English Dub Review: She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man “I Am Cute…”

Overview

Based on the Japanese light novel series written by Hirotsugu Ryusen and illustrated by Fuzichoco. The story follows Sakimori Kagami, who has been playing the online video game Arch Earth Online for a long time as the character Dunbalf, an old male sorcerer who is one of the game’s nine great sages. One day after adjusting his character, he is sucked into the game world and finds himself inhabiting a new character’s body…

Our Take

Not sure what to make of this really. The story at first shows promise when it goes out of its way to establish this as an introduction episode, probably an attempt to retain watchers, but the low-budget art and CGI battles did it no favors. Strangely It makes me laugh how much this anime got away with naming the main character Dunbalf Gundadore which isn’t very subtle as the name itself is literally an amalgamation of iconic wizards in pop culture such as Gandalf and Dumbledore.

Also, despite the opening narrative info dump, I’m left with so many questions. Is this trying to be “Overlord” with its similar premise but with a magical “Genderbend” twist? Did he get properly isekai’d or did he get stuck in a game? Are the other players there with him now her? Most isekai anime with the same kind of story which often involves an “ordinary person from present-day stuck in a fantasy world” would usually give 5-10 minutes for the intro and background story and then gets to the important parts as a jumping-on point for the anime. If the first episode is already like this, I don’t know what direction the story will take next.

Overall, this opening episode is a mixed bag for me. I thought this seemed decent enough, but then the ugly CG scenes with those ogre creatures and the last 5 minutes with no dialogue really caught me off guard. it’s like the animation team seriously ended the episode with five minutes of saving money by not having to pay for voice talent, which made the proceedings feel like a completely different anime. But regardless, I guess I’ll have to wait and see where this anime goes. And hopefully, there won’t be a repeat of the last few minutes with no dialogue…