Being the Hero of a New Saga

Being a fantasy hero means being a tremendous fighter and, usually, a swordsman. Being an anime hero means having a harem (hey, I don’t make the rules), though there may still be one destined love interest who wins. An isekai hero, meanwhile, has some kind of superior knowledge or secret ability that allows them to dominate their new world.

While New Saga isn’t an isekai, it is a recursion fantasy. If you haven’t heard the term, it means the protagonist starts strong before their world reverts somehow. Usually, the reversion is time travel. The main character gets a chance to right a wrong, or fix their mistakes, with the power and knowledge they’ve accumulated over a past life. Sounds a lot like isekai without the other world, huh?

Airing this season, New Saga is about the heroic Kyle reverting to save everything he ever loved from a demon invasion. Join me on a preview tour of what kind of hero Kyle is.

Becoming a Hero

Kyle lives in a fantasy world that enjoyed centuries of peace, where demons have minded their own business and humanoids minded theirs on opposite sides of one continent. Except when we meet him, it’s in the middle of a war with the demons. And the humans are losing so badly that they send him and some other heroes on a suicide mission to kill the demon king. I swear this is where the similarities to Clevatess, which I also previewed, end.

Everybody except Kyle dies, and he defeats the demon king. Dying and depressed, he spots an out-of-control magical artifact, and the recursion begins. Vast magical energy sends him four years into the past, to his hometown, and Kyle has to figure out how to prevent an invasion and the deaths of everyone he ever loved. He decides the only way to manage is to become a hero: someone so renowned and respected that his efforts to help will be welcome before the war starts.

As a wannabe fantasy hero, Kyle’s a talented swordsman — as well as a decent buff mage. He’s in an anime, so he does get the obligatory harem. And as a recursion fantasy protagonist, he has a lot of secret knowledge to exploit, similar to an isekai hero. How does he use these to succeed? Let’s find out.

The Three Things a Hero Needs

I’m tempted to say watch this show because of Kyle. He’s kind of bland to look at (not to mention his name), but he’s got what it takes to seize the opportunity time travel has given him. Kyle is pragmatic and driven, so he’s willing to apply his knowledge (derived from cheating) to the best. He’s also protective and has deep emotions he’s not afraid to share. And it’s clear his characterization is only starting.

Those are what I like about him, though. Kyle thinks a hero has other priorities.

Swimming in Bling

First, Kyle believes you need cash. The idea of heroes in his world is like goody-two-shoes video game moral perfectionists. You know the type. The heroes who pick the “Oh no, dear peasant, keep your money, I don’t need it” option whenever it pops up in a video game. Since heroes also need to travel, eat, and afford inns and equipment, Kyle decides money is his top priority.

So off he goes to dig up buried treasure, specifically, incredibly valuable treasure. Kyle won’t have to worry about money for long, thanks to his recursion knowledge.

It’s Who a Hero Knows in New Saga

The second thing Kyle thinks a hero needs is connections. Party members, politicians, even shopkeepers; Kyle needs them all. Thanks to the power of childhood friends, Kyle starts with two trusting party members, and he soon gets two more, accumulating a small harem. A party is small time compared to needing connections with authority, though. I don’t know all his plans, but I suspect royalty, politicians, and religious leaders will all appear at some point.

Pure Luck

The third thing Kyle decides a hero needs is luck. I’d say he’s already the luckiest man to have ever lived, considering what we learn about how unlikely his time travel is, but Kyle won’t rely on real luck. His friend Theron asks if Kyle will create his own luck by setting up calamities to take advantage of, but Kyle rejects that. Of course, he does, because he knows the history of the next four years. While not every event he remembers will happen because the more he interferes, the more events will shift. It’s pretty clear that Kyle’s going to ruthlessly take advantage of other people’s traumas and dangers he remembers to cultivate his reputation, and I’m here for that.

Bothered by the coincidence of a protagonist happening to be in the right place to fight the demon general, or whatever unlikely event they get involved in? Then New Saga is for you, because instead of coincidence, Kyle will be in the right place because he already knows where that is.

The Rising of a Hero

There’s a lot of fantasy anime, isekai or otherwise, to choose from this season. Thanks for joining my exploration of why Kyle is a surprisingly good reason to watch New Saga among the field of choices. If you want a hero who pursues his goals with a cheating amount of knowledge, a high degree of combat expertise, and a degree of ruthlessness only a survivor has, look no further.

Oh, and if you like intimate elf wives or sweet and scary childhood friends who can kill bears with their bare hands, then this is also the show for you. I just don’t know enough about Kyle’s harem to do them justice yet, given how focused the first couple of episodes are on him. Still, I’m excited to get to know these ladies better.

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