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officialao3fandomlastforever · 4 years

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FANDOM REVIEWS: The Royal Tutor

“It’s time for a lesson.”

Sometimes you start an anime, end up putting it down for a couple of years, only to pick it up again at just the right moment. You don’t know why you need to watch it now, but you’re not gonna argue with yourself. So you sit down, you binge it, and you let yourself be consumed by it until it’s all you can think about until the next show calls out to you.

That’s the case with me and this anime. This series has a level of charm and care I am always desiring to see in a story and it fills my heart with a great deal of warmth that I’ve been craving over the last couple of weeks. A story about growth, trust, patience, and understanding. And how important it is for an educator to care about the students in their supervision. And every minute was worth it.

Hey everyone, Fandom’s here again and today we’re looking at one of my favorite anime, The Royal Tutor (Ōshitsu Kyōshi Haine)

This is also going to be a little different, as I will be making brief mentions of the manga and awarding the manga a rating at the end of this review at the same time as I present the anime’s rating.

And with that, let’s begin.

SPOILERS AHEAD AND WARNINGS FOR DISCUSSIONS OF BULLYING/HARASSMENT, ABUSE, CLASSISM, AND ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING.

THE STORY: (Original Manga by Higasa Akai, Anime Directed by Katsuya Kikuchi, Written by Kimiko Ueno )

Heine Wittgenstein, an adult man often mistaken for a child due to his short stature and youthful looks, lives in the Kingdom of Glanzreich, which is experiencing a prosperous life under the rule of King Viktor. After all others have been chased off, Heine is called upon by the king to become the Royal Tutor to educate his four youngest sons; the soft spoken yet intimidating second prince Kai, the stern and hardworking brainiac third prince Bruno, the stubborn and proud fourth prince Leonhard, and the frivolous playboy fifth prince Licht. Initially given the cold shoulder by the princes and told he won’t last long as their teacher, Heine accepts the challenge, promising to turn these young men into fine heirs worthy of competing for the throne as equals to their eldest brother, Crown Prince Eins.

While the story may seem rather simple in premise, it is actually an incredibly rich and well executed one. If you enjoy more historical settings, this story might be right up your alley. It seems to be set in around the 1800′s in Europe, or at least the story’s equivalent. While the world building in the anime is a little more minimal, the manga shows how similar the world of the Royal Tutor is to our own, and it doesn’t take long to figure out which country is which.

A setting alone isn’t enough to carry a tale, however. What really carries this story is not only the characters interactions with each other, but the desire to know why they behave the way they do, why they make the choices they make, and what it is that drives them. No character is how the initially may appear, and everyone has depth to them and secrets they keep.

One thing I really appreciate about this story is how they don’t shy away from the fact that the princes lives are incredibly different from those of the commoners. The story takes the time to show us how hard some of the people have it in the kingdom, how much of it nobles usually brush off or look down on, and this revelation is a big motivator for many of our characters, who wish to improve things for those less fortunate.

For the most part, The Royal Tutor is a pretty good middle ground between the light-hearted and hopeful times, and the grim and harsh reality, and that is not an easy footing to find when writing a story. Mad props to all those involved in the writing process.

THE CHARACTERS

Oh my goodness, where do I even begin.

I suppose we’ll start with the character I expected to like the least but ended up being one of my favorites, and that is Prince Licht, the playboy.

By god is his development one I did not expect. It certainly gets more fleshed out in the manga, but it’s one I did not expect for his kind of character. One of the more lazy of the siblings who would rather spend time with a beautiful lady than with a history book, we come to learn that Licht actually is a dedicated and hardworking individual with a passion for being a waiter and brewing the perfect cup of coffee, and would often sneak into town to work at a cafe under the name “Rich”. He’s so much smarter than people give him credit for, and his passion for his job and his astute intuition make him an excellent character to watch.

There’s so much I want to talk about with Licht, but a lot of his development is more present in the manga and the anime only gives us a taste of what’s in store for him.

Next we have Leonhard who, if I had to guess based on writing cliches, is probably supposed to be the ‘main main character’ out of the princes. He has a penchant for sweets and a strong hatred for studying and for teachers, but not without reason. Out of all the brothers, he struggles the most with academics, and as a result had an incredibly bad experience with a previous tutor as a child, who would often verbally and physically reprimand him for being a bad student. But once he sets his mind to it, and with a little help from Heine and his brothers, Leonhard starts to change his stance on studying and tutors. His growth is the most sporadic, but also one of the more realistic portrayals, which I greatly appreciate. He’s also the most inventive of the brothers when it comes to finding solutions, and often times his more simple way of thinking helps solve the problems quickly.

Bruno is a facinating character. He’s driven by logic, yet slowly grows to act more and more on emotion. His little siblings look up to him, his older brother Kai cares and worries for him. He wishes to catch up to their eldest brother and prove you don’t need to be a ‘natural born genius’ to be a good king. He works very hard and wants to do what’s best for his kingdom and his brothers. And while he was initially hostile to Heine because he didn’t think he’d be close to his intellect without going to university, but he came to respect him and considers him his Master rather than just a teacher. I certainly love how far he’s grown as of now, but his slight obsession with being Heine’s apprentice can be a bit grating sometimes, so he might be a yymv kind of character. I personally enjoy him quite a lot.

Now, we have prince Kai, who is probably my favorite prince of the bunch.

Kai is an absolute cinnamon roll and his journey in the anime in particular is one I really enjoy because it’s so simple a goal he wants to achieve, but it’s also one that’s incredibly difficult for him: he wants to be able to communicate with others and not let his fearsome face and strength be all he’s known for. He’s often noted as being scary looking, and as a result, most people won’t approach him, even though he’s a gentle soul who wants to connect with people and talk about soft and cute things like animals. He’s one of the first to immediately welcome Heine, and holds him dear because he’s the first tutor who actually tried talking to him instead of ignoring him. When he successfully manages to thank a staff member for her work without scaring her, Kai immediately runs to Heine to tell him. His goals are so simple, but the excitement he has at achieving them are so heartwarming.

Kai is also the most protective of the brothers, as shown in the arc that was given to him and Bruno revolving around an incident at military school, where Kai beat up another student who had viciously attacked his little brother. When the same student attempts to hold Kai for ransom and threatens Heine, he almost gets violent again but manages to stop himself, which was something he wanted to work on as well. Fighting like that, even in the defense of himself or loved ones, is something Kai struggles with because the original incident scarred him so much and further isolated him from others. Kai is a very good example of how to write the ‘character could/should fight here but chooses not to’ trope. He doesn’t strike the other person in the end because he’s still working through that initial trauma, and he promised himself and his brother that he would never become that violent again.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Kai loves cute things, enjoys naps in the gardens, becomes worried when any of his family are ill, and just wants everyone to get along. Kai is just...so fantastic as a character and I really love how much he grows. (Maybe I might be showing a little bias here but it’s my review and I’ll ramble about my boy Kai all I want thank you.)

And of course, we can’t leave the character section without talking about the Royal Tutor himself, Heine Wittgenstein

Heine is without a doubt, not only one of the best teachers I’ve ever seen in an anime, but probably one of the best leading characters I’ve ever had the privilege to see. The amount of time and effort he puts into his work and the dedication he shows to making sure his students’ needs are met are amazing. He’s intelligent, strong willed, brave, and will do anything to keep his charges safe be it physically, mentally, or emotionally. He has a dream he wants to see through, and it’s admirable the lengths he’ll go to see it through, while still keeping his integrity.

Heine’s backstory is also one of the most emotional I’ve encountered for a while. Or rather, I should say backstories. His past in the anime is vastly different from that of the manga as the manga hadn’t reached that point at the time of the anime’s release, but both versions of him and his past are incredibly well written and add so many layers of depth to Heine as a character and his relationships with those around him. (Seriously, the anime backstory made me cry and the manga on made me squeal, they are that good.)

He’s also one of the most hilarious characters in the show, often being the straight man to the antics of the royals around him while responding with witty retorts or internal monologues. He’s also shown often in the chibi format, as a way to both drive home the joke and to further emphasize the fact that he is incredibly small and childlike despite being a grown man.

Here he is snubbing the king when the king tried to show off.

Never change Heine. Never change.

There are many other supporting and antagonist characters I wish I could go on about, but if I did, we’d be here all night. But just know that every character is fantastic and the chemistry of the cast is amazing.

Also, one more important thing that I must tell you all now before we move on.

Herr Shadow is best boy. No I will not elaborate. You’ll have to see for yourself.

SOUND AND ANIMATION

The animation for the main anime was done by Studio Bridge, who you might know better as being the studio behind Nobunagun, Devil Survivor 2, and newest installment in the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens. This studio was definitely the right choice to be put in charge of this show, as they masterfully translated Akai’s art style into the animated format, which is absolutely not easy given the beautiful character designs, especially the hair. The best example of the animation is in the opening sequence set to the song Shoppoi Namida, which I sadly cannot share with you here as the sequence itself is pretty impossible to find without watching the show.

However this little video, which is mostly spoiler free, includes brief snippets from the op and some scenes in the anime that give a good example of what you can expect with this beautiful animation.

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The ending theme is also a fantastic number, sung by the main cast and has a really good beat to dance to.

In fact, they did dance to it!

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The Royal Tutor also has a movie (more of a 60 minute ova but it’s labeled as a movie so that’s how we’re addressing it), which was animated by a different studio, Tear Studio, which sadly went bankrupt in 2019. While not quite to the same level as Studio Bridge, Tear Studio did a fantastic job with animating the movie and capturing the lovely art style of the anime and manga. Had they not become defunct, I’d have loved to have seen more from them.

One more important note I need to mention: this series makes use of chibis. A lot. Especially for comedy.

And it’s amazing.

The soundtrack itself is done by Keiji Inai, who has done amazing composing work on other anime such as Karneval, Btoom!, Outbreak Company, and Magical Girl Site to name a few (rather eclectic selection of series, but all have really good osts that are worth the listen). Each track in The Royal Tutor not only fits the setting, but perfectly captures the emotion of each scene that needs to be expressed. While not the most exciting soundtrack if you’re looking for something more action packed, it has a gentle charm to it that is good for sitting down, relaxing, and studying to.

If you’re wondering which to watch in terms of subs or dubs, I can promise you that this anime has an excellent dub for you dub only fans. My personal list of standouts for this dub would have to be Micah Solusod as Heine as he perfectly finds a balance between straight man and heartfelt mentor, Alejandro Saab as Leonhard because of his ability to show all sides of the character, and (for all you BNHA or RWBY fans out there) Christopher Wehkamp as Bruno because damn does that man have some range.

Both the English dub and the original Japanese cast capture the heart of the story perfectly, so it’s really a pick your preference here.

Final Thoughts:

I went into this anime knowing I was probably going to like it. But I didn’t expect to come out of it loving it so much I binged the manga in two days. Nowadays it’s so hard for an anime to make me want to seek out outside material for it, but The Royal Tutor has a certain spark to it that makes it hard to put down.

You want to see the characters grow. You want to learn who is going to be king. You want to learn more about everyone. You want to watch the princes learn and grow and you want to grow with them. You want to watch Heine nurture them, and to learn more about the tutor himself. That’s a feeling that’s incredibly hard to convey in any medium, yet has been so masterfully done here.

This anime is so fantastic and heartfelt, and the fact that it’s so obscure as of late is just plain criminal.

And so I, Fandom, award both The Royal Tutor anime and manga an overall rating of “Certified Classic”, a rating I reserve for only the best of the best, and series I believe need all the attention they can get.

At the time of this review, the anime is available through Funimation for both streaming and home release stateside, while the manga is currently licensed by Yen Press and by the looks of it, is currently running the chapters as a monthly serial. Currently, there are 92 chapters of the manga, with more on the way.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this review and I hope you all have an awesome day.

#fandom reviews #the royal tutor #oushitsu kyoushi heine #anime #review

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