I was in an isekai mood, often am, and found what was clearly the next show to satisfy my love for this genre. As A Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill To Rise In The World features an unnamed individual who suddenly dies and is reborn as the son of a noble in a new world. Reborn as Ars Louvent he gains the unique ability Appraisal which allows him to see the stats of anyone he looks at. His title requires a heavy amount of responsibility in a land on the verge of war. He has to find able people to fight by his side as he grows as a person and as a leader to prepare for the impending conflict.

The story in this show is much more impressive than I expected. As Ars looks for able people for his retainers he finds them in the most unlikely places. The show features people with the best stats who were cast aside either due to race, gender, age and more but because of his skill he can immediately see the potential that others have dismissed for various reasons. It’s very much a don’t judge a book by its cover type of story and I love how that message is clearly conveyed.

The impending war story is also masterfully told here. Ars is very young but he has the world on his shoulders as he’s being raised to become the lord of his land. Where war is on the horizon he is constantly trying to improve his retainers and himself to be mentally and physically ready for this. The story clearly conveys the weight of this responsibility and the pacing of how the war and conflict progresses is done very well. It was a engaging and entertaining.

Since the story is heavily focused on seeing people for who they are and learning how to bring the most out of them it’s a very character focused story. Naturally for a story like this to work it needs entertaining characters and this show is a massive success in that. Ars is a great lead as his kindness in the face of conflict is endearing but the supporting cast is equally amazing. They bounce off of each other well both in personality and in skill. You see how well they work with each other as they cooperate to help Ars in his goals to establish a peaceful nation and it’s fun to watch them interact with each other. One example I can give is in Lord Raven, Ars’s father. Lord Raven is a more complicated character than what we normally get in parental figures in anime. He is strict to enforce the need for Ars to be ready for his responsibilities, empathetic as he sees when Ars struggles and comforts him when it happens and balances different aspects of fatherhood well here. Having such well developed characters greatly enhances the story being told here.

So overall I was very happy with this season. I binged watched it very quickly as I wanted to know who was going to be the next person Ars recruited and what they specialized in. Watching the story unfold and how the main characters use their amazing skills to overcome their obstacles was a lot of fun. As of writing this I saw season two is already out so I’m already planning on watching that next as I need to see more.