Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki

After the death of his grandfather, 19-year-old Kazuya Souma—an aspiring civil servant—is left all alone with no one to call family. Out of the blue, he is transported to the Elfrieden Kingdom, a small ailing country in another world, to be a "hero." An ongoing war with the demon army has put the entire world in peril, and Kazuya was summoned to aid in the conflict as an offering from Elfrieden to its allies.

Dissatisfied with being used as tribute, Kazuya decides to help the kingdom revamp its declining economy—not by way of adventuring or war, but through administrative reform. Abruptly declared the King of Elfrieden and betrothed to the princess, the "Realist Hero" Kazuya sets out to assemble a group of talented citizens who will assist him in his bureaucratic battles to get the kingdom back on its feet.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Elfrieden, Liscia Main

Minase, Inori Japanese

Souma, Kazuya Main

Kobayashi, Yuusuke Japanese

Doma, Juna Supporting

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Udgard, Aisha Supporting

Hasegawa, Ikumi Japanese

Amidonia, Roroa Supporting

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Inui, Tomoe Supporting

Kahara, Moe Japanese

Kwonmin, Hakuya Supporting

Okitsu, Kazuyuki Japanese

Vargas, Carla Supporting

Aimi Japanese

Walter, Excel Supporting

Horie, Yui Japanese

Euphoria, Jeanne Supporting

Ishikawa, Yui Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Okada, Kouji Producer

Ozawa, Fumihiro Producer

Yoshida, Shouhei Producer

Reviews

Sep 25, 2021

Stark700

Recommended

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 or ... going 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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 26, 2021

ElAyVee

Mixed Feelings

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 25, 2021

bulkyhog

Not Recommended

Ah, isekai. What was once a promising and delightful genre has now become the punching bag of the anime community. Riddled with memes about truck-kun, harems upon harems, stupidly overpowered perfect MCs, and ridiculously long names, it’s easy to see how this genre has become one of the stalest and over-farmed genres in all of anime.

But when I first read the description for Genjitsu, I was intrigued. I’ve always been a fan of realism and reform through policy, add in my economics minor which I’m studying for uni, and you’ve got me hooked on the concept of a hero saving a world through policy reform.

But ... at the back of my head, there was a voice warning me against setting my hopes high for this series. And as soon as the first episode concluded, I knew I was in for a trainwreck.

Genjitsu is a horrible anime, let alone an isekai, because it is predicated on never-ending, bloated dialogue and paradoxical scenarios. Not to mention the classic harem featuring all the tropes, from loli to tsundere to elves and milf-ish baddies.

Light spoilers ahead (not that you’d want to watch this series anyways).

I’ve seen better story dialogue writing from 4th-grade students. Just take a look at EP 6. A convenient mouthpiece chick shows up in the tavern, coincidentally at the same time as the MC king, and proceeds to go on one of the longest exposition dumps in the series. In general, the dialogue and exposition is just so 2-dimensional and bland, it sounds like it was procedurally generated using an algorithm instead of human hands. Don’t even get me started about the romance writing: I’ve read hentai with better writing and character development than this shit.

Genjitsu’s worldbuilding is also filled with more holes than swiss cheese. Everything we’re told just seems to contradict what we were previously told.

The entire plot of the story is centred around a supposed food shortage that drove the nation to the brink of collapse. So drastic in fact that they’re ready to sell off a hero only they can summon. Great. Except when Souma takes over, we see literally jack shit evidence of a severe food crisis. Where’s the rioting? The angry citizens? The STARVING CITIZENS? You’re trying to tell me there’s a food shortage when the overwhelming majority of the low-middle class look totally healthy. We had a whole episode dedicated to showcasing “starving people” more untraditional food options, but you’re trying to tell me people weren’t starving enough to be desperately trying to eat whatever they could get their hands on? Pathetic, and it’s a disgrace to people who have faced/are actively facing poverty, malnourishment, or famine.

What about EP 7? The new port isn’t supposed to conflict/compete with the port under the jurisdiction of the water duchess, but Souma proceeds to explain how they’ll make this port the “heart of the nation”, essentially contradicting his previous assurance to Liscia. What a joke. Also, realist doesn’t do any research into surrounding settlements or try to gain approval near the planned location which leads to this “conflict” that must be resolved. Really, this is just a masked lazy attempt at making MC seem imperfect and to apply the “plan doesn’t go according to plan” trope so his main harem girl can appreciate his “imperfect character.” Apparently, I’m also supposed to believe it costs more to mass mint medals (which are never made out of pure precious metals btw, it’s always a mix) than it does to hand out royal wine reserved for the royal family and important guests? I guess I could sell my shit and become a millionaire in this world.

The only bright spot in this anime is the relatively accurate depiction of basic micro and macroeconomic theories and laws. Outside of that, you have an anime with no inherent value whatsoever. Lacklustre plot, lacklustre characters, lacklustre writing, lacklustre animation and OST, and dog-water-ass worldbuilding. For an anime that’s trying to differentiate itself on being realistic, it sure fell sorely short of the piss-poor standards it set out for itself.

If you’re looking to downgrade your IQ and waste your time, go ahead and crank this show on. Otherwise, you’d do best to stay the fuck away.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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	Poll: Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jul 17, 2021	141 replies	by ELGarrincha »» Oct 24, 9:46 AM
	Poll: Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jul 24, 2021	101 replies	by BigBoyAdvance »» Oct 8, 12:02 PM
	Poll: Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Aug 28, 2021	76 replies	by Tsinelas »» Jun 20, 2:36 AM
	Poll: Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Aug 14, 2021	62 replies	by Tsinelas »» Jun 13, 6:52 AM
	Poll: Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Aug 7, 2021	73 replies	by Tsinelas »» Jun 8, 9:38 PM