Ningen Fushin: Adventurers Who Don't Believe in Humanity Will Save the World

This show is the perfect example of an interesting premise with poor execution. A group of outcasts form a party and begin adventuring and learning to trust again. However, the show takes multiple weird turns like modern/advanced tech in ancient locations, multiple episodes on side characters no one cares about, and generally no adventuring outside of the town that they live in apart from a few dungeons. There's also the issue that some of the animation is rather unpolished in some places, whether it is awful perspective or missing frames of animation that makes movement stop-motion like. Finally, the show spends too much time on charactersindividually listening to their thoughts, watching them go about their hobbies, or listening to a long sobby backstory. There's not much meat on the metaphorical bone so I would recommend not watching this; 3/10 just listen to the catchy ending song and enjoy that.

This show is the epitome of the famous saying: One man's trash is another man's treasure. Or to put it another way: the majority thinks that this show is fantasy trash, but to me, this show is fantasy that's out-of-the-ordinary charming, in its own way. Ever since recent times, the "Banished out of the Hero's Party" fantasy sub-genre has been gaining lots of traction ever since the said series was released back in Fall 2021, and it's been almost a good 1.5 years having different shows showcase more of this trend. But as I've said before in previous reviews, when one show becomes too popular, theAniManga industry will start picking up on these trends and come out with the most trash and generic series of works that are popular in its own right, not caring for quality but pumping out quantity. Case in point, the lone novelist by the name of Shinta Fuji, with his sole work that is Ningen Fushin no Boukensha-tachi ga Sekai wo Sukuu you desu a.k.a. Ningen Fushin: Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World, which considering its time in Syosetu since January 2019, it's still quite a recent series that the difference of 4 years between novels (Syosetu and LN) and anime (adaptation), don't really matter quite a lot. For the Average Joe, once you hear a trope, you'll ALWAYS remember a trope. So many works have Heroes (in their own right) getting booted/kicked out from either their own party or organization (see this season's Kaiko Sareta Ankoku Heishi (30-dai) no Slow na Second Life), only for them to develop their new life and having their past's vestiges come haunting when necessary, NGL, it's becoming increasingly stale. But when you apply this formula into not one person but a group of people, it changes the formula and provides something fresh to the table. Case in point, this show's story about a group of adventurers who are betrayed in one form or another from whence they came from, all coming together to form a party after quote-unquote "being disllusioned and jaded by the people around them" enough to bear a distrustful mark on humanity, wishing for nothing but humanity's downfall. You have the typical adventurer Nick, the sorceress Tiana, the ex-priest Zem, and the dragonkin girl Curran, all with their same-old dispositions of how they got booted out in the first place. Starting off with Nick, his story is that the kick-out is not the only thing adding to his displeasement, it's also his girlfriend who scams the living hell and dumps him when he is not able to provide to her source of income. Dejected, he develops the otaku lifestyle in the form in idols through the teen idol Agate, which this is actually the first time that I'm hearing of an Isekai/fantasy world having such idiosyncracies that it feels whack-a-mole-ish, but I was definitely taken aback and surprised at the show's philisophy of "anything goes". The problem is, idolship also needs funds, and Nick goes in search for a party that would help support his lifestyle. It's at this juncture that he meets 3 individuals, all of them with their own story to tell. With sorceress Tiana, her story is that she is a magical prodigy, that like Nick, suddenly got slapped the other cheek by her fiance to become a gambling addict, thereby failing at her adventurer status because of her glaring, serious-looking eyes that scares away potential party mates. For the ex-priest Zem, he was a Healer Priest who was just your typical fan-favourite doctor, until a young village loli tried to take advantage of him, only to accuse him of rape, that despite the glaring truth, people just don't care and beat the living crap out of him and strip away his license of priesthood. Things got worse for Zem as in the midst of becoming an adventurer, he turned into a drunken womanizer after being freed from the vow of chastity. Last but not least, the dragonkin girl Curran's story being the most despicable of all: serving the human that she believed would become the fantasy world's hero, after being saved from a swindling incident with a merchant and having him expose the crime to be handed back the necklace of memorabilia, which contains a picture of her and said hero. But as per usual, the hero took adventage of the unsuspecting Curran and steals the necklace containing an entity that she was tasked to secure with her whole life. To put it simply, Nick, Tiana, Zem and Curran are wannabe disillusioned adventurers that have been commonly betrayed by their own kind, apart from initially the lack of funds to do what they really want by forming the party that would otherwise in a typical party, be simply impossible to deal with based on their circumstances. And more often than not, this makes for an interesting combination of not the perfect team, but the betrayal team that they call "Survivors" because they have survived off their own peril to live to tell their story, that one day, like any other typical Hero's Party in the most generic of generic storylines, save the world from ruin. And I have always been an advocate for interesting storylines such as these amidst the boring tropes that the Isekai/fantasy genre has come to give the audience as time quickly passes by, because one slight change to the formula, can make something totally fresh and innovative, only if the execution is done right, which this show unfortunately, has a hit-or-miss record due to this show being Shinta Fuji's only lone work. It's a risk trying to input something as tropey as an idol segment that would otherwise be out of place in a regular fantasy world, but props for trying to stand out amongst the crowded pack. Obviously, the production is not going to win any awards, for one of the worst produced shows of the season that as ass as the story is, the animation is laughable at best. Director-cum-series composer Itsuki Imazaki with character designer-cum-animation director Hiroo Nagao have a lot of shoes to fill on the production side of things, and this is not the first time that both of them worked together as a duo, as the 2nd outing after Kawaikereba Hentai demo Suki ni Natte Kuremasu ka? a.k.a HenSuki back in Summer 2019. The studio Seven director working alongside Geek Toys as a collab production is nothing to scoff at, if you have the taste for subpar produced shows like HenSuki and this show. It's obvious as hell that production is the lowest grip of the show, and I would agree with you of any sentimentality that this could be produced better...somehow. The music truly is one of surprise as it comes from composer Ryo Takahashi, but ultimately it wasn't enough to salvage the poor production values that this show suffers from. At least the OST is kinda decent in spots, but also an area, where depending on your AniSong taste, can be either decent or downright bad. Shunichi Toki's "Glorious World" for the OP is surprisingly good...after a couple of listens, and his voice as Zem can take a bit getting used to. Mao Abe's "Never Fear" for the ED may look out of place and janky and something that's only fitting for an ED, it's also a pleasant listen. But above all, the OST is something that is kinda forgettable in spots. Despite the poor production values and somewhat limited aspect from the story segments that are hit-or-miss affairs, Ningen Fushin is undoubtedly not a show for everyone. But to those who can appreciate differences in the approach as opposed to the generic Isekai/fantasy mish-mash of the current era (like I did), then there's something to be worth remembering about this show that as unceremonious as it stands out from the pack, at least it's an alternate take on the same tropes that turned out to be surprisingly decent. Fair warning, give this the 3-episode rule. It doesn't take a big brain to understand this show, but it depends on you.

It started strong with a cool premise and interesting cast with tragic backstories. Then after episode 4 they stop going to dungeons or adventuring and the rest is pure filler. So disappointing. Who green lit this trash? I'm not even exaggerating. Have an episode just messing around, one doing math, another gambling, another that is the backstory of some character not even in the party that is irrelevant, 3 episodes that are just a filler messing around in town looking into a rumored person, then closing out with messing around in town filler. Despite the premise that the group would eventually one day save the world, theywaste the entire show not even starting down even in the direction of that path, making no progress whatsoever. It's just pure wasted potential.

If you: like fantasy; value authenticity, a laid-back pace with a little slice of life in adventure with a bit of novelty and don't mind low-budget productions; then you might like this anime. For me, I was very happy to watch it. Since I rate series by the merit of their implemention INSIDE of the constraints of their environment, resources and source materials, I happily gave it an 8. This anime from what I infer was made with not much budget and inside that scope, the animations are well made. The style harmonized nicely with the story, personality and characters. New animations are introduced frequently enough and old ones are reusedin a creative way and where it makes sense without getting old. In short, they used what they had wisely, even though it's of course no e.g. Madhouse production. Some moments, admittedly, made me chuckle. The writing was solid, it made sense, introducing a few new ideas without leaning to far out of the window. I saw complaints about how there was a perceived anachronism of modern tech being in what seems a medieval fantasy. However it makes perfect sense in the realm of the story and also brings a fresh wind into the too-well-known cliché of fantasy anime. It's not a groundbreaking epic story of unseen proportions, of course. I would rather call it a wholesome little story with a few new takes. It takes enough risks to make watching it worthwhile and keeps it real at the same time. Overall very good. If you've already seen all the big ones and most of the less big ones in the fantasy genre but want to keep going, this in my opinion is a good watch.