Banished from the Hero’s Party | First Impressions: Lackluster at best.

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Far away from the reaches of demons and war, near the borderland of Zoltan, D-Rank adventurer Red lives a normal existence. Through perseverance and hard work, his dream of starting his own apothecary and peaceful life in the countryside finally came true. Abruptly, Red gets a live-in partner and assistant named Rit—the princess of Duchy Loggervia and an adventurer herself—who gives everything up to join him.

Although honest, kind, and loved by all, Red has a secret shared only with Rit: his real name is Gideon, brother of Ruti Ragnason, the “Hero” and a former member of her party. Ares Drowa, the “Sage,” kicked Red out of their party after their war against the Demon Lord after deciding he was weak and insignificant. Now, even though Red has left the Hero’s party behind by assuming a new life together with Rit, his past has yet to let go of him.

Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life suru Koto ni Shimashita otherwise known for the rest of time as Banished from the Hero’s Party, has been very mixed for me. As each episode progresses I feel less excited and less enthusiastic. Four episodes in I am not sure whether or not Banished from the Hero’s Party will be an anime worth watching and that’s a shame.

Now, why is that? There are many contributing factors, but the biggest thing for me is that it feels too normal. When an anime is genred as an Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Slice of Life. For one, whenever I see adventure and fantasy, I expect an anime to be geared more towards the fantasy aspect of things. However, Banished from the Hero’s Party is quite the opposite. Instead, it feels like an anime geared towards the romance and slice of life side of things. Which in my opinion, makes everything else (involving Ruti) an afterthought and that’s a major shame.

For me watching Red and Rit live a normal life in a fantasy world, at first, was something out of the box. It’s something you wouldn’t typically expect, especially in a fantasy setting. So I thought “Well okay, this could be interesting, let’s give this anime a shot”. So I’ve given it a shot and you know what? I’m not sure if I’m really feeling this anime. The studio thought there was something there since they decided that the light novel is worth adapting, but it isn’t grabbing me for some reason.

It also doesn’t help that Red and Rit are not too interesting either. You can tell that they’re supposed to be attracted to each other, I mean Rit literally said “I’m living with you now” and Red was pretty much like “Sounds good to me”. There isn’t anything there in terms of character development because the affection for one another is already established. We’re simply watching two characters who like each other, live their NPC-inspired lives together in a fantasy world. So in the grand scheme of things, maybe there isn’t much to this anime at all.

Despite the many negatives, the one thing that keeps me remotely entertained is Ritu, Red’s younger sister. She interests me because her Divine Blessing is a ‘Hero’, who is supposed to slay the Demon Lord. That was what she was born to do. Because of this blessing, she possesses insane god-like powers, where she’s able to wipe out and kill large armies and hordes that stand in the way and her destiny. Ritu has insane ability, but she also lacks emotions, which makes all her attacks feel more ruthless and merciless. Furthermore, to add to what seems to be an incredibly overpowered character, Ritu has a serious brother complex. Which adds to her as a whole.

Ideally in a perfect world, we see more of Ritu because I think she’s the most interesting character of the anime. The fact that we don’t see her as much as I think we should is a crime. Am I interested in learning more about Red and Ritu? Sure, I mean it wouldn’t hurt. I would like to know more about Red’s previous life because it seems as though before he left the Hero’s guild, Red was a highly skilled member. So seeing what was could be cool. At this point, anything to make the series more entertaining would be nice.

To summarize, Banished from the Hero’s Party has been lackluster at best. However, I’ve definitely seen better and I hope something more entertaining comes out of the anime.