Summer 2021 First Impressions – How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 13

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Kazuya’s grandfather implores him to start a family so that he won’t be alone in life, but once his grandfather dies, Kazuya finds himself without anyone else in the world. As it turns out, his purpose in life may actually exist elsewhere, because he’s summoned to the Elfrieden Kingdom by a powerful spell and deemed its “hero.” Yet, he holds that position in name only, as he’s actually meant to serve as a valuable trade item with the Gran Chaos Empire, which is owed financial aid in the continent’s ongoing war with the demon realm. Having studied to become a civil servant, Kazuya proposes a different solution – he’ll look through the Kingdom’s finances and try to figure out another way of repaying their debts that doesn’t involve his being traded like a pawn.

What Kazuya doesn’t expect is for the king to suddenly abdicate the throne and make him the new leader, along with arranging an engagement to his daughter, Princess Liscia. When Liscia returns from her military duties to protest this situation, she finds Kazuya about to collapse under a pile of paperwork. Kazuya recruits her to his cause and outlines his fundraising plans, which involves selling off some of the kingdom’s treasures in exchange for some short-term financial stability. This goes against Liscia’s military training, but for Kazuya he’s looking toward the long-term – feeding the kingdom’s people and preventing a revolt. His actions may seem unorthodox, but his plans may be what Elfrieden needs to position itself as a stable and resilient land, prepared for whatever the demon lord may bring down upon them in the future.

Impressions: Fantasy stories come in all flavors, and while I appreciate the drama and adventure of those that come from a more Lord of the Rings-style lineage, I also enjoy clever extrapolations of the formula that use their settings in more unorthodox ways. One weird subgenre that I’m a fan of is what I like to call “social studies: anime style;” series such as Spice and Wolf or Maoyu which use fantasy tropes to examine the ways in which industries and economies can play as large a role in local and world politics as weapons and militaries. It’s hard to fight and win a war when your people are starving, after all. I live in a time and a place where, as complicated as things actually are, there are some folks who think that living a good life is as simple as pledging allegiance to a flag and pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps. In fact, a good life for everyone means actively managing the movement of wealth and resources, as well as reaching outside oneself to consider people in differing circumstances. Have I made my political leanings obvious enough yet?

Anyway, Realist Hero seems to exist in the realm of social studies anime, riding on its protagonist’s real-world interest in politics and leadership to bring a country’s finances back into order. This first episode is mostly taken up by worldbuilding and character introductions, and in that respect it’s pretty standard stuff. I’m pretty sure I’ve got the character relationship arc between Kazuya and Liscia figured out in broad strokes already; his indifference and her coldness are as transparent as a glass window. It’s once Kazuya’s initial plans start to take shape that this episode starts to become more interesting.

I’ve often said that I’m a pretty cheap date; give me a story involving smart people being smart and I’m happy. Kazuya has kind of an attitude (honestly, who among us wouldn’t be a little bit salty if we’d been taken to another world against our will?), but considering his circumstances he seems willing to use his knowledge for the greater good and comes across as intelligent and acting in good faith, and I can appreciate that. It’s enough of a charm point that I’m finding myself a lot more interested in this series than I was just reading about its premise “on paper.”

Pros: I’ve probably harped enough on the fact that modern isekai has reached the point where its standard tropes have branched out in a lot of quirky, interesting directions, but I’m going to mention it again here and not apologize for it. This series features a circular walled city that could be mistaken for the walled cities of many other isekai series. Its protagonist, summoned into another world like so many others, is mildly douche-y as his character archetype demands. And yet, I think avoiding the typical power fantasy angle and giving Kazuya a different way to be better than everyone else is enough of a divergence that I’m kind of digging it.

The episode goes kind of hard with its CG backgrounds, and while the animation overall is pretty standard and unremarkable, I feel like its twisty, turn-y camera angles, used when Kazuya is having a big important idea, is memorable in a corny way. It’s ham-fisted, but I’ll take ham-fisted a million times over some of the gross material I’ve been subject to while reviewing anime over the years.

Cons: I wonder how long this series’ overflowing self-awareness can last without wearing out its welcome. This story knows its tropes and wields them out in the open like a blunt object. I find that sort of approach to be pretty funny – to a point. But jeering self-awareness can only carry a story so far before feeling too cynical, and I wonder a little bit if this tendency toward biting the hand that feeds it might start to feel boring in short order.

Content Warnings: Casual misogyny (if you consider a betrothal against a woman’s will to be that – it’s pretty clear that it’s not a difficult contract to break, so YMMV). Politics/political commentary (mostly a joke on my part, but people seem to get exceedingly irate when they’re reminded that all art is, in its way political. This series does dip its toes into examining classism and other broadly real-life ideas, though).

Would I Watch More? – To my great surprise, I added this to my watch list. Like I always say, each new anime season comes with its own surprises. I wasn’t that interested in this series at the outset, but I think I’m in for at least another episode or two at this point.