(L) The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt (Hey, How About Treason?)

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Forever

From what I heard, her breast grows as the story progresses....

Oh no! It's the Nami-syndrome!!!

Anyway, after 2 episodes in, looks like my comment in the anticipation thread of hoping this show to be at least as entertaining as Realist Hero is fulfilled (so far).

[Marina2]

So...anime version reduces the amount of fabric on Ninym's clothes to show her side-boobs.....in exchange for the reduction of her breast size.

BTW, while I know that they did it to save the budget, I really like how they use board game pieces to represent the soldiers in the battlefield.

[frodonk]

I don't particularly care about this "springtime for hitler" prince but I'm interested in his relationship with Ninym. Nobody who insulted her has survived so far

EDIT: Also kinda weird that the empire wanted to save themselves from the embarrassment of having some foreign prince become the top student of their military academy but instead of simply not including him in the list, they had his name included as no1 in all of them BUT they took some sharpie and blacked out his name after publication

Not to mention that that scene was directly after he cut down an enemy general wearing full plate armor, you know, just in case we suddenly had questions about how this prince could be a genius not only with military tactics but with a sword as well

[Wandering Soul]

If these two episodes have established any rules so far, it's don't insult Ninym unless you have a death wish. It's a rule that seems to be well known to Wein's army and even Ninym herself considering how tense and worried everyone was when that general insulted her in front of Wein.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Forever

From what I heard, her breast grows as the story progresses....

Be kind of hilarious if the anime reflects that .

Originally Posted by Marina2

So...anime version reduces the amount of fabric on Ninym's clothes to show her side-boobs.....in exchange for the reduction of her breast size.

Strategic fanservice? Reducing mass to show more skin ?

BTW, while I know that they did it to save the budget, I really like how they use board game pieces to represent the soldiers in the battlefield.

I also thought it was a creative way to showcase a battle while saving budget and fitting the tone of the show .

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by frodonk

I don't particularly care about this "springtime for hitler" prince but I'm interested in his relationship with Ninym. Nobody who insulted her has survived so far

EDIT: Also kinda weird that the empire wanted to save themselves from the embarrassment of having some foreign prince become the top student of their military academy but instead of simply not including him in the list, they had his name included as no1 in all of them BUT they took some sharpie and blacked out his name after publication

Not to mention that that scene was directly after he cut down an enemy general wearing full plate armor, you know, just in case we suddenly had questions about how this prince could be a genius not only with military tactics but with a sword as well

I guess it shows that the military academy has a certain degree of autonomy? If they really were upset they could have artificially changed his grades, made up an excuse to expel him, or anything you listed. But instead they seemed fine with giving him the grades he deserved and publicizing them. It feels like the Empire itself took offence to it after the fact and went ahead to redact his achievements. That or they weren't simply offended that a foreign prince topped their academy and something happened after publication that made them want to redact it.

[Magewolf]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

I guess it shows that the military academy has a certain degree of autonomy? If they really were upset they could have artificially changed his grades, made up an excuse to expel him, or anything you listed. But instead they seemed fine with giving him the grades he deserved and publicizing them. It feels like the Empire itself took offence to it after the fact and went ahead to redact his achievements. That or they weren't simply offended that a foreign prince topped their academy and something happened after publication that made them want to redact it.

I am leaning towards something happening after the fact causing him to be wiped from the records. Of course, he might have entered under a fake name in his quest to get away from his home country.

[BWTraveller]

Well remember, they were planning to annex the kingdom. The entire reason they were fine training everyone was because they were training what would be their men. That means they weren't giving top scores to "a foreign prince" but to a man who would soon be one of their citizens and potentially a commander or strategist for their army. No reason to lie about his skill in that scenario. But when they had to abandon those plans, suddenly he went back to being a foreign prince and potential rival, someone they couldn't so casually recognize as beating out everyone else who studied there.

[Tenzen12]

That assumes they had plan annex kingdom by time he was attending academy though, but that was during rule of his father, while it was prince who make two countries close after his father got sick.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Magewolf

I am leaning towards something happening after the fact causing him to be wiped from the records. Of course, he might have entered under a fake name in his quest to get away from his home country.

Spoiler for skipped vol 1 details:

Ding ding ding, give this man a cookie!
He doctored his identity with the help of an imperial official to pass himself off as a commoner. Though it's unclear when they found out who he was.

Originally Posted by Wandering Soul

If these two episodes have established any rules so far, it's don't insult Ninym unless you have a death wish. It's a rule that seems to be well known to Wein's army and even Ninym herself considering how tense and worried everyone was when that general insulted her in front of Wein.

That, and the general she killed. She had the soldiers keep quiet about the fact he insulted her before he died.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

That, and the general she killed. She had the soldiers keep quiet about the fact he insulted her before he died.

I thought before that it was for the sake of her own pride but now I wonder if it's because she knew what Wein would get like if she knew what the opposing army thought about her race...

[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by Marina2

BTW, while I know that they did it to save the budget, I really like how they use board game pieces to represent the soldiers in the battlefield.

Absolutely agreed. It’s a budget saving move, but it’s a well-done budget saving move. I think it also fits Wein’s normally-silly personality better with the way he has the childish slacker self in the back of his mind as he plays serious with his officers and the talks with Logan in this episode.

[HandofFate]

what's the relationship between the MC's kingdom and the Empire and then the surrounding kingdoms here? Still confused on the borders.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by HandofFate

what's the relationship between the MC's kingdom and the Empire and then the surrounding kingdoms here? Still confused on the borders.

(I've only read vol 1, which concluded with this ep.)

The continent is cut in two by a mountain range. The kingdom sits on one of the passages between the eastern and the western halves. The Empire's already conquered the eastern half.

The empire was "friendly" enough to garrison troops in the kingdom, but it wasn't an invasion, even if some in Natra resented it. They (and the prince, though the empire doesn't know that) wanted a smooth transition into the kingdom becoming an imperial province so they could have that strategic point to invade the rest of the continent.

To the west is Marden, and the relationship is what we've seen in the anime already. Then there's the country which invaded Marden while they were busy with the mine, ruining Wein's plans. At first they intended to conquer the mine too, and Wein intended to just sell it to them, but Marden rallied enough to mount a resistance, and the invading country (whose name escapes me) hastily signed a non aggression pact with Wein, specifically renouncing all claims to the mine, rather than risk opening a second front.

IIRC the western half is a many small countries, but we've only heard about Marden and their invader.

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

That assumes they had plan annex kingdom by time he was attending academy though, but that was during rule of his father, while it was prince who make two countries close after his father got sick.

The way I understood it the empire trained the soldiers specifically because they'd made secret plans with him to annex the kingdom down the line.

[Itlandm]

I liked this a lot more than I expected to. Despite the absurd underlying idea and the silly animations, it ended up being a lot more realistic than much of recent fantasy anime. While he does get help from dumb luck a couple of times, he mostly pulls off his stunts thanks to actual genius like learning the names of random infantry soldiers, a talent for strategy and tactics, and not least his charisma. Plus he surrounds himself with talented people and doesn't give in to racial prejudice. I'll cut him some slack for relying on luck a couple of times. At least he doesn't just invent a new spell to decimate the enemy army, like so many OP main characters I've seen the last few years.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by BWTraveller

The way I understood it the empire trained the soldiers specifically because they'd made secret plans with him to annex the kingdom down the line.

And it turns out it's not going to be that simple .

[Tenzen12]

Originally Posted by BWTraveller

The way I understood it the empire trained the soldiers specifically because they'd made secret plans with him to annex the kingdom down the line.

Yes, but prince studied there unspecified time before they started train their soldiers.

Graduate academy -> King fall ill -> prince take over rule -> ask empire to train his country soldiers.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by BWTraveller

The way I understood it the empire trained the soldiers specifically because they'd made secret plans with him to annex the kingdom down the line.

No. They don't know he desperately wants to sell his country. Training his soldiers is part of a dance to convince him to sell his country.

[Frontier]

It was cool to see a flashback of Wein and Ninym in their Imperial Academy days and to see them sporting school uniforms and palling around with their friends, not encumbered or forced to act from the positions they were trying to hide. Also kind of neat to see Ninym and Lowa with shorter hair before they grew it out .

So Wein wasn't the only prince who was hiding their position at the academy, because it turns out the Imperial Princess was hiding her identity as well and had him made as a prince from the very start of her relationship, and she's come to bargain for marriage (and possibly more) .

Lowa definitely grew into a beautiful and classy young woman, with an amazing figure and clothes that show off her belly button and legs quite well. And she's voiced by Nao Toyama! of course, being voiced by her instantly kills any romantic intentions towards Wein (if she even genuinely had any), but what can you do ?

So Lowa had been dragging her school friends into constant trouble, fighting crime and cleaning up her kingdom, showing that she's a very active princess in her own way. And she's still seemingly doing what she feels is best for the kingdom as she tells Wein that she wants his help to take the throne for herself and calm the kingdom down between all the infighting amongst her brothers...although there might even be more to it than just that .

Ninym and Lowa feel like best friends, but I do feel a little tension/competitiveness between them .

Ninym reassuring Wein's sister that he'll always be her big brother was a very sweet scene, and Falanya then asks Ninym directly about her feelings for Wein...and while even Falanya seems to have realized how close they are, it seems like their positions and Ninym's race has killed any hope of they're marrying each other, and Ninym would rather die than have Wein jeopardize his standing for her. She's content to be his heart, something so precious to him, rather than his wife...but is Wein satisfied with just that ?

Nothing quite like a bathing scene between girls that fully expose their bountiful boobs...especially Fisch .

Dang, I wanted to see a flashback of Ninym's duel .

It seems like the biggest clue we have as to what Lowa is after is a talk she and Wein had about how she's tired of being judged for and looked down upon for her sex, when she feels she has just as much to offer as any man (particularly in comparison to her brothers, I imagine), and Wein says the best way to demonstrate it is through a war...a war he gave her permission to drag him into. Uh oh .