The Basics

This title is originally a light novel series written on Shosetsuka ni Naro and later published by Kodansha. The manga was also published by Kodansha. Naturally the USA subsidiary of Kodansha publish the English language translations of the light novel and manga. You can watch the now complete season 1 of the series on Crunchyroll.

It’s also been announced not long after the final episode aired that not only will there be a season 2, but they’re going to air in Fall 2024. I’m genuinely surprised. I figured it would maybe be Summer or Fall 2025, but 2024? Amazing and cool. I actually have been reading the light novel series. Five volumes have been released in English. The fifth volume was only just recently released on June 25th. I haven’t read that volume yet, but will be doing that soon.

The Premise

A Japanese salaryman dies and he gets reincarnated as the young son of a baron. Young Ars Louvent is the son and heir of Lord Raven Louvent. They live in the Summerforth empire. Ars possesses a really excellent appraisal skill that no one else seems to possess. It allows him to scan people and find out if they have skills and aptitudes in certain types of categories. His long term goal is to recruit as many talented people as possible. He hopes his team of talented people will help him improve their small barony of Lamberg.

If A Song of ice and Fire and all the other isekai titles tell us anything, it’s that conflicts are bound to happen in a medieval society. And that’s exactly what happens. The Summerforth empire shows signs of cracks as the current emperor is an apathetic boy who has regents and ambitious councilors doing the actual ruling. Missian, the province Ars lives in, is on the brink of civil war. The duke of Missian is an elderly man with two sons. Traditional male-preference primogeniture says the older son is heir. However the father seems to favor the younger son as being more talented in his opinion.

Can Ars and his people survive these upcoming challenges? You’ll have to watch the anime and read either the manga or the light novel to find out!

General Thoughts

Over all, I like this series. I’ve read and watched my share of isekai stories. This is a series that has a lot of potential and really does appeal to me. The biggest thing I liked about this series is that it addresses some of the more serious aspects of feudal society without being too grim. I think it does a decent balance where they acknowledge the bad stuff, but they don’t always depict it “on screen.”

Just as not everyone can tolerate watching Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon, not everyone will want to watch super gritty anime or read dark stories. This series does have light moments so it’s not gloomy or too heavy.

Ars does have to navigate politics to some degree since he’s supposed to be a baron after his father. He has to play the balancing game between that various factions who have their own goals. Not necessarily to his own benefit should he ally himself with them.

I personally look forward to see how things progress for Ars in the future. I hope that the light novel will continue and doesn’t abruptly stop. I looked at the Shosetsuka ni Naro entry for the light novel. The author has updated the story in June, so they are still writing. It does look like they’re not writing as frequently this year as they did in 2023, which is probably why Volume 5 was released in Japan in July 2023 and volume 6 only came out this past April.

What do you think of this series? Would you check it out if you haven’t already? Leave a comment below and share with other fans!

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