Knights & Magic - Episode 1 (Review)

By: MithrandielA genius programmer who happens to be an otaku (shocker), Mr. Kurata is tragically struck by a car on his way home from work one night. Reincarnated in a fantasy world where giant robots known as "Silhouette Knights" are commonplace, he uses his programming expertise and his role as a member of a noble family to quickly rise in the new world he finds himself in.The series looked like a lot of fun at first glance: fantasy, robots, magic...but the first episode moves at such breakneck speeds that it effectively kills itself before the final credits roll. There are no less than 3 or 4 timeskips in the course of the episode, skipping ahead in chunks as new characters seemingly materialize out of thin air and the audience is expected to know or care who they are.While the series moves extremely fast - when it does slow down it becomes comically predictable. As it turns out, magic in this fantasy world that our programmer landed in works...just like programming does? Sure, why not. Add a few lines of magic code and voila, your lame wind spell turns into a jet-turbine that can jettison you around.Seriously, the main character is almost annoyingly perfect in the opening episode. Every single thing he says or does is a game-changer and revolutionary for the world he lives in. He teaches kids magic, and innovates a new gun-wand to channel magical energies more effectively. It's as though the character flaws died with Mr. Kurata at the start of the episode, and that the reincarnated Ernesti Echevarria (Ernie for short) is a perfect manifestation of him.The animation is solid, I'll give it that much. The Silhouette Knights and monsters are all brought to life well enough, and there are some great backgrounds and detail in the show.In order to recover from this first episode, next week they really need to slow things down a bit. My guess is that they got overzealous with the first episode in their attempts to get the proper plot-line started. However, the result is simply an episode that doesn't give the audience enough time to hammer down the characters, identify villains, build the world or otherwise care about what's going on.If they can pump the brakes next week, they may have a fun, good-looking, and potentially interesting series on their hands. If they don't learn from this week, however, chances are there will be very few fans left in week 3.You can watch Knights & Magic on Crunchyroll here every Sunday morning.[yasr_multiset setid=11]