Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World

キミと僕の最後の戦場、あるいは世界が始まる聖戦 (Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjou, Aruiwa Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen)

6.7(158,387)

MAL Score

Ranked #6517

Popularity #776

Action
Fantasy
Romance
Military

Episodes: 12
Duration: 23 min per ep
Aired: Oct 7, 2020 to Dec 23, 2020
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Astral power flows through the world and is wielded by astral mages, a gift the Empire fears for its potential to devastate. Those who manifest it are hunted and oppressed, driving the persecuted to form the Nebulis Sovereignty in search of refuge. For more than a century, the Empire and Nebulis have remained locked in an unrelenting war.

Iska, a gifted Imperial knight, is imprisoned after committing the grave offense of freeing a captive witch. A year later, he’s unexpectedly released on one condition: track down the formidable mage known as the “Ice Calamity Witch.” He accepts, hoping the mission might become a path toward ending the conflict—but his target is Aliceliese “Alice” Lou Nebulis XI, a princess of Nebulis who also longs for peace, even as she stands ready to fight the Empire.

Drawn together by chance and conviction, Iska and Alice find their encounters reshaping the battlefield around them. As their shared desire for a world without suffering grows harder to ignore, the bond forming between sworn enemies begins to challenge everything the war has demanded of them.

Otaku Consensus

Otaku Den consensus: SILVER LINK.'s 12-episode adaptation sells itself on polished character art, clean action staging, and the Mirai Minato/Shin Oonuma direction team's emphasis on romantic tension over battlefield sprawl. Its most consistent appeal is the Iska-Alice dynamic, while the recurring criticism is that the writing is serviceable rather than exceptional, leaving the political war material less memorable than the central chemistry.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Our Last Crusade if you want a glossy fantasy romance where duels, uniforms, and magical bloodlines are treated as the language of attraction, not just worldbuilding. It is best for viewers who like the enemies-to-lovers pull of Romeo x Juliet but prefer light-novel pacing, sharper magical combat, and a less tragic emotional temperature. The show also scratches a nearby itch to The Irregular at Magic High School in its mix of military hierarchy, supernatural talent, and stylized swordplay, though it puts far more energy into romantic symmetry than technical power systems. If you want war drama without constant grimness, and romance without leaving the action genre behind, this is the clean, compact version: 12 episodes, a clear central pairing, and enough visual polish to carry its more familiar story beats.

Key Characters

I
Iska
Iska stands out as a military-romance lead because his appeal comes less from bravado than from restraint, discipline, and the contradiction of being a gifted Imperial knight who keeps choosing empathy.
A
Aliceliese "Alice" Lou Nebulis XI
Alice is the fan-favorite axis of the series: a royal-class mage whose tsundere edge, combat poise, and romantic vulnerability give the show most of its charge.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
The anime was produced by SILVER LINK., a studio well suited to the series' light-novel visual priorities: bright magical effects, clean character silhouettes, and a polished romantic-fantasy finish over gritty war realism.
2
Direction is credited to both Mirai Minato and Shin Oonuma, giving the adaptation a dual emphasis on comedic-romantic timing and stylized action presentation rather than a purely tactical military tone.
3
The character pipeline is unusually visible in the credits: Ao Nekonabe's original character designs were adapted for animation by Kaori Satou, with Shinpei Aoki handling sub character design, which helps explain the show's emphasis on expressive, merchandise-friendly designs.
4
Yoshihiro Ujiie is credited for mechanical design, a detail that matters because the setting's military identity is not carried by magic alone; the production also foregrounds uniforms, weapons, and Empire hardware.
5
AniList's tag distribution captures the show's unusual blend: War at 99%, Magic at 92%, Witch at 86%, Politics at 71%, and Heterosexual romance at 70%, marking it as a romance-forward fantasy war series rather than a single-genre action title.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The anime adapts a light novel by Kei Sazane with original character designs by Ao Nekonabe, and the 2020 copyright line credits both creators alongside KADOKAWA and the Kimisen Project.
Fun fact 2: Its first season aired as a compact Fall 2020 run from October 7 to December 23, finishing at 12 episodes rather than stretching into a two-cour war epic.
Fun fact 3: Crunchyroll's release supported a broad international audience, listing Japanese, English, Latin American Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese audio, plus subtitles in languages including English, German, French, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Thai, and Vietnamese.
Fun fact 4: The reception profile is notably split: MyAnimeList lists a 6.72 score from 157,389 votes with popularity rank #776, while AniList records a similar 66/100 and 2,094 favourites.
Fun fact 5: The official streaming advisory flags sexualized imagery, violence, and suggestive dialogue, which aligns with the show's position as a light-novel fantasy romance aimed at older teen audiences rather than a purely military adventure.