Sorcerous Stabber Orphen is a fantasy anime series originally produced in 1998. It had a total of 47 episodes but was filled with some fillers and was elongated. The new remake of the series was done to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the manga. The new remake started with 13 episodes and 1 OVA, later followed by two more seasons of 11 and 12 episodes.
The anime series focuses on fantasy, how magic developed in their world, and how the sorcerers use it. The series focuses too much on the magic concepts, making it complex to understand. But some of the fights and arcs were interesting, so it was a bit interesting and not worthless.
The anime focuses on the main character a lot but not much on the supporting characters. Though during the first season, it shows many characters of good potential and strong spells. The story becomes quite complex as it progresses, and it is a hassle to keep up with it. Learning more new concepts, we do not usually know in other anime is interesting. But the storyline is not interesting and alluring, which is why many people have not preferred this anime for more than a one-time watch.
The Characters
Orphen: He is a kind-hearted black magic sorcerer. He was an orphan since childhood but was taken in by an orphanage where he met Azalie and Leticia. They took care of him like a small brother. He is very skilled in both magic and martial arts. He was so good that he was deemed the next successor of the Childman’s class.
Everlasting Cleao: She is a tomboyish female lead of the show. She is super energetic but does not use much of her brain in critical situations. Still, somehow things seem to work out for her. She is the second daughter of the Everlasting Family. Her Family was entrusted the Sword of Balthanders, and now she accompanies Orphen on his adventure.
Lin Majic: He is the second male lead and the apprentice of Orphen, for which he pays a monthly fee. He is a strong man with a fascination for learning sorcery/magic. He strives to be a strong sorcerer just like Orphen despite Majic’s father telling him that Orphen is just a Tower of Fang’s drop-out and might be bad news.
The Plot
Now Orphen but five years ago, his name was Krylancelo, a very skillful magician from a small village. He was taken into an orphanage where he lived got two older sisters like the characters Azalie and Leticia. But there, Orphen cared too much for Azalie, not as a sister but as a woman.
Azalie and Leticia were taken from an orphanage when they were raised to train as a full-fledged sorcerer in the Tower of Fangs. After that, Krylancelo grew up and followed them to the Tower of Fangs, becoming the orphanage’s most skilled and strongest sorcerer. They were all elite-class sorcerers in the entire school.
They all live and practice magic together in the Tower of Fangs. All students should practice and create new spells. One of Azalie’s experiments to activate Balthander’s sword to harness dragon magic and make her even more powerful is practiced.
Childman advised her not to experiment as it would be too risky, but she did it anyway. Nonetheless, her experiment failed, and even Azalie, who attempted her experiment, was not left unharmed without repercussions, for which Azalie transformed into a ferocious dragon, losing human consciousness in the process. In addition, Childman, who tried to stop her at the last minute, also falls into punishment and a coma due to dragon magic.
Krylancelo was the only witness to the punishment stage and could stop Azalie (Dragon version) and the other sorcerers from killing each other. He then transformed into Orphen, changed his name, and disappeared. Orphen then left the Tower of Fangs in search of Azalie.
Five years later, a sign of Azalie until rumors surface that a dragon has gone berserk in the woods near town. So Orphen goes looking for her. Although he is not successful, he makes many friends in the city to get some information from the locals in their time of need: some dwarves, an innkeeper, and a wealthy family (due to marriage fraud).
Orphen then overhears a black sorcerer coming to town to attack the Dragon. Of these wizards, his old master Childman is out of his coma and on his way to the town. The Dragon also appears in the barn of the Everlasting Family’s mansion, where Childman aims to kill the Dragon.
All the wizards then form a group to slay the forest dragon and move Orphen to the lead at sunset. A large battle between the sorcerer and Azalie destroys much of the forest. Azalie then slaughters the sorcerers. Ultimately, Childman destroys Azalie’s dragon body with a powerful spell.
Shortly after the Dragon’s death, Orphen talks to the corpse, but Azalie kills Childman, learning that Azalee switched bodies with Childman when she met him earlier. Orphen confronts and wounds Azari (now in Childman’s body), telling her that Childman was coming to save her, not kill her.
The series is followed by a Double Body arc with two of his Krylancelos in the same timeline. The younger (before age 5) and the older (after age 5) tried to kill each other. The younger Krylancelo is much stronger and assassinates the elders in the Tower of Fangs but is soon stopped by the older Krylancelo to stop the killing. Then they fight it out to determine the true successor to Razor’s Edge.
The second season focuses on Orphen’s arrival in Kimluck and various adventures. This season is an encyclopedia of the history of magic through time, with hands-on sessions of that magic, so who can do what.
The Review
The series, from the start, has not been so interesting. , The only reason the show went on was because of its complex design of the magic system in their world. The first season is more about a one-sided love story and the Orphen trying to save that one crush of his since childhood. The romance established was also not so emotional even though we have seen better ones in the other series; you can feel which ones we are talking about.
The second part of the first season was a good comeback as the assassin part of the old Krylancelo starts. We see some good magic and martial arts battle between the two, while the younger Krylancelo also being a better villain during the time and focusing on the killings and using so many new spells with so much efficiency was amazing.
The 1st season was mediocre, as even the voice actors did not put much energy into it, and the emotion was not felt while watching the series. The 2nd season is more like an encyclopedia for the ones who want to know more about Orphen’s magical world. It focuses on establishing the history, science, and several new spells for the viewers.
In the Second season, they started great. Following the storyline will make you focus on it, too, and you will forget whatever little you know about the Dragon’s history. The later episodes become the encyclopedia and quite boring, as said before. The episodes after that in the series were quite interesting as the villains were acting a bit worse, and the fights came back instead of us just us studying magic.
So far, with the third season, there has not been much progress, but the series is trying to maintain the interest level of its viewers. The villains have been introduced in bits and pieces, and our three heroes (Orphen, Majic, and Cleao) have developed quite a bit. They have not shown many significant changes, but Majic does some better tricks now. Cleao can better control Leki (the Deep Dragon she stole from one of the villages) and use the spells through the Deep Dragon.
Overall, the show has very interesting concepts, but that is just it. The show fails to capture the audience from the beginning and does not have good fight music. The fight scenes are somewhat okayish, considering they are magic fights. But the studio did not change much of the original story or make this remake better than the first anime adaptation.
Our Rating: ⭐ (2.6/5).
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