Doubt. Also, this is how Luck, the main character of I Became a Legend After My 10 Year-Long Last Stand, used to look. Ugh, gross! Ptooey! Who would ever want to watch an anime starring such an old, geriatric geezer at the ripe age of… checks notes… 30! Even worse, he becomes 40 after his ten year last stand! Luckily, his oh-so-epic battle against the demon lord has the unexpected side effect of de-aging Luck… uh, it’s magic! Yeah! Don’t worry about it!
Luck returns to civilization to find that he has become a legend. After all, he saved humanity by making his brave, last stand. Luckily (no pun intended), his old buddies still recognize him somehow. The show could’ve played up the drama — it could’ve made Goran and Eric dismiss Luck because he now looks like a barely pubescent boy. But no, they are tearfully happy to reunite with an old comrade, and this part of the episode is actually kinda sweet.
The problem, of course, is what the age regression portends. I mean, you could’ve just done an anime about a grizzled vet setting off on a new journey, but this time, he takes inexperienced adventurers under his wings. And essentially, this is already sort of what you get. Luck hides the fact that he’s an S-rank sorcerer, so he’s masquerading as an F-rank swordsman (even though he’s an expert in that too). He is quickly joined by a pair of newbies for a “simple” goblin slayin’ quest, and he intends to show them the ropes. Okay, so why is it necessary for Luck to be a 15 year old boy again?
‘Cause this girl shows up. In fact, she’s probably Goran’s daughter. Then this catgirl shows up (always gotta have variety!). See? How can you have 15 year old love interest if you look 40? No, no, no, perish the thought of pursuing a woman your own age. A hero — a legend, actually — deserves better. But the woke, intolerant left would complain about the age gap, so we need to literally start over from square one. There, satisfied? Now Luck, known as Lock, can eventually meet the teenager of his dreams! The lucky winner might even be his pal’s own daughter!
…
Yeah, this is stupid.
The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects
How ’bout a show where the main character isn’t quite so young? Unfortunately, this doesn’t change the outcome one bit. Unfortunately, this middle-aged man still bags himself a young wife. But let’s back things up a bit and set the stage. Dias is an orphan who distinguished himself in battle, so his king saw fit to reward him with a bit of territory. Unfortunately, said territory already has natives living on it. In fact, the Onikin, mainly distinguished by the horns on their foreheads, have often come into conflict with the kingdom. There’s tension there… in theory. In practice, however, all Dias has to do cut down half a herd of what looks like fantasy buffaloes. And just like that, both the young girl he just met and the village elder can’t shut the fuck up about how manly he is — how he would be the perfect husband.
Alna was suspicious of him at first, but y’see, the Onikin’s horns serve as built-in mood detectors. It glows different colors depending on whether or not you’re a threat. Red means bad! White means harmless. Well, every time Dias opens his mouth, the women’s horns kept glowing blue, which means he’s super duper good guy! Why bother dealing with a complex, multi-layered geopolitical struggle or deep-seated cultural resentment? The horns can magically dispel any concern the natives might have! And gosh, have I mentioned Dias’s manliness? I did, but let’s belabor the point. Nothing manlier than killing the local fauna! And look how mad the native men are! Winning yourself a young wife and also cucking the natives in the process! Sweet!
Yeah, this is where I called it quits. Alna being all blushy with Dias after a single deed is just outrageous, especially when literally just a day ago, she was mocking him for being so clueless about his current situation. Most of all, I don’t wanna see an old man wife up a young girl. On paper, the premise was admittedly intriguing. I like empire-building games, and watching a protagonist build up his territory could’ve been kinda fun. But that isn’t what we get. The story doesn’t want to engage with the reality of living on the frontier, struggling meaningfully with starting from scratch, and building up relations with nearby populations. The entire time I was watching this episode, I kept thinking about Japan’s fraught relationship with the Ainu. So for Dias to just waltz right in, win the natives over in a single day, and take one of their womengirls in the first episode, bah… colonialism completely sanitized for the colonizers.
