Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki

After the death of his grandfather, 19-year-old Kazuya Souma—an aspiring civil servant—is left all alone with no one to call family. Out of the blue, he is transported to the Elfrieden Kingdom, a small ailing country in another world, to be a "hero." An ongoing war with the demon army has put the entire world in peril, and Kazuya was summoned to aid in the conflict as an offering from Elfrieden to its allies.

Dissatisfied with being used as tribute, Kazuya decides to help the kingdom revamp its declining economy—not by way of adventuring or war, but through administrative reform. Abruptly declared the King of Elfrieden and betrothed to the princess, the "Realist Hero" Kazuya sets out to assemble a group of talented citizens who will assist him in his bureaucratic battles to get the kingdom back on its feet.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Elfrieden, Liscia Main

Minase, Inori Japanese

Souma, Kazuya Main

Kobayashi, Yuusuke Japanese

Doma, Juna Supporting

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Udgard, Aisha Supporting

Hasegawa, Ikumi Japanese

Amidonia, Roroa Supporting

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Inui, Tomoe Supporting

Kahara, Moe Japanese

Vargas, Carla Supporting

Aimi Japanese

Kwonmin, Hakuya Supporting

Okitsu, Kazuyuki Japanese

Walter, Excel Supporting

Horie, Yui Japanese

Euphoria, Jeanne Supporting

Ishikawa, Yui Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Ozawa, Fumihiro Producer

Okada, Kouji Producer

Yoshida, Shouhei Producer

Reviews

Sep 10, 2025

RemanTheArchean

Recommended

This is a decent-to-good show.

In many ways this is similar to That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime. It's about 50% harem and slice-of-life hijinks, and 50% about the politics of (re)building a kingdom. I'm content with the former, and a potential fan of the latter. This show's execution of them is... alright. It's not amazing or anything -- it's not like watching Tyrion's machinations in King's Landing from Game of Thrones -- but it was fun more often than not.

The slice-of-life and harem stuff is the weaker aspect. The characterizations of the girls are middling -- it's not to the highs ... of Mushoku Tensei, but it's better than many of the total unambitious isekai like Dungeon Depths. There's a cooking show and they all make ahegao faces when they eat food. There's a couple date-night scenes. There's some middling jealousy gags. This is all... fine? There's nothing groundbreaking here, but it passes the time.

The nation-building is the more interesting part. It's here where the show comes alive, but it's also where some of its more glaring flaws are evident in places where its ambition outstripped its ability to execute. First, I applaud the show for showing internal pushback in some of the reforms that the protagonist pushes. This is exactly the type of thing I wanted to see in Slime Tensei that we never got. Here, the pushback escalates quite severely and is a major plot point. It could have been handled a bit better than what we got -- we don't really see a reason for *why* the pushback occurs, we just here that there are "corrupt noblemen" that form a monolithic opposition. Still, it's better than nothing, and the rebellion + invasion arc along with the subsequent negotiations is one of the two highlights of the show.

As for some of the bad aspects:

1) There's quite a bit of what I call "LN adaptation jank", where plot points are too rushed and some things come out of nowhere while others that seem important fade into irrelevance without being brought up again.

2) Several episodes are essentially just a repeat of the protagonist becoming aware of a problem, him stating how the modern world solves a problem, and everything is fixed without further issue. Many of these were outright boring, and I found myself alt-tabbing to read news articles.

3) The "Realist" part of the Realist Hero is something I would have loved to see, but this show fumbles it completely. The protagonist does almost everything according to normal anime sensibilities: he cries and feels awful when he hurts his enemies, he takes blame for things that obviously aren't his fault, he's humble to the point of obsequiousness, etc. Sometimes he turns to the camera and starts quoting Machiavelli, but almost all of the bad things he does happen *offscreen*, and are oftentimes done by other people entirely. Sometimes the protagonist raises his voice as if to claim "this is the rough way the world works!" but this just sounds *completely* ridiculous in the dub. The only thing we actually see that's maybe sort of bad is when he kills some noblemen at a meeting. Without the actually putting in the effort for it to seem plausible, the "Realist" part falls flat, which is a shame since I hate the typical anime moral code and would have been more than happy to see something more realistic in that sense.

To end on a high note, there's a fairly good twist at the end of S2 that puts many of the previously anomalous actions of some characters into context. This was the second of the two highlights of the show for me

I was waffling between giving this show a 7 or an 8. A 7 might be a bit mean but probably more accurately reflects my true feelings -- the fact that I was willing to alt-tab in some episodes is indicative that some parts were a drag. Still, this is a decent show overall, and I hope we get a season 3 at some point.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Nov 12, 2025

Jazurt

Mixed Feelings

Generally,this is 40% a harem and 60% political yap. Its different from other isekai but have the same fundements

I enjoyed it as something to watch in the background while doing other things as some episodes are just repetitions of him figuring out how to solve problems with his worlds solutions.

Season one had a bit more action Vs harem which could've made it more interesting. Overall season one focused on character development and introduced majority of the supporting roles.

Season two was ok however it was focused more on harem and the romance of the anime. Additionally some episodes where boring and quiet confusing however the ... plot twist at the end added the context needed.

Originally, I wanted to rate it a 6 however a 7 is more fair as it does the job of entertaining you and keeping you engaged in most episodes. It lost me tho with the harem as 5 wives is crazy but I would be interested in a season 3.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 11, 2023

Rakdos72

Not Recommended

I made a bet with a friend that I would watch one season of an isekai, and I happened to choose the most flavorless one. "Realist Hero" has got to be the isekai of all time. The main hero is such a self-insert that at times the show plays like an Adam Sandler flick. The show meets so many stereotypes of the genre, it practically feels AI-generated. Let's go through the list:

Overpowered MC? Check.
Contrived harem plot? Check.
Terrible exposition and lore dumping? Check.
Emotionless dialogue and tone-deaf voice delivery? Check.
Soft magic system that empowers the characters when needed? Check.
Demon lord? Check.

The gimmick of this show is, ... the main character has the power of basic social studies knowledge, so instead of action sequences and dramatic battles, we get extremely boring dialogue about farming and resource management. But somehow, every single female character is in love with the MC by the end of the first season. "Male power fantasy" doesn't even begin to describe how Realist Hero is written. Kazuya Souma, the "hero" makes zero mistakes throughout the first season, since everyone in the world he was isekai'd to is worse at understanding basic management than a late Roman emperor. I put "hero" in quotation marks since an actual hero has character flaws and undergoes a defining arc in the form of the hero's journey. But Kazuya spends his entire time on screen being perfect, making his character impossible to become invested in.

I have nothing else to say about Realist Hero. It sucks. It doesn't even fit the bill of "so bad, it's good," because at least those shows aren't boring, just bad. Nothing about Realist Hero deviates from a tone-deaf wish fulfillment fantasy.

3/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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