Tensei Kizoku, Kantei Skill de Nariagaru

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"After thirty-five years of perfectly ordinary life, a run-of-the-mill businessman suddenly drops dead...only to be reborn in another world! Now he must live as Ars Louvent, scion of a minor noble family and wielder of a fabulous skill: Appraisal, the power to perceive the strengths and abilities of others at a glance.

He'll need it, too, because there are plenty of problems to solve in the Louvent family's territory! Ars only has one choice: recruit the most talented individuals his skill can find, and rise up to new heights in his brand new world!

Source: Kodansha"

Genre(s): Isekai

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1-2

We had an eerily similar isekai just a couple years back, but the 'sim city' approach to finding and surrounding oneself with competent people being more important that being a deity oneself hasn't gotten old yet. Thankfully, the protagonist starts with tension in the form of a crumbling empire on the verge of collapse, and it will be his people's problem before long. Recruiting a retinue of specialists to avert these crisis feels much more engaging than 'living the slow life out in the country', or some other trite crap. Even though the mage girl's hatred of nobility has dulled her logical sensibilities (who could better uplift your orphan family than an actual noble you work for?), she has potential as a spunky character. I'm on board so far.

3-21

I didn't think it possible, but I binged and caught up on a series I dropped, and it paid off!

Talk about momentum, Tensei Kizoku follows a very digestible journey in gathering the core cast, sending off the previous generation, and then pulling into wide scale conflict within these episodes. Because so much transpired, and I'm overall positive without needing to spoil, I'll give some general thoughts and things I appreciate:

A vague sort of optimism and hopefulness permeates the series. While there are good and bad actors, most of the nobles faced off against are portrayed as having their own motivations- but most surprising is how often the show will pause to explain to the audience the other side of each conflict. This makes the characters appear much more rational and builds the world out further. These character moments also can tug at the heart strings more than I expected.

The core cast is utilized well. The majority of the first season is the 'recruitment arc', interspersed with some lower level diplomatic encounters, and the retinue is utilized regularly, getting to use their skills and insight to prevent catastrophe time and time again. I actually don't like the second strategist girl, as her flippant personality rubs me the wrong way, but she makes a stellar addition to the cast- not being a yes man or overly grateful/devoted to Ars, but acting as a wise councilor. Thankfully the usage and mixing and matching of talents is not a simplistic 'flavor of the week' style, but whatever suits various situations in believable ways.

Significant events do and continue to happen. Ars is already married to his yandere wife and embroiled in a medium sized war complete with allies, enemies, and onlookers yet to be explored. The conflict and its dynamics are complex enough to be interesting, but the show uses an affable amount of exposition when needed to set up events that feel well thought out, at least for the story's purposes.

One thing that slightly hampers my excitement is that major figures are maybe a bit too positive for a story about wars (though they do touch on the soldiers' duty and sacrifice in respectful ways) and are a bit too eager to credit Ars alone with every turn of good fortune, as if to give him another lay up to demurely repeat it was all thanks to his 'amazing retainers'; which it usually was, to be fair. Ars has some good traits himself, and grows at a satisfying rate during these episodes.

Animation isn't going to win any awards, but the characters remain on model and cost saving measures never become outright ugly. Some CG cheapness is balanced out by a few above average scenes for pivotal battles- a wash in production.

No harem!? If you described this to me, my only question would simply be how big is his royal harem, but nay! No harem hijinks here (even if there is a bit of awkward fanservice)!

Once you get going, this turned out pretty compelling. I'd recommend you give it a shot.

Been following since day 1. One of my wife and I's favorite shows because it actually has serious tones.

But wtf was that "I revived from death when my baby appeared," bullshit. Worst part of the show so far.

If its the part I'm thinking of, I believe it was a matter of him not losing consciousness or he would never wake up due to blood loss. Corny, but I think I've seen that trope in TV before it gets a blind eye from me.