The fantasy anime The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects reveals its first look

Receiving an immense territory as a reward for your years of military service sounds like the dream retirement for any warrior. However, governing a desolate plain without a single inhabitant in sight shatters any illusion of rest. This Tuesday, the first promotional trailer for the anime adaptation of the fantasy light novel written by Fuurou, The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects, was released. The production committee accompanied the video with a new promotional image and confirmed that the series will begin its broadcast on Japanese television during the month of July.

The adaptation of this management and survival story has been placed in the hands of studio42. The main director's chair is occupied by Kenichi Imaizumi, an industry veteran known for his work on the historical drama Kingdom. The responsibility for structuring and writing the scripts falls to Kunihiko Okada. For the visual department, the committee designated Keiichi Tsuboyama as the person in charge of adapting the original character designs for animation.

The preview served as a platform to reveal a strong lineup of actors who will make up the project's main voice cast:

• Kenichiro Matsuda as Dias.

An established voice actor, world-famous for playing Bond Forger in Spy x Family and Batou in Ghost in the Shell.

• Shion Wakayama as Alna.

Highly acclaimed in the current industry after bringing the lethal Takina Inoue to life in the action hit Lycoris Recoil.

• Taito Ban as Klaus.

An extremely popular voice in the otaku community thanks to his starring role as Sung Jinwoo in Solo Leveling.

• Miku Ito as Senai.

An unmistakable actress recognized for portraying Miku Nakano in the successful romantic comedy The Quintessential Quintuplets.

• Haruka Shiraishi as Aihan.

A veteran talent who rose to international fame after lending her voice to Asirpa in the acclaimed anime Golden Kamuy.

• Jun Fukuyama as Eldan.

An absolute legend of Japanese dubbing, immortalized in pop culture as Lelouch vi Britannia in Code Geass.

About the work

Fuurou began publishing the drafts of this story online in January 2018. Its digital success prompted its transition to physical format, publishing the novels with illustrations by the artist Kinta. The growing popularity of the franchise facilitated the creation of a manga adaptation drawn by Yumbo, which currently has 14 compiled volumes on the market. Adding all its printed and digital formats, the work exceeds two million copies in circulation.

Synopsis of The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects

The plot closely follows Dias, a soldier who spent most of his life fighting on the front lines. At the end of the war, he is hailed as a national hero, and the king grants him a vast territory to rule as a reward. The problem arises when Dias arrives at his new lands and discovers they are an infinite grassland without a single subject. Accustomed only to military discipline, the warrior feels completely useless trying to manage a wasteland. His luck changes drastically when he meets Alna, a mysterious girl with a blue horn who will teach him how to harness the hidden resources of the plain to build a prosperous home from scratch.

Do you think the village-building approach will manage to differentiate this series within the saturated Japanese fantasy market?