Beryl Gardenant, a middle-aged sword instructor living in a quiet rural village, runs a small dojo and genuinely thinks he's just some regular guy. The thing is, every single student who's trained under him has gone on to do something incredible — one of them, Allucia Citrus, literally became the commander of the Royal Order of Knights. But Beryl still calls himself an old man and lives this quiet, modest life like he hasn't been producing legendary swordsmen for 20 years. When Allucia shows up to drag him to the capital as a special instructor for the knights, you start to see just how wide the gap is between how Beryl sees himself and how the rest of the world sees him. This 12-episode TV series from Passione and Hayabusa Film leans into that contrast really well — there's solid sword-fighting action, but also a lot of warmth in watching former students try to show their teacher how much he actually matters. The mentor-student dynamic is the real draw here, and having a middle-aged protagonist instead of the usual teenage hero gives it a different energy. If you liked the wandering swordsman vibes of Rurouni Kenshin or the "underestimated protagonist proves everyone wrong" feel of The Rising of the Shield Hero, this hits a similar spot. It's grounded in a way that reminds me of Grimgar too — fantasy that doesn't rush past the human moments.
A modest, aging fencing master with refined skills, he serves as a special instructor for a knightly order.
Portrayed by Hirata Hiroaki
bchingtanva★★★★☆VerifiedEP 12A good watch indeed. That was fine swordsmanship from Beryl and his students. That last fight scene set the stage for the next season, telling us what to expect, and I'm hoping it will be a better one, which focuses on Beryl truly becoming a master swordsman and not just full of backstories. Though I feel like this could have been made into a 24-episode anime, it was still a good watch.
oohisa★★★☆☆Anime
eulov★★★☆☆Anime
uorseucs★★★★☆AnimeThe story and character development in this series are actually pretty good. I love how, even though Beryl is considered strong, his strength doesn’t come from OP blessings or anything like that, but from his own hard work. I also like how the romance isn’t forced here. To be honest, I was expecting a lot of forced plot elements, but that didn’t happen, and I’m really glad it turned out that way. Craftsmanship-wise, I have a few nitpicks about the animation. I don’t really understand why they didn’t make fuller use of CGI in important scenes from the start, even though it was already being used early on. Later in the series, they started applying it much more effectively, especially in key moments. Sometimes, the direction was also a bit mediocre, and the pacing feels somewhat rushed, which caused some potential highlights to fall flat. That said, the overall craftsmanship was still great. The CGI in particular was genuinely impressive throughout. I don’t usually praise CGI, but in this case, I really liked how it was handled. Overall, I’d rate this series an 8/10. I believe future seasons will be even better now that most of the introductory plot has been covered.
