The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar
Does your local hometown have its own Urban Legends? These stories may lack solid foundations, reasoning, or logic, but they exist as a unique form of entertainment with a splash of culture and beliefs. Our parents or grandparents may have been raised on these tales, and there could be some hidden truth to them because there are many unexplained things in the universe to this day. So, let’s take a ride on one such urban legend within the realm of anime!
“The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar," also known as “Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria” or “Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Ikusa Otome," is a 12-episode TV anime series that aired from the 8th of July till the 23rd of September in Summer 2018. It was produced by Sotsu and Crunchyroll SC Anime Fund, licensed by Funimation, and brought to life by Studio EMT Squared.
Its primary staff included producers Cook Justin, Yokota Masaaki, Ibira Takaya, and Meguro Daiju. The series featured action, adventure, fantasy, and romance alongside harem, isekai, and military themes. Each episode ran for 23 minutes and earned a rating of PG-13 for teenagers 13 years of age or older.
The series is based on the light novel of the same title, which ran for 24 volumes from the 31st of July 2013 till the 1st of March 2023. It featured the primary fantasy genre alongside the themes of Harem and Isekai and is the work of author Takayama Seiichi and artist Yukisan. It was published digitally in English via J-Novel Club from the 17th of March 2018 till the 14th of September 2023.
An Alternative Version is a manga bearing the same title. It began publication on February 13, 2015, and is still ongoing. It is the work of the same author and artist, Chay, and was serialized in Comic HJ Bunko. This, too, was published digitally in English via the J-Novel Club on June 18, 2019.
The story revolves around a very peculiar urban legend, one that should have ideally been left untested. Yet, protagonist Yuuto Suou decides to leap anyway and gets way more than he bargained for by daring to test out the urban legend alongside his childhood friend, Mitsuki Shimoya.
All he had to do was use his phone to snap a picture of himself with their local shrine's Divine Mirror, and his life was forever changed! He is whisked away into a completely different world steeped heavily in the epic Norse myths and lore. Now in a foreign land, Yuuto becomes determined to use the knowledge he gained at school and his solar-powered smartphone to bring about ripples of change.
Presented with the fateful chance to bring the people who cared for him, the Wolf Clan, to prominence, he sets off to live out his heroic tale. Along the way, he gets the bonus of earning the love and adoration of a group of beautiful magic-wielding warrior maidens known as the Einherjar. This hero truly has his work cut out for him!
Before this review even starts, let’s establish that this is an Isekai in every sense of the word. Everyone admits that most Isekai are utter garbage these days, and this show is no exception. Some genuinely good and entertaining Isekai are out there; some of my favorites are KonoSuba, Overlord, and Log Horizon, but “The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar” is as generic as it gets.
The harem aspect only makes things worse. The “plot” is straightforward: following what was stated in the synopsis, Yuuto and his trusty sidekick smartphone, named "Smartphone," for some reason, are undoubtedly the most essential existences in the new world.
This is made blatantly evident in the first episode itself, despite no clear indication of why or how he became all that he is. The man just keeps winning one “war” after another with the other clans, alongside the unnecessary “support” of his incredibly OP harem of women that he has added to his collection. How did he get these supposedly perfect women to become his? Thanks to his superb leadership and handsome features, of course!
Does the smartphone add some uniqueness to their battles? Why yes? The protagonist wins wars by browsing the internet on his smartphone, which is solar-powered and has an internet connection in this other world devoid of such facilities. Unfortunately for Yuuto, he regularly gets harassed by his collection, who tries to seduce him every chance they get. But fear not, this MC is very loyal to Mitsuki Shimoya, his real-life friend, with whom he can communicate despite being in a completely different world...
This story is an absolute pile of garbage unless you can laugh off the ridiculousness, blatant lack of logic, and cliches piled on top of each other like a pile of stinking socks.
You must already know how bad the MC is at this point, but the remaining characters only make things worse. Yuuto is your typical OP MC who's a “good person” despite all his weird and disturbing kinks, and the show attempts to drill “Yuuto is morally just, relatable, a military genius, and deserves to get all these women!” into your skull. In reality, he only has personality traits that make him a sick weirdo and womanizer and is horribly written even as another Kirito-clone.
He is a conqueror of women, claiming them as his “property” and making them a part of his “family.” How? He somehow forces these cardboard women to become his little sisters and daughters and even makes them address him as “papa” or “big brother.” As just as he is, he doesn’t seem to even bat an eyelid about all his soldiers being slaughtered in combat but remains the holiest of them all!
He is simply “perfect” from the onset and thus requires no development; nothing changes about him, and “tendencies” only seem to get worse, all while being an oddly twisted version of a teenage high schooler. This man just keeps adding to his harem collection, and each of these additions is redundant. The women themselves are your typical Harem Anime girls whose only care in the world is the MC and have nothing better to do than praise how awesome he is.
The female characters are their own can of worms, downright humiliating and useless despite being OP. They have variation and provide the MC a full buffet together but are objectified beyond all reason. While they boast a myriad of capabilities, they remain hardly effective or useless all the way through. The only saving grace is that none of them blatantly fall under an archetype from the onset (they eventually do, though) and possess some neat designs.
These girls get worse as the show goes on, with each one being worse than the one before. I almost lost it when Linnea showed up, and the twins Albertina and Christina were the final nails on the coffins. It’s incredible how infuriating and worthless these characters are because they really could have made a better show if they focused on fleshing out the core cast instead. These characters are so bad that I wondered if they actually deserved what Yuuto was serving. As such, the supporting cast is just as horrible and redundant.
Despite its genres and themes, this show needs more solid visuals for the comedy, action, or fantasy Isekai setting. It just masquerades with an amateur art style and low-budget animation, which becomes blatant eye-sores during the battles featuring medieval soldiers and fighting styles.
But indeed, are the Ecchi/Harem scenes good? No, they are not. Maybe it is the girls' miniature figures or their overly-animated eyes. Some girls have cool, fun-looking outfits like Siegrune, but those can only go so far. This is fueled by Yuuto looking like your typical Harem MC, set within backgrounds that look like they were taken from a kindergarten coloring book...
Moving onto the Sounds and Music department, there isn’t much here either, but at least it’s not degrading like the rest. The opening theme is "Bright way" by Aya Uchida, and the ending is "Sekaijuu ga Koi wo suru Yoru" by petit milady, both decent at best and easily forgettable.
They are visually “meh” as well, with the only visuals worth mentioning being the ending, where the female cast are all naked for fanservice needs. The OSTs are also very mid, while the voice acting was just there because it needed to be. You can’t blame the voice actors when they are given such horrendous characters to work with, so I commend them for even trying to breathe life into these cardboards and weirdos.
Overall, “The Master of Ragnarok and The Blesser of Einherjar” is an absolute dumpster fire of a show that doesn’t even seem to acknowledge how bad it is. I would ONLY recommend it to people who can laugh away trashy Isekai or those in the mood for cheap and weird Ecchi. This show has no redeeming qualities, and it is a blatant waste of precious time that will only irritate you, so please steer clear of it!
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