「古老、曰く」 (Korou, Iwaku)
“Thus Saith the Elder”

And the nation building continues apace. Mostly. Need a break from the wonders of cold and calculating bureaucracy? Nothing a little downtime – or adventuring – can fix. Or in Liscia’s case some good old-fashioned fantasizing. Don’t fault the girl for wanting more, but as is tradition among all oblivious isekai leads, you want it from him you best force it directly into his face.

Although I’m pretty much resigned to Genjitsu happily paddling along in the political science kiddy pool, it’s still quite neat seeing certain concepts pop up as it makes its way through the undergrad curriculum. City creation for example is something we almost next to never see these days for example, as outside Brasilia there’s just little need to conceive an urban centre where one previously did not exist. And hell, Kazuya’s plan certainly bears good reason considering how significant simply rationalizing infrastructure and logistical routes can be. Love it or hate it economics is the lifeblood of all countries and people, and as anyone who’s ever lived smack dab in the middle of nowhere can tell you having your only road in and out cut off (whether from tsunami or something less dangerous) sucks something fierce.

Also quite intriguing among the engineering potpourri was the use of Kazuya’s Living Poltergeist this week. While I have been expecting the guy to get out and about at some point (much like the previous couple of episodes), I wasn’t anticipating him effectively pulling an Ainz and seek out literal adventuring. Or for that matter, adventuring through proxy. Assuming a disguise and having Aisha accompany the proceedings maybe (to Liscia’s eternal chagrin), but not via a remotely controlled puppet – goddamn how I wanted to see cutie pie go full shock and awe as mascot yielded embarrassed king sporting some stylish acid burns. And not just because pouty Liscia has quietly become best Liscia (since such a reaction would be a guarantee). For the sheer simplicity of material Genjitsu is playing with there’s still a tasty tidbit or three on offer every week, enough so to keep matters decently entertaining.

Well, at least until we finally have our fated three make their proper appearance. Genjitsu may have the basics of statesmanship down pat, but we have yet to see just how it handles its domestic conflict.

12 Comments

  1. On a slightly related note:
    in 1920s, freshly independent Poland used lots of resources to build new artificial port at Gdynia, to bypass Germans blocking the use of Free City Danzig.
    This allowed Poland to win tariff war with Germany, since it could now export to the world and import too without any obstacles.

    ewok40k
  2. This anime is very interesting, it feels like “behind the scenes” of another anime, for some reason Saga of Tanya the Evil comes to mind, like we always see her shift locations, someone smart appoints points her at correct targets, locations etc, but we never see the actual leadership, only her superiors.

    I was waiting for him to bring up Japan in his conversation with them, aLa “Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri”, like “Oh don’t worry, this happens all the time back in my world in my country, we’re actually pretty good at dealing with tsunami’s and earthquakes, all our buildings are made to withstand major earthquakes and we have specific safe areas designated in case of tsunamis, we’re taught this since elementary school”, like Gate did with earthSHAKE segment, but alas he never did.

    MONSTER
  3. Comments I’ve seen from novel readers suggest that Realist Hero’s anime may only cover the 1st 2 light novels, given the pacing so far.

    However, this particular plot arc lasts for about the 1st 4 novels; with Vol 5 bookending the developments of those novels.
    So you’d need another season to properly finish this particular arc.

    zztop
    1. Honestly not shocking, pretty clear now IMO this isn’t to meant to stand on its own as much as advertise for the light novels. Only question is whether we get a cliffhanger or anime original ending since a second season isn’t that likely IMO.

  4. They didn’t offer explanation for it, but in the LN it was explained that it was actually Souma that requested the adventurer’s guild (as a king not as a person) for the quest to clear that underground passageway. It was a passageway constructed for the royal family to escape the city in case of a siege, but Souma didn’t plan to have the capital to withstand a siege, so he decided to use it to construct a sewer system to improve the hygiene of the city. This was supposed to be explained in the episode when he want out on a date with Lischia and Aisha. Naturally Lischia was not happy at first for using such a top secret underground passageway like that, but accepted it nonetheless.

    danes256
    1. Also I forgot to say that the LN mentioned after this event that decades in the future the new city Venetinova did got struck by a big tsunami, but because Souma already built it in preparation for it the casualty was low. A statue of Urup, nicknamed the storyteller, was erected in honor of him for warning the king about the tsunami. It became a popular story in the kingdom and was dramatized a lot in popular culture.

      danes256
    2. Yeah I would’ve liked that coming up in the episode to be honest, makes a lot more sense than the ambiguous explanation we got instead, besides also explaining why Kazuya chose that specific quest to be a part of.

  5. Another wonderful episode, I like seeing how to MC can plan out the construction of a new destination. This will fortify the Kingdom’s resources when goods come in by sea and gets to the port.

    It’s also great to hear about the natural disasters that happens like earthquakes and tsunamis

    RenaSayers
  6. Living in Asia, I can say that there are quite a bit of new cities here. Hoping the majority of them are as well planed as Kazuya’s.

    Checking local legends and wisdom is one the good things in his planning. Since the start of the 21st century a lot of those tsunami survivors are those that remember the local wisdom. A few of them are even things that haven’t been scientifically proven until it’s too late. So, it really is a tough job.

    theirs

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