Whisked to another world, the new Patriarch of the Wolf Clan will protect his harem while changing the world.
What They Say:
Two years ago, high school student Yuuto Suou was summoned to the archaic land of Yggdrasil. With his solar-powered smartphone and a modern knowledge of tactics and inventions, he now reigns over the Wolf Clan as its patriarch. If Yuuto is ever to return home, he’ll have to survive the looming threat of assassination, a voluptuous horde of beautiful shieldmaidens vying for his affections, and intense wartime conflicts where thousands of lives rest in the palm of his hand!
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language track in stereo while the English language dub gets the 5.1 bump, both of which used the Dolby TrueHD lossless codec. The series is one that’s largely dialogue-based with some nice incidental elements here and there with minor action and other material occupying a lot of that. The score for the series helps to give the show a little more oomph when it comes to the audio side of it but it’s mostly a dialogue-driven series with everyone talking to each other, so it’s mostly center channel based. The bigger moments with some of the actions and things they get into ratchets it up just a touch but it’s one of those more relaxed series overall. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we didn’t have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in 2018, the transfer for this TV series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. The twelve episodes are spread across two discs with nine on the first and three on the second. Animated by EMT Squared, the show has a look about it that has some detail to its design and there are some really nice areas where it stands out. But other times it feels like it’s a bit of a budget show and skimps here and there, which keeps it from really feeling fully cohesive. There are some busy sequences and plenty of silliness that keep it active, but it can get away with a lot of decent-looking backgrounds because it’s not a high-detail series by designs. The encoding captures the feel of this just right as it’s one that feels more film-like than a lot of anime tends to. I really like the visual design for this series and the encoding brings it to life wonderfully.
Packaging:
The packaging design for this release comes in a slightly thicker than standard Blu-ray case to hold the two discs against the wall. It also comes with an o-card that replicates the case artwork but with more color and pop to it because of the cardstock. The design for this release does itself no favors with an absolutely awful font for the log that just does not work, in addition to being an awkward and overly long one. With it set against the brown of the book design for the cover as well, it just doubles down on looking bad. Which is unfortunate because the key visual piece, which is standard fare material in layout, actually showcases some good character designs and is appealing. The back cover uses similar background elements across it using browns and scroll-like elements with a good summary of the premise kept short, a breakdown of the extras, and a range of sizes of shots from the show to highlight the designs. Some cute illustration material is included as well with the leads that help to make it a little more appealing too. The rest is filled out with the usual red stripe of digital copy as well as the technical grid that covers both formats cleanly and accurately. No show-related inserts are included but we do get a reversible cover where the back is the same but the front uses some of the Japanese character artwork, albeit against the same awful brown background..
Menu:
The menu design brings in most of the elements from the packaging pretty nicely, though it’s a bit brighter and clearer here than in print form. Both discs feature some nice character combinations that shows off some good detail and I like the use of the soft purples to attempt to tie it all together as it lets the burst of color from the character designs stand out all the more. The navigation box is kept to the lower-left area with standard selections that you’d expect from a slim release like this. Submenus load quickly and are easy to get around in both as the main menu and as the pop-up menu during playback.
Extras:
The extras included with this release are the clean versions of the opening and closing sequences, which are always welcome, but also the Japanese promo material and a nice little gallery of eyecatch images.
Based on the light novel series Hyakuren no Haō to Seiyaku no Varukyuria, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar is a twelve-episode series that aired during the summer 2018 season. The original novels from Seiichi Takayama are doing pretty well as there are twenty of them out there as of this writing and it’s ongoing since 2013. The manga adaptation got underway in 2015 and it’s still going on as well with five volumes so far. The anime adaptation, unfortunately, didn’t go over well with audiences and I can’t make comparisons to the source material personally. But the gist of it is that it’s a pretty standard fare harem piece that leans into the standard isekai material as well. For me, the bonus was that it didn’t start with the lead dying and having to go through all the setup.
Here, we’re introduced to junior high student Yuuto who has ended up in Yggdrasil some time ago after doing a no-no in front of a divine mirror. Yuuto’s followed the traditional path of the isekai genre by doing well in this new land where over time he became a warlord in just two years. With plenty of gaming and strategy knowledge to employ, he was able to use a few other pluses in his favor in order to become the patriarch of the Wolf Clan. Most notably, he bonded well with the clan Einherjar, aka, magical-based warrior maidens, with Felicia always being by his side. Hell, the series opens on a nice moonlit night at the lake where she’s bathing and showing off her design while he opines about how he ended up in this position. It sets the establishing elements quickly and easily.
Over time, Yuuto ends up with something like seven girls in his harem to varying degrees and in how they show their affection. Nothing about this is beyond the norm and it is almost terrifyling strong in how it adheres to the cliches. At the same time, while this may be a series that doesn’t do much for long-time isekai or harem fans, every season brings in a lot of new viewers that have never seen things before. And this series does it all pretty competently so I can see how it’ll hold a special place for people that experience it like that. Watching as Yuuto confidently navigates the harem is also a nice plus to all of this because so many old harem shows, and a lot of new ones, do stick with the whole awkward and shy type of lead that just can’t handle the situation. Here, Yuuto is strongly aligned with Felicia more than anyone else but he engages well with all the others, and they with him.
Naturally, there are enemies to deal with in the show as well as there’s a number of clans at war and he’s got to do his best to protect his clan as he’s risen to the leadership position. Some of this is done through traditional things such as using his knowledge to expand what his clan can do, which opens up the usual opportunities and income for him to expand more. Some of it is glossed over, some of it is given a bit more attention. But it’s all very familiar at this point. It certainly explains why the Wolf Clan loves him since he’s bringing things like glass, Kotetsu’s, and more into their lives. It doesn’t stop some of the elders from being frustrated with how he deals with other clans, but at the same time, Yuuto isn’t afraid of war either. It’s not like we don’t get some light action sequences and large group battles playing out around us, mostly off-screen. But it works overall to deal with several things that allows the story to move forward and for it to focus more on it being a harem isekai than anything else.
In Summary:
Realistically, there’s not much here we haven’t seen before. The only minor thing that kind of made me perk up a bit were the occasional scenes from Earth where Yuuto’s friend Mitsuki was trying to figure out what happened and how to help Yuuto. But even that just reminded me of Fushigi Yuugi to some degree. This series is the kind of project that’s a baseline from which so many other shows use as a starting point and go from there. But, I will say, you do need the “primer” shows still to be out there because there are new audiences and these are easy and largely inoffensive ways to introduce them to it. What we get in this show is a clunky name, a lead character for the viewer to imagine himself as, a number of cute girls to be titillated by, and some light story elements with a Great War between clans that has to be worked through. It covers a fair bit of ground but I’ll admit I’m more impressed that the original light novels are still running and expanding from there.
Features:
Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 Language, English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Language, English Subtitles, Clean Opening, Clean Closing, Eyecatch Gallery, Promo Video
Content Grade: C
Audio Grade: B
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B-
Released By: Funimation
Release Date: June 25th, 2019
MSRP: $64.98
Running Time: 300 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
