Chivalry of a Failed Knight

Chivalry of a Failed Knight (Japanese: 落第騎士の英雄譚, Hepburn: Rakudai Kishi no Kyabaruryi, lit. "The Heroic Tales of the Failure Knight", also known by the English title A Tale of Worst One in the anime version) is a Japanese light novel series written by Riku Misora and illustrated by Won. It was published in nineteen volumes released from July 2013 to December 2023. The story is set in a fantasy world where the titular "failed knight" Ikki Kurogane meets Stella Vermillion, who is considered a prodigy. The two make up for each other's weaknesses and form a relationship while training to become great knights. A manga adaptation was published from March 2014 to December 2017. An anime adaptation aired from October to December 2015.
The light novels have sold 1.5 million print copies by February 2017.
In an alternate Earth, humans called "Blazers" have supernatural abilities. These Blazers can materialize weapons known as a "Device" which are made through a person's soul. At Hagun Academy (破軍学園, Hagun Gakuen), Blazers are selected as representatives for the Seven Star Sword Art Festival, an annual tournament event held by the seven Mage Knight Academies in Japan to determine the strongest Apprentice Knight. Hagun's performance ranking in the festival is falling and the academy's director, Kurono Shinguji, is determined to find a solution to the problem. Ikki Kurogane is the academy's F-Rank Blazer and is considered "The Worst One" for his low magical abilities, but Stella Vermillion, the princess of the European country Vermillion, is one of the top A-Rank Blazers.
On Stella's first day at Hagun Academy, she is arranged to share a room with Ikki as a transfer student of the academy. When Ikki inadvertently discovers Stella half-dressed, he is challenged to duel where the loser has to be obedient to the winner for life. She ends up losing the duel, but they agree to become roommates as Ikki's one and only merciful desire. The series follows their adventures as they train to qualify as the school's representatives for the festival.
After winning an award for his previous light novel series Danzai no Exceed, Riku Misora decided to write a sport-related novel in the vein of Akamitsu Awamura's Mugen no Linkage.
The original release of the series was in a light novel format, which was written by Riku Misora and illustrated by Won. Chivalry of a Failed Knight had been published by SB Creative's GA Bunko imprint since July 16, 2013. In December 2021, Misora stated that the final volume of the series is set to be released before the end of 2022. The series ended with the nineteenth volume, released on December 15, 2023. Sol Press acquired the license to the series and released the first three volumes in English on November 16, 2019. They released five volumes in total before going defunct. On November 17, 2023, J-Novel Club announced at Anime NYC that they licensed the series for English publication.
The series was adapted into a manga that was illustrated by Megumu Soramichi and printed in the monthly manga magazine Monthly Shonen Gangan from 2014 to 2017. It was collected in eleven tankōbon volumes. An anthology manga volume illustrated by various artists was published on December 13, 2014.
An anime adaptation was announced in March 2015. Produced by Silver Link and Nexus, the series ran on AT-X from October 3 to December 19, 2015 in Japan for 12 episodes; the episodes were later released by Media Factory through six DVD and Blu-ray volumes. Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime in September 2015 for digital and home media release in North America. The series was simulcast only on Hulu though as it aired in Japan and also aired on Crunchyroll. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray in North America on June 13, 2017.
After Crunchyroll was acquired by Sony Pictures Television, the parent company of Funimation, in 2021, Chivalry of a Failed Knight, among several Sentai titles, was dropped from the service on March 31, 2022.
According to Japanese light novel news website LN News, the series had 1.5 million copies in print by February 2017. Oricon ranked Chivalry of a Failed Knight as the 29th and 17th top-selling light novel series in November 2015 and May 2016, respectively. In addition, its anime adaptation also appeared on top-selling charts.
Anime News Network had six of their editors review the first episode of the anime adaptation: Lynzee Loveridge compared the series to The Asterisk War and while she considered the Chivalry characters to be more likeable, she was critical of the blended in CG artwork and considered Stella's becoming Ikki's servant to be "cringe-worthy"; Nick Creamer expressed criticism towards the episode and called it a "concentrated capsule of hoary clichés"; Hope Chapman called the episode's plot "soul-suckingly lame" and considered Asterisk as a much nicer series; Rebecca Silverman wrote that the first episode's plot was already done by Asterisk and Lance N' Masques and while she praises Stella for some initial character development, she says this gets lost with her "tsundere ranting"; and Zac Bertschy said that the anime is "a total waste of [the viewer's] time, but it serves a purpose, however unintentional.". The sixth reviewer, Theron Martin, agreed that "formulaic and generic" wouldn't be wrong ways to describe the story and he also praised Stella's underlying motivations. Martin concluded that while the series has potential, it needs to find "fresher angles" to stand out from other similar storylines. Silverman reviewed the anime's future episodes; she called the final episode "a triumphant one in terms of Ikki's battle against his own insecurities, his place at school, and his relationship with Stella", and would later go on to say that she was "pretty happy with this ending and [she] wouldn't be sad if another season materialized somewhere along the way."