From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman

Episode 10

Episode 10 of From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman manages to cram all my likes and dislikes about the show into a tidy twenty-odd minutes of television.

Let's put our worst foot forward and talk about my dislikes. The new former-student-turned-warrior in this episode is Rose Marbleheart. For the sake of argument, let's set aside my general distaste for the recurring trope of "former students all being potential romantic partners for Beryl" situation, and just accept the character as-is. What is Rose's character, exactly? Her character is that she used to be Beryl's student, is very skilled, and has a crush on him. This sets her apart from the rest of the cast by… uh… hm… oh wait, that's like 60% of the characters with spoken dialogue. It's so repetitive, I can't take it seriously or get invested at all. Even what Rose does with Beryl on their faux-date is no different than what happened with Allucia a few episodes back. About the only differentiating factor between all the former students is their hair color; other than that, it's a copy-and-paste job.

There are still positives, though, and they also echo things I have praised previously. I like Beryl being invested as a parent beyond just food and shelter, as he stays invested in Mewi's progress at school and promises to help her with reading. Additionally, the situation surrounding the princess and the combat scenes was pretty interesting. We get more mysteries and implications of wider plots, as well as some genuinely well-animated and choreographed action sequences. I know I'm sounding like a broken record at this point, but I wish the show would stay in these modes more often (or at least vary up the motivations and personality traits of his former students).

Rating:

From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Videos on Saturdays.