The Summer 2023 Anime Preview Guide

The Great Cleric

One moment, a certain salaryman is on cloud nine, that promotion finally within his grasp, and the next, he's keeled over pain, and that was all she wrote. Luckily for him, fate had a bit more to say. A world of magic, monsters, and other such life-shortening entities awaits his newly reincarnated self for a second shot at life. With nothing but his past-life experiences and sharp business skills to guide him in the foreign lands of Galdardia, he takes up the name Luciel and vows that his (next) demise will be from naught but old age. And what better way to avoid a(nother) gruesome death than by taking up a nice, cushy job as a healer?

The Great Cleric is based on Broccoli Lion's Seija Musō: Salaryman, Isekai de Ikiru Tame ni Ayumu Michi (The Great Cleric ~The Path a Salaryman Must Walk to Survive in a Fantasy World~) light novels. It streams on Crunchyroll on Thursdays.

While watching this episode, one of my cats smacked his paw down on the keyboard, wreaking havoc with Crunchyroll. This was the single most interesting thing that happened during my viewing experience. It pains me to say that because the idea of a cleric-based isekai (or fantasy; I was very into R. A. Salvatore's The Cleric Quintet at one point) is very appealing. But this first episode leans hard into the boilerplate elements of its genre, denuding its premise of anything remotely exciting as it instead opts to go through the usual pabulum.

So yes, this is the story of a Japanese man who dies before his time and is reincarnated in a fantasy world with bonus stats and powers courtesy of a sheepish deity. He's got status screens, there are guilds and beastmen, and plenty of explaining things. There are also a lot of cheesy effects and animation shortcuts, although the episode tries valiantly to excuse them as humor, which, in a few cases, almost works. And I have to say that The Great Cleric makes a few attempts to be different (or better) than many of its competitors. For one thing, all of the women in the opening theme look like actual adult women, which, if you don't count as a positive, is at least something different from the norm. Luciel also meets his Earth doom not via truck but rather by being shot by a guy on the run from the police. If that's a little too close to what dominates the news these days, it's at least a change from the norm…and, horribly, perhaps a little more realistic, although not necessarily for Japan.

Once Luciel gets to his new world of Galdardia, he discovers that he can “open status,” which made me groan. But his status screen, rather than being a floating panel, is reflected in his eye, which frankly makes a bit more sense. I think what's so annoying here is that it's clear that something a little different could have happened, but instead, someone opted not to do that. It's frustrating from a creative perspective and uninteresting as a viewer. It may change going forward because this is only the first step in Luciel's journey, but I'm not keen to come back and see where it goes.

Well, now, this is embarrassing. According to the schedule, there's an anime called The Great Cleric that I was supposed to watch for Preview Guide, and if I am to believe my browsing history logs, I apparently already watched it? I have a bunch of screenshots saved on my computer; there's a whole set of notes labeled “The Great Cleric” on my phone. The clock on my desk tells me that exactly 23 minutes have passed since I sat down to watch and write up the next Guide entry, but I swear that only seconds have passed, and I definitely don't recall watching any show. I just went back to Crunchyroll to see if I should rewatch the thing, but whenever I click on the link for The Great Cleric, I…wait a minute. How have another 23 minutes passed? That doesn't make any…

Okay, you know what? I'm just going to have to piece this together from the notes that I wrote in this series of figure states I've been in. Whatever. Okay, so, unsurprisingly, this is another isekai anime starring some guy named Luciel, who gets reborn into another world and becomes a cleric to…avoid dying, I guess? Is that all there is to his personality, really? Huh. There's nothing else here. That must be it. Right. So, anyways, this Luciel guy meets some girl named Lumina, who my notes have described as “blonde” and…no, wait, that's it. Very helpful, Past James.

Um, after that, there's just a bunch of one-word entries that don't seem to add up to anything. “Stats menu.” “Heroes' Guild.” “Secretary.” “Inn.” “Adventuring Party.” “Please, God, just let it end. I'll do anything. I'm begging you.” (That last one is more of a self-directed note, I think). Oh, look, another character! Her name is…ah, it's Monika, that's fun! And her notes say… “Red/Orangey w/ highlights.” Ah, it's just her hair color again. I see. Must not have been much else of note.

I'm so sorry, I've been looking for anything about the show's plot, its setting, or maybe something that I must have noticed about the show's art direction or animation, but…there's nothing. It's like the show just…isn't real. After that last bit about the redhead, the notes go on for a few pages, but I seem to have just transcribed the entire first chapter of the novel The Great Gatsby, word for word, from memory. That's very odd; I didn't even know I knew that much Gatsby! What even is this bit? Some kind of obscure comedic reference or something? Is the whole anime just a bit??? Anyways, in lieu of having anything even remotely substantial to say about The Great Cleric, I'm forced to give it a single star since “Not Even Doing Enough to Successfully Exist Within This Physical Plane” has to count as a major demerit, right? I'm honestly at a loss.

Welcome, one and all, to the amazing Isekai Circus! We've got a hell of a show for you all today, sure to thrill your minds and fill your hearts with wonder. Marvel, as a totally anonymous Japanese businessman is arbitrarily reincarnated in a generic fantasy world! Astound, as he laboriously fills out first his Character Creation sheet, then some magical paperwork! Cry out in terror as he level grinds a basic healing spell for a full quarter of the premiere's runtime! You may have paid full price for your seats, but you'll only need THE EDGE as you take in the magic of The Great Cleric!

Look, what do you want from me here? We've all seen this before. I have lost count of the number of identical shows about some no-name Melvin being plopped into a fantasy world and proceeding to fiddle with his stat menu for all eternity. The first time I watched a character slowly fill out the paperwork to join a guild in real-time, it was a mildly interesting diversion that theoretically did some world-building. Now, by the twentieth time, I recognize it as a total time sink that's only included because the single driving creative urge for these stories is to fill the runtime to reach a full anime season. The closest thing to conflict here is our nebbish protagonist freaking out whenever somebody makes eye contact with him when he's not busy gawping at any woman who speaks with him for five seconds. It is stultifying entertainment that would already be boring even if I hadn't seen these exact plot points a hundred times before.

It also, predictably, looks like dirt. Even beyond the predictably stiff animation and generic art style, the clothing in this show is so goddamn ugly. It's like if you asked aliens to make a fusion of business casual and the starter outfit in a farming simulator, with our hero's ensemble making him look so goddamn dorky that I was on the verge of reaching through the screen to dunk his head in a toilet or steal his lunch money. Every single character here looks bad, and if that sounds like a minor thing to harp on, it's only because nothing else in this premiere left any impression. It is bland, phoned-in shovelware in animated form.

Oh no! I need to write up my impressions of the first episode of The Great Cleric, but I've run out of synonyms for “boring” and “unoriginal”! Deep breath, Caitlin. You can do this. Challenge yourself, and tap into your creativity, much like everyone who worked on anesthetizing series did not.

So, one beef I have with many light novel adaptations is how heavily they rely on the protagonist's internal narration. Most light novels are written in first person, after all, with the main character describing his environment, the people around him, and his reaction to them without ever leaving anything unsaid or allowing the reader to connect the dots; it's lots and lots and lots of telling with minimal showing. Since anime is a visual medium, they could easily leave these bits of narration on the cutting room floor, but many keep up the constant internal monologue. Such is the case with The Subpar Cleric; instead of letting a visual medium use, you know, visual storytelling, we get a torrent of Luciel's thoughts.

Then again, I can see the benefit of this: it allows utter laziness on everyone's part. The animators don't have to make things clear to the viewer, the scriptwriters don't have to worry about building up subtext, and the audience doesn't have to try to understand Luciel's emotional state. See a big, tough-looking guy? Luciel will just tell us he looks mean! Why draw the (sigh) miniskirt-clad lady knight's facial expression changing when you can shift the corners of her mouth a bit, keep the dead, blank eyes, and have Luciel let us know that she has a great smile?

Why try to create something with an original concept when you know isekai fans will be content with, nay, prefer more stories with the same familiar beats? Why try animating it when you know they'll watch it anyway? Why try to build up the world when you can show stat screens and talk about levels?

Why animate a run cycle when you can repeat the same two blurry cells for five seconds?

The best thing I can say about The Insufficient Cleric is that it's… inoffensive. It's not misogynistic, although some of the costume design on the female characters is as ugly as it is impractical. There are no slaves… Oops, I searched it up, and so much for that! Truly, The Expected Cleric is best forgotten.

Despite the various attempts at light-hearted humor in this episode, I only laughed once: during the next episode preview where the protagonist exclaims “Wow, that totally ended on a cliffhanger!” Because, let me tell you, there is no cliffhanger in this episode. None. There is no danger and no risk in a person with healing magic saying they will heal hurt people. Honestly, even if he fails… then what? It's not like the situation will get any worse. Either he heals them or the situation remains unchanged. That's it.

So why am I so focused on a throwaway line not even in the episode proper? Because it highlights just how uneventful this episode is. It's painfully bog standard. Sudden death, brought to another world, joins a guild, gets overpowered super fast… I mean, the fact that, once again, the world runs on a lazy video game magic system (and we spend most of an episode re-explaining it) is the nail in the coffin.

But what hurts is that there are hints of things that could make for an enjoyable isekai story. This might be the first fantasy story I've ever seen where having healing magic is as important as it logically should be. Think about it. In a world without antibiotics and other modern medicine, healing magic would be the most valuable thing to society at large—especially if only a select few were capable of learning it. The idea that healers have become corrupted by their prominence—become money-hungry and selfish—is likewise an interesting way to further develop the world.

I also enjoyed the way that the protagonist got around the problem of being a stranger in a strange world. Pretending to be from a village so remote that it doesn't even have a name is a great cover for being able to ask all the “stupid questions” he needs to. But more than that, this allows us to learn all the information needed to understand and enjoy the story. It's just a shame that there isn't much story here, to begin with.

When it comes down to it, this first episode is all setup and has no substance. As I said above, there are some ideas here that could be interesting. However, the paint-by-numbers nature of this episode ends up covering up those ideas in several layers of boredom—a boring plot, boring characters, and a boring magic system. It almost makes me look forward to a month from now when I have forgotten this series even exists.