{"id":397919,"date":"2026-04-26T02:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T02:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/397919\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T02:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T02:41:14","slug":"wand-and-sword-creators-say-the-anime-popularity-challenged-them-for-the-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/397919\/","title":{"rendered":"Wand and Sword creators say the anime popularity challenged them for the better"},"content":{"rendered":"

The underdog trope is the basis for some of the most successful anime<\/a> and manga \u2014 even if it’s hard to be described as an underdog when your dad was the Mayor of Ninja Town. From Naruto\u2019s eponymous hero to Black Clover<\/a>\u2019s Asta, fans of the medium have seen scores of protagonists who begin their journey saddled with one or more big disadvantages over their peers, only to overcome them and rise to the top of their world.<\/p>\n

A similar premise underpins Wistoria: Wand and Sword<\/a>, the manga written by Fujino Omori and illustrated by Toshi Aoi, and adapted into a successful anime series produced by Actas and Bandai Namco Pictures. The protagonist, Will Serfort, is a young boy with zero aptitude for magic in a world whose survival literally hinges on the magic arts. Despite that, Will decides to enter the prestigious Rigarden Magical Academy to graduate and gain access to the tower called Mercedes Caulis, where his childhood friend Elfaria resides after her prodigious talent for magic was discovered at a young age, separating the two. In season 2, which just started airing on Crunchyroll, Will and his newfound comrades have to fight off an invasion of demons caused by a terrorist attack from the mysterious group called Goetia.<\/p>\n

What makes Will different from other anime and manga characters based on the same trope in the eyes of his creators? \u201cI believe what makes Will unique is his \u2018words and actions after acknowledging that he is not a genius,\u2019\u201d Omori tells Polygon over email. \u201cHe can never forget his sense of inferiority, so he’s unable to become completely cheerful about things. Even so, what he fears most is giving up or running away. I think that’s what allows him to show a kind of courage that’s different from other existing characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Omori\u2019s words address a key aspect in the construction of this type of character. Underdogs rarely stay such in the medium. Naruto quickly becomes one of the strongest shinobi in the world; Asta immediately finds out he possesses an ultra-rare and effective form of anti-magic; My Hero Academia\u2019s Izuku Midoriya<\/a> is gifted the same Quirk as the greatest hero in the world. The list goes on. What makes these series stand apart, however, is how the main characters react to their changing circumstances. In Will\u2019s case, despite achieving success and gaining recognition among his fellow students, he can never forget his sense of inferiority, as Omori says.<\/p>\n

The opening episode of season 2 reinforces this dynamic. At the end of the previous season, Will defeated a powerful monster in the dungeon and gained the admiration of the best Rigarden students. That left him one written exam away from graduating with the number of points needed to gain access to the tower \u2014 and as a massive bookworm, it should have been a walk in the park. However, professor Edward Serfence posed the only question Will could never answer: describe how it feels to activate your magic. The protagonist is forced to face his failure right when he seemed to have broken through that glass ceiling.<\/p>\n

Of course, Will is far from powerless. He has unnatural strength and stamina and is a master swordsman. But in a world where \u201cswords\u201d are always considered inferior to \u201cwands,\u201d his abilities are constantly underestimated. Aoi believes this is what makes the character fascinating. \u201cI’d say the experience of following the secrets hidden within Will alongside the main storyline is one of the things I find most exciting about drawing and reading this series,\u201d Aoi says over email.<\/p>\n

\"Will
\n Image: FTK\/Wistoria Project<\/p>\n

While Will is a compelling protagonist, the world of Wistoria is equally captivating thanks to its foundational world-building. Five hundred years before the current events, mysterious monsters came from the sky and threatened to destroy the world. Five powerful mages used their powers to create a barrier to lock the invaders out. This spell has to be renewed every year, which is why the entire society is geared towards fostering powerful mages and sending them to the tower to become the next Magia Vander. Wisteria\u2019s world is literally a prison, and it\u2019s fascinating to see how this warps the lives of its inhabitants, often unknowingly. Professor Serfence, for example, once failed to become a Magia Vander, so he tries to prevent Will from entering the tower to spare him from seeing his dreams crushed.<\/p>\n

I was curious about the inspirations behind the setting. Omori mentions Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, while Aoi did not name a specific work. \u201cI think I’ve drawn inspiration from all sorts of works in creating this fantasy world,\u201d Aoi says. \u201cBut among those, I tend to take the ones that really struck a chord with my own sensibilities and develop them further \u2014 building things with a feeling like, \u2018If I were living in this world, what kind of school would be fun? What kind of city would I enjoy?\u2019 That’s generally how I approach it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wisteria: Wand and Sword has visual flair to spare, and the anime did a great job in transposing the style of the manga to the screen. Season 2 director Hideaki Nakano praises the first season for laying the groundwork. \u201cThe first step was to take on what was done in season 1,\u201d Nakano says over email. \u201cThe rail that Yoshio [nickname of Director Tatsuya Yoshihara] has laid for season 2 is quite a challenge, but it won\u2019t be Wistoria if I avoided that. The intention was not to change that. That said, when there are developments that don’t follow any pattern from season 1, I can’t help but incorporate my own style of visuals \u2014 but I always make sure not to forget to bring out that Yoshio-esque quality somewhere in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
\n Image: FTK\/Wistoria Project<\/p>\n

Nakano doesn\u2019t spare words of praise for the manga either. \u201cSince the source material is so strong, the moment you let your guard down even slightly, the anime falls short of it in no time,\u201d Nakano says. \u201cA large-scale production like anime inevitably has gaps, and you end up spending a huge amount of time trying to bring those gaps as close to the quality of the original as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first season of Wistoria: Wand and Sword was acclaimed for its story and visuals, drawing comparisons with anime juggernauts like Jujutsu Kaisen and Solo Leveling. With the manga still ongoing, that\u2019s a lot of pressure to deliver. But for the mangaka, the anime\u2019s popularity has only helped sharpen their understanding of the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe anime helped us notice a depth to the work that even we hadn’t realized was there,\u201d Omori says. \u201cIt showed us that we could be freer with it, that it is okay to incorporate more playful stories. I’ve come to feel even greater attachment to each and every character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aoi mentions how seeing his art take new life in the anime inspired him to reach greater heights, crediting Director Yoshihara for having a positive influence on the style of the manga.<\/p>\n

\"Wistoria
\n Image: Bandai Namco Pictures\/Actas<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout the history of manga in Japan, it’s quite common for manga artists to improve their art through the anime adaptation process, and I think that’s because it gives them an objective, upgraded perspective on their own artwork,\u201d Aoi says. \u201cNow that I’ve been given the opportunity to work in such an amazing environment, I want to push myself even harder to grow in that same way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wistoria: Wand and Sword is streaming on Crunchyroll. New episodes of season 2 are released every Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The underdog trope is the basis for some of the most successful anime and manga \u2014 even if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-397919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}