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Realist Hero is another isekai story that simply stops because we’re out of episodes.

It’s hard not to be disappointed in the ending of Realist Hero when episode 13 introduces the sister of the leader of the empire who has made her way to Van to negotiate with Souma. However none of that happens yet because we spend the episode discussing another food with Poncho before going shopping with Juna and Tomoe.

Actually, the most tension this episode manages, and it is a season final, is when Liscia is all pouty because all the other girls get presents and then Souma hands her a necklace.

Needless to say, this final episode of Realist Hero feels just like every other episode and is watchable enough but doesn’t remotely feel like the end of a season. Even with a second season potentially coming, I’m not sure that makes it okay to not even attempting something resembling pacing or a climax for a season end.

Still, if you viewers were expecting anything else from this then they really haven’t paid attention to the way this season of Realist Hero has unfolded. It really does just kind of coast along and while there are moments that could offer dramatic tension they are always diluted by diversion (usually involving singing or food).

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All things considered though, there’s a number of plot points revisited in this final episode so there is some sense of closure.

For instance we do find out more about why Souma was summoned in the first place. Equally we see the Princess of the Kingdom of Amidonia still conspiring with the treasury guy though we’ve yet to really gain any understanding about what her goals are. We also do finally have an encounter between Souma and the Empire so there’s lots of plot threads that come together for this final episode even if they don’t actually result in any decisive outcome – yet.

Honestly, I didn’t find the ending of this anime anywhere near as jarring or annoying as Seirei Gensouki but realistically it isn’t all that much better. Probably the only real advantage this anime has is that the pacing all the way along has felt smoother so while the story isn’t concluded we did get kind of climax last week when Souma’s army overcame the King of Amidonia and this episode feels more like wrapping up loose ends and ensuring we are reminded of the pertinent players.

That said, the episode itself is pretty ho-hum and honestly I’m already moving on and I haven’t even finished writing the review for it yet. That isn’t the best way for a series to finish, particularly one that wants me to pick it up again when it airs its second season.

I will review the full series soon but I’d love to know your thoughts on Realist Hero.

Images from: How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Dir. T Watanabe. J.C.Staff. 2021

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Karandi James

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Villains in Realist Hero always seem to resort to surrender or charge.

While no real challenges presented themselves as our Realist Hero and interim king, Souma, mopped up the last of the enemy army, allowed the Prince and a small contingent to escape, and then proceeded to put on a live idol show for the citizens of the city he essentially conquered, they did at least shake things up this episode by having to have more than one attempt at taking down the enemy king.

While the two dukes in episode 11 more or less capitulated with little real resistance, the king this week was not going down without a fight. And for him it was a fight to the death. Though at least his character finally got to make one decent decision which was to send his son away from the battlefield before the end.

Stabbed, burned and then shot full of arrows.

In what seemed like the easiest victory yet, as the king charged toward our Realist Hero’s vantage point, the blonde guy did a beautiful leap through the air on his horse and skewered the king with his spear right through his armour. It looked as magnificent as it could in slow motion and bare bones animation even if I was left wondering how the poor horse managed to save itself from shattered legs on the landing.

Turns out though that we finally had a small wrinkle in the plans. The King had a body double.

The real king continues his charge and is confronted by Carla who has decided she needs to save Souma because otherwise Liscia would be unhappy. I mean, there’s entire cities and the lives of soldiers and citizens alike on the line, but sure, save Souma because of one Princess being unhappy. Whatever motive gets you moving.

Still, we always knew our Realist Hero wasn’t a warrior and here it becomes clear as Carla doesn’t have the strength to drive the king back and Souma certainly isn’t directly entering the fray. Instead we go with an explosive puppet and boy does that go off with a bang.

How the King was still standing, I do not know, but artful job with the destruction of his clothing on that one.

As he throws his sword and gives his last words he’s plugged full of arrows from archers who were somewhere during all of this (why didn’t they shoot at him when he was sparring with Carla). At last he falls.

And just like that the war is done.

Enter the throne room and Souma is making plans but knows that the Empire isn’t going to recognise him taking over the city anyway. Rather than get into the politics of it he’ll grab some singers and put on an idol show for the citizens.

This is where Realist Hero always loses me. We have some fairly complex political and economic quandaries but earlier in the series we had a reality style cooking show and now we’re going with idols. The tone is all over the place and honestly it isn’t doing Realist Hero any favours.

If I wanted a light comedy I wouldn’t be watching this particular story but this story also doesn’t quite go hard or serious enough to be good as a serious drama. It just kind of teeters around the middle of a few tones and genres but never quite commits and the end result is a little less than satisfying even though there are some good ideas and moments strewn along here.

Anyway, potential arrival of the empire next week and I guess we’ll see where Realist Hero (the anime) intends to leave us.

Images from: How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Dir. T Watanabe. J.C.Staff. 2021

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Karandi James

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Does Having a Bad Plan for a Good Reason, Make it a Good Plan?

Our realist hero, Souma, in the space of a twenty minute episode, takes over the air-force, has Duke Carmine surrender and removes all the corrupt nobles from play, and moves his army to the south to first cause the invaders to hurry back to their own kingdom straight through an ambush before occupying an enemy city. Wow, Souma’s amazing.

So let’s break down each of these three ‘conflicts’ that Souma’s kind of just walked through as if they were nothing. And while I get, they are trying to position Souma as someone who thinks things through and strategizes and has back-up plans, mostly his enemies are just looking really stupid.

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A Realist Hero Takes the Air Force

Episode 10 saw the start of this battle with Souma and his forces using an entire battle-ship crossing the land as a decoy (cool move). This week Castor, leader of the forces, takes on Souma (or at least Souma’s harem) and in a fight that is actually kind of cool to watch loses soundly.

Then again, Castor was only ever following Carmine and honestly, of everyone involved in this war, Castor seems to have the least stakes, purpose, or thought processes. He doesn’t seem to want anything and yet still doesn’t surrender when given a chance to do so.

So our Realist Hero wraps up this fight, takes control of the air force, also brings Castor’s daughter Carla along for the ride (wearing a shiny new slave collar – and why do so many isekai anime have slave collars), and heads to the battle against Duke Carmine.

The Duke’s Position

This is where the words bad plan don’t even begin to express my feelings about Duke Carmine’s actions.

Incidentally, plot spoiler below if you haven’t watched the episode, but it doesn’t make a great deal of sense anyway.

Carmine opposed Souma, without discussing it with Souma, in order to have all the corrupt noble men gather under him. Thus he could ensure that they were positioned as insurrectionists as all be removed in one fell swoop.

Which, on the surface doesn’t sound too bad except for the part where he could have actually communicated that idea to Souma rather than just ignoring the new king.

Furthermore, he let the nobles spend their hidden money on hiring mercenaries, sending money out of the kingdom, because once the mercenaries were captured they could ransom them back…

It could just be me but I’m sure the Realist Hero Souma could have found a far more logical way to go about getting this money. You know, encouraging the nobles to pay the duke directly as a war fund for hiring of mercenaries who just didn’t arrive (because the duke never hired them). Then the money would just stay in the kingdom in the first place.

Anyway, on Souma taking the air force, Carmine rounds up the corrupt nobles, something he could have done ages ago, and then puts a slave collar on himself and surrenders. Souma doesn’t even have a conversation with him because he’s off to war front number 3.

Don’t Upset the Realist Hero

Souma may just be an acting King but he is taking his duties seriously. The Kingdom of Amidonia has invaded Elfrieden during their moment of internal crisis and not only is Souma not letting that stand, he’s pretty much making them an example to anyone else who might try to take on the weakened Kingdom.

It’s a sensible move from the Realist Hero when you consider how the other kingdoms who might threaten Elfrieden will view this situation, only it leaves me wondering where this common sense was when he more or less promoted the first guy he heard talking about betraying him.

That said, this conflict at least isn’t completely wrapped up, but given they took out half of the opposing forces in transit and the replacements are hardly trained soldiers, and they are already occupying the city, it seems unlikely Souma is going to lose this fight.

I guess, the only question remaining is how does this resolve? it isn’t as though the other human kingdoms are going to let Elfrieden conquer their neighbours without raising an eyebrow. Or do we end up with the cute and sassy Princess character becoming a hostage in Elfrieden to ensure Amidonia’s good behaviour?

Realist Hero has 2 episodes to figure it out so I guess we’ll see.

Images from: How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Dir. T Watanabe. J.C.Staff. 2021

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Karandi James

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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

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He might be a Realist Hero but that doesn’t mean others see him that way.

I don’t have a huge amount to say about Realist Hero this week largely because the events in this episode feel like a necessary plot development, building on prior warnings of internal strife as well as guiding us toward what might feel like a climax to the season depending on how it plays out.

I could be wrong. Maybe Souma will simply resolve the issue with the dukes in the next episode and call it a day.

Before I get more on to plot, I’d like to point out that the glaring continuity error early in this episode kind of distracted me from some of the earlier moments so maybe a few points went past me. We see Souma struggling to fall asleep surrounded by papers and, notably, a large pile of books on the bed. However, after a line of dialogue we see him lie down on his pillow and the books have all vanished.

It just felt so bizarre and unnecessary an error given they could have just had Souma reading the papers as the books served no purpose in the scene whatsoever other than showing us that our Realist Hero is in fact a studious person taking his responsibilities seriously. Something that the very presence of all the documents already established. Anyway, it bugged me.

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Equally buggy is how little time the Dukes are given to really establish motivation for defying the new king. The lion guy does indicate at first that he’s upset that the Realist Hero Souma has no connection to their past or traditions and therefore has no problem throwing them away, and this potentially could be a valid reason for defiance after discussions break down.

Yet, there’s really been no discussion as none of the dukes were willing to engage in correspondence with Souma from the get-go.

However, even if I view this in the most charitable light possible, when Souma is asking for a reason, he goes on some mindless and empty rant about it being his way of life or the way of a warrior. Part of me wonders if this guy is senile. His motive is unclear and his actions obviously leave his own people in harm’s way with many outside threats just waiting the mess this whole internal conflict is going to cause.

Despite all these criticisms, I’m actually kind of happy about how Souma is depicted throughout this episode. If asked a few weeks ago I would have said that Souma was going to pretty much do whatever to avoid war and the plot would probably let him talk his way out of his problems. Instead, because the duke is such a hard-headed fool, Souma is going to have to take drastic action and he doesn’t really hesitate to make the necessary decision this week.

All things considered, it would be nice to see Realist Hero end on a high note. The conflict with the dukedoms gives that option as does the potential issue with the external threats. What the story really does need though is some credible thought processes going on in some of the antagonists otherwise Souma’s victory is going to feel a little lacking.

There was a brief moment of hope in one of the neighbouring kingdoms when one of the aids tried to appeal against war however he was pretty much beaten down. I’m almost sure he and the princess are going to end up working for Souma when their talents are being so heinously overlooked in their own kingdom.

But that pretty much leaves all of the enemies our Realist Hero is currently facing off against with fairly irrational decision making and while they might have more troops I somehow doubt they are going to pose all that much of a threat. I guess we’ll find out.

Images from: How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Dir. T Watanabe. J.C.Staff. 2021

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Karandi James

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Our Realist Hero has to accept reality.

For nearly 7 episodes our realist hero, Souma, has more or less used modern day Earth logic and rudimentary economic theory to more or less revitalise a failing kingdom and hasn’t suffered any particular set-backs other than the potential of his own nobles rebelling because how dare the new king stamp out their corruption. It was good to see Souma pitted against a disaster that had already happened this week and even more interesting when in the final moments we see that Souma acknowledges that he hasn’t managed to prepare for everything.

Not that anyone really believes he should or could have in the few weeks he’s lived in fantasy land.

Honestly, despite our Realist Hero having a small set-back in his confidence this week, things are still all kind of working out for Souma in that wonderfully simplistic manner that only really works in fiction. And how nice it is that Souma doesn’t just understand economic theory but also the fundamentals of making roman concrete, road design, topography and more or less anything else that he’s required to know.

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I know, I really should stop wanting this anime to be more than what it is because honestly what it delivers is entertaining enough even if it is a little bland and sanitised. Maybe I should instead be celebrating that How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom isn’t attempting to be the new dark and edgy take on isekai or isn’t aspiring to be some new philosophical work of wonder and missing the entertainment mark by a mile.

However an opportunity not explored is an opportunity wasted and this anime did have an opportunity this week to really challenge Souma. Here was a threat not of a political or economic nature, and not one that could have been predicted in advance, that could have really pushed him to the limit and demonstrated the cracks in what he was trying to build.

Rather than taking this route, we get a really basic rescue operation after a landslide that goes very smoothly and while they can’t save everyone, they also don’t end up in any particular danger or face any major set-backs in their mission. The realist hero does still have to face the blame and mourning of a man who lost his wife, and he does take that emotionally on-board leading to a final sequence that has our Realist facing reality in a way he hadn’t before, but the overall episode deals with the disaster cleanly and efficiently robbing the situation of much of the tension it could have had.

Though, congratulations to that final scene which gave this episode significantly more weight than it might have otherwise had. Souma has been so calm in his progress and decision making with nothing seeming to concern him as he goes about transforming an entire kingdom and economy. Seeing him finally rattled and feeling the weight of his decisions and planning (or lack of it) was a solid character moment even if it came a little too late in the episode.

It feels to me like some of the discussion of food and transport at the start of the episode could have been cut down, considering a lot of it was a rehash of information we already knew, not to mention that the dialogue here was extremely unnatural. If the two characters were filming an infomercial their conversation made perfect sense but no two people sit down and talk like that over lunch after spending the day building a road.

Anyway, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom remains watchable with moments that do elevate it enough to keep me interested even if all the bits inbetween feel a little too underwhelming at times. I am curious as to what the endgame is for this season of Realist Hero though because we’re closing in on the season’s end and it still feels like we are more or less in the prologue of a grander story.

Images from: How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Dir. T Watanabe. J.C.Staff. 2021

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Karandi James

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The Realist Hero might be tired, but he’s making some progress.

I almost feel a little cheated this week, though not really because I quite enjoyed this episode of Realist Hero.

But from my episode 6 review, I had quite a discussion in the comments with one of my readers around Souma’s actions and motivations. The conclusion I drew after that was there’s a few different ways to read Souma’s character and I was kind of keen to see the treason and war story continue so that we could see which way Souma was actually going to lean.

Instead How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom more or less just avoided the conversation about the dukes and any potential rumblings of treason amongst the nobility (though there was one throwaway comment about the duke who currently controlled the kingdom’s main port). For something lighter, we instead had Souma’s mascot character going on an adventure which was actually kind of fun and then some light economic discussions around the importance of infrastructure and long term planning.

So let’s start with the adventure.

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One thing Realist Hero has done to really distinguish itself from almost every other isekai, is the main character really isn’t going on adventures or fighting monsters. Even in isekai where that isn’t the focus, the characters inevitably end up in a situation where they need to retrieve something or go somewhere and we go on a pretty standard adventure. However, this week Souma does go on an adventure (admittedly, by proxy).

Yes, he sends his spear wielding mascot thing that he is controlling with his magic power with a troop of adventurers into the underground tunnel where after some basic fights they are accosted by a salamander with acid saliva and forced to run for their lives. It’s all a bit of fun and light hearted and honestly while this sort of adventure is a dime-a-dozen the reason so many stories do them is because they are still fun.

While it might have been nice to get to know some of these characters a bit more, Realist Hero had other plans and so we cut to Souma giving all his exhausted money crunchers a much needed holiday as they had finally secured the funds he needed for a major project.

Given a lot of the draw of this anime for me was it seemed to want to take a more economic view on kingdom saving which I’ve kind of enjoyed in anime such as Maoyu Maou Yusha, I was kind of happy to see Realist Hero getting back to basics and the plan to build a port and improve the road network seemed like a logical enough way to go about it (even if the whole thing was very simplified down).

Naturally there is a problem with the plan that comes in the form of a local village warning the construction workers not to build on the land they’ve chosen. And this naturally comes on the back of Souma wondering just why no one had build on such a prime spot.

Fortunately, Souma isn’t short sighted enough not to inquire and on finding out more details determines that clearly the land is at risk from tsunamis and begins the process of choosing a new location.

And that’s really it for Realist Hero this week.

Except for one disappointing scene where the male characters are gathered around the map talking seriously about the risks to their plan and potential for how to salvage the project and Liscia and Aisha are sitting on the couch off to the side basically talking about who likes Souma more. Eye roll.

I was pretty sure that Souma said at some point he was going to hand over the kingdom to Liscia so why isn’t she involved in this conversation? Okay, I get medieval style kingdom and given there are only five characters in the scene it would be making a huge generalisation to think this was standard and yet it just seemed so needless. It would have made a lot more sense for Liscia to at least be asking for explanations even if she wasn’t contributing. As it is, it just feels like she’s been completely sidelined as anything other than Souma’s love interest.

Images from: How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Dir. T Watanabe. J.C.Staff. 2021

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Karandi James

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Realist Hero introduces a more serious issue for the new king.

Last week when reviewing How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, I made the comment that we were definitely in a fantasy. That feeling continues as we see a new complication floated Souma’s way this episode that he deals with way too easily (though there are at least ongoing implications that might be explored going forward).

Continuing on in the coffee shop, Souma, Liscia and Aisha overhear a soldier talking with a mystic fox girl (who turns out to be a mage in the king’s army). The soldier is more or less outlining why he’s going to cross over to Duke Carmine’s side and that many other nobles were doing the same. Mystic Fox girl on the other hand is pro-king all the way and more or less explains why he shouldn’t.

At this point Souma decides the best way to deal with all this is have a friendly chat.

Treason should always be dealt with over cups of tea.

On the one hand, this is an opportunity for Realist Hero to actually build in some genuine political tension. The sharing of power between the throne and the three dukes doesn’t seem like the most stable system and external threats will take advantage of perceived weaknesses. More than that, the dukes have not responded to Souma’s communications as king so he clearly needs to figure out what is going on.

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Though it seems a little remarkable that he hadn’t already sent someone in person to see the various dukes given their importance to the kingdom and the reforms he’s been trying to build. Was he just hoping the problem would sort itself?

Anyway, turns out the soldier isn’t so much a traitor as a hot-headed idiot and having the reality of war, you know having to fight against people you might actually like if they are in the king’s army, pointed out to him he more or less immediately changes his tune.

For a show called How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom I wonder sometimes about the lack of reality. If you’ve ever tried explaining basic logic to someone who inherently believes something that is counter-intuitive you will know that logical arguments usually fail horribly. So the sudden change of tune in the soldier’s mind set seems very much lacking in reality.

But that’s okay. By resolving that issue quickly, Souma, our Realist Hero, gets to go and have a lap pillow moment with Liscia where she actually brings up the conversation around their engagement. Nothing gets resolved here given that would certainly destroy any possibility of the harem forming but it at least makes it clear that Liscia is a lot more interested than she was when Souma first arrived.

As for the episode ending where the father of the soldier turns up with the fox mage and his son (son sporting some major bruising) Souma more or less diffuses the whole thing, promotes the fox mage and then gives the son a key role next to her in the king’s army.

So the key to promotion in this kingdom is get overheard plotting treason and then change your mind? Not sure this is a message a Realist Hero should be sending.

None of that is as bad though as the episode ending more or less the same way that a previous episode ended. The father apparently has something to tell Souma and so clears the room. We don’t hear what he tells the king but we do see the king’s reaction (much the same as when wolf-girl wanted to tell him she spoke with a demon).

How a Realist hero Rebuilt the Kingdom remains watchable fluff but really doesn’t have enough substance (though wants to try to reach for it on occasion). I assume it will remain a pleasant enough watch through to the end of the season but so far has been pretty forgettable.

Images from: How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Dir. T Watanabe. J.C.Staff. 2021

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Karandi James

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