「孤児院の大改革」 (Kojiin no Daikaikaku)
“Orphanage Reforms”

The worms are out of the can. Turns out the orphanage is a glorified farm where children are raised in impoverished conditions like livestock, without a care for their wellbeing and a focus on selling them as servants to noble houses for the sake of a quick profit. This isn’t unrealistic – slavery and serfdom have been a repetitive feature throughout the annals of human history, accepted as a cultural norm before our modern times. And unfortunately, Myne finds herself living in such times – but is unable to reconcile the harsh reality with her moral sensibilities. Church politics also obstructs her path forwards, preventing her from achieving a more direct solution.

Even the Head Priest isn’t allowed to express his true views, regardless of the disdain he feels towards the current situation. However, Lutz and Benno come up with a genius idea – make all these orphans her retainers, and get them to work collecting materials for her aspiring paper manufacturing business. With their encouraging nudges, she decides not to give up. And I really love it in isekai when the protagonists use knowledge from their previous life, our world, to enrich and better the lives of residents in their new world. So damn wholesome, and makes you appreciate the progress human civilisation has made over these millenniums.

Good deeds should be praised, and Myne deserves all the credit for doing what she could to help the orphans. But I can’t tell if she’s being altruistic, or if it’s a more selfish desire so she can enjoy reading books without the moral dilemma of dying children weighing on her mind. Let’s be honest, child labour just happens to be the significantly better option of two evils in this scenario. However you can definitely see that she’s filled with the best of intentions – although I don’t expect it to be an instantaneous process without its teething pains. Nevertheless, these orphans will now be in a much better place. Even if she leaves, I’ll assume that Myne will impart extremely useful life skills or knowledge that will be useful for them in the future. And you know what? That’s really wonderful, so I look forwards to seeing how it plays out – with what I hope will be minimal trouble or interference from third parties.

End Card

6 Comments

  1. accepted as a cultural norm before our modern times

    You must not be from around here 🤩…

    Anyway, they squished some of the details from the source, but great episode.
    What was squished was that there was some real time between Myne’s decision
    to help and getting the meeting to become the director — it just didn’t happen in
    a day or two. There was a lot of setup involved.

    Also, if she makes them her retainers, are they “owned” by her now; can they be
    sold? That’s be great if they can’t be sold and would also make sense that Delia
    would agree to keep it a secret from the “bishop” because otherwise, who cares if
    they became Myne’s retainers if her authority extends only to feeding/clothing them❓
    See, I think being the director of the orphanage and making the orphans retainers
    are two entirely different things and even if the bishop knows about her becoming
    the director, he’s probably not expecting her to “adopt” any/all of the orphans.

    We’ll see…

    Myne’s running and crying into Lutz’s arms was very touching and really showed
    that she’s just 1 person trying to make a difference.

    This 2nd season is really great so far!

    mac65
  2. “But I can’t tell if she’s being altruistic, or if it’s a more selfish desire so she can enjoy reading books without the moral dilemma of dying children weighing on her mind.”

    That caring smile at the very end of the episode has me thinking it’s probably both.

    NinjaSyao
  3. Pingback: Honzuki no Gekokujou – 18 – Random Curiosity | Steamedworld News

  4. She could teach them Read and Write for the Sake to read her Notes and Write a Report to her, also the same thing with Math. To ease her own workload and negate this to the “slaves”. But in reality she help them

    But i bet this is to much in this World and how to hide this that the others not get jelious or suspect of her. Also this kind of treatment can also take the wrong path within the Slaves, if they only see the puddle in front of them and not the Sea

    worldwidedepp
    1. and one more thing

      You think we got rid of this in our World? Dream on, look behind the Borders. Where Children do hard Work to help the family and also, we still have Children soldiers

      But. This is to hard reality for this Anime. So i think this here is okay. Just i do not know how these Kids can see trough their “work”. Someone need to open their Eyes

      worldwidedepp

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