Hello everyone! It’s Mafuyu from Goods Republic!

This time! As we're seeing more and more winter 2025 anime being released, among them, a title that has been developed as a social game since 2019 has finally been turned into an anime, and the first episode has aired!

This time, rather than the content itself, I want to share some points that I personally found great about the anime!

First of all, as I just mentioned, Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku (Promise of Wizard) started as a social game in 2019! That means it's a title with a history of almost six years, and in January 2025, it finally became an anime!

To briefly explain the early part of the game and the story of the first episode of the anime...... The protagonist (in the game, you can change the name and gender of the player) Akira, is a girl who loves cats. One day, she takes an elevator to visit a friend's house, but she arrives in a magical world where wizards exist!? Moreover, this world will soon face a “great calamity” that will nearly destroy it.

Akira is summoned to this other world as a “Sage” and is asked by the wizards to help oppose the great calamity that is about to occur. She knows nothing, yet soon...... destruction will come to the world she is in. For the sake of the people living there, Akira, as a “Sage”, decides to support the wizards, but......?

And my thoughts after watching it are that it was quite a good first episode! As the first episode of a new anime series, it was easy to understand the world, circumstances, objectives, and challenges! (Naturally, major spoilers touching on the heart of the story in the latter half were well concealed, which is great!)

In recent years, there have been many anime adaptations of social games, and often the “tutorial” part of the game is omitted. While this is not bad as it prioritizes narrative tempo, it can feel a bit unfriendly to those completely unfamiliar with the story (though such people might not watch the anime).

However, the first episode of Promise of Wizard did a good job of depicting this tutorial part! For those who have already played the game, it might feel slow since it covers just the very beginning, but I think it excellently expressed the excitement of arriving in a world with wizards for the first time! You can somewhat understand the setting and world in just 30 minutes, and it makes you interested and eager to know what happens next! You can even get ahead by playing the game. I think this is a good balance for a first episode!

So! Promise of Wizard turned out to be a better first episode than expected! I recommend it even to those who are completely new to it as it was understandable, so definitely check it out! It was a great episode that made you really feel the magic as you see them flying on brooms!