"Ryoumin 0-nin Start no Henkyou Ryoushusama" is a story about a hero who after defending his country and people for 20 long years in the military, is "rewarded" with a fiefdom in a remote grasslands devoid of all life besides grass and its current occupants. The world is set in a medieval era with magic, other races, primitive life, and a monarchy as expected of such an era. The protagonist is essentially an overpowered 35 year old dimwit with a heart of gold who lives by his parent's last request of "Protect those weaker than you" and "Help those around you".

To summarize the early events of the manga, the protagonist meets a tribe who lives on the plains with the help of magic to hide themselves. The tribe ends up helping our overpowered protagonist in building his fiefdom of "A place where everyone can be free and happy". The protagonist is often visited by people, both good and bad, and the interactions that take place are interesting as he meets new races, cultures, and sometimes battles in his journey for creating a utopia-like fiefdom.

The things I like and dislike about this novel.
The protagonist is essentially an invincible moron who has the values of a saint. He helps everyone around him, takes down dragons like they're nothing, and has saved so many people in the past that everyone loves him. Now my problem with him is that he's essentially not a human. He has literally nothing going for him besides being amazing and gold hearted. No avarice, no lust, no nothing. In fact, he never kills anyone, even when his fiefdom is being attacked by bandits, he just beats them up, takes away their weapons, and sends them off after saying "Don't go around killing and raping people, lol". The dude was in the military fighting constantly for 20 years and... what... he's never killed anyone, what? It's at the level where I can't take it seriously.

Another problem I have with the protagonist being a saint, is that the tribe which he has in his fiefdom actually has the magic ability to "see into the soul and find out if you're a good person with good intentions". Surprise surprise, the protagonist is found out to be the absolute best of the best humans ever seen before. And what's worse is that while building his fiefdom and later recruiting people, literally everyone that joins him is the same in that they are angels without the slightest bad intentions whereas everyone not joining/allying with him are horrible or neutral at best.

Continuing on, the protagonist's fiefdom starts with no population, and the protagonist is met with the choice of purchasing a bunch of Furries as slaves to populate it. Normally you would expect a Shounen protagonist to buy up all of the slaves, free them, and have everyone live happily ever after. In reality though, the protagonist explains that if one were to purchase slaves, it would only make the problem worse as a merchant who's sold his product will be more than willing to replenish said product. It's more in depth than I would expect as seen from my first impressions, so I was pleased with this. However, the rest of the manga is almost always much more shallow.

Now onto one of my biggest pet peeves of this stories and even on some of the people reviewing it. Something that is normally taught in most schools at around English grade 10 I'd imagine, is that when reading a story that takes place in a different time or culture from ours, always leave your modern morals and standards behind. You should never read Shakespeare and then leave a negative review simply because there was racism or misogyny in it, that was the norm for that time. The same applies to the medieval era in terms of many, many things. The problem I have with this manga is that the author basically picks and chooses certain things that are present in either the medieval time or modern time without understanding why.

What do I mean by this? For example, in the manga's kingdom, those 18 and under cannot drink alcohol. Did you know that in medieval time, virtually everyone drank alcohol? It was the most common drink competing with water where weakened alcohol often replaced water for many. Alcohol, smoking, and other substances were only barred from the youth when we understood science and the world to a degree that's impossible in the medieval times. The exact same thing can be said about the marriage age, equal rights, and the mixing of several different cultures as seen in the manga. Normally I would just ignore this and chalk it up as a typical Shounen manga, but it keeps splicing modern day morals and medieval ones at its own convenience in such a shallow way that it gets obnoxious at some point.


If you can ignore those things, then I think this manga reads decently well. It's definitely better than your standard Isekai copy and paste.

Overall a very enjoyable read until the story introduces the all too common manga trope of a "comedic transvestite" which just comes off as dull and offensive. The character is immediately disrespected and made a mockery of upon introduction.

I actually find this manga to be a legitimately good slice-of-life with a super understanding, open-minded protagonist who's easy to root for, with one slightly big caveat which is...

...that the female love interest is only sixteen, while Dias is a full-grown adult. And while there's nothing sexual about their relationship so far, it certainly moves fast -- and Aruna and Dias essentially marries within the first few chapters. (They even adopt kids!) The stark age difference here is actually a super noticeable shortcoming in an otherwise really good manga since 1) Dias himself even comments on the fact that Aruna is too young for him, and 2) while she looks her age, Aruna actually acts fairly mature and stands on equal footing with Dias almost from the outset, which makes it even more strange why the author didn't simply age her up. (I'd prefer twenty, but heck, even eighteen would be better than sixteen!)

However, that aside, this manga basically does everything else well. Most notably, what sets it apart from other "kingdom building" manga is that Dias is actually an incredibly open-minded protagonist who relies on others to help him rather than any individual "cheats". In fact, while the narrative establishes that Dias is really, really strong in combat, it also shows that Dias is all brawn and heart with no brain whatsoever to speak of -- and Dias himself knows this.

So instead of the usual OP protagonist coming into "unconquered" land and conquering/colonizing it to their liking, Dias instead makes friends with the natives already living in his territory and actually learns from them how to cultivate his land. In fact, all of the gains that Dias makes in creating a thriving village is all due to the help he receives from those around him. The manga is really good at showing that no man is an island, and that even the smallest member can contribute to the making of a homeland. Dias is, in effect, an "ideal" leader -- one who can protect his people when necessary, but also one who knows when to accept the opinions of those smarter than him.

It's also, quite frankly, one of the best depictions of true cultural exchange I've seen in a manga, where those with different cultures actually come together and learn from each other. There's no implied hierarchy of which culture is better, with no cultures held to be more 'civilized' or more 'primitive'. Even the more animalistic members of Dias's little community gets acknowledgment and acceptance.



This kind of back-and-forth conversation, in which both sides are considered and an actual equitable arrangement is reached, is a far cry from how these exchanges usually go. (Often with one side being shown as the "right side" whose example the other side needs to follow.) And that's really what sets this series apart from all others: that it's so, well, darn respectful of other people.

Now if only the author had aged Aruna up, then I could actually recommend this to people...

... Last updated on February 22nd, 2021, 4:40am

Hmmm I wonder if I and the reviewer below read the same manga. The MC is far from being a non descript, bland character.
The fact that he is not some hot stuff and is not very bright either is part of his character. But he is also incredibly strong and incredibly kind which is way better than the plain, wimpy kid with a heart of gold that you see elsewhere.
Additionally MC is far from useless. He held a post and aided in winning battles before he came to frontier. At the frontier, a place where its people have a primitive lifestyle, his incredible strength became of use again. True, the heroine may have fallen abruptly for him but it's not without a good reason.
Overall it's a good manga and I would recommend it

In one part you have unimaginative author. In other part, you have publisher who's afraid of taking risk. Add the two parts together and you'll get this manga. Story progression in this manga is so easy to predict. Not because the clue is everywhere, but because you've read this kind of suck-ass literature thousands of time. Yeah, it's utterly boring.

The sign of boring-ness starts from the male main character who is clueless. He's not physically attractive. Face very plain. Personality mild. Wealth non-existent. Maybe a bit manly due to his bulging muscle. But otherwise, a very nondescript character. It's very much a blank template character. You know it from the get go the author trying to appeal to readers who feel they don't have anything going for them.

You might try at that point to lazily predict, "Oh, I know he will get many things going for him soon," and you'll be right! Soon, he'll get the cutest girl attend to him. Not long after she will be head over heels for him. Oh yes, "clueless man get the prettiest girl," is the first message this story try to convey. Not "Dork men are attractive on their own right." Or "Sweet men can make girls' heart aflutter." No! It's "Useless man destined to get the prettiest." On top of uninspiring moral, it's pretty low effort writing-wise.

From there you start to notice mediocrity everywhere. The kingdom administration who's incompetent. Snob noble. Former subordinate who stays loyal and can be trusted to never steal your girl. Monster who's said to be dangerous but MC can solo it. Ugh, not one thing is inventive here. Not a second in the writing feels little bit polished. Bleh! Bleh! Bleh!

... Last updated on January 3rd, 2020, 12:02am

This isn't just another "slow life" story, it has a regular pace and there's action, social, and plot progress.

It's not often that the art actively harmonizes with the story to create a better experience, but this manages it. The comedy scenes are funny, the action scenes are dynamic, and the scenes in between set a relaxed tone as appropriate.

The action scenes aren't anything incredible, but they're good and they add some spice when appropriate.

A very good manga, I definitely recommend giving it a read!

... Last updated on September 1st, 2019, 1:31am