Tensei Kizoku, Kantei Skill de Nariagaru

Another day, another isekai. But so far at least this one seems to keep away from the worst offending usual trappings. The MC is not OP from episode 2 onwards, does not look like it is going into Harem direction, and the MC is somewhat unique.

And I don't even know why they had to make this an isekai. We're told the MC is a reincarnated something or other, but that is already forgotten halfway through chapter one. For all intents and purposes, the MC is just a child with higher-than-average IQ and a magic skill.

The graphics department is... OK, I guess? Although the color palette ... is too muted to my taste, it gives it some bland, generic feeling. And 'generic' is a word I'm going to be typing a lot in this review.

Audio and music are... forgettable, nothing to write home about.

The story is somewhat interesting although the worldbuilding is generic as it comes. The world is a single continent shaped like an island (boooring), split into multiple semi-autonomous kingdoms. Your run of the mill middle ages society (closer to Renaissance seeing the cities) where the Emperor is not really that powerful and has to thread carefully with the local kings. And war is at the doorstep with the current Emperor being a child with not one but several advisors with conflicting agendas, and the kings smelling weakness like sharks smelling blood on the water.

To its credit, the anime shakes things a bit by putting our MC as the child of not one of those kings but two steps down the ladder. His family runs just a little district inside one of those kingdoms. They are bannermen, basically. Lowest you can be and still call yourself 'noble'. They have a nice house, a few servants, enough soldiers to at least have some infantry, archers and cavalry... and that's it. The father is smart enough to see that war is coming so they seem to be preparing for it (or at least training a lot) and, when the MC starts showing his "instinct" to see what people are good for, he is happy to see his child has some skills and is not totally useless.

The characters are... serviceable? MC is smart and basically a good guy, and realizes that a healthy kingdom is one with good economy and no poverty. Then we have generic highborn dad, generic male fighter, and now in chapter three generic slave mage girl. But none of them are idiots and their actions and decisions make sense, so there is that.

This anime looks so far to be leaning more towards "How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom" than the more action-focused counterparts, with the MC building a team and taking a more managerial position himself, which is nice for a change but nothing groundbreaking.

All in all, it has some potential. But I fear that the unique strong points in this anime are weighted down by being soooo utterly generic in every other aspect. Generic feudal setting, generic magic system, generic people (at least we don't have cat-girls for fanservice once again, though), generic 'discriminated minority with just darker hair', generic everything. Even the 'child protagonist' is generic by now with Mushoku Tensei, The Apothecary Diaries & others. But let's see how the season pans out, episode three was fun after all.

This anime is an inoffensive addition to the isekai genre - so much so that I’d consider it rather un-noteworthy. The setting and premise is your typical magical fantasy setting, with the mc’s special appraisal gimmick being neither too out-of-place nor innovative. I’d lump this anime into the “junk food” category of isekai because, as of episode 3 when I’m writing this review, everything is progressing mindlessly. There is conflict, but it’s set up in such a way that even if you’re only paying 20% attention to what’s going on you’d realize where the story is going to go. The characters are a step up ... from lesser isekai shows and, while not terribly nuanced, have a set personality and motivations that drive them.

This anime is a bit mundane for my liking, but if you find yourself enjoying isekai stories in spite of how oversaturated it’s become, you’d probably enjoy this one as it really doesn’t do anything wrong.