Reality Bites
The war has finally happened and Souma is outmanned but not out imagined as he defends his borders and takes the fight to one of the Dukes. Our Realist Hero at least has the advantage of surprise and also apparently being a tactical genius because he read books before being summoned to another world (because somehow that gives your average Japanese citizen the ability to command forces on multiple fronts).
Actually, the war itself was kind of interesting. What was less impressive was the animation. This episode of How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom was definitely looking very ordinary with a lot of stills with some shaking over the top and some voice over shouting to give the impression of some kind of movement. It wasn’t quite as bad as the final of The Promised Neverland season 2. Actually if anything this episode was reminding me of Lord Marksman and Vanadis with less fun characters.
What is a Realist Hero to do?
The episode starts with the invasion of the kingdom by the idiot from the south. I think he was from a southern kingdom at least. Anyway, his big plan is stand outside a city and look menacing, intimidate the messenger, and then accept delay tactics that are obviously just in place while some other plot is developed. Yep, he’s an idiot.
It really does make it hard to appreciate Souma’s natural genius in Realist Hero when all his opponents are so pedestrian in their motives and actions.
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Not that this anime has proclaimed Souma a genius but given the breadth of his knowledge from agriculture to finance, economic and political reform, and now military tactics one has to assume as much. As much as most of his theories and ideas have been pretty basic from each of those fields, as I said it is the range of knowledges he’s demonstrated that are starting to make me tilt my head and wonder if he’s got an encyclopaedia stores inside his skull.
With the external enemy more or less on hold for a day, Souma still has to deal with Duke Carmine who commands 40,000 men to his 10,000 and he also has the Red Dragon and the airforce to deal with.
Rather than simultaneously fighting on the three fronts, he’s delayed one, uses a fortress to hold up Duke Carmine’s forces, and the attack goes toward the air-force.
All of which makes sense but it also all goes pretty smoothly as he seemingly surprises and overwhelms his enemy at every step.
I would however be remiss if I didn’t point out that the setting for the third act in this episode, Souma actually launching his first attack rather than defending or holding a position, was very cool. The full moon and dark sky behind the giant war ship as it rolls across the landscape toward its target, launching long range attacks upon the city was a very impressive sight. Perhaps the best the episode had to offer.
That it was also not the main attack in the end just adds to the overall impression because that much effort put into a diversionary tactic has to be appreciated.
Honestly, this was about as much as I could have hoped for from this episode of Realist Hero after the declaration of war last week. While I would have preferred better animation and potentially at least one of these three enemies to put up a more interesting fight, this episode still managed to be entertaining enough.
Images from: How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Dir. T Watanabe. J.C.Staff. 2021
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Karandi James
This was a good episode. Presumably he’ll capture the dragon dude and the air force will be his.
And who wouldn’t want to command an air force with fire breathing dragons in it?
Absolutely!
My sense was that Souma’s tactics weren’t from his days in Japan, but from his new minister. The economic policies he could come up with from his days in business, but the military stuff is not his strength; hence why they show him in conference with his minister right before the attack.
That could be true but I kind of read that scene as the minister reporting the movements and Souma making the decisions. They didn’t give us a lot to go on in that scene.