left to right - Matty, Ruri, Alma
Once upon a time, there was a mage who excelled in combat known as Sage. He devoted himself to the pursuit of magic and combat arts, learning every one in existence. However, he came to the conclusion that he could never achieve his goals in the body he had. In order to surpass these limitations, he sealed his own soul away to be reborn in the distant future. When he was, he found everything completely different from the way he’d left. Specifically, the understanding of magic had gone through a massive backslide and left them nearly powerless.
Reborn with all of his memories as Matthias Hildesheim (aka Matty), the son of a duke, he decided to attend a school for magic users.
The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest (Shikkakumon no Saikyō Kenja ~Sekai Saikyō no Kenja ga Sara ni Tsuyoku Naru Tame ni Tensei Shimashita~) is a Web Serial Novel written by Shinkoshoto, which was first published on the site Shousetsuka ni Narou from 2016 to 2020. It was later adapted as a series of Light Novels with illustrations by Huuka Kazabana, which began publication in 2017 and is ongoing. An anime adaptation began airing in January 2022.
The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest contains examples of:
- Adaptational Wimp: In the manga, Alma and Ruri help Matty during the First and Second Royal Academy battle by taking out their opponents then fleeing to let Matty take on the Demon without them being in the way. In the anime, they don't even enter the ring and Matty defeats them all himself.
- Always a Bigger Fish: An awareness of this is the main reason Gaius reincarnated into Matthias the first place. He might have no equal in combat and defeated the most powerful monster in twenty-seven seconds, but he knows there are probably creatures out there more powerful than he can imagine and knows that his First Crest cannot grow any further. So he reincarnated hoping to get the Fourth Crest which is better suited for combat and increase his strength.
- Big Bad: Zardias orchestrates most of the events of the series through his demon followers and is stronger and smarter than any Matty's previous opponents. Even Matty himself is unable to scratch him without the help of one of his most powerful swords.
- Calling Your Attacks: Called "Incanted Casting" in-setting. Matty notes that while anyone can do it, it's not energy-efficient and leaves the user vulnerable mid-chant.
- Compressed Adaptation: The animated series cuts out a lot of material at the beginning and crams about ten chapters into a single episode.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The rematch between the first and second academies where Mattias and his party have been forbidden from participating. First academy sends 152 of its top 1st crest students. Second academy sends... five (two 2nd, two 3rd, one 4th crest) lower tier students. Second academy students proceed to mop the floor with their opponents.
- Entertainingly Wrong: The whole concept of the Crest System in the current day. There are strengths and weaknesses to each Crest, but everyone is taught that the First Crest is the strongest and the Fourth Crest, the one best suited for combat, is the weakest. It later turns out this was a Long Game plan by the Demons to weaken humanity's magic superiority and make them easy to conquer.
- Exact Words: Matthias insists Iris, who has at this point just sent a seasoned warrior flying without any apparent effort, is just an "ordinary girl", leaving out that she is an ordinary dragon girl.
- Fantastic Slurs: Calling a Dragon a "winged-lizard" is pretty much the N-Word to dragons.
- Functional Magic: The Inherent Gift type of magic determined at birth depending on which of the four Crests they own. It can only be changed if they reincarnate. The four Crests each excel in a form of magic while also determining how humans grow in magic:
- The First Crest excels at creating armor, weapons, and Enchantment magic. People are great for support but limited in combat. People with this Crest are early bloomers for magic, which means they start off strong but peter out as they develop.
- The Second Crest is great at using long-range magic attacks, though they fire at slowly and can't handle large groups of enemies.
- The Third Crest wielders can cast magic consecutively at a long-range, but their power output is low.
- The Fourth Crest means that they have the firepower of the Second Crest and the rapid fire of the Third Crest, though they are more proficient at close-range combat. Humans with the Fourth Crest are late bloomers, which means their development of magic starts weak but becomes stronger later on as their magic develops.
- Invincible Hero: Matty is definitely this. He decided to reincarnate after he was unable to defeat the biggest, meanest monster available in less than 27 seconds. Now that he got his combat power boost it’s even crazier. Thankfully, he usually takes a step back and lets his allies take on the enemies, plus there are drawbacks to his younger body. He’s always there to intervene if things get too out of hand, though.
- I Was Just Joking: When they need a very large Magic Stone to complete the barrier, Matty looks at Iris and states she should have one big enough for them to use. When the girls freak out Matty admits he was kidding.
- Legendary Weapon: Matty made a vast number of different weapons during his first life, and when he was reborn into a low-magic future he was surprised to find a number of his creations (not even his best ones) had been elevated to the status of legendary national treasures.
- Magitek: This appears to have been the norm during Matty's first life. Definitely not the case during his second.
- Out-of-Character Alert: As Matthais's exploits become more widely known, people pretending to be Matty come out of the woodwork to try and capitalize on his fame for themselves. Fortunately, Matthias's home guild quickly works out a way to identify the fakes and spread the information around: Because of Matty's tendency to act without anything like normal sense, anyone who displays it, such as carefully considering what quests to take and properly assessing their risks, is a fraud.
- Power Tattoo: There are 4 marks. Every human born in this world has one and each mark has a particular set of traits attached to them. Matty was born originally with the mark that excelled in the creation of magic items, but is not equipped for combat. He caused his reincarnation so that he could get one of the marks more suited to combat.
- Reincarnation: This is what Matty (then under the name of Gaius) does that kicks off the plot of the series.
- RPG Mechanics 'Verse: In their world, you gain power by killing monsters to gain exp and level up. That’s one of the many reasons why dungeons are incredibly valuable.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: Who would guess a student named Devilis was a demon?
- They Look Like Us Now: The Big Bads are demons. This is one of the more subtle tactics they use.
- Underestimating Badassery: Due to demonkind sabotaging the education system, Matty's crest is assumed to be the weakest, but it's best suited for direct combat, so his opponents will frequently underestimate him before they get trounced in a fight.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
- Monsters can be sentient, but they are usually slain by the main characters, often as resources. Unique exception, Iris, a talking dragon, able to transform in a beautiful young girl. On the other hand, another talking dragon is quickly summoned and slain for resources. (Iris declares to be conflicted about it).
- Being able to assume a human form probably helps. Although demons are able to as well, they are continuously declaring their homicidal intentions and they do not discuss.
