Review of Banished From The Hero's Party, I Decided To Live A Quiet Life In The Countryside

I try and be as spoiler free in my reviews as possible; I have now finished watching this as Season 2 is looming on the horizon; quite honestly, I don't get some of the extremely negative reviews this has. No, it doesn't try to reinvent the wheel and, well, going simply on the title, it also isn't some run-of-the-mill edgy teenage protag power fantasy - despite the very overdone "demon lord threatens world" plot-thread that does exist here. The thing is though, is that this is more a slice-of-life, self-discovery and romance story, with bits of action here and there and the whole "demon lord" thread is whatties huge parts of the story together.

Now, I will admit that some parts of the negative reviews are correct in saying "well, if this happens at the end, what happens with the whole demon lord thing?", as it is a valid concern in regards to the plot, but - well - as I said at the start, Season 2 is upon us in a few short days of me writing this review, so I can only hope that it will get brought up, as Season 1 does leave it a little open as to what is going to happen to the world; it also leaves an opening for another plot thread of "what is going on with the god and the blessings?".
I cannot hold this against the reviewers though, as for shows like this, it is rare for them to get continuation seasons and Season 1 did initially air just over 2 years ago.

As for the main meat and potatoes of the review -
I personally found this anime extremely enjoyable, as it was definitely a change-up from the typical "isekai trash" that gets pumped out (and that I watch). It's very wholesome, has an actual decent romance plot that isn't the MC getting a harem of 47 wives, has enough action spread throughout and was, in my eyes, just a nice, easy-to-watch anime.

There's flashback scenes to explain how characters got to where they are and act like they do and there's also scenes that delve into world-building and setting up the plot. Each of the main cast has ample time to be developed, although I will say that one of the later additions doesn't really have much outside of "this is who she is", but maybe she'll be developed in Season 2. The romance plot feels quite legitimate and natural, especially when compared to harem stories - here, the MC has one love-interest and although he is a little bit clueless at the start, he very quickly catches on, without there needing to be 6 episodes of major fanfare or fan-service (although there is fan-service here). The family development and self-discovery parts are also, in my opinion, well done, with a nice ending-note to close out Season 1 with (although, again, it does leave the over-arching thread quite open).

Lastly, art and animation are certainly nothing special, but serviceable for this type of show.

I will personally rate this a 7/10 - Good, enjoyable and worth a watch - I probably would have given this an 8/10 had I not watched so many "very good" anime in 2023.