Tensei Kizoku, Kantei Skill de Nariagaru 2nd Season, episode 7
Alternative Names
As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World Season 2, KanteiSkill 2
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Oof, what a weird episode. The pacing, battle tactics, animation, etc all felt off.
I did like this exchange though:
Ars giving him the toy spoke volumes without using words. It makes his appearance later feel very natural and in-character.
But the battle itself felt very un-natural. Telling people to get in a circle formation to counter the cavalry… no, that’s what pikes are for. And it wasn’t like the cavalry was a surprise; they knew the castle had cavalry.
“Hey great strategist, should we get some pikes? You know, the most basic military infantry tactic against horses?”
“Nah, just stand in a circle with swords. They’ll NEVER see that coming!”
Later:
“Retreat!”
“What about our infantry?”
“They have horses now!”
“Uh… where were we keeping all these horses? And if they have horses why are they infantry and not cavalry?”
“Pssh… i dunno.”
Even Later:
“The enemy cavalry has speed hacks and can get in front of us!”
“It’s because your horses have to carry all that heavy armor”
“But… your troops also wear armor.”
“I know what I said…”
I feel this probably made a lot more sense in the light novel but translating that into animation didn’t quite work out. Speaking of animation, some of it was bad enough to be distracting. I know that horses are notoriously difficult to get right in anime but this wide-angle shot felt especially off:
If the foot soldiers had just retreated normally without magically summoning horses from their horse pocket, then the enemy cavalry catching up would not only make more sense, but would be more dramatic when they split the retreating army in two rather than nipping at their heels (as would be expected). Maybe we fix the animation struggles too since people are marching instead of horses bouncing around like they’re on pogo-sticks.
I would also have liked to see more of the hostage rescue. “Oh no, it’s the enemy.” “We’re here to rescue you whether you like it or not. Check out my knife. It’s a Benchmade.” “Oh, okay, we’ll go with you.”
And if they have horses why are they infantry and not cavalry
Because they’re not trained to fight on the horses, and the horses may not be combat-trained either. Infantry throughout history has often used horses or mules for transport, then gotten off them for the actual fighting.
To add to the list of criticisms: They knew what route they would be retreating along, so why were there no traps? Even if digging a concealed pit would have taken too long, a few chevaux de frise, tactically placed, could have done some damage. Or give the rearguard some caltrops to toss behind them. Horse archers could have helped a lot, but would probably have been too much to ask for.
I get the impression that the person responsible for the source material for this series doesn’t have even my passing interest in the nuts and bolts of medieval warfare.
Infantry throughout history has often used horses or mules for transport, then gotten off them for the actual fighting.
I believe the name for those were “dragoons”. I thought about it, but my understanding was they were armed with muskets. Since firing a rifle from horseback usually meant you missed, they would dismount before engaging. I suppose it’s not a stretch to have dragoons that only carried swords, but we also know that they had 5000 troops in that battle and even if they doubled up the riders that’s over 2000 horses. We saw, maybe 2 dozen in the retreat
They knew what route they would be retreating along, so why were there no traps?
Wait… I know! They couldn’t get any wood for pikes or chevaux de frise so they had to retreat all the way back to the forest… the forest that’s entirely made of wood… nevermind. Maybe we just shouldn’t think too hard about it. ;)
I believe the name for those were “dragoons”. I thought about it, but my understanding was they were armed with muskets. Since firing a rifle from horseback usually meant you missed, they would dismount before engaging. I suppose it’s not a stretch to have dragoons that only carried swords, but we also know that they had 5000 troops in that battle and even if they doubled up the riders that’s over 2000 horses. We saw, maybe 2 dozen in the retreat
Dragoons were a more recent incarnation. I believe there were other earlier ones.
Basically what went wrong with this scene in Reincarnated Aristocrat, though, is that they went for too much detail in a crowd scene that would have been much better off with less. If you look at older anime from the hand-drawn cell era, they didn’t try to individually animate every member of a large group like an army. Exaggerated atmosperic perspective and depth of field, plus judicious use of detail, reduced the parts of the army away from the main characters to a sort of dark mass with the occasional helmet or horse-leg movement—and that was okay, because we didn’t care enough about those people to focus on them individually. Currently there’s a fad for using computer animation to spam copies of the same model, often poorly animated, to make up the numbers, and it doesn’t work and tends to be very noticeable. Hopefully someone in Japan will eventually figure that out, and they’ll return to the more painterly approach.
(In this case, of course, they didn’t even spam enough copies, so even worse.)
I had to go back to the manga to check and the pocket horses show up there too. One panel shows that only the generals are riding while the other soldiers are on foot and then a couple pages later, it is a horse v. horse race (made it all the way up to chapter 85 in this episode btw).
This episode definitely felt a bit janky, though I think most of that (apart from the horse animation) is down to the source. Looking back, this plays out exactly the same in the manga. It really doesn’t make a whole lot of tactical sense. I think this series does the politics/negotiation side of things a lot better than the actual warfare. The tough thing about writing characters like Rosell and Mireille that are supposed to be geniuses is that they can really only be as smart as the author. So, too often, authors will just make everybody else act dumber so that they look smart.
Look at you doing all the detective work once again!
made it all the way up to chapter 85 in this episode btw
Neat! How many chapters have been released total?
I think this series does the politics/negotiation side of things a lot better than the actual warfare. The tough thing about writing characters like Rosell and Mireille that are supposed to be geniuses is that they can really only be as smart as the author.
Very true. I was reading the Destiny’s Crucible series (which is not a Japanese LN series… crazy, right?) and the author did a good job with this particular isekai because the MC is basically a smart Earthling placed down on a Medieval Times planet so he’s constantly like, “I THINK this is how stuff like this works, but I’m not sure.” It allows him to get things wrong. Unfortunately things got really boring in the 4th book and I haven’t gone back to it.
But back to Aristocrat, the strength really is in the character development and political intrigue so I can let some tactical buffoonery slide. I mean, one battle basically boiled down to “My mage is better than your mage” so it’s whatever XD
Looks like there are 145 chapters available in both English and Japanese. Checking my Mangadex library, looks like I had stopped reading right around chapter 100. Not sure if we will get to new-to-me material this season or not.
Done!
