I mentioned previously that I found episode 4 of Banished From The Hero’s Party a pretty dull affair and overall this series, while not glaringly bad in any particular way, has been a relatively ordinary viewing experience. Well, here is episode 6 and honestly despite drug induced rampages, further intrigue with the hero’s party, a potential foe seeking Gideon alongside a former ally, and even a bathing suit scene where our overly busty Rit bounces around in the water with Red, I mostly felt pretty indifferent to the whole viewing experience.
Would I call Banished From The Hero’s Party a bad anime? Not really. There are some things it has got just right. Particularly Rit’s character. I love the mix of shy as well as the girl who overcomes her own nervousness to ensure she gets what she wants. And full credit to Kanon Takao as the voice actress as she’s really on point.
Also, it is incredibly relaxing to watch. Seriously, you cannot feel stressed while watching this episode particularly as it just of numbs your into this zen like state. Though I suspect I was supposed to have some emotional reactions to some of the things happening here.
At the same time, I’ve mentioned in a post at some point previously that the worst thing an anime can do is be dull and unfortunately Banished From The Hero’s Party is just that.
There are particular small details I could nit-pick at, such as Rit’s random glowing red splotches on her exposed skin (a common artistic choice in anime for reasons I may never understand) or even the lack of an overall understanding of where this story might go because we have the slice of life tale of Red and Rit which is going nowhere except following their daily lives mashed together with the epic quest the hero’s party are on and its actually a bit odd to go from daily nothingness to searching for the weapon to defeat the demon. But what would be the point?
Overall the package for Banished From The Hero’s Party is pretty bland. The OP kind of gives the real review of this anime as you have this bubbly pop nothingness playing at times over epic scenes of characters doing amazing things before we merge more into the slice of life village life scenes and really it’s as forgettable as the rest of the anime.
General feelings of discontent aside, what happened in episode 6 of Banished From the Hero’s Party?
Anyway, episode 6 has Red just happening to be visiting the doctor when they hear a commotion and come across a man who has clearly Overdosed on the new drug they made some noise about a few episodes ago. Then rather than address that plot line, Red and Rit go play in some water for awhile because apparently we haven’t seen Rit’s breasts bounce enough and can I just ask why this pseudo-medieval style society has bikinis?
Anyway, cut to the hero’s party and Ares is still talking about how they don’t need the missing party members because they’ll get the weapon they need as they’ve finally arrived at the right location. Clearly that’s going to go badly but again cut away.
Banished From The Hero’s Party then has yet more drama in town and Rit goes to deal with it and finds a creepy dude who is clearly unstable and we know this because he is once again doing that weird tongue thing crazy people in anime do. At least he didn’t lick blood off a knife. That situation is resolved pretty readily and then we move on to a heart to heart with the kids again about blessings.
Finally, we end with a cliff-hanger as a named character is brought to Red and Rit injured…
And none of that really elicited any kind of emotional response from me because despite being a slice of life, just how many different things were crammed into that one episode? None of them had space to breathe or resonate. It is more a list of things happening and you can connect them together but there’s little payoff at that point.
Again, I don’t actually dislike Banished From The Hero’s Party, I Decided To Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside, but I suspect if I get any busier at work I’ll probably put off watching episodes and not really regret it.
You can read my full thoughts on Banished From The Hero’s Party here.
Images from: ‘Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided To Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside’. Dir. M Hoshino. Studio Flad and Wolfsbane. 2021
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Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
I may be an outlier but I am enjoying the slice of life romance of Red and Rit and am hoping the other nastiness never comes to visit. I might even be happier if the show were about nothing but them slowly growing closer. Light-hearted slow-burn romance is appealing to me right now.
I would be happier if it was one or the other. I enjoy Red and RIT and I also enjoy the snippets of Ruti’s journey. What feels less than satisfying is the jarring back and forth between the two aspects.