Promise of Wizard is an anime so sluggish that it robs itself of any opportunity to be enchanting. Not even the wizard's ball that happens halfway through has any sense of glittery whimsiness. With the plot and animation trudging along at a snail's pace, it feels like nothing is going on. There's a part of me that feels like Promise of Wizard could have worked if it were some kitschy slice-of-life anime examining the day-to-day lives of wizards prepping to stop a major catastrophe. Why not? There are enough scenes of characters who do nothing but idle chit-chat, standing around in hallways, and prepping dinner for some everyday shenanigans to break on through. But this is supposed to be a serious fantasy-drama, meaning that much to my chagrin, the characters have to stoically embark on their mission before being granted the opportunity to muse about choco-coronets.

Promise of Wizard's plot revolves around Akira, who, after getting isekai'd into another world, must take up the mantle of a Great Sage. As such, Akira leads a group of wizards whose task is to prevent a supposed Great Calamity from happening. This Calamity has to be prevented annually. The last one resulted in a staggering number of casualties, meaning Akira has to do what she can to lead the Wizards towards a flawless victory. Akira's Great Sage role is a bit of a misnomer, since nothing about her is Great or Sagely. She barely does anything throughout the series' twelve episodes, and I often forgot she was even there. Meanwhile, her supporting team of wizards isn't anything to write home about either. Considering how this anime is based on a mobile gatcha, it's fair to say that the Wizards have personalities as one-dimensional as their mobile game PNG counterparts. With a ridiculous plotline where the characters are fighting against the Moon to prevent the Great Calamity, all I could do was wish I was watching that one sketch from Mr. Show where they blow up the moon instead. The show has the bare-minimal ingredients necessary for fantasy anime, but there's not enough to give it any real flavoring.

The animation is static, and the designs are so weak that I groaned when I saw Miyazaki's Howl ripped off twice. The characters are there to serve the plot, and there's no sense of fun whatsoever. These are just the obvious side of things. What isn't as obvious is the editing, which is abysmal. Not that I expected Promise of Wizard to get Walter Murch's Rule of Six down to a T, but I also didn't expect something that was more chopped up than a Philly cheesesteak. For instance, there are cards of dialogue that appear on screen every so often to explain some of the lore and actions, but they come so rapidly that I had to pause the screen to see what was scrawled on them.

Even worse is how the editing cuts into some of the action sequences. Granted, the flatness of Wizard's few action sequences err on the boring side of things anyway, but they're made even more annoying by some of the quick cuts made. One scene in the fourth episode has a squad of soldiers running up the stairs to fight the wizards, and it's cut so thin that we see them for maybe a few scant seconds. The following episode has the wizards fleeing from an ice dragon, and the scene is paced so quickly that it feels like using DaVinci Resolve sent the editing team flying by the seat of their pants. The editing improves by the time the show's final fight comes into the frame, but it's so hoary that part of me wishes it was hacked down so things could finally end.

Promise of Wizard earned the unenviable status of one of the Worst Anime of Spring 2025 here at ANN. After sitting through all twelve episodes, it's hard for me to disagree. The one interesting thing the show does have going for it, however, is that many of its characters are named after ones from classic literature and fairy tales. There are the obvious ones--Oz, Faust, the twins Snow and White--and ones I was unfamiliar with like Heathcliffe from Wuthering Heights, Lennox from Macbeth or The Secret Garden, and Cock Robin from old nursery rhymes (and yes, the name did catch me off-guard for a moment). This makes sense. After all, Fate got to name its characters from Arthurian, Greek, and Egyptian lore. Hence, it's fair another fantasy anime gets to name their characters after ones from old literature. But a lack of imagination or action makes Wizard feel like I'd be better off reading a book instead.