Easygoing Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord - Episode 1

Content Warning: slavery

What’s it about? Van used to be a Japanese salaryman in his past life and is determined to have a more easygoing new life. Unfortunately, since he has an adult brain, he’s considered a prodigy at the age of two and is forced into an intense education program until his actual magical abilities could be determined. His powers of “production magic” are considered a failure by his family, but being banished to govern a small town at the border might finally let him live the easygoing life he’s always wanted.

The opening theme song was so enjoyable to the point, I almost forgot this is just another basic reincarnation story. It’s funny how those few minutes were more memorable than the rest of the episode, but it’s to be expected since every season seems to be committed to producing more low-tier fantasy shows. There isn’t much originality here folks since Van is the usual child genius that is loved by everyone, except for people who are cartoonishly terrible. It’s hilarious how everyone else can see how smart and capable he is, but his own family refuses to see the infinite potential of his magical capabilities. I don’t understand why most fantasy shows seem to disregard magical production. Does nobody consider it can lessen the need for manual labor? I think the disdain of Van’s family would be more believable if they empathized that the whole matter is based on class, but that would require more thought to be put into this story.

Till showing off her skills — She amused me.

I’ve already talked about this genre’s thoughtless inclusion of slavery in previous reviews. Van knowing that slavery is wrong means nothing, since he still ended up having to keep Khamsin and sealed his fate with a tattoo crest. It just furthers the whole “benevolent master” trope and frankly, I don’t have enough patience to follow a story that casually brings up that slavery is common without some deeper analysis beyond “it’s bad.” It doesn’t add anything; honestly, if you cut out that part, it doesn’t change the flow of the story at all.

Van is a perfectly fine character on his own, it’s just unfortunate that he’s surrounded by completely predictable archetypes, like the ever-reliable maid and the loyal knight that won’t leave him alone. It is worth noting that the reason Van is so revered by everyone is because the world he was born into is very hierarchical. so the mere idea of him showing basic human decency is enough to rally the whole city for him–talk about keeping the bar low. It’s easy to predict that Van will probably invent modern technology and use that to create a functioning mercantile economy in the small town he’ll be governing. I wish I had something more to say, but aside from the obvious problems, it’s a perfectly decent fantasy show with not much else to offer.