Name: The main duo is great, but the rest fell short of what it could have been.
Item: Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside
Rating: 72
Author: Klide

Waifra

The main duo is great, but the rest fell short of what it could have been. · Waifora

I feel like this show had some interesting ideas going for it but there were several subplots that just didn't work for me.
Earlier on in it I may have given it an 80 or higher, but by the end I felt like 70 was becoming generous.

The main couple is great, probably one of the more satisfying ones I've seen in a while, and definitely the highlight of the show. Red is a very solid protagonist, especially when compared to all his competition of generic brown hair dude in the fantasy anime scene. He is resourceful and kind, and the reasons he was "banished" from the heroes party made sense, I feel like everyone has doubted their worth in group settings.

Spoiler, click to view

It's very touching seeing how the Hero's Party struggles after he's gone and them all admitting how much they needed him, except for Ares of course, who lives in denial to the end.

The way Red supports his new community and even guides one of the kids in town who has anxieties over his blessing is also very fitting for the former guide of the Hero's Party.
And speaking of the townsfolk, their were overall great. I felt like they added a lot of life to the story where a lesser supporting cast would have left the world feeling empty and dull. They definitely help Red feel like a part of the community rather than an MC in a world of stock background man #3.
Rit was endearing and I found it really enjoyable to see how considerate she was of Red's situation while still pushing to be involved in his life. If you went by flashbacks alone she could have come off as a generic tsundere but she was much more than that.
Unfortunately, I felt like much of the heroes party was left neglected and underdeveloped though.
The Hero Ruti was developed enough and had some great moments.

Spoiler, click to view

Unfortunately her blessing shut off her emotions for most of the show which hurt her character for me, I felt like we needed more time to actually get to know the real Ruti.

Tisse was a good addition to the group and it was nice watching her friendship with Ruti grow.
Danan was characterized as all brawn no brain and he had one or two impressive moments but felt underdeveloped.
Theodora and Yarandrala were barely given any development and I felt like by the end i still knew next to nothing about them.
Last of them, Ares was an interesting character and it's impossible to discuss him in detail without getting heavy on spoilers, but as basically as I can describe him, I felt like he was an interesting idea that could have been executed better. He was Red's rival and it would have been nice to see where that rivalry came from, how it developed. The show had flashbacks often, it would have been nice if one of them was able to expand on their relationship more than Ares doesn't like Red, and Red deals with it.

The plot overall was fun early on. Red and Rit work off each other well and they integrate into the town in a believable and enjoyable way. Red helps the townsfolk but he never feels like some op dude who pulls solutions out of nowhere for every issue, in many ways he's just another member of the community there to help out.
It starts to fall apart for me ones they add a bunch of arbitrary plot contrivances and weird character motivations to create conflict for the sake of conflict. I wish it had kept more to the SOL aspects but it started adding conflicts that didn't make sense for the location they were in. Zoltan is repeatedly described as a sleepy and unassuming frontier town with no strategic value and so few resources bandits don't see it as worth their time. So it felt very contrived that several conflicts arose in Zoltan when the instigators had no reason to be there, and that's not even mentioning that by sheer coincidence:

Spoiler, click to view

the first hero's high-tech, underground, mega lab structure lies right under the the backwater edge of nowhere settlement

It was above par for fantasy anime, and as a sucker for SOL I appreciated it being present, but I feel like the premise had a lot more potential than the execution and was carried by the duo of Red and Rit. Had it leaned more heavily on the SOL side of the premise it would have been an easy 80-90, but as it stands, the story and supporting cast (as good as the townsfolk were) left much to be desired and Red and Rit deserve a better plot. The way their relationship develops is still immensely satisfying, but the rest of the show feels like a distraction from that rather than helping to build it most of the time.