Overview

The Master of Ragnarok and Blesser of Einherjar was easily the worst anime of the Summer 2018 season. In fact, I knew it was going to be this bad, which is exactly why I wasn’t originally planning to watch it.

However, How Not to Summon a Demon Lord turned out to be a good isekai, so I felt the need to balance it out by watching The Master of Ragnarok as well, because apparently I hate myself. I also don’t want all of my reviews to be skewed towards the positive side of the spectrum, so I need some bad anime every now and then.

While it was the worst anime of the season, there are still some things it did which I found to be somewhat interesting, even if they were poorly executed. Unlike most isekai anime, The Master of Ragnarok actually begins in media res, which is to say it starts in the middle of the story.

By the time we, the viewers, are around, our protagonist, Yuuto Suou, has already been in the other world for about two and a half years, and has made his way up the ranks to become the leader of his clan. It’s only through the OP that we actually see how Yuuto arrived in the other world to begin with.

While this one aspect of the series doesn’t make up for all of its downfalls, I did like the fact that we enter the story with a protagonist who’s already familiar with the new world he’s been thrown into. Typically we have an episode or two of the protagonist being lost as we learn about the world, but this anime skips all that nonsense.

I’ll discuss the other aspect of this isekai which goes against the norm later on since it has to do with the ending. For now, let’s take a look at the world and general plot of The Master of Ragnarok.

The other world Yuuto finds himself in is based on Norse mythology at first glance, but it turns out that Norse mythology is actually based on it instead. Within this world there are a number of rival clans which fight for control of land and resources, each led by a single patriarch (or matriarch, but they’re still called patriarchs too).

As this is a harem, power fantasy, light novel adaptation, you can probably see where this is going. All of the people below the patriarch either call him “big brother” or “father” depending on their rank in society. This means Yuuto has a harem of girls who are his adopted sisters and daughters.

But while being the patriarch means you get a harem of girls who call you questionable things, it’s not all fun and games. The various clans are constantly at war with each other, which means the patriarch must lead troops into battle.

The other world has bronze age technology and a simple magic system known as runes (which isn’t really all that important). Because of this, Yuuto is able to use his smartphone to look up “new” technologies, such as iron weapons, and battle strategies.

He makes up for his lack of fighting ability and military leadership skills by cheating with the power of the internet, because for some reason he still has cell service despite his smartphone not being made magical by God like In Another World With My Smartphone.

So now that we know a bit about the other world, how does the season end? Well, this is the other part of the series I thought could have potentially been interesting, had it been in a better anime than this one, Yuuto makes it back to his home world.

That’s right, we actually got an isekai in which the protagonist makes it back to his (or her) world. I’m pretty sure they normally never make it back because they’re all light novel adaptations with no ends in sight, but the same appears to be true about The Master of Ragnarok instead.

This anime is a light novel adaptation just like all the other isekai out there, so why does Yuuto make it back home in this one? The answer is quite simple, it’s because he only goes back home for a short period of time, then chooses to return to the other world (so the series can continue).

There are plenty of other isekai protagonists who would choose to remain in the fantasy worlds they find themselves in, such as Kazuma from KonoSuba, or probably Subaru from Re:ZERO, but Yuuto is different from them. Yuuto actually has friends and a girlfriend back home, unlike the usual NEETs who find themselves taken to other worlds.

Characters

While Yuuto seems to be far more well-adjusted to regular life than the “usual NEETs” I just mentioned, he’s still a white knight teenager like the rest of them. He has a harem of girls who all love him, but he keeps them all at arm’s length because he has a crush on a girl back home whom he may never see again.

Yuuto also seems to be referenced in the Norse mythology which is based on this world he finds himself in. According to the myths, Yuuto will eventually take over the world as an evil dictator and then be killed. This doesn’t sound like the Yuuto we see, but maybe he becomes evil at some point in the distant future.

The rest of the characters I’ll be going over in this section are just those featured in the cover art pictured above. There are a lot of characters, but these are the major recurring characters who are allied with Yuuto and the Wolf clan.

Felicia is the (literal) daughter of the previous Wolf clan patriarch and (literal) sister of the patriarch of one of the rival clans. She serves as Yuuto’s right hand and helps him with all of the day-to-day governing of the clan and its subjects.

Next up we have Siegrune, the most powerful warrior of the Wolf clan. That’s basically her entire character, so let’s move on to my personal favorite character of the series, Linnea.

Linnea is the patriarch of one of the clans which was taken over by Yuuto and the Wolf (I want to say the Hoof clan, but I don’t remember). While her character design is definitely her best feature by far, she’s also a real character with an actual backstory, unlike most of the other girls.

When the previous patriarch died, Linnea was made the new head of her clan despite her young age and the fact that she doesn’t see herself as a worthy leader. However, despite not being a strong military leader, Linnea is educated and always tries to make the best decisions for her people.

Moving back to the Wolf clan briefly, we have Ingrid, the blacksmith. Ingrid is in charge of the technology department of the Wolf clan, and as such, she creates a variety of “new” technologies for the clan to use both in battle and in daily life such as iron weapons or kotatsu.

Next up we have Chris and Al, who are princesses from another clan, the name of which I don’t remember. Although Al is the eldest of the twins, Chris is the leader of the two. They specialize in reconnaissance and assassination.

The final character I want to mention is Mizuki Shimoya, Yuuto’s girlfriend from the normal world. She’s a pretty standard girl in every aspect other than the fact that at the end of the season she decides to travel to the other world in order to be with Yuuto. Just wait until she finds out she’s just another member of his harem.

Conclusion

The Master of Ragnarok and Blesser of Einherjar is a 2/10, which makes it tied for the title of worst anime I’ve ever completed. You may not think it deserves a rating that low based solely on what I’ve said about it so far, but I was trying to pick out things that were good about it.

The truth is that it has terrible animation, a bad, generic story, and bad characters. In fact, Linnea is the only half-decent character in the series, and if you put her in any other series she’d likely be one of the worst.

The OP for The Master of Ragnarok and Blesser of Einherjar is available here if you’d like to see how bad the animation truly is.

If you enjoyed this post, or you agree that The Master of Ragnarok is a bad anime, then click the like button down below. You can also follow me on Twitter or Tumblr, or subscribe to my blog via email, if you’d like to receive notifications every time new posts are uploaded.