The anime follows the seemingly uninteresting eighteen-year-old Kazuya Souma whose parents have long passed, with his grandfather being the most recent and last of his direct family members to follow, leaving Souma alone. The anime’s introduction is a lot subtler compared to most of its isekai counterparts, but the very same introduction does a good job of outlining how alone Souma is and why he has little left to live for currently. This then sets up what happens next very nicely.
Kazuya’s mundane life is quickly interrupted when he is summoned to another world by the Elfrieden kingdom, which is in dire need of financial management. The Kingdom is under heavy pressure to grant financial aid to the empire to help its efforts in securing victory over the rampaging demon army. Unfortunately, the Elfrieden kingdom does not have the means to do this, so instead of trying to come up with a solution, they summon a “Hero” to pawn off to the empire, hoping it’ll solve their issue. Of course, Souma prefers not to be used as a bargaining chip, so he cleverly comes up with a solution to gather the necessary funds. He does such a good job, in fact, that he’s promoted from hero to king when the currently ruling king decides he’s more suited for the job than him and even goes a step further by forming a royal engagement between Souma and his daughter (no doubt to keep the royal bloodline).
As you can probably guess, while the anime starts out slow and somewhat unremarkable, it quickly changes pace as our protagonist leaves his homeworld and lonely life behind to start a new one with breakneck speed. Some of Souma’s very noticeable traits are his diligence and logical, calculating mind. The anime shows us how he uses these traits masterfully, like how he quickly assessed the situation when he arrived and how he created a plan that’ll benefit him the most in the situation. We’re then clearly shown the process of how he executed said plan.
Souma easily gathers the aid money by selling off very specific treasures that hold no historical significance to the kingdom, which was a simple yet admittedly brilliant way of resolving the kingdom’s more pressing issue, which is why I like Souma as a protagonist so far. The way he uses pure calculating logic to assess and suppress his problems, monetary or otherwise, is a very desirable trait. As a realist myself, I tend to be more drawn to characters who use their skills in deduction rather than sheer idealism seen with most anime protagonists.
Souma may not look like a hero, but he’s most certainly one. Not one with great physical prowess, broken godly powers, or even a smartphone but one of sheer calculation and wit, and he’ll use those skills to save the kingdom he’s become the reluctant ruler of. We’re shown this in the second episode when he uses his new found magical abilities to do paperwork more efficiently, which I found funny as it speaks a lot about his character.
Aside from highlighting its main character, the anime also gives us a tiny glimpse of its world which is the usual mix of fantasy elements in a renaissance setting not unlike other anime in the genre. However, this is the very same reason I find its world-building to be lackluster since it copies the same isekai tropes we see every season.
As for the animation, J.C. Staff’s character designs are still as expressive and impressive as ever, especially during a funny scene near the end of the first episode. The episode’s direction also does an excellent job of contrasting the two parts of Souma’s life thus far. Overall, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom is an excellent start to my summer anime season. The premise is original and interesting, and the protagonist is an outlier among others, securing itself as one anime I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on this season.
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