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One more isekai and a start that couldn't be more cliché. The story's hero, Kazuya Souma, is an ordinary, twenty-something history student. One day he finds himself summoned into a fantasy world and finds himself addressed as "O Hero!" by the king of Elfrieden.
Slightly less cliché is the background. Kazuya is not your average shutin. Rather he used to live with his much-beloved grandfather, whose last advice has been to build himself a family. This advice with all that it implies — loyalty to those close to you, a grounding in society — accompanies him through the storyline and motivates most of his decisions.
Kazayu also brings other talents to the table than your average nerd. As a humanities student he's deeply versed in social and economic history as well as political theory. As such he isn't naturally inclined to war, though the manga does have its share of warfare in its later volumes. Kazayu's primarily aims to strengthen the kingdom economically, to increase its social coherence, the efficiency of its administration, and ultimately the buy-in of its citizens.
However, I'm getting ahead of myself. At the very beginning, when Kazayu is forcibly summoned into the king's presence, he's told that mankind is pitted in a brutal war against the demon king (hello, cliché). He also learns that he's intended mostly as a bargaining chip between the kingdom of Elfrieden and the Gran Chaos Empire. Elfrieden is a mid-sized country with a middling economy and army, whereas the much bigger and more powerful Gran Chaos Empire bears the brunt of the demon king's attacks.
Elfrieden is painted as a typical isekai feudalistic world. The king largely acts through his nobles who also run the larger part of the country's military. The world knows magic, allowing for some modern-style inventions such as remote broadcast via "voice jewels".
Upon hearing the situation, Kazayu sets out a programme of agricultural, economic and budgetary reform to improve the kingdom's standing on this fantasy world's unique super-continent. His plans convince the king, who reacts by abdicating his throne and nominating Kazayu as his successor, on the condition that he marries the crown-princess, Liscia. Rather reluctantly Kazayu agrees, initially assuming that this would be a short-term assignment and that his betrothal to Lisica would be a formality only.
Unsurprisingly Lisica is also less than enthralled to find herself engaged to a complete unknown, and only very unwillingly plays along with her father's decision.
Not very hero-like Kazayu first sits down with the country's prime minister and top bureaucrats review scrupulously the country's finances and economic situation. They discover that the country is about the face a major famine due to a bad choice of crops. They also find out evidence of graft and large-scale incompetence.
Together with Liscia and the prime minister the new king launches sweeping agricultural and budgetary reforms. However, this still leaves him with a largely inefficient, partially corrupt administration. He addresses his new-found subjects via the voice jewels, launching a talent competition which is open to everyone regardless of birth or background. He finally identifies a group of five exceptionally gifted individuals who form his new cabinet. Their gifts are special — they include the cliché dark elf warrior woman, but also an intellectual, an entertainer and a foody who knows all about his world's underused foodstuff.
Over time Kazayu realises that he has fulfilled his grandfather's dream - Liscia and his five comrades have become his family. Up to him now to protect them to the best of his ability and to shape a shared future.
Only once the food situation and the economic parameters point towards recovery, does the new king attempt to handle seditious nobles and the overall geopolitical including the aggressive neighbouring kingdom of Amidonia — but that's the subject of later volumes.
The manga sets all of this into political theory. A particular sources of reference are Sun Tzu and Machiavelli and his realistic appraisal of human nature. As Kazayu puts it, the true work of a king comes before and after a war, creating the economic and social conditions and strategies first, and afterwards planning for a merciful handling of victories. Brute force will lose out against intelligence, coordination, communication, and planning.
Overall, I like the six manga volumes that have appeared so far. At a later stage I hope to find the time to look into the light novels on which the manga is based and which has also been translated into English.
Homepage of the anime (to my knowledge not yet translated into English)
Homepage of the underlying light novel (also available on J-Novel)
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