How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom

I need a herooooo!!! I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the ni, ight~! He's gotta be a chick magnet And he's gotta have no personality And he's gotta be...a realist!?!? Realist Hero might seem like it's not worth your time on the surface. The premise certainly sounds familiar. Man gets transported to a fantasy world and is tasked with helping it out with his knowledge and/or power. He meets many impressionable young girls along the way, including a knight and an animal girl loli, and they all fall for him for inexplicable reasons. If this storyline sounds bland and soulless to you, thenthat's because you've seen this anime before in the form of Death March, Isekai wa Smartphone, and a plethora of others. But wait! This anime does one thing so different, so original, that it completely flips the script. The hero is a realist. "Pray tell, what does this mean?" Your curious mind might be wondering. Why, this essentially means that the protagonist understands basic concepts on how to manage a territory and its resources and spends entire episodes explaining these things to the stupid cast who are in awe of his intelligence because they apparently know absolutely nothing. Some even pledge their lives to him when he simply tells them rudimentary practices. And that is the entire show. Wow, how exciting! This dude is certainly flipping the switch on stereotypical hero roles!! I love watching characters stand completely still and talk about farming for 20 minutes!!! The characters are all very memorable, they range from fat guy to girl with big boobs. The female lead dresses in a military outfit and wears her hair in a ponytail, which shows that she's a strong, independent woman. She still falls for the hero though and becomes completely dependent on him after 10 minutes because his penmanship technique is sooooo irresistible. Oh, and all of these characters have an aptitude, that one skill that makes them truly special. And when I learned about how weird and seemingly worthless their talents are when it comes to bettering a nation, my expectations were certainly subverted! Wow, stuff like this almost makes me forget about the substandard production values! Through watching, I discovered something truly eye opening. The two leads are voiced by Inori Minase and Kobayashi Yuusuke, who are the seiyuu for Rem and Subaru from Re:Zero. This has led me to conclude that the casting director is a RemXSubaru shipper. This is clearly the most important piece of information that has come out of The Realist Hero. And now that I've told you, you don't have to bother watching it!

Y'know, I really wanted to believe that this show had at least a calibre of doing things "same same but different". But as it stands, Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki (or its short form "Realist Hero" I'll be referring to from now on) just sorta went downhill as the series progresses for me. Maybe you'd like it, but personally I have watched shows that have similar settings, but just executed a lot more better a.k.a Log Horizon. And also, while I appreciate that there's a variety of Isekai in the Summer season, there's hits and misses, and this sadly falls under the latter. To befair, what novelist Dojyomaru has on hand is quite the interesting story plot about an Isekai where politics and power play come into mind: it's basically Kingdom Administration (or more appropraitely Re:Construction). A story about an Otherworlder (Kazuya Souma) who got Isekai-ed to not just play the role of the hero, but instead, to be the next king in a kingdom where it's falling apart at the seams against all odds of threats coming both left and right. It's not just the usual typical trope of the Demon Lord's army's uprising, but also internal problems that leaves a kingdom incapable of supporting itself. With some words of wisdom from Kazuya's grandmother that "A man needs to make a family and never fail to protect it no matter what.", he is summoned into the fantasy world as a hero first to help solve a crisis. But here's the twist: the humanities student Kazuya's no OP character, but he has his knowledge of realism and machiavellianism at his disposal to make whatever calls he desires as the roles are consequently handed down to him to help a kingdom come out of its deadly course, from a hero to a realist king. It's very similar to Civilization if you've played the game before. This series starts out really slow and boring, because that's where the magic happens for Kazuya's crusade to save the Kingdom of Elfrieden that equals constant development over the course of its run. Nevertheless, even if Kazuya's new at the job of being king, he has to constantly decree numerous amout of reforms, conduct negotiations and do everything a king is supposed to do to win the war against the demons and other kingdoms that could wipe a developing kingdom. In order to understand this series generally, it hinges on these words: "Slow but interesting". As far as I understand the pacing of the anime, as compared to the light novel of the same name, it can drag on for episodes with the rhetoric that to "wait until something happens". And while that may be the series Achilles' Heel, it's also the backbone of how some people would come to enjoy the series for what it is: consistency, that plays a major part of how Realist Hero is written to be that slow-burner, easily droppable, but fascinating work if you can stick it out "for just one more chapter" (that sadly, people don't have big brains to understand that it also is a creative concept of some authors who don't like to infodump all at one shot). The world-building of Realist Hero does not only kick its legs at the intended story plot, it has to include characters that drive its narrative together with Kazuya's realism mentality of kingdom administrative reforms. I have to say that the Elfrieden Council of advisories to the current king are quite the livid frustration, because kingdoms in the past ages can be a lot authoritarian with its leadership and regime, and in this case, they are the last ones that could help save the kingdom of what's left. But to summon a hero-turned-king such as Kazuya to solve their issues, it's a huge demand on his shoulders to pounce on all that at once, and him using his avaliable powers and resources to save that which is and could be lost is truly a godsend. There is also the traditional tropey Isekai formula of the harem to help Kazuya, and in this case, a mixed bag of execution of some good and some bad. Kicking things off with the Elfrieden crown princess Liscia, she is the one who stood by Kazuya's side the most ever since the position takeover, and is quite the amusing character to see. I mean, sure, getting forcefully engaged with Kazuya is not necessarily the right move from a family such as her's. It really looks like her royal family just gave up all hope and passed the baton onto Kazuya, which her father King Albert just approves and abdicates the throne to him, making Liscia the next queen in the process to this unequivocal guy who is both IQ and EQ smart to handle. This forces Liscia to a corner, but what choices does she have than to go with her hopeless father's wishes. Eventually, her relationship blossoms with Kazuya becoming the typical boy-girl relationship, but on a much higher pedestal being king and queen of Elfrieden. And for those who like your waifus, Liscia can bear a polyamory relationship, so that's a first if I've ever heard of someone who can accept being a concubine, but of course adamantly wanting to be 1st place (like any other true wife), Alas, there are just too many characters in this show that while each of them makes useful contributions to Kazuya's kingdom reforms, this move is generally good for such a fantasy world of historical origins. But I'd feel like that the adage of "too many cooks spoil the broth" is prevalent, and this is a series that awfully needs that lot in order for the story and plot to work. As mentioned of the harem, there're some potential waifus that make up the bulk of Kazuya's ministerial team (Aisha Udgard who acts as Kazuya's bodyguard, Juna Doma who acts as Kazuya's peace-time minister-cum-idol symbol to name a few) plus some men (Hakuya Kwonmin as Kazuya's strategist; Poncho Panacotta as Kazuya's literate "Shokugeki no Souma", it's in the name), it's equivocally hard to get invested in most characters if they're just serving their purposes, and regrettably the anime does that a lot which results in loss of focus. It's a shame, really. Also, J.C.Staff, I should give you a new nickname: from "Justifying Creative Staff" to "Just Crap Stuff", because Realist Hero does feel decently produced. But it's clear where the budget is centrally focused at: the wonky 3DCG camerawork, which I don't know if going by in-house veteran director Takashi Watanabe's direction to include that does make the anime at the very least interesting to give a perspective. If all this was just an experiment for a guinea pig test of sorts, then I'm not sorry to say that it is weird to see such disparity in the face of inconsistency against the backdrops of the half-assed visuals and bad animation. This guy has done a lot of classic J.C.Staff shows from the mid-2000s, but as well as I want to trust that this director knows what he's doing, this just contributes to the miniscule side of failures. I've always said this: even if the anime fails outright, the music aspect can be its saving grace. Dolorously, this aspect is worse than so-so. I've heard a lot of songs from Inori Minase over the years, and the OP "Hello Horizon" is a good ol' catchy song, but compared to her repertoires before, this can be placed into the bottom of a B-roll double-sided CD. What I find absolutely offending is the ED song and its visuals, which can be very comparable to a PowerPoint presentation, just add some animation of its lyrics in there to complete the song. Just pure laziness. What the hell? All of this begs the question: "Why then contribute your work to a show where there's clearly no passion be to shown?" Realist Hero overall, can be a better show if given the right talents and a production staff team who are truly dedicated to the work. But as it stands of the current state of the anime industry, it's just rolls over to us the audience to pick up the original source material, because it's a promotional work first and foremost. We've seen big-hit works get phenomenal because of the anime doing justice to the source material (e.g. the most recent being Tokyo Revengers), but this just saddens LN fans (like a certain Typecero) and anime-onlies who wanted more from a political Isekai show such as Realist Hero. This show could've been a decent potential series, but the anime just squandered it to insensibility and pure stupefaction. Good thing Season 2 is coming in Winter 2022, so at least the story has a continuation to cure that disease-ridden mindset.

Quality trumps quantity and I'm sure most of us prefer to watch an anime that is enjoyable than something with tons of never ending episodes or seasons. In the anime industry today, we have countless isekai that adapts all sort of tropes. It's become so common that once you've seen a few, it felt like you've seen them all. What does that say about How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom? For starters, we have to understand that the show is somewhat atypical with its storytelling standards, at least for an isekai. Rather than presenting a plot with a hero trying to save the world orgoing on some fantasy adventure, he's trying to save a kingdom by rebuilding it. Think of the series as a kingdom management game where the protagonist is the player and controls assets, resources, and followers. When watching the show, it became obvious that our protagonist has a lot to learn to deal with the civil unrest and rebuilding of a kingdom. Meet Kazuya Souma, the man whose life changes forever after being transported to Kingdom of Elfrieden and becomes its ruler. At first glance, Kazuya doesn't come across as an unique individual. He looks like an average man but with a passionate personality and realist point of view. As a realist hero, he is also human and that means he makes mistakes. Being a ruler is no easy task and he learns the hard way when dealing with his followers. At the same time, he's an eager learner and always seeks solutions to problems. Luckily, he's not alone. Kazuya is aided by a diverse group of foreigners with different backgrounds and skills. These include the crown princess Lisica, songstress Juna Doma, dark elf chief Aisha, among others. What's important to understand is not how Kazuya treats them but how he develops relationships and use them to build his kingdom. And trust me, it's a complicated journey. Describing the character roster feels like trying being in an RPG game where each party member is an important asset. Perhaps the most prominent one is Lisicia, a strong willed girl but also somewhat inexperienced in her role. With Kazuya's guidance, she learns the way of the kingdom and supports him during his travels. From politics to military experience, Lisicia's character has a lot of potential and this season explores some of those aspects. Juna Doma represents the mature character of the show as she demonstrates virtue and elegance. She's also fairly intelligent, wise, and loyal to Kazuya, which are all traits imperative for her role. In contrast, there's the dark elf Aisha who serves more as a muscle. While she can be airheaded, Aisha is also very couragous and isn't afraid to fight for what she believes in, regardless how challenging it can be. To me, that represents the heart of the Kazuya's group for she is able to stand strong when a situation gets rough. Finally, we have Roroa and perhaps the odd one from the main character roster. Honestly, she stands out less compare to the others but is known to be cleverly manipulative at times. We don't see her often until the latter stages of the series, when she put her plans to motion. As a fantasy drama that combines military politics, management, relationship building, and character studies, it's not easy to flesh out the anime in just 13 episodes. Luckily, the anime itself knows what it needed to do to establish its main premise from the beginning. By throwing an ordinary guy like Kazuya in a fantasy setting, it tests his intelligence, integrity, and ultimately, showing us what type of ruler he can really be. When king Albert and prime minister Marx took the risk to assign Kazuya as a kingdom ruler, they made a calculated choice. To further more, he is offered by Albert to marry his daughter, Lisicia. Yes, you can bet that will set off some red flags as the romance element of the show can feel forced at times. Kazuya's humbleness and determination also draws other female characters to him such as Aisha. However, don't expect this any sort of Cinderella-like romance. This anime isn't a love story. Despite the limited amount of action, we do see combat at times when the call needs for it. One of the most prominent threat to the Kingdom of Elfrieden is Castor, as he presents to be a military challenge during the civil war. Gaius also proves to be a troubling individual to deal with especially when he declares to kill Kazuya. it isn't until Kazuya's clever thinking as a ruler that he stops the invasion and ultimately comes up with a compromise to save the kingdom. The war drama and battles often feels like old school fantasy mixed with magic and technology. Remember, this show takes place in a world where science is absent and Kazuya realized this from the beginning. It's just up to him to make use of his skills and be the voice for the voiceless. Adapted by studio J.C. Staff, they handled this show with care and tried to adapt the characters as they should be. The word here is 'tried' because at some occasions, it doesn't hit the bullesye. Characters such as Juna looks less appealing compared to their light novel or manga counterparts. Kazuya himself may be hard to accept as a king due to his average looks. Still, the anime maintains a fantasy level of credibility. It looks like a world built on the Unreal Engine with an acceptable level of technical quality. Still, if I was being honest, I'd say the show could've improved more in the art department. How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom is the type of anime that crafted a premise with kingdom management and building around a protagonist with his followers. It's a show that encompasses military drama, political topics, and character relationships. With 13 episodes, it did manage to capture the essence of the show. It's far from a masterpiece but stands above the endless amount of isekai shenanigans we see every season.

A good idea, a poor execution. Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki is plagued by poor pacing. For those who don't know, pacing is one of the most important things in this medium. When adapting a series or movie, be it live or animated you are going to have to cut stuff out or adapt the plot, it's one of the hardest things to do and some fans of the original source will be unhappy no matter what, I haven't read the source material but it's clear to me that the choices made of what to cut are... debatable at least. There is romance, I am fine with it,it's integral part of the story and enhances the plot, or at least it should, it doesn't, it steals screen time from the main plot, the issue with the series is that too much time is given to the building of these relations, with the main plot dragging on because more than half of the episode is given to the romance, if at least that plot went forward it would be more forgivable, but it doesn't, a good chunk of that subplot is skippable, where nothing noteworthy happens. So now we come to the main story, as I already said it moves slowly, the plot itself and idea behind it is fascinating and has real potential, which makes it even the more tragic for me. The protagonist is put on charge of a nation plagues by issues and threats, our hero must lead the nation out of this sinkhole. The plot revolves around political decisions and reforms and the fallout of those decisions, again great premise, but since the subpar romance takes the lead in the series we don't see much of it, instead of being shown the progress made by the protagonist we are often told it happened off-screen and we don't hear anything from those particular issues anymore, they are dealt with, the end. This is, again, thanks to the fact that the building of romance and friendship took the lead, thus important stuff is skipped, so we can have an episode dedicated to our MC day off. We also see very little in the way of international politics and relations, only at the end of the season we see a little, and the season ends before we can really see anything getting done due to the pacing. While I really enjoy the idea of the anime and would love to see how the MAIN plot progresses I don't think I would waste my time watching a second season after a first one that went nowhere. At the end of the day I give the story a 4, great potential in the main plot, forgettable romance subplot and bad pacing. Due to the wasted potential tho, I find it even more frustrating, enjoyment is thus, only a 3. Characters: Better than average, they aren't completely stupid, like in most anime, they have flaws but are intelligent, capable of making not asinine decisions, which is refreshing and doesn't break my sense of immersion like most anime, at the same they aren't anything to write home about, I haven't found anything particularly unique or outstanding about them, may be because they spend more time talking about food and praising the MC rather than doing anything noteworthy, very little development in anything but the romance. Again above average, I give it a 7. Art: 5 Sound: 6 Both average and forgettable. Overall 5: Wasted opportunity, boring.