Alternative title(s): Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou Desu
Light Novel Adaptation by Diomedéa
Streaming on Funimation

Premise

A woman who works late nights in an office goes home to her empty one-room apartment and is summoned into a medieval fantasy world with magic and stuff. It turns out she’s some kind of god-queen or whatever in this new world, and is presumably going to save it with her powers. Also, there are lots of pretty boys to kiss, which is probably the more important thing.

colons’ verdict: I could see someone being into shipping this protag with all of these pretty boys, but god they’re all so boring

When you’re introducing a new magical setting in your story, having someone explain the magic system to an audience surrogate is one of the most efficient ways to convey a lot of establishing information very quickly. You can set up the system itself, but you can also imply a lot about the politics, geography, and social aspects of your world. It’s also a perfect moment to set up interpersonal dynamics between the present characters.

This show manages to fuck that opportunity up with remarkable efficiency. Not only do we learn almost nothing in its version of this scene, we actually learn contradictory information about what magic in this world is; we are taught, in the course of less than two minutes, that:

• it is ludicrous that anyone could exist in this world without having used magic, and;
• it’s unbelievable that our protagonist would be able to feel magic.

The hook of this show is that that our protagonist is one of two people summoned into the isekai, but the show does not seem willing to really do anything with that concept, at least not yet. The summoned saint who _isn’t_ our protagonist exits our attention some five minutes into the show and is never heard from again, even as weeks and months pass. I find it very hard to believe that these two people would not be extremely interested in talking to each other, as two outsiders who were both ripped from their lives to be brought here, but neither makes an effort to contact the other.

I don’t think it’s possible for me to get invested in a show like this. Nobody acts like a person with motivations or even coherent desires, and the show seems to go out of its way to avoid setting up anything interesting about the world in which it is set. The boys are extremely pretty, though. I’d kiss ’em.

Peter’s verdict: The ingredients for an interesting show are there, but no spice in episode 1

Look, episode 1 of this show didn’t have a lot. However, as someone who has got into *some* isekai stories before, the idea of a show where the main isekai’d protagonist says “screw the destiny you’ve got for me, I’m going to make potions for a living” is decent. Sure, they’re the world’s strongest potion maker (probably, that’s usually how it goes), and there’s a reverse harem of a bunch of pretty guys, so it’s still a power fantasy, but you’ve got someone who is actively healing people rather than being the strongest fighter. If potion making and research remained the main focus of the show, I’d be super into it, especially if they get technical with how things work. Unfortunately, episode 1 of this show bypasses all chances for detailed explanations and then Sei, our protagonist, manages to make some high level potions and saves a guy’s life. I’m tempted to watch episode 2 to figure out what the point of the series even is, but I’m not expecting anything special.

Euri’s verdict: I hope she makes a good Remedy to cure my Sleep status

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent is yet another light novel adaptation that spends a solid 20 minute period telling us absolutely nothing of interest; Nothing happens that makes me excited to learn more about the world we’ve been whisked off to or the characters that live there, and nothing creepy or offensive happens that makes me want to yell about the kinds of stories that are still getting anime adaptations. This is a full episode of handsome men saying “We just don’t understand how you’re better than us at making potions, lady we summoned from another world to become a Saint” when the name of the fucking show is The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent. This season has a number of actually good shows, please consider watching one of those instead.

Artemis’ verdict: Wasted Potential

I think I wanted to like this show – and some parts, I actually did. A 20-year-old office worker is unwittingly whisked away to a fantasy world, but her role as would-be Saint is immediately dismissed by a rude prince in favor of a second woman who’s also summoned there – presumably because our main character isn’t as outwardly ‘pretty’ or traditionally feminine? And then, instead of spending most of the first episode worried, panicking, or even sulking at this turn of events, she just rolls up her sleeves and decides she’d rather research potions than just sit around being bored and waited upon by the palace servants? Sounds promising!

Moreover, Sei’s almost total lack of blushing, pouting, or any kind of typical maiden-in-distress behavior is extremely refreshing here, especially in this kind of isekai setup, and that made her immediately rather likable to me despite very little being done to flesh out her character otherwise. Plus, while every other main cast member seems to be of the (extremely generic) bishounen variety, the first episode gave zero indication that Sei was in any way dazzled by or physically/romantically attracted to any of them.

… And then episode 2 happened and pretty much all of my good will went straight out the window. I was already side-eying the show for other reasons, like its extremely odd pacing and lack of any real plot development or meaningful characterization. However, along with the introduction of the usual cliché romantic sub-plots in the second episode, the implication that Sei will, after all, eventually turn out to be the Saint (thereby undermining the show’s entire premise, which seemed to be purposefully steering clear of the whole ‘chosen one’ isekai trope until this point), put a screeching halt to my optimism. Needless to say, I will not be returning for episode 3.