"First Begin with a Hero" is the 1st episode of the "Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki" Anime adaptation.
University student Souma is suddenly summoned as a hero to the kingdom of Elfrieden, which is facing a number of crises, both foreign and domestic. Souma confers with the king and prime minister, after which the king makes a stunning announcement.
Summary[]
Kazuya's Grandfather tells Souma that people have families, so that they don't die alone. As Souma's parents and grandmother had died, after he dies, Souma will become alone. He tells Souma to start a family and keep them safe. Not long after that, Kazuya's Grandfather dies and Souma ends up alone.
Facing a dilemma and wondering what to do, Elfrieden Kingdom's king and his ministers decide to summon a hero. They start the procedure and activate a big summoning circle covering the kingdom and end up summoning Souma, who was at a library at that moment. They bring Souma to the king, who thanks him for answering their call, but Souma is annoyed as he didn't "answer" anything and got dragged into this world, but decides to listen to what they have to say, before getting angry.
In the supercontinent Landia, many races had made it their home, forming a number of countries. However, ten years ago at the northernmost end of Landia, a void opened and monsters arrived from the Demon World, causing a big war. Some nations united to fight the monsters, but ended up losing and eventually the monsters took one third of the continent, which territory became known as Demon Lord's Domain. As the monsters are divided due to the expansion of the battle line, the rest of the nations were able to keep their ground. Souma hopes they don't intend to make him fight the monsters, but learns that they intend to send him to Gran Chaos Empire instead of the financial aid they had been requested. Since Gran Chaos Empire shares a large border with the Demon Lord's Domain, they are one of the main armies who fight the demons and had requested financial support from those that do not share borders with the demons. Since refugees fled from the northern part, the Elfrieden Kingdom is barely able to feed all and cannot pay the financial aid, however, there is a special clause that allows them to summon a hero and send him instead.
Souma wonders what a "hero" is and is explained that the hero is said to lead revolution into a new age, but don't know more about it. Souma wonders if Gran Chaos Empire may wish to dissect him to find what makes him a hero and the king and his minister deny it, but that only makes it sound even more possible. Souma wonders what to do and asks if the empire will make more requests and the prime minister believes they will keep requesting as long as there are monster attacks. Souma then asks if they can summon other people and is explained that the last time they summoned a hero was 500 years ago and they are unable to summon very often. As he figures he is important, he questions them if they can do something as foolish as to send him now. Souma then wishes to see the finances of the kingdom and improve them to strengthen the nation and reject the imperial demands.
Souma, the prime minister Marx and the king Albert Elfrieden spend three days reviewing the finances. After which, Souma is surprised to hear the king abdicate the throne to give it to Souma and announce an engagement between Souma and his daughter Liscia Elfrieden. The news reach the three dukes that lead the kingdom's armed forces: Castor Vargas, Excel Walter and Georg Carmine, who are surprised. Liscia rushes to return home, thinking the throne is usurped, but learns that Albert had abdicated himself as he believes Souma is more fit to rule the kingdom. Albert informs her that it's up to her if she will marry Souma, but should at least meet him first.
Liscia goes to Souma, who saw her as "fresh manpower" and learning she can read, he wants her to help out, but Liscia reveals she is the princess and wonders how he took the throne. Souma explains that Albert just gave it to him and all he was trying to do is look after his safety. After looking at the finances, Souma believed they may make him oversee the financial management, but not take over the throne. Souma reveals that there is no need for them to marry and that he intends to give up the throne to her in a few years after he brings the country's finances back on track. Liscia wonders if he can really fix the finances in a few years and about the current situation with the financial aid, but Souma states he had already secured the money by selling the national treasures. He explains he kept those that are with high historic or cultural value, and split the items in three: with historic or cultural value, which will be more beneficial to be displayed in a museum; with no historic or cultural value that he sold; and the remaining are magical items, which felt like weapons and he decided to not sell them. Excel Walter decides to send Canaria to check how capable the new king is.
Souma intends to pay the empire the last possible day. Liscia wonders why not keep the money and distribute them to the military as he intends to strengthen the country, however, Souma explains that they need time and strengthening their military won't solve the food shortage and refugee issues, and eventually they will lose support of the people and outside forces may instigate an uprising.
Info Segment[]
Souma Kazuya[]
- Age: "18 years old" at the time of Summoning
- Gender: Male
- Race: Human
- Height: 174 cm
- Personality: Typical "Type A" personality
Considers things realistically and acts rationally, but can behave impractically when family is involved.
Elfrieden Kingdom[]
- Population: Approximately "2 Million"
- Capital City: Royal Capital - Parnam
- A multiethnic state with various races coexisting. To prevent human supremacy, a tripartite system is in place.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
Characters in italics debuted here.
- Kazuya Souma
- Kazuya's Grandfather
- Albert Elfrieden
- Marx
- Elisha Elfrieden
- Jeanne Euphoria
- Maria Euphoria
- Castor Vargas
- Tolman
- Excel Walter
- Georg Carmine
- Liscia Elfrieden
- Roroa Amidonia
- Sebastian Silverdeer
- Canaria
Changes[]
- Compared to the Anime, where Souma was summoned while he was at a Library.
- In the Light Novel, there is no mention of the location he got summoned from.
- In the Manga, it is showcased that Souma got summoned from his house, while he was praying in front of the memorial of his late grandparents.
- Both in the Light Novel and Manga,
- Souma gets directly summoned at the King's Audience Chamber; unlike the Anime where he got summoned to a separate room.
- Souma is polite yet curt with the King, voicing the fact he had been essential kidnapped; but is holding back his temper until he can get the situation understood.
- The prime minister explains that a hero is meant to lead the revolution into a new age. Well this doesnt come true on the battlefield, Souma slowly but surely reforms the kindom.
- Souma openly voices his worry that the Gran Chaos Empire would dissect him; which worries the king and prime minister, whom do not believe something so macabre would happen.
- Souma quickly turns the tables by asking if the Empire would just keep demanding tribute; so this gives him the chance to think about the economy issues to save himself.
- Souma questions how effective the summoning is, to which he learns it can only succeed every 500 years.
- Albert & Elisha are shown to be having Tea & Dessert when Liscia arrives; unlike in the Anime where Elisha is shown cleaning Albert's ears.
- When Liscia arrives in the Office, she sees Souma surrounded by various extremely busy bureaucrats; unlike Anime where Souma is working alone in the Office.
- When Souma asks Liscia to help out with the work (without knowing her identity), Liscia does quietly starts working on the given tasks, and informs Souma that she is the Princess quite a while later.
- Liscia never refers to Souma as being "Realist".
- The reactions of the three dukes aren't showcased, and neither is there any mention of Excel sending Canaria to investigate.
Dub Changes[]
- Even though the Japanese dialogs never revealed it, but the Dub dialog already identifies "Roroa" by her name and position as a Princess.
Trivia[]
- While the Ending Theme "Kazanear" played near the end of the Episode as insert song, the actual Ending wasn't showcased.
- This Episode adapts,
- Light Novel Volume 1 "Prologue" & part of "Chapter 1".
- Manga Chapter 1 & half of Chapter 2.
- Souma does a Yami Yugi impression (from "Yu-Gi-Oh!"), while explaining to Liscia about the importance of "Time".
- The title is adapted from ancient Chinese political and warfare literature Strategies of the Warring States Volume 29: Strategies of Yan 1. The original text is "今王誠欲致士，先從隗始", which means "Your majesty, if you wish to recruit talents, I would suggest first begin with Guo Wei."
External Links[]
- "Episode 01" Summary (Japanese) - "genkoku-anime.com"
- "Episode 01" Preview - "KING AMUSEMENT CREATIVE" YouTube Channel
- "Episode 01" Sub & Dub - "Funimation" (available only for Premium Members in US, CA, UK, IE, AU, NZ)