As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World

GyatChatillon★ 5

Imma say it, Kanseiskill is quite bad. Most people seemed to have dismissed it as a 'It was a pretty good anime, different from the usual isekai trash', but I beg to differ, while risking this being my longest and most garbage review, hear me out. The story follows a 35 years old npc who died and is now reincarnated as an aristocrat with an advanced stat viewer. The premise has promise, for the first few episodes, I went in with the 'let them cook' mentality. The MC isn't a dense, self insert, OP fucktard who goes 'Whoopsie daisy, did I do something :0?',after firing a spell strong enough to wipe out a city. The MC doesn't have a harem of one dimensional girls reassuring him at every step, craving the gear stick and emphasizing how 'kind' he is every single fucking episode. The MC is not a powerhouse, and the anime is focused more on the 'world building', 'political' and 'character driven' aspect of the shows, which already makes it unique in the world of copy paste isekais, so that must mean its at least a decent anime right? No. The GOOD: Blink and you might miss it. The MC hasn't fucked kids (yet). It's different from the usual isekai. The side characters are likable and fleshed out(for the most part), they were by far the best part of the show. I enjoyed every time they were on screen, especially Rietz. There are genuine emotional payoffs with great setup, especially the midpoint of the anime, it was tastefully done with overindulging, and ngl, it hit me in the feels. The animation is good. The pacing is good overall. The anime doesn't make you want to kill yourself(most of the time). The BAD: Our MC is a 35 year old salary man who bit the dust because he was overworked to the point of death, he reincarnated in another world with inferior technology and knowledge, and an extremely unique skill that only he possesses. You would think that a person who lived the life he did, would bring a more jaded, realistic, and mature world view into this fantasy world. Using brain over brawn, and his ability to instantly recognize talented individuals, biding his time, slowly rising through the ranks, and making absolutely sure that he would not go down the way he did in his previous life. The potential such a premise has is immense. Nope. Blud has the mental capacity and ideologies of an actual grade schooler. He goes around frolicking through life like a six year old on a sugar rush. The entire anime pretty much goes like this: He finds a person with good stats > Uses his title as a noble, and has this conversation 'I make world better place for everyone :D. Come work for me'. 'No'. 'Please?'. 'No'. 'Pretty please?'. 'No'. > ~Insert stupid event here that makes them join. Example: Gets kidnapped and has to get saved~. > They join. Rinse and repeat. Most of the people he hires are from much lower classes and are struggling to survive because of the horribly corrupt system that the nobles control, so to have this high and mighty spoilt aristocrat brat talk about his childish ideas of world peace while they don't even know if they will survive to see another day, is almost comedic. Their intention was the MC to come across as your usual non controversial, kind, 'good guy' character, but the implementation is so badly done, he just comes across as insufferable, dumb, and ignorant. I don't think I can put into words how much I disliked the MC, he has the most generic and shallow 'kind' response to every situation, without a second of thought put into his decision; A noble was caught faking signatures to cause chaos and war between two factions, what do we do about this heinous act? "Forgive, because everyone make mistakes and work together strong :D", consequences be damned. Everyone around him warned him against hiring an extremely sketchy drunk woman, but no, because ofc, "Her stat high, and she seems like a good person". The MC is so one dimensional, predictable, naive, dumb, and so superficially 'kind', that you could bring a serial rapist who rolled a juicy 100 on the 'aspirations' stat, and he would be hired instantly, because 'his stat high and everyone deserves a second chance'. The MC does nothing relevant or memorable all season, his cool high stat pokemon, I mean subordinates do pretty much all the work, all the fighting, and steal the show, while he just exists, emoting like a kindergartener "Ohhhhh!", "So cool!", "What did I do? :(". "Wow, stats so high!", it just becomes sad at a certain point. The MC is reduced to a mere plot device to introduce more interesting side characters. Oh, I forget to mention, the MCs love interest is an 8 year old... He gets extremely flustered by her advances and says, and I quote, 'If it wasn't for my appraisal skill, I would've fallen in love with her'. Make of that what you will, mushoku fans. The reincarnation aspect doesn't play a role at all, it seems like they forgot about it after the first 20 seconds, its almost as if the only hopped on the reincarnation train due to certain *ahem* popular reincarnation anime; he doesn't bring any of his knowledge, experience, or even a tiny bit of personality to this life, for all I know, he seems slightly slower than the other kids of his age. I've seen actual children who have more grounded, nuanced views on the world than this creature . The MC is truly a piece of work, a fucking frankenstien of failed ideas, and badly executed cliches. It almost feels like they were trying to go for 'found family' type of bond between the MC and his retainers, because he believed them when no one did! But that theory goes down the shitter when you realize that Ars only approached them because of their inherent high stats, so instead of the 'found family', its more like they met Ars' stat requirement because they were born with it. The world building is painfully average, the 'politics' in this anime just feel like a 15 year olds first attempt at a wattpad historical fiction. Most of the other aspects of the show are not outright bad, but it won't be impressing you either. But hey, if you enjoyed it, found it to be a breathe of fresh air from the usual isekai slop, I respect that. It the end, this is just my opinion and what I felt watching the show. I can see the appeal this anime has, but to me, it just ended up being the mushoku reject disappointment of the season. TLDR: I didn't like it, if you're really into isekais/more laid back animes, give it a watch and decide for yourself; else, stay away, waste of time and braincells.

Marinate1016★ 9

With so many reincarnated as a noble style shows coming out every season, it’s always nice to get one that does things differently. Instead of focusing on the usual OP MC fighting demon king army trope, Kantei skill focuses on nation building through the recruitment of talented individuals whom society has discarded. As someone who loves politics and public policy, I found this to be a very refreshing watch and it ended up being one of my favourite shows of the season. The main selling points for me with this series are the characters who are all very well written due to them being the focusof the story as well as the political intrigue. Ars forsees his family domain and nation falling due to political unrest caused by ill qualified leaders, a message that hits a little too close to home these days. So in this life, he’s determined to surround himself with the most qualified people regardless of background, gender or status using his appraisal skill which lets him see everyone’s potential. Of course what we end up learning throughout the series is that the brightest people are often found in the darkest of situations. Ars’ inclusive meritocratic philosophy earns him a lot of recognition and success at a young age, propelling him into the national spotlight. Really enjoyed seeing he and the other characters navigate the increasing fame while continuing to recruit other capable people in the midst of a potential civil war. Even if you’re not a massive political fan, I think the characters are more than enough to draw you in. It’s such a cool diverse cast who couldn’t be more different, yet they’re all bound by the fact Ars believed in them when no one else did. It’s kind of like a new spin on the found family trope. There’s also no forced romance or harems, just straight up character development, world building and political manoeuvring which is a breath of fresh air in the fantasy genre. In fact, the only real fan service in the show is Charlotte’s design.(which I love) but this is a really solid story. Feels mature, competent and focused and there’s plenty of emotional story beats that got me teary eyed. I’m a big underdog fan and all these characters have had to overcome so much adversity to get where they are. Even if you can’t relate to the fantastical elements of the story, there’s a lot of life lessons you can take from this. Chiefly, don’t let your current circumstances deter you from achieving greatness. Now my one big complaint and probably what stopped me from giving a 10 is the fact that Ars despite being a reincarnated grown man from Japan, acts like a child far too often. He gets flustered over things that a grown man shouldn’t, acts scared to talk to people etc. It just logically doesn’t make sense considering he would’ve had to have done all that stuff in his previous life. If it’s an isekai, it defeats the purpose if the person doesn’t use any knowledge or experience from his previous life.. that said, it didn’t hamper my enjoyment too much, but it’s definitely a head scratcher. This show had no reason looking as good as it does from a production standpoint. The art style is so bright and colourful. I found it extremely pleasing to look at it, character designs have to be some of the best this season. The action animation is surprisingly really good too. One of the fights from the first two episodes is actually in my top fights of the season. It’s a very well put together show. Kantei Skill’s a must watch for anyone who likes nation building, politics or just wants to see a mature fantasy story that doesn’t treat you like you’re a 14 year old boy looking for a power fantasy. It was a joy to watch every week and I’ll miss it a lot. Kantei skill gets 9, out of 10.