Wise Man’s Grandchild is the story of Shin, a young wizard who boasts an unheard level of magical power, making his way in a fantasy world completely unprepared for his existence. But it’s not just that the pair that raised him are the world’s greatest mage and enchanter respectively that grants him his powers, it’s that he has a unique understanding of the world.
On its surface, Wise Man’s Grandchild is similar to any number of recent “isekai” tales: In our world, a young office worker dies and finds himself reincarnated in a fantasy world filled with magic. Like many of these stories, our protagonist is dramatically overpowered when compared to the average citizen of the world–heck, Shin is more powerful than even the world’s greatest magic users by a fair margin. However, it’s not Shin’s bloodline or some cheat-like gift from the gods that makes Shin so strong, it’s his knowledge of basic physics and the Japanese language.
Image source: TVアニメ『賢者の孫』公式 on Twitter
Magic in Wise Man’s Grandchild is treated as an additional layer on top of the physics of our world–basically, all natural laws work the same in the fantasy world as they do in our own. Gravity affects objects relative to their mass, fire is due to chemical combustion, calories are converted by living creatures into energy, and so on.
However, as a medieval-level society, the fantasy world’s science is in its infancy. They have no knowledge of atoms, molecules, and chemical reactions. They have no idea about things like jet propulsion or general relativity. Shin, on the other hand, does.
Image source: TVアニメ『賢者の孫』公式 on Twitter
To cast a spell, you need a mental image of not only what you want to happen but how that is supposed to take place. The clearer the mental image, the stronger the spell. And no one can make a more detailed and correct image than Shin because he knows what is happening on the microscopic–and often molecular–level.
When most people cast a fireball, they imagine the fire and the explosion. Shin thinks about the atoms involved–about what is needed to make the fire burn hotter and the explosion more powerful. He makes not only the image of the fireball but of the surrounding area to create the air composition needed to unleash the spell’s potential.
Image source: TVアニメ『賢者の孫』公式 on Twitter
The way of imagining works even when it comes to creating his own magic. One of Shin’s most world-breaking spells is instantaneous movement between any two locations regardless of distance. He does this by creating a gate between his current location and a location he has visited before.
But this isn’t “teleportation”–i.e., disassembling people on the molecular level one place and then rebuilding them at another. The image of doing that is far beyond what even Shin can do in his head. Instead, he uses knowledge of wormhole theory and general relativity to bend spacetime till the two distant points are one in the same and then using the gate to burst through–he even gives the old Event Horizon/Interstellar wormhole explanation using a pencil and a piece of paper.
On the smaller level, he uses is knowledge of jet propulsion to attach wind magic-made jets to the bottoms of his shoes, allowing him to–if not exactly fly–then to jump great distances and even change direction in mid-air. He also attaches vibration magic to his sword making it far sharper than other cheap swords.
Image source: TVアニメ『賢者の孫』公式 on Twitter
Of course, it’s not only his knowledge of physics that makes him so strong: his knowledge of the Japanese language helps dramatically as well. You see, enchantment is done by attaching a spell to an item by writing magic symbols that signify the spell you are imagining. As it turns out, the language of enchanting magic is Japanese–even if spell casters use the fantasy world’s own phonetic alphabet when writing it down or enchanting.
However, Shin has no such handicap. He doesn’t have to use the phonetic letters. He can use Japanese kanji–the pictographic letters originally taken from Chinese. As a Japanese adult, he knows literally thousands of these letters and the various meanings each one has. He knows dozens of ways that each can be combined with one another to create complex words with layered meanings.
While other enchanters have learned the letters and their meanings to an extent, to them, Japanese is a second language. He is a native speaker of a language that no one else in the entire world speaks–and in a world where your understanding directly affects your magic–this means his enchantments are likewise on a completely different level.
Moreover, instead of one-sound-per-letter, each pictographic kanji can have several. This means that he can cram far more words into an item’s limited enchanting space–making the effects more numerous and pronounced. His extensive written vocabulary is a massive advantage as well.
Image source: TVアニメ『賢者の孫』公式 on Twitter
Knowing how the world works is what sets Shin apart from his contemporaries–and he knows this. For others to become stronger, all he has to do is teach them a bit about physics or language. However, in this world where knowledge quite literally is power, sharing what he knows can change the world forever–especially if it ends up in the wrong hands.
Wise Man’s Grandchild Can be seen in English on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Wakanim (EU).
Top image source: TVアニメ『賢者の孫』公式 on Twitter
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