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[series:4337#628] | ||||||
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(Four episodes watched): The way Kazuya is magically abducted without having done anything whatsoever to provoke such a thing reminded me of last season's Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou Desu. He finds himself in a minor kingdom, Elfrieden, which has a hapless king who needed a Hero more as a dodge to avoid paying money than to actually do heroic things. The king does recognize Kazuya's organizational skills (such things are apparently unknown in Elfrieden), however, to the extent that he abruptly abdicates, names Kazuya his successor, and pledges his daughter as his bride! All in a day's work. Apparently the utterly realistic Kazuya has no problem making sense of these changes that his life has undergone in a matter of minutes; perhaps it should have been emphasized just how practical and unemotional he is before this mind-blowing experience occurred. There's a bit where his grandfather urges him to start a family of his own, and no doubt he will treat that task (with princess Liscia) just as practically and rationally as any other. The impression I got of this show as a whole was of a potentially amusing scenario which, unfortunately, wasn't trying hard enough to be funny. The jokes needed to be sharper, perhaps with a deadpan angle, and their timing needed to be better. Maybe it needed to take itself more seriously; whatever the case may be, it needed to try harder, and it's probably too late to do that. If more effort had been made, I feel that this show could have been a good deal better than it is. Still, it is modestly amusing and I watched episode two. In episode two Souma decides that what the kingdom really needs is people who think outside the box, and he launches an egalitarian, meritocratic program to recruit such people, regardless of the traditional prejudices. As is often the case, I think this is potentially good, but I wish it would be taken farther than it probably will be. That is, dare to include more detail and depict the inevitable problems more realistically. Make it clear that success won't just be a matter of some hero defeating some villain in a swordfight, rather that what will really be needed will be some truly clever thinking to get around the ingrained attitudes of this feudal society. That the main opponents will be ignorance, incompetence and laziness rather than evil. That it will be a matter of shades of gray rather than black and white. Anyway, what I didn't get was why from among the five most outstanding candidates one was a singer (are the people supposed to forget the nation's problems if they have some nice music to listen to?), and another a glutton (will improved food have the same effect?). That doesn't sound 'realistic' at all, it sounds more like something a ruler who is grasping at straws would do. No doubt it was meant as a joke, but a joke has to make sense in an unexpected way. Maybe they still will. The unusual ability of the fifth candidate--she can speak to animals, including supposedly incomprehensible demons--didn't strike me as something a nation in economic distress really needs ASAP. So, despite the odd twist in the premise this show was looking pretty predictable and not exactly hilarious. Kazuya is still largely a stranger (though we learn he can be sentimental about Miso and Soy Sauce), and despite his reputation the bizarre mix of semi-human races in this world doesn't suggest to me that anything truly realistic is going to happen. This show was (presumably) supposed to be an isekai series with an unusual angle, but it seems to me that it has far more in common with the average isekai anime than it has different. Thus, I quit watching. Last updated Tuesday, September 14 2021. Created Tuesday, July 06 2021. | ||||||||
