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Kazuya Souma (ソーマ・カズヤ, Sōma Kazuya?), later known as Souma A. Elfrieden (ソーマ・Ａ・エルフリーデン, Sōma Amidonia Erufurīden?), is the main protagonist of the 2016 light novel series How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom and the 2021 anime adaptation of the same name.
Originally a university student from Japan on Earth, as well as him being the last of the Souma family, his entire fate later changes when he is summoned to another world as a reluctant hero, who is suddenly turned into the 14th King of Elfrieden Kingdom by Albert Elfrieden, the king's erstwhile monarch, in a desperate attempt to save the ailing kingdom from its financial woes, including non-payment tributes to the neighbouring Gran Cross Empire.
Initially reluctant to take on the duty as Elfrieden's new king, as it was forced upon him after Albert's sudden abdication to the throne, as well as his sudden engagement to Liscia Elfrieden, Kazuya later decides to implement several reforms, as well as solving the food crisis that plagued the kingdom and bolster Elfrieden's economy.
While Kazuya was successful in bolstering Elfrieden's economy and curtailing the country's financial issues, tensions suddenly grew to a breaking point, when Elfrieden's nobles including Georg Carmine, Castor Vargas, Julius Amidonia, and Gaius Amidonia accused him of usurping the throne, leading to the One Week War, to which he became victorious, as well as leading up to the annexation of Amidonia and the merging of Amidonia and Elfrieden into the Kingdom of Friedonia after the Amidonian Rebellions, effectively exiling Julius Amidonia.
Kazuya is voiced by Yusuke Kobayashi, who voiced Subaru Natsuki from Re:Zero. He is voiced by Alejandro Saab on English, who voiced Tatsuya Shiba in The Irregular at Magic High School.
Appearance[]
Kazuya is a 19-year-old young man with brownish-black hair and brown eyes at the start of the series. His appearance is typical of a Japanese male. He usually wears a jacket over a pair of plain slacks and a white shirt.
He wears the Elfrieden Kingdom's regal military uniform when undertaking official activities, such as military campaigns or travel.
Personality[]
Kazuya is a realist, as the title suggests, and has high regard for Machiavelli and Sun Tzu's teachings. After being unexpectedly given the throne of Elfrieden, to his initial shock and displeasure, Kazuya gradually builds confidence in his ability to carry out his reforms and improve the residents' standard of living. He is highly protective of his Queen Consorts and follows his late grandfather's teachings to keep his family safe at all costs.
Kazuya is far from flawless, and he still makes errors and ignores little things, causing some mishaps to his well-calculated plans. His intention to acquire just Van left him unprepared to annex the entire kingdom of Amidonia. He'd also miscalculated the strength of the corrupt nobility he'd expelled from Elfrieden, and was only spared because to Georg Carmine's schemes and the previous Queen Elisha Elfrieden's influence.
Kazuya isn't a glutton, but when it comes to eating and cooking, he may get a little carried away. He adds that he likes cooking and experimenting with new dishes with Poncho Panacotta. He was relieved to hear that the Mystic Wolf tribe could make meals that were comparable to those found in Japan, and that he could continue to consume cuisine from his country.
Background[]
Kazuya, along with his late grandfather, are the only members left in the Souma family. When Kazuya's grandfather dies, he is a 19-year-old modern Japanese person and a soon-to-be-university student who has just graduated from high school. Before his grandfather passes away, he advises Kazuya to marry and live a happy life. Souma was summoned to the Kingdom of Elfrieden shortly after the burial, out of desperation, due to the kingdom's inability to pay war payments to the Gran Chaos Empire.
Instead of being given over to the Empire, Souma persuaded King Elfrieden that it was feasible to gather the funds necessary to pay the tribute, as well as undertake reforms and plans to address food shortages, reinforce the army, and improve the entire economy. So delighted was Alfred Elfrieden that he decided to relinquish his position as ruler and pass it over to Souma. He also proposed to Souma's daughter, Liscia Elfrieden.
To everyone's amazement, Souma was able to obtain enough money in two days to pay the war contribution by selling off unwanted national treasures. He was also able to assemble the subordinates he needed to solve the food crisis, develop the economy, and entertain and enlighten the populace by using the Royal Jewel Broadcast as a type of mass-media system. His use of modern-day tactics and Earth concepts also helped him win the One Week War against the rebellious dukes Georg Carmine and Castor Vargas, as well as Amidonia, which led to the latter's annexation, Gaius's death, Julius's exile, and the merging of Elfrieden and Friedonia into one country: Friedonia.
Liscia Elfrieden, Aisha Udgard, Roroa Amidonia, Juna Doma, and Naden Delal are his five wives, whom he engaged and later married. He's also formed a clandestine alliance with the Gran Chaos Empire, as well as a Tripartite Medical Alliance with the Empire and the Republic of Turgis. He had just been in talks with the Union of Eastern Nations after his kingdom gave military assistance to resist a demon invasion. His First Queen-consort Liscia had already given birth to fraternal twins Cian and Kazuha Elfrieden by the time he arrived back at Friedonia.
Skills[]
- Basic Swordsmanship - Unlike his fiancée and later his wife Liscia, who is a seasoned swordsman, Kazuya has no combat experience at first. In subsequent volumes, however, he does begin training to improve his physical strength and study Swordsmanship for self-defense, but his level is still that of a greenhorn soldier.
- Sewing - Kazuya is an excellent tailor and outfit designer. He can mend any broken fabric, as well as produce garments and even plush dolls, including his Little Musashibo disguise, which came from his skills as a tailor.
- Cooking - Kazuya is an accomplished chef who can produce a broad range of cuisines from his home planet of Earth. However, he recognises the limitations of what he can duplicate from his environment on his own, and he frequently relies on Poncho for assistance.
- Adept Socioeconomic Mastery - In terms of social economics, Kazuya is significantly more capable than the majority of Landia's citizens, since he hailed from a much more advanced civilisation than all of Landia's people combined. He is able to conduct reforms and improvements that improve the general standard of living for the inhabitants of Elfrieden and subsequently Friedonia due to his grasp of contemporary culture and how the economy impacts the populous. The Gran Chaos Empire has even emulated the success of such approaches and advancements.
- Master Tactician - His understanding of Sun Tzu's tactics as well as modern warfare provides him a greater understanding of military operations. Georg Carmine was blown away by his deception techniques during the One Week War, and Excel Walter shuddered at the prospect of what Kazuya's world had gone through.
- Living Poltergeist: Its the ability to manipulate objects by transferring the users consciousness into them. Since Kazuya is transferring a part of his consciousness into an object to manipulate it, he can also see and hear everything through it, and they can even move independently without any directives from Kazuya. The power and functionality of the magic is based on the weight and form of the object, thus giving Kazuya various usability depending on the object. The control over object become more proficient and easier, if its in the form of an living creatures like toys or dolls, and allows him to simultaneously control more object at the same time. Kazuya can showcase his full potential, if the object is in humanoid shape, since his transferred consciousness can manipulate the humanoid doll shape more easily. He can even make the humanoid doll use various weapons and become proficient with their usage along with them. The effective range of "Living Poltergeist" is around 100 meters for objects which aren't "dolls".
Trivia[]
- Most people in the Kingdom believe Kazuya's given name is "Souma," and refer to him as "King Souma" since he presented himself to others using the Japanese form of his family name/surname first. Only a few people including Liscia are aware that "Kazuya" is his given name and "Souma" is his surname. Because to this blunder on his part, he is known over the world as "Souma."
- As a result, he had to call himself "Souma A. Elfrieden" during the coronation ceremony, giving up his given name "Kazuya" and adopting the surnames of both the Amidonia and the Elfrieden families.
- It is later remedied, however, when Liscia gives birth to their daughter Kazuha Elfrieden, thus no longer foregoing and later preserving a missing piece of Kazuya's identity: his given name.
- It's later revealed that he is not in another universe, but rather in the far future on a different planet. Humanity was terraforming another world and had other species created to see if it was viable. However, over the years they became shut ins thanks to technology advancing, so they abandoned the project; leaving the AIs in charge. However, this also kead to one malfunctionining and begin creating unending dungeons filled with monsters; creating the demon conflict. The hero summoning was actually meany to call a human to fix the issue as the new administrator; aimed at the past of humanity, so they didn't get stuck with a NEET.
- Kazuya actually conceived his twin children partly due to the stress Lunarian church pressuring him to side with them; he had been holding off consummating his engagement with Liscia for some time. Bright side is the intimacy brought him and Liscia closer and he was able to avoid the honey trap the Lunarian church sent in the form of their envoy saint.
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 Heroes
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Kingdom of Friedonia Gran Chaos Empire Kingdom of Lastania Republic of Turgis | ||