Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「ただ才あらば用いる」 (Tada Sai Araba Mochiiru)
“If You Possess an Aptitude, We’ll Make Use of It”
While only two episodes in I think we can pretty well guess just where Genjitsu is heading at this point. Societal development? Political machinations? Full-on use (and abuse) of good old-fashioned human resources? The bread and butter of this series, even if the strength of the concept remains to be seen.
Although I’ve already harped on about it last week, the point bears repeating: Genjitsu is not going to be your typical isekai. Abandon all hopes and dreams of OP shenanigans here, as outside of manipulating populations and pulling money from the most unlikely of places precious little in the way of typical genre expectations will be fulfilled. Sure, Kazuya might tick off the basic boxes of magic power and a world (or in this case country) able to seamlessly accept his providence and claim to power and authority, but outside that we’re going more Spice & Wolf than Tensura. Embrace the knowledge, because the knowledge only grows more complicated from here on out.
Should you like the philosophical masturbation, however, there’s a good deal to enjoy where Genjitsu is going. Already we have the challenges and difficulties of handling cash crops for example, which in of themselves create quite a few problems when international economics go tits up and destroy what originally made them profitable. Tack on top some fun with internal accounting and the age-old issue of middle manager embezzlement and you can easily guess just where the first pressure points against Kazuya’s agenda are going to emerge. While I still have my doubts about the depth Genjitsu will be ultimately able to display (more than basic Sun Tzu quotes will be needed to truly spread its wings) I have to admit I’m liking what I see: conflict here will be fought over statistics and currency will be measured in terms of loyalty. Kazuya and the likes of Princess Liscia might be barebones and unabashedly derivative in terms of character, but if the surrounding material makes up for it I’m fully down to seeing where things go.
The only question of course is just where things are heading, because you know full well someone will have designs on the competition Elfrieden’s new king has just proposed.
That ain’t Sun Zi, it is instead;
Extracted from Chen Shou’s Record on Three Kingdom (Sanguo Zhi) , on the
biography of Cao Cao style named Mengde:
In the spring of the fifteenth year of Jian’an, The Duke decreed:
” From antiquity of the lords who have received the mandate of Heaven or
prerogative of restoration, who was there who was not aided by the virtuous
and the noble? Of those virtuous men, almost all had not left their local
alleys; was that simple coincidence? It was because those in government
had not gone in search of them. At the present the Empire has not being
completely pacified, so it is an urgent time to find the virtuous. Meng
Gongzhuo was apt to be the subjects of Zhao and Wei, the great officials of
Jin, but he was not worthy of highest post in Teng or Xie. If a man must be
pure before he can be given office, then how would Duke Huan of Qi became
Hegemon? Is there no one under Heaven who holds concealed talent but who
wears coarse clothing to fish by the Wei river? Is there no one who is
slandered to be unfaithful and corrupt but has not met his Wei Wuzhi? You
all must help me and bring to light the humble and obscure. Please
recommend men simply for their talents, and I will make use of them.”
Yes that’s the actual origin, however multiple versions of The Art of War over the years have featured various quotes attributed to Cao Cao, of which the one seen this week is an example of.
Definitely my kettle of fish…
Subsidizing food crops? Staple policy of EU , USA, and Japan of course.
Lessons of both world wars showed that being dependent on food imports is recipe for disasters, especially if manpower is drained with military service.
Then, there is question of finding men and women of talent. Standard practices of nepotism – er, connections – and written exams limited to few literate folks definitely shrink talent pool.
I am eager to see what talent those new recruits will bring.
As for the main pair, I am quite content with tried and proven tropes.
I am surprised no one started jokes about Marx leading kingdom to ruin…
Actually food subsidies are state policy everywhere. You’ll find no more protected or assisted industry than agriculture as no country wants to become reliant on others to meet their food needs. The only countries able to get away with it are the gulf states, and that’s purely because they have significant influence over global oil prices.
I’m interested to see what he can do with a 70% illiterate population. All the problems he’s highlighted so far seems to require people who at least can read and write.
Also find the cash crop stuff to be strangely amusing. Prioritising it over food production isn’t something strange right now. (looks at own country export-import data, hmmm). Getting food production back is probably the first part in seeing how this show plans to tackle stuff. Lets see how these subsidies he has planned work.
It’s funny that Liscia is dressed up like military uniform Nero but personality wise is closer to an Artoria.
If Victoria II taught me anything is that the solution to illiteracy is to just beat education into the people 😛
Regarding cash crops it’s definitely not strange. Numerous countries have done it in the past and present simply because they brought in more money than basic foodstuffs. Good example in the news right now is Haiti since almost all of its problems can be traced back to the near obsessive focus on sugarcane over everything else following its independence.
I keep it short:
Talk no Jutsu part 2, passed
But i hope we will see some “fruits” that is growing from these Seeds. Until now the Pacing is important for the future Episodes
I think that I actually enjoyed this episode more than the first. I’m kind of a sucker for political and economical speech given in an interesting way. Kind of end up feeling like the “isekai” stuff is pretty pointless though, like it was just tacked on to try and pull more readers from that market. He really could’ve just been a guy in a fantasy world and little would’ve changed.
Also, even more inference of the Queen’s influence here. Starting to get a kick out of every time they cut to her grinning lol
My big hope is that it can match Maoyuu Maou Yuusha in terms of material depth. There’s a lot of you can do with this concept, but it needs careful execution so you don’t fall too far into either infodump spiels or nonsensical developments. So far at least it’s hitting all the right notes.
I can kinda guess what the applicants are bring to the table, but I’m at a loss as
to what this poor looking young girl could possibly bring to the table…
So far, I like how the show is paced and it’s premise. Other isekai do decent world
building, but we generally don’t see it until later and usually not in the Anime
(Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni. and
Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyousoukyoku do interesting
world building later in their LNs).
Of course we all know (or wish) damn well that the romance will blossom
and he’ll wind up staying in that world. But will be continue to be the King?
Will he come up with a plan to stop the Demon Lord / King…
Given the girl looks like a demi-human I suspect she bears a major family or outside connection which could help Kazuya solidify control and enact his changes. Skills after all aren’t the only important thing, networking is also a major component.
Looks like a wolf girl. *Healer evil grin*
From her appearance in the OP, she might be able to control/talk to animals.
Judging from the opening she’s a tamer or something? And they already showed certain monsters get used the same way as workhorses, so that’s a lot of added transportation, field tilling, etc. if she has a way to tame even more of them.
Good 2nd episode.
Kazuya got quickly used to life in fantasy world, though it helps that he’s mainly doing what he already did in Japan. Only the environment changed.
With only 12 episodes in total to work with, I wonder how much time they will spend on his new retainers and how many will be left to introduce any kind of grand conflict, provided there even is any. Not that I expect him to fight the demon lord or something. “Fight” would be the wrong anyways. I don’t expect any wars to happen under his rule.