I’ve seen and reviewed my fair share of isekai works at this point, and while I try to give them all a fair shake I would be lying if I didn’t admit that any mention of isekai these days makes me hesitant. But as with any genre fiction, the real charm in watching or reading isekai stories is seeing which tropes a work leans into and what twists it adds to the formula. How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom seems to split the difference, and, at least for now, ends up as a decidedly average isekai with signs of promising potential.
In many respects, what’s just so-so is fine or unsurprising. I have no issue with the generic fantasy setting of Landia; it is what it is and I enjoy plenty of comfort food series with elves and orcs and dragons and so forth. I wish the designs were a bit more interesting though, as many of them look really flat – bland colors, low detail, etc….
