It is especially surprising to see something like this from an isekai anime.
Summary:
- The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash, while unpopular, has been praised for its worldbuilding in recent episodes.
- The anime world is very different from the medieval society of our world.
- Magic completely changes the economics of the world, and the anime makes it believable.
The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash (Saijaku Tamer wa Gomi Hiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita) is a surprisingly underwatched anime this season. It flying under the radar makes perfect sense: a seemingly generic isekai premise combined with a very late premiere made many otaku not even consider starting it.
The anime is actually surprisingly good. It was praised for its great animation and wholesome nature. What makes it even more special, however, is its worldbuilding. While we didn’t get a good look at it at first, with more episodes being out now, it seems like it’s extremely well-done.
Heavy emphasis on economy
In the recent episode, fans have noticed that people in the world of The Weakest Tamer seem to be extremely wealthy on average. Even selling a mouse you catch can provide you with food for a while.
The anime makes an interesting point where Ivy, the main character, calculates things in mice. A caught snake is worth over 20 times more — there seems to be no problem for an average person to feed themselves.
Difference from our society
That said, there are, of course, downsides in the economic system as well. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have worked. The world is filled with monsters, and land trade seems to be extremely expensive — you have to hire guards, and even that doesn’t guarantee your safety.
The medieval society of our world was based on trade between different cities. In The Weakest Tamer, it’s actually the opposite: people are more inclined to stay within their city, and so, every settlement has to become self-sustaining.
Small settlements also have fewer chances to survive the attacks against monsters — and are way less common there than they were in our world.
How magic affects the economy
Magic is widespread, and magic items don’t seem to be particularly valuable. Food is also abundant because of said magic.
However, with how dependent the world is on magic, it might also mean that certain physical skills, which people don’t usually bother to develop, would become more valuable. At least, that’s what fans think for now.
In general, we rarely see isekai anime bother to explain how its economic system works with magic. If magic is all-powerful, then things like basic necessities can be provided to almost everyone and shouldn’t be a problem.
In The Weakest Tamer, this is offset by the fact that people still have to protect themselves against monsters, who still pose a danger to humans, despite their magical skills.