Jack-of-All-Trades, Party of None

I watched the entire season in one sitting, so I may have a bit of a different take on this compared to those who watched it episodically each week. Now, let's rip the bandaid off straight away. This is indeed another entry in the ever-growing slop-fest of: "Super OP MC is undervalued by arrogant a-hole hero squad who cannot see his worth", with the added trope of "but one of the hero party members does realise MC is actually super-mega-awesome", followed by "MC ends up in a new party that love him and all the girls fawn over him". It's beyond generic at this point, becausenearly all of these shows play out the exact same way. However, I have to give this particular version some props, because it has far better world-building and plot-intrigue than probably 90% of the other shows in the sub-genre that came before it. I was expecting absolute trash, or barely enjoyable slop, with a very generic start, middle and end, all played-out across 12 episodes, but that was not the case here. Now, I am by no means saying that this show was a godlike 9/10 or 10/10, but the second half surprised me with what got set up, what was happening during that time, and just how many plot-points got crammed in the runtime, without it, to me at least, feeling sloppy or rushed. If anything, I had to do a double-take in the later episodes, because it felt like they were actually 40 minutes long, instead of the usual 20 - because of how much was going on, without it being hard to follow. I will also easily admit that the last few episodes really do have me curious about where this story is actually going, and I do wonder if there'd ever be a season 2 of this. If there is, I would quite easily watch it, especially when compared to most of the other shows in this sub-genre. Lastly, I was pleasantly surprised with the decent-looking CGI, and decently animated fights (for such a show). Overall, although not mind-blowing by any stretch, this is one of the "banished from the hero party" shows that does actually stand-out and is probably worth a watch. I spent a couple minutes wondering whether to give this a 7 or 8, but I'll settle on 7/10. It's Good compared to most shows in the sub-genre.

a show that became considerably worse in the second half. with competent enough animation, characters, and story (with some outliers), the first half was one of the shows this season i found more enjoyable. unfortunately the quality of storytelling drops like an absolute rock in the second half. as any kicked out of the heroes party story, the show's entire reason for being ceased after the redemption section of the story. overall id say the show was a waste of time in the end. for the first half, i would say its a 7/10 show, following time tested reliable storytelling methods with acceptable character quality. forthe second half, id say its a 4/10 show with lackluster animation and several weird, sudden, personality shifts and fire emblem fates quality storytelling (which is to say, very clear, very obvious, very dumb, storytelling). i had intended to give it a six, but i talked myself down to a 5. the show has some severe quality whiplash, downgrading itself to a 2/10 rating momentarily at several points, which should be reflected in its overall rating. ------------------------- mild spoilers section ----------------------- the idea his party is unaware of his value because he can "only" double stats doesn't really make any sense in the later half of the story. initially (episode 1-2) it makes sense because we only see him demonstrate his ability by doubling several tangentially related stats (speed, dex, strength, sharpness) as a reasonably approximation of a strong buff. however, if you expect that to last, you'll be disappointed. with hindsight, it's basically a stupid idiot plot that only functions because his original team apparently doesn't know the first thing about him. also, it ends on a terrible story hook / half cliff hanger :)

Here we go again... again... Another "banished from the, I left the, X party" anime that doesn't deviate from the now established formula At some point I felt like I was going through tick boxes: MC is kicked from the Heroes Party, Is actually the most powerful, Heroes Party ends up failing due to MC's absence, 'Heroes' are antagonistic with obnoxious personalities, MC helps new adventurers out, MC thinks he is weak and hesitates on his own abilities, etc etc etc even right down to the former Heroes Party overstaying their welcome as they keep showing up and hanging around like a bad smell. But it doesn't stopthere, after throwing in every trope from the 'Hero Party' it throws in as many other tropes as it can, to be blunt there is little original here, it is beyond generic. Probably the biggest sin is that it takes itself seriously, there is no comedy here, a comedy can get away with a lot of things as long as the comedy works. But a fantasy adventure like this that takes itself seriously HAS to stand out amongst the crowd, and if all you are doing is a carbon copy of every other 'Banished from the Heroes Party' type anime, then how are you standing out? The animation is bad, the characters are flat and are within the standard tropes (for the most part) there is very little character development, the plot is generic, it relies too much on tropes that are becoming over used, the MC is not at all interesting The only thing that this series has going for it is that it's mindless fun, it falls within the guilty pleasure category of these generic bad anime. So don't expect something good here, don't expect quality, it's mediocre trash and for lovers of trash this is trash anime at its peak, for everyone else you are best watching something else. I've had to repost this review as even tho I marked that I watched all episodes at the time, it had flagged it as a preliminary review because I forgot to mark it from 'watching' to 'complete' so consider that a cautionary tale.