478th G-View: Management of Novice Alchemist

People who have heard of the Atelier series would not be wrong to initially think this is an anime adaptation of one of the games in said series. It would fit nicely into the universe in some way. Question is whether it is a fantasy adventure worth watching. Let us find out as we take a look at Management of Novice Alchemist.

Alternate Title: Shinmai Renkinjutsushi no Tenpo Keiei (JP)

Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Yuri

Themes: Alchemy

Number of Episodes: 12

G-Rating: 7/10

Plot Summary: Sarasa Feed is a girl who lost her parents to a bandit attack. After recovering from the loss she was determined to become a great alchemist like them. One day she found herself drawn to the doorstep of the alchemist Mistress Ophelia. Under her tutelage she learned quite a bit until she was ready to go out on her own. She was offered an atelier for a reasonable price. The catch was it being located in a faraway village up in the mountainside. Thus began Sarasa’s new life as a budding alchemist.

As alluded to in the introduction the show can be best summed up as an Atelier anime, meaning a show about a cute alchemist girl experimenting and brewing potions, dabbling with magic, going on quests with a party of hired warriors to gather materials and fight cute or intimidating monsters to harvest from their corpses, has interactions with others with their own fun stories to tell and arcs (individual or shared), lots of cuteness and some good sexiness and a slowly unraveling plot on the side. That about sums it up. It is a straightforward show that does not add anything new to the female led fantasy adventure formula but what it does it does well enough. The developing plot becomes more interesting over time as it unravels while the four main heroines are a wonderful bunch of cuties and hotties with neat arcs of their own. The main duo’s being my favorites.

Left to right: Lorea, Sarasa, Iris and Kate.

What sets it apart from other female led fantasy adventure is the alchemy and management part. It reminded of Recettear in that regard. When not adventuring or doing cute/fun stuff Sarasa and her party discuss the intricacies of running a business, specifically a store. They go over topics such as marketing, trading, making deals with other store owners, studying what sells best at different times of the year, establishing relations with customers and much more. It does a good job going over the basics of Marketing and Management. Nothing too advanced, just enough for everyone to follow along and learn neat stuff that can be used to start running a store. Naturally there is more to it but what is shown are solid examples.

This being a fantasy adventure there are action scenes. Personally this is my least favorite part of the show. Now because they are bad battles. There is excitement and cool moments no doubt. My issue is that most of the fights feel like recycled isekai action tropes that I have lost enthusiasm for over time. Tropes such as everyone but the protagonist standing a chance against enemies. Said protagonist one-hit KO’ing most foes and everyone aghast by their awesome power. Rinse and repeat for most battles. Even ones where the protagonist has to put in a little more effort than usual and needs their team to help it feels like they are only there to “fire peas” to distract the boss for the heroine to do the heavy lifting. I know isekai fight scenes are not the only ones guilty of this but I have seen it so many times in the isekai shows I watched that I have become less enthralled with the action scenes in them. KEEP IN MIND THIS IS JUST HOW I FEEL. Other viewers may have found the action scenes exhilarating and that is excellent. To be fair unlike many modern isekai protagonists, which she is not because she was born in this fantasy world and not, say, Toronto, Ontario Canada, Sarasa has a valid reason for being as strong as she is and not the cliche god-like figure endowed them with “MAX STATS” because they felt like it. Speaking of the battles the ones against the bears are strangely graphic compared to later fights. No idea why but as a bear lover it made me sad. I suppose it is to show viewers a detailed example of harvesting materials from monster corpses. Speaking of materials a nice touch was Sarasa would go into detail about the habits of the monsters she and her party would hunt along with the pros and cons of the stuff they craft and brew.

The animation and soundtrack are solid. The cast of characters are nicely drawn. The animation quality will not win any awards but it did its job just fine. Same goes for the soundtrack.

As always we near the end with the main event. The main quartet is split into two couples. Sarasa X Lorea are adorable and deserve all the happiness. Bless them so very much. Iris X Kate fulfill the role of the sexy young adult pair. Their bond is not as strong as their younger teammates but it shows signs of growth.

We are also blessed with adult couples too. Sadly it is another case of “They just are”. See my Healer Girl review for a detailed description of what I mean by that. While nice I wish we got a more in-depth look at their personal lives. At least the show gave a crystal clear message about female alchemists and their female assistants in this world, besides many of them being gorgeous.

Overall Management of Novice Alchemist was a delightful fantasy adventure show Marketing and Management added to spice things up. It is fun and educational. It is a straightforward show carried by its wonderful main cast and side-characters, delightful main and side-couples, good action for people who enjoy isekai style fights and an interesting plot developing over time. The one blemish is it being yet another “source lure” show that most likely may not get an animated continuation but what we got was quite enjoyable.