Anime Hajime Review: Sorcerous Stabber Orphen – Battle of Kimluck

Original Run: January 20, 2021 - March 31, 2021
Number of Episodes: 11
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Based on the Series Created By: Yoshinobu Akita and
Yuuya Kusaka

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Sorcerous Stabber Orphen – Battle of Kimluck. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

The skilled sorcerer Orphen (voiced by Showtaro Morikubo) continues his journey.

While on the hunt for his friend, Orphen finds his way to the holy city of Kimluck. Here, the citizens devotedly worship the old gods and hate everything that has to do with sorcerers.

With enemies all around him, Orphen must summon all the power he has if he hopes to get out of this town alive.

Series Positives

I need to be upfront about a few things:

• I was not looking forward to this series.
• I do not remember any plot points, character personalities, or world lore from season one.
• What I do remember was that season one was a complete waste of my time.
• I could not believe that of all the shows, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen got a continuation.

To say Sorcerous Stabber Orphen – Battle of Kimluck (Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 2) started from the bottom would be an understatement. Should I have given this season a clean slate and not immediately have assumed the worst? Yes, and I tried my hardest to do as such. And yet, season one was so gloriously uninteresting, dull, and dumb that its failure could not help but affect its successor. After all, this season – to me, anyway – felt unwanted.

That said, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 2 was better than its predecessor. How can I make such a claim when I’ve already admitted I don’t remember season one? True, the nitty-gritty details of this series leaked out of my head faster than you can cry “BS.” Still, there was one aspect to season one I can never forget, and season two didn’t have it. I’ll explain more later in the review.

Just because Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 2 was better than the first installment, it remained quite terrible.

For context, 2020’s Sorcerous Stabber Orphen was an attempt to commemorate the original light novel’s 25^th anniversary. It was also the second anime incarnation of this franchise, the first being 1998’s Orphen and its sequel, 1999’s Orphen 2: Revenge.

If any good has come out of this most recent release, I am interested in seeing how the previous anime faired. As of this review’s publishing (May 2021), there are no plans to cover the 90’s series. However, if you think Anime Hajime should, then how’s about we set a goal?

If this post gets 15 LIKES within ONE MONTH of its release (June 17, 2021), Anime Hajime will do a full review of Orphen and Orphen 2.

Returning to the point, is there any credit I can give Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 2? Well, I suppose the animation was alright.

Assuming all we cared to do was look at this show – not giving any credence to the story or characters – then yeah, visually, this season was relatively decent. It was a shame that any fight scene lacked any kind of punch, making the whole thing worthless.

To wrap this section up, I was glad Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 2 was only eleven episodes. Granted, that is a mere one episode less than the typical anime season, so it was no big win. Be that as it may, it meant I could be done with this show sooner rather than later.

Series Negatives

So, how is it, despite not remembering much about season one, I can say Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 2 was the better of the pair?

Season one was both stupid and boring, whereas season two was just boring.

Let’s have no misconceptions. Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 2 was a flop. Not only that, but it was also a flop that continued to drag on and on and on. This season kept adding names upon names, location after location, info, info, and more info.

This season was pure lore-porn.

No one can pretend the world of Sorcerous Stabber Orphen is a hollow shell. There is a robust and complicated system working around this show’s characters. Perhaps in the light novels, this aspect is better explained. In this rendition, though, an eleven-episode run was nowhere near enough time.

It was easy to lose track of what everyone was doing and why. Then there was the whole problem of an entire first season’s worth of information to remember, and we already know how that faired. Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 2 did not take even a second to summarize where the story was heading and what our protagonist was trying to achieve. This season started, and never looked back.

And on top of that, this series was nothing but exposition. So much of this season involved characters giving long-winded explanations, while dropping names of people and places with no reference to what they meant. Therefore, you best have an encyclopedic understanding of the world of Sorcerous Stabber Orphen. Otherwise, you’ll just be listening to meaningless white noise for a few hours.

Then again, I am speaking as though the average person will have the patience to make it through Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 2. The only reason I did was so I could write this review. Should you be watching this show in the hopes of getting some entertainment out of it, you’ll be sorely disappointed. And although the sledgehammer lore-dumping will leave you exhausted, the character will most likely make you want to beat your head against the wall.

The vast majority of this cast was forgettable. Unfortunately, our hero party – a.k.a. the people we spent the most time with – was made up of some of the most annoying, laughably unnecessary characters I have come across in anime.

The titular Orphen was nothing more than a wannabe badass. Luckily, he was not the most egregious irritant from this series. Orphen, at least, knew when to shut the hell up. His two companions, on the other hand, could not have been more useless.

Majic Lin (voiced by Yusuke Kobayashi) was Orphen’s pupil, and he wasn’t the worst. He might have been whiny, naïve, and way in over his head, but when he absolutely needed to do something. he could throw a fireball or two. Then again, Majic would quickly get annoyed whenever Orphen was “too harsh” with him. Sure, Orphen wasn’t much of a teacher, but:

1. Orphen never agreed to be Majic’s master.
2. Majic hardly ever demonstrated his ability to control magic.

Thankfully, Majic wasn’t another Claiomh Everlasting (voiced by Rumi Okubo). Without hesitation, Claiomh was the most pointless character I have seen from any anime in a long, long time. Everything she did made a situation ten times more difficult. Claiomh was a brat who expected everyone to take care of her and never once took an ounce of responsibility.

Having now sat through this season, I want to believe this is the end. I want to sit here and tell you this is the last time I will be covering this incarnation of this franchise. However, I am not going to do that since the mere existence of Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 2 came as a massive, unwelcomed surprise.

Who’s to say there won’t be a season three?

I’ll tell you this, though. I firmly believe that things can get worse. I mean, yeah, it’s already bad, but could this series go even lower; I don’t see why not.

Final Thoughts

To the diehard fans of this franchise, I sincerely hope this latest series has done you justice. Correct me if I’m wrong in the comments, but I can’t imagine how it has.

This season was the continuation of a show that had already fallen flat on its face. It makes me wonder who was clambering for more.

With an overabundance of exposition, a dull story, and uninteresting characters, there wasn’t much to like about this installment.

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen – Battle of Kimluck can be skipped.

But these were just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this series? How would you advise Sorcerous Stabber Orphen – Battle of Kimluck? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.

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For Anime Hajime, I’m LofZOdyssey, and I’ll see you next time.