Review of Banished From The Hero's Party, I Decided To Live A Quiet Life In The Countryside
That Time I Got Banished From the Realist Hero’s Kingdom as the Worlds Finest Assassin so I Decided to Live a Cheat Pharmacist’s Slow Life Making A Drugstore in the Countryside Whilst Killing Slimes from the Last Dungeon Boonies Only I Can Enter for 300 Years: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made as an Aristocrat in a Starter Town: All Routes Lead to Doom, So What? ‘Banished from the Hero’s Party, etc’ was another pleasant surprise to arise from this fall season’s anime line up. If you’ve been a reading my reviews then you know that I’m not particularly a fan of mostfantasy light novel adaptations, but Hero’s Party is another example of how good character and story writing can help a show break away from it’s mediocre contemporaries and into the realms of good, enjoyable fantasy anime.
Formerly known as Gideon, Red was once a member of the hero’s party who was banished to live a quiet life in the frontier and opens up his own pharmaceutical store. Later his old adventuring friend Rit comes across his store by chance and decides to quit adventuring to live with him and help out.
It’s a very simple premise which expands in scope as the season goes on, but one which it does very well in my opinion. Red is a kind, mature, jack of all traits kind of character who is well love by his adopted village, but it’s very easy to root for him thanks to his humble personality and his very active nature. He and Rit have really good screen chemistry and I’m glad the show didn’t try to blue balls me for the entire season with a ‘will they won’t they’ cliche, relationship storyline. However, I will say their relationship can sometimes cross the line from being sweet to a bit cringe. Even though they’re both adults in their 20’s they act more like high school romance manga characters when it come to expressing themselves to each other and Rit makes some… questionable foreplay moves when in the bedroom. But when the show gets the romance right it’s really rewarding to watch the two of them get closer and more comfortable with each other and the romance can be genuinely quite sexy compared to other examples set by other shows. Rit may come across as the most manufactured waifu to end all manufactured waifu’s with big anime tiddies, but she's actually a pretty interesting, likeable character and it’s just as easy to root for her as it is for Red.
One of my favourite things about the show is how it makes the concept of “skills” interesting. Video game-esque “Skills”, “Leveling”, the concept of “the Hero” and “the Demon Lord” and other light novel fantasy/isekai cliches are some of my pet peeves and this show unfortunately has them to various degrees. However, the show manages to take the concept of “skills” and make them a fundamental part of the world instead of a ‘get-out-of-jail’ card for the writer to fall back on. Every person in this world has a ‘blessing’ which can range from being a smith to thief to champion and they have integral effect of how a person behaves, grows up and even their chosen path in life and interests. The concept of “the Hero” is actually just someone with an all powerful skill of the same name that gives them the strength to save the world, but robs them of other things the blessing deems unessential like, taste, sleep and feelings robbing that person of some of their humanity. I like how the show uses “skills” to comment on whether or not your own personal abilities should define who you are and through Ruti the hero, Reds little sister the show explores what it means to be a hero and whether or not a “skill” should define a person as such. I don’t think I’ve seen “skills” have actual meaning in world since Danmachi which is pretty cool.
The art and animation is very nice when the show is going at a slow pace, but as soon as any combat happens it feels like I’m watching characters moving through cement on screen. Movements are clunky and awkward and clashing weapons and magic have no feeling of impact or ‘oomph’. This is a shame. Combat is clearly not the studios strongest area of animation and it really hurts the show, but for the rest of the time it looks great. Vibrant colours and pallets make the countryside look lush and calming and the characters are well designed and expressive.
I also think some of the pacing can be sloppy. Episode 2 was a real offender in this regard as half the episode was dedicated to a flashback to introduce Rit, but we had no context for who she was and her relationship with Red who we also barely knew at that point so it just felt meaningless. However, the pacing issues didn’t come up that often so it wasn’t that much of a deal breaker.
Like the name suggests this is a slow, chill anime which focuses more on people and their relationships rather than on fighting and big battles so if that’s not your thing then it probably won’t be for you, but if it is your thing then I can definitely suggest giving this anime a go.
7/10 Good.