WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 22 of How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, now streaming on Funimation.
One of the things that makes How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom a unique isekai is the way it engages with real-world issues. Sometimes this can even include especially distressing subjects such as famine and war. Souma Kazuya may have found himself in a fantastical new world, but one human evil is as present in the Kingdom of Friedonia as it has been throughout the history of Earth: slavery. As king of Friedonia, Souma wanted to abolish slavery, but the method he has chosen of doing this has significant strengths and weaknesses.
The story was told from the point of view of Ginger Camus, a slave trader who had inherited possession of the enslaved Friedonians held by his grandfather. The episode emphasized the relative kindness Ginger extended to them, perhaps even to the extent that it made him seem nobler than he was. Additionally, the episode did not reference previous times slavery had been touched on in the series.
Ginger's story opened with enslaved people of various fantasy races apprehensive that he would be crueler to them than his grandfather was. Sandria, a "raccoon person" with a striped tail, told Ginger this. She prepared for him to whip her for speaking her mind, but he cast the whip aside. In many ways, the episode portrayed Ginger as a sympathetic character. He insisted on teaching the enslaved Friedonians how to read and do math so as to sell them to people who wouldn't work them to death with manual labor, and he also refused to sell family members apart from each other.
However, a somber opening narration emphasized that slavery itself is "the greatest violation of mankind's rights." This is an important reminder that even allegedly "reasonable" slavers like Ginger actively inhibit people's fundamental right to freedom. Ginger may have been apologetic about getting Sandria to help him carry bags from the market, but Sandria still didn't have the legal right to refuse to join him if she had wanted to -- a fact Ginger may have considered when he looked guiltily at her slave collar. Later scenes even play their dynamic for comedy, with Ginger ordering Sandria to sit with him when she said it wouldn't be appropriate for her to do so.
Even though Souma appeared relatively briefly in the episode, his presence was felt. Various nobles approached Ginger to buy educated Friedonians. This was because Souma had decreed that the ability to maintain one's own territory was now an important factor in the promotion of nobles, which meant they wanted enslaved people with the skills to help them govern. This was the first step in Souma's complex plan to gradually end slavery in Friedonia. Raising the demand for people who could read and write among slavers would theoretically force them to be as involved in their education as Ginger was. Souma would then "socialize the slave trade" and open "job training centers" so that enslaved people could get what he described as "real jobs."
Souma told Ginger he ideally wanted to abolish slavery immediately but was afraid of it resulting in war. It's understandable that Souma would feel this way given the considerable human cost of the kingdom's previous civil war. He instead decided to transition the status of the enslaved people to what he described as "slavery in name only." This implied that his ultimate goal was complete emancipation. However, at what point do these characters go from being enslaved by the nobles, whom Realist Hero has repeatedly pointed out have a tendency to be corrupt, to having paid jobs they can freely leave? Until those conditions are met, their slavery will not simply be "in name only."
Given that the entire episode concerned the subject of slavery, it was notable that Carla Vargas was not referenced. Carla was enslaved by Souma as punishment for treason in Episode 18. Episode 20 played Carla's slavery for comedy, creating a contrast between head chambermaid Serina's innocent smile and Carla's fear of being whipped by her. The dramatic representation of slavery in this episode may have been intended as a deliberately ironic contrast, but perhaps it just made an uncomfortable joke feel even more tasteless.
The narrator pointed out that many people in Friedonia sold themselves into slavery out of extreme poverty, and Sandria said that it was common for people to sell family members into slavery as her father did to her. Princess Roroa also discussed families selling their children in Amidonia after government funding was mismanaged in Episode 21. If it is this common, Souma must also engage with the economic issues that stoked this desperation. After all, slavery becoming illegal sadly doesn't necessarily prevent it from happening. Fortunately, alleviating poverty has always been one of Souma's key goals.
Ultimately, Ginger freed Sandria and Souma hired him to oversee the job training centers. Many fantasy anime such as The Rising of Shield Hero and Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody have been criticized for downplaying or even romanticizing slavery. Souma's plan to end slavery may have flaws, but Realist Hero rightly presents the institution as a significant obstacle to a just society rather than a simple plot device.
