won audience’s over with its grounded storytelling and confident characters. It’s not about a man going on a power trip, it’s about seeking the life he was always meant to lead but too afraid to do so. You’re never too old to learn the ways of the sword. This is From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman.
Opening and Ending Theme
This anime’s opening is “Heroes” by Takanori Nishikawa. One of my favorite openings from 2025. The quiet build up is great, the singer’s voice is steady and powerful, and I love the different interpretations you get from the song. One is from the student’s perspective of how grateful they are to their teacher. The other is from the teacher finally taking off and becoming what he was always meant to be.
The ending is “Alright!!!” by FLOW. It’s a good ending, it’s FLOW, so you know it’s going to be good rock song about life and overcoming the hurdles you encounter. I like the mood this song makes. It feels like I’m staring into the sky on a warm spring night.
Episodes 1-4
The anime opens up in a backwater town where our main character Beryl voiced by the legendary Hiroaki Hirata (Sanji from One Piece. After finding the All Blue he took up the sword to mess with Zoro) an old man who runs his own sword dojo which he inherited from his dad who always pesters him for grandkids (story of a millennial’s life). To Beryl’s credit he is a good teacher and has excellent sword skills (and as many have pointed out he looks like Paul from Mushoku Tensei. Looks like Rudy isn’t the only who can get reincarnated). While he always dreamed of one day being a mastered swordsman, he’s quite content with his life right now. While having lunch he receives a visit from one of his former students, Allucia (Corbin: Woah, your student is hot!). Allucia voiced by Nao Tōyama is a commander of the royal knights now and has come to ask him to be a special instructor for the order. Not having a choice in the matter, he agrees to go to the capital to try out for the position much to Allucia’s joy as she secretly has a crush on him (she’s a panther). The next day he meets the knights with some of them a little concerned and comes across another one of his students named Curuni voiced by Yuuki Hirose who is also a knight. He gets accepted as a special instructor for the order and will be training them 3-4 times a month. He returns to his village only to find out his dad replaced him as the dojo’s instructor and tells him to move to the capital to focus on his job (translation: get out of my house and make me some grandkids). He returns to the capital looking for a place to stay. Allucia helps him out where they run into one of Beryl’s students, Surena voiced by Hitomi Ueda (Gold Ship from Umamusume: Pretty Derby), one of his older students (Baron: Definitely my favorite of the bunch so far. Oh man, she could grind my face on those abs). Unlike Allucia, Surena works as an adventurer and seems to have a rivalry with Allucia as well (scene here: https://youtu.be/oQSyTbuh_GY?si=h_H0V8ljDLw4gjah). With her help, Beryl is able to find a nice place to stay and next day at training, Henblitz, the vice commander of the order challenges him to a duel to test his skills. They have their duel where Henblitz is stronger and faster, but his attacks are linear. They’re easy to read, thus Beryl has no problem countering them. Even Henblitz’s spin attack gets countered by Beryl and he concedes defeat gaining a new found respect for him and everything (scene here: https://youtu.be/_NNQZfqOCLw?si=4irD66dOYpJi1Za9).
For about two-thirds of episode 2 we focus on Allucia and her history with Beryl. She joined Beryl’s school when she was just a child. Her parents wanted her to learn how to defend himself and sought out Beryl’s teaching (you choose wisely). When she started training there, she struggled as we all do when learning something new but Beryl’s teaching was above the rest. Over time she grew stronger and came to a definitive conclusion. Beryl’s skills are above the rest. His reaction, swordsmanship, and agility were great for his age (Allucia even says he’s even stronger now than when she left). This was only confirmed when she and the other students sparred with another dojo and won with ease (it’s also where Beryl got what I like to call a Miyagi moment). When she finally graduated (much to her dismay) she headed to the capital to become a knight where she easily passed the entrance exam. She came to see that nobody in the capital could match his skills and wanted more for him. So she rose through the ranks and made it her mission to get Beryl out of the village and into the world where everyone could see just how great he is. In the last third of the episode, Curuni takes Beryl on a tour of the capital where they run into one of his students, Ficelle (I don’t want to sound sexist, but it seems like his female students were more successful than his male students). Unlike Allucia and Curuni who became knights, Ficelle joined the magic corps, combining her swordsmanship with magic to become a battle mage. The next day he meets Lucy the head of the magic corps who challenges him to a duel (scene here: https://youtu.be/sbEv3vChokk?si=LgnpnEhvKu21WVUh).
In the opening moments of episode 3, Beryl and Lucy have their duel. While not bad it is by the books. Beryl tries to get close to Lucy, she uses her magic to keep him at bay. Even when he closes in on her she uses her magic to force him back. Their fight ends in a draw with Lucy impressed with his skills and wanting to duel him again (scene here: https://youtu.be/Kd3sPhkPBcs?si=-daaJkZBLxw0QXG1). After this, Beryl gets asked by Surena to help train some of the new adventurers at the request of the guild (he can’t stop winning). Lucy put in a good word for him with the guildmaster who is totally on board with Beryl helping out but the guild’s secretary isn’t convinced and demands that he face Surena to show them his skills. Having no choice in the matter, Beryl agrees to face Surena who is excited to show off her skills. Before the fight we see her past where she and her parents were traveling traders (did your mom have a wolf tail and ears?). Tragedy struck when their wagon was attacked by a monster who killed everyone except for Surena. She was found by Beryl who took her in and nursed her back to health. He also trained her in swordsmanship. When they found a good family to take her in she left much to her sadness as she wanted to stay forever (you just wanted to stay next to Beryl). Once she was old enough, she became an adventurer and quickly rose through the rankings. Returning to the present, they have their duel where Surena tries to overwhelm Beryl with her speed and stamina (Baron: Sorry, I wasn’t listening, I was distracted by her amazing abs. (Nitsuj): Did we tap into a new fetish for you? (Baron): Maybe). However, Beryl is able to block all of her attacks and finds her one opening to get the win (scene here: https://youtu.be/zE1Zf9UrMG4?si=96qy9GzNDV28VPHy). The next day he goes to a dungeon with Surena while supervising some new adventurers. They do good and complete the dungeon without any issues but as soon as they leave they get attacked by a rare monster (hello exp).
At the start of episode 4, Surena misreads the signal and goes to help the injured adventurer while Beryl acts as a distraction (the roles were supposed to be reversed). Beryl for the most part does a good job holding his own against the monster and keeping it distracted long enough for Surena to come in and deliver the final blow. They return safely where Surena gives the glory to Beryl (he can’t stop winning even though he wants to). The next day Curuni takes Beryl to get his sword repaired. The blacksmith Balder just happens to be a former student of Beryl (okay, I retract my previous statement from episode 2). Out of all of his students, Balder is the only one older than Beryl. He joined not to become an adventurer or knight, but to get a better understanding of swords and what swordsmen look for in them. Surena shows up with a body part of the monster they defeated and asking Balder to craft it into a sword for Beryl. He accepts saying it’ll take him a week (don’t go too crazy on that monster part). While Beryl waits for his new sword, he helps train Curuni who has changed up her swordstyle from a short sword to a two-handed sword (didn’t expect someone so small to have a lot of power behind her hips). The episode wraps up with a pick pocketer trying to steal from Beryl only to fail and lose their necklace in the process.
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 sees Beryl run into the pick pocketer from last night named Mewi a girl who can use magic naturally meaning if she were to enroll in the magic institute she’d be set for life. However, she’s being tricked by a criminal organization and a guy named Twilight who promised to bring her sister back from the dead if she gives 5 mil (and there are a lot of people who would be stupid enough to take that deal). Beryl knows she’s obviously being tricked but doesn’t outright say it as he knows she won’t listen. Lucy on the other hand lacks his subtlety and tells Mewi outright there’s no such thing as resurrection magic (the difference between a realistic mom and idealistic dad). Mewi takes Beryl and Lucy to meet Twilight where Lucy takes him down and exposes his parlor tricks while Beryl takes down his thugs. Mewi learns the truth and gets taken in by Lucy who enrolls her in the magic institute. As Twilight and his men are being escorted to prison his head explodes as he had magic device implanted in his head. We see that the one really pulling the strings is some bishop who wants to perform the same miracle as Jesus (Baron: Japan really loves painting the catholic church as corrupted individuals. (Nitsuj): Well given their history with the Catholic church I can understand why).
In episode 6 Beryl finally gets his new sword and just in time. He finds out about Twilight’s head exploding (that’s a new one) and with the help of Lucy we find out that the bishop from last episode is named Reveos. He was using Twilight to collect bodies to conduct research on how to raise the dead. Lucy has teamed up with the knights to bring him in for questioning and take him down, but don’t want to risk causing an international incident with the church in the process, so they’ve asked Beryl to help arrest him if he tries to escape. Sure enough, Reveos tries to escape in the dead of night and Beryl steps in to stop him. With the help of Curuni and Ficelle (I almost forgot she was in this anime) he’s able to fight off the holy knights and enter the church where he faces a more powerful knight. The fight incorporates CGI and tries to look cool but fails big time. They cut out a lot from the manga here and just make the knight come across as of a generic bad knight when in truth he also fought in hope of having a loved one brought back to life. The fight isn’t any better. Like I said they cut out a lot here and we instead get something lame and disappointing (it’s almost as if the studio was intentionally being lazy and skipped over the cool stuff because they knew they couldn’t animate it). Anyway, Beryl kills the knight (scene here: https://youtu.be/Eo-sAOq8VfQ?si=4cy57o3Oo7VYuOXi) and also kills all the corpses that were brought back to “life” (Baron: If by life you mean emotionless zombie then yes he succeeded). Including Mewi’s sister. Reveos gets captured by Curuni and Ficelle and the case is officially closed. Beryl gets rewarded with a house for his service which comes with its very own Mewi who be living with him despite still not trusting him.
Nothing much happens in episode 7 but it is wholesome. It focuses on Beryl and Mewi getting closer together.
In episode 8 Beryl gets asked to act as security for some VIPs visiting from a neighboring country. Since these are VIPs his normal clothes won’t work so Allucia takes him shopping (she finally got that date she’s always wanted. Sneaky little panther). They find a good suit for him and then have lunch together with Henblitz and Curuni spying on them from the shadows. Henblitz can see the writing on the wall and confronts Allucia about her feelings for Beryl. She says that she just wants him to be happy, but Henblitz knows there’s something more she wants (obviously, you could see it from space). The next day, Allucia challenges Beryl to a duel saying that if she wins she’ll tell him what she desires the most (the panther is on the hunt). They have their duel where Allucia goes all out. She tries to overwhelm Beryl with her speed catching him off guard and forcing him to go on the attack. However, Allucia still maintains the advantage and pushes back. It’s only by grabbing her cape and pulling her down does Beryl get the win (scene here: https://youtu.be/mOJxPY6jPh8?si=83RgCSFKSJ1eZZx7, and I like this. Allucia showed that she was the better fighter just like all of his students so far. Overall, they’re better fighters, but Beryl wins by outthinking them. He finds that one hole in their defense that nobody else does and exploits it to get the win). So Allucia handles her defeat with grace, but Henblitz and Curuni still wonder if she truly is in love with Beryl.
Episodes 9-12
Nothing much happens in episode 9. In order to get some extra money to buy Mewi a school backpack (which we all know how expensive that can be) Beryl teams up with Surena to capture a run away horse that was a gift for royalty. Mewi also took on a quest to earn some extra money to buy Beryl a new mug. At the end of the episode Beryl meets Rose another one of his students.
So we meet Beryl student number 89, Rose (is this guy secretly James Bond?). Just like the others she trained at his dojo for a year and a half and is now the vice commander of the Holy Order. She’s sweet and has a motherly aura that draws people to her and Allucia obviously doesn’t like how affectionate she is with Beryl (she’s like Allucia excepts she lacks subtlety). We also get to meet the princess, Salacia. She and the prince of the neighboring country seem to have a thing for each other and get attacked when they return to the palace. Luckily, Beryl and the others defeated the assassins giving us some good swordfight choreography (with a dab of CGI. Scene here: https://youtu.be/1MUrcymiRxo?si=YadfyZXRJ-Fj3MmM). Even though they defeat and capture the assassins, they kill themselves to avoid talking (fucking introverts).
In the final two episodes Beryl and the others get the young royals to safety (I’m sure this assassination attempt won’t traumatize them in the least). Despite someone obviously wanting them dead, they decide to go out again the next day. Sure enough they get attacked. While the others protect the royals, Beryl journeys off to face the ring leader of this assassination, Rose (not surprising one of his students would go evil. You can’t always bat a thousand). So Rose confesses that she’s trying to kill the young prince Glenn by order of the pope to stop the power struggle that’s consuming her country and causing it to decline (in the end she’s fighting for the right reasons but going about it the wrong way). The two fight (Anakin vs Obi-Wan this is not) where Rose reveals that the orphans she cares for are being held hostage by the pope, so she has to do this or else. The fight is short with Beryl finding the right moment to strike and get the win (as always) but refusing to kill Rose because he still wants to help her. With the assassins defeated, and Rose’s commander choosing to protect her because they’re related, the incident gets wrapped up nicely. As a reward, Allucia and Beryl get invited to have dinner with the king, Salacia, and other important figures. It gets revealed that Salacia will marry Glenn in the near future, but he’s worried for her safety and wants to appoint a royal guard. He asks Beryl if he wants the job but Allucia steps in and says how valuable Beryl is to the order so the king has to pass on Beryl (of course you can always sign your daughter up for private lessons. He is a swordmaster after all. Scene here: https://youtu.be/IxPC1Kb-9kc?si=7ZaPcaUWhJw-_DrO).
Final Thoughts
And that was From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman. Maybe it’s because I’m getting up there in age but I’m starting to develop a soft spot for animes that feature middle-age men as the protagonist. The anime has a good start, a boring middle, and a decent ending. I’ve heard the anime take out a lot of stuff from the manga which made some scenes better and after reading a few chapters I have to agree the anime screwed up royally in that department. However, the one thing the anime did right was the characters and the swordfights. I do like how humble and down to Earth Beryl is. Despite the great success of all his students he doesn’t get a big head or ego. He knows that in the end their achievements are from their hard work and not his. While he may have played a part in making them great it was them who did all the work. They just took what he taught them and applied it. I also like how he’s not the strongest, but the smartest. He doesn’t win his fights by being stronger than his opponents, he wins by being smarter than them in the heat of battle. He uses his environment to his advantage and reads the movements of his opponents waiting for the right time to strike. It’s what makes him such a great swordsman. The other characters are also fine too. I like how each one has a different sword style and great level of appreciation for Beryl. Even those who start off not liking him warm up to him and acknowledge his skills. While Allucia gets the most screentime, my favorite is Surena. Her missions gave Beryl a chance to shine and despite her sword style and personality, she displays maturity and intelligence you normally wouldn’t expect from characters like her.
The weak points of this anime for me are the villains. How many times have we seen the religious figures being evil trope? While I don’t think it’s a bad trope as there are people out there who try to take advantage of other people’s religious beliefs, when it’s being done in like almost every fantasy and it’s the same people with nothing new added to it I check out. The animation is pretty solid, I especially like the character designs and how each one tells you a story of the character and fits their personality and fighting style. The music is decent. Nothing really memorable about it but it fits the setting of the anime. The world isn’t what I would call my all-time favorite fantasy world, but it looks nice and I wish we got more time to explore it. The CGI used in the swordfights was surprisingly good. While it looks obvious the characters move well and it isn’t distracting from the scene.
Final Score
My final score is a 6/10. I found the anime enjoyable, but wished they would explore the world more and had better villains. Definitely give this anime a watch if you’re looking for something simple. I actually wouldn’t mind a second season of this anime and think it’s going to happen down the line. If something like Rent A Girlfriend got 4 seasons, then this can have a second season. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
