How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom


How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, also known as Re:Construction – The Elfrieden Kingdom Tales of Realistic Brave, is a Japanese light novel series written by Dojyomaru and illustrated by Fuyuyuki. The story follows Kazuya Souma, a humanities-student-turned-hero as he pulls on his knowledge of political realism in order to rebuild the kingdom. A manga adaptation by Satoshi Ueda began serialization online on Overlap's Comic Gardo manga website in July 2017. Digital publisher J-Novel Club has licensed both the light novel and manga for an English release. An anime television series adaptation by J.C.Staff aired from July 2021 to April 2022.

Plot

Kazuya Souma is a young man who is suddenly transported to another world where he is informed by Albert Elfrieden, the king of the Elfrieden Kingdom, that he is abdicating the throne to him. He is also informed that he has been betrothed to Albert's daughter, Liscia. Deciding he is going to rebuild the country's struggling economy, Kazuya gathers talented citizens who are going to help him with the reform.

Characters

Main characters

;Kazuya Souma
;Liscia Elfrieden
;Aisha Udgard
;Juna Doma
;Roroa Amidonia
;Naden Delal

Kingdom of Elfrieden/Kingdom of Friedonia

;Hakuya Kwonmin
;Poncho Panacotta
;Tomoe Inui
;Halbert Magna
;Kaede Foxia
;Ludwin Arcs
;Genia Maxwell
;Excel Walter
;Castor Vargas
;Carla Vargas
;Georg Carmine
;Albert Elfrieden
;Elisha Elfrieden
;Gatsby Colbert

Principality of Amidonia

;Gaius Amidonia
;Julius Amidonia

Gran Chaos Empire

;Maria Euphoria
;Jeanne Euphoria

Star Dragon Mountain Range

;Tiamat
;Ruby
;Pai Long
;Sapphire
;Emerald

Media

Light novels

Written by Dojyomaru and illustrated by Fuyuyuki, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom originally started as a web novel in 2014 on Shōsetsuka ni Narō, but it was subsequently deleted and resumed on Pixiv. The series was later acquired by Overlap, who published twenty volumes of it as a light novel under their Overlap Bunko imprint from May 25, 2016, to December 25, 2024. Digital English light novel publisher J-Novel Club announced their acquisition of the series on February 23, 2017. The print version is published by Seven Seas Entertainment.

Manga

A manga adaptation of the series by Satoshi Ueda began serialization on Overlap's Comic Gardo website on July 10, 2017. The series is also licensed in North America by J-Novel Club. As of November 2025, fourteen volumes have been released.

Anime

An anime television series adaptation was announced by Overlap on April 17, 2020. The series was animated by J.C.Staff and directed by Takashi Watanabe, with Gō Zappa and Hiroshi Ōnogi penning the scripts, Mai Otsuka designing the characters, and Akiyuki Tateyama composing the series' music. The first half aired from July 4 to September 26, 2021, on Tokyo MX and BS11. The first half ran for 13 episodes. The second half aired from January 9 to April 3, 2022. The first opening theme song, "Hello Horizon", was performed by Inori Minase, while the first ending theme song, "Kazanear", was performed by Aimi. The second opening theme song is "Real-Eyes" by Inori Minase, while the second ending theme song is "Lights" by Aimi.
Funimation licensed the series outside of Asia. On July 30, 2021, Funimation announced the series would receive an English dub, which premiered the following day. Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll. Mighty Media licensed the series in Southeast Asia and streamed it on iQIYI and Bilibili and also aired on Animax starting on March 9, 2022.

Reception

Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network described the first novel as "feel a little bit like a thoughtful isekai", and wrote: "It's a bit too fond of info-dumps and has some narrative issues with voice, but generally speaking, if you've ever wanted to see the summoned hero do more than fight the bad guys and win the ladies, this is the book you've been waiting for".