English Dub Review: The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt Season One

Overview:

The king of Natra has fallen ill, leaving the only hope for his kingdom to his son, Prince Wein Salema Arbalest. Known to be capable and wise, he is the perfect candidate to become the prince regent. However, if the prince has anything to say about the matter, he would rather sell off the Kingdom of Natra to the highest bidder!

Our Take:

This is an interesting anime to review. In a world full of isekai this anime dares to just be fantasy. I get why isekai is simpler, if the main character doesn’t know the world they’re in, they will ask the same questions we would. Which makes it easier to get caught up on all the world-building. Genius Prince manages to do a good enough job of filling us in on the important details without making it feel like an info dump. Which goes a long way to making it an enjoyable viewing experience.

The animation isn’t anything to write home about but the action scenes are serviceable enough. Luckily, action isn’t really this shows forte. No, political maneuvering is the name of the game here. The characters also shine here, but what would characters be without voices to bring them to life?

Dallas Reid is the voice of Wein (pronounced “Wayne” for some reason) and he does really well. I was really surprised how well he did to be honest because I know him as Asta from Black Clover and that guy is just a yelling meathead. I love him but that’s all he is, which is the exact opposite of Wein. Dallas brings all of Wein’s hilarious mannerisms to life and this role definitely made me stand up and take notice of him more as a voice actor.

The narrative goes through a couple of different arcs and they are all good and don’t overstay their welcome. Seeing how Wein gets out of the situations he finds himself in is the main draw of the show to me. He always seems to be one step ahead in one way or another. I also really liked how this show could have easily strayed into harem territory but managed to avoid that in some interesting ways. Though I am pretty sure it still has those elements down the line.

As far as I know, there are no plans for a second season of this yet and that is a shame. It was a lot of fun and I think it has a lot more potential. I have the first two volumes of this on my bookshelf as we speak and I think this might have been the push I needed to get to reading.