In "Sayounara Ryuusei, Konnichiwa Jinsei" we have no massive overarching plot, no major goal MC has to complete. We instead have a plot which starts small and slowly expands becoming better and better with every episode. A story which takes careful time with each character whilst keeping the character pool quite tame. It's refreshing, the binge is rather cathartic and I just have to recommend this show if you love fantasy shows. I can't find any glaring issues in the writing or the plot. It's quite compact. It's far from "generic" like many have said, oh these drone bots just love to parrot these obligatory terms they've seemlessly downloaded from the hivemind.

The characters were perhaps the show's greatest merit, great or small they were utilized with a meticulous effeciency allowing each character the ablity to somewhat impose onto the greater story in a meaningful way. They felt real, their actions mattered, there never seemed to be a jobber, or a plot device character. It never felt that the MC was the centre of the universe, these characters had their own domains, spheres of influence and cultures. Their traditions and customs were upheld with a vigilant consistency which just kept me completely immersed. A rather vilitalizing find amongst this genre.

The MC is a real standout here, he acts exactly how he is portrayed, there's very tactful consistency in his character, his movements his dialogue. It's a real joy to watch. He does spearhead the show and that's exactly how a these shows should work from this narrative perspective. Thankfully, no worthless passenger MC running around doing errands like a buffon with no will of his own. This MC doesn't play around with his foes, he's quick and just with the killing. When he's kind to others there's no farcical omnibenevolent garbage here, it's because he has proper reason to. They really show his wisdom and experience through his decisions and actions.

The side characters have quite a lot of charm, not a single one annoyed me, which is rare. They are very consistent and in this short time there is very ample development. The dialogue is very stimulating, especially in conflict resolution, it's very mature with each party sounding very lively.

Choreography in the fights took me by surprise there's a lot of logic, with a lot of very interesting confrontations packed into these 12 episodes. I found most of the fights well orchestrated with some care with moves that fit their respective races and powers, personally it was a joy to watch. There was practically no plot armor no stupid limit breaking conveniences you can tell alot of thought went into it.

Is this show predictable? Yeah, but you, like me and many others now are not on our 2nd or 3rd or even 10th reincarnation fantasy, let's be honest we are truly in deep. At this point we can predict almost any show in this genre. We know the drill, we're familiar with all the common elements and last of all, we absolutely and unapologetically love it. Many of you put on a facade ostenatiously critiquing whilst rubbing your hands together and licking your lips every time a new show of this genre gets released, you paint the perfect picture of the kind of Pharasee that Jesus preached about. Crying about "generic shows" whilst you already know what type of show you are watching is just plain dishonesty. Notwithstanding I can't tell you a single show which had shared this show's particular premise.

Oh and the "weird" that the weakest amongst us are groaning and babbling about?
What these simple minds try to sell you as a drawback or problem conversly, i call it a boon and a blessing. With beastmen representing the beauty of the wealth in diversity of the animal kingdom, is it "weird" that these beast-people actually embody and play-out the animal characteristics they are genetically tied to? This is fantasy, it's time to get rid of your fake morality virtue signaling. You're only fooling yourself. if you hated it why do you check these type of shows out every season? Personally I am enamoured by such things, this type of creativity and intuitive construction of the characters make a show like this so utterly amusing. I've found that the deeper they go with the quirkiness of these characteristics as long as it's consistent it only adds to the immersion pulling you further and deeper into the worldbuilding.To give an example; you see a dog beast-man, you already know he's going to have sharp extraordinary sense of smell and in his nature he's going to be incredibly loyal to a fault. We already know this we don't even need to see it play out and it's pleasant to behold. It's very purposeful wrting from a brilliant mind that can piece together several factors of common life and surplant them efficiently into an interesting story.

The soundtrack did a good job of tying the experience together for me, i'm actually quite fond of it after listening a second time. I wished they would have used them a bit more agressively, for atmospheric effect. If you listen to the individual tracks they are actually quite impressive. Saiki Tatsuhiko is quite underrated and he's done quite a few of the soundtracks for shows of this genre and they've all got above average to great soundtracks. The OP and ED were palatable, but if i'm honest OP and ED almost never affect my score or how i feel about a show because i just skip them both till i'm done with the series to avoid spoilers.

Animation was another welcome suprise they did an alright job and at times it was quite pleasantly fluid and expressive. Coming from this interesting combination of studios, i was surprised. The artwork is quite sharp and it looks good most of the time.

The last episode concludes this season succintly and it's quite satisfying, leaving a little lingering hunger for more. I am certainly locked-in for a second season, with the source starting almost 10 years ago, surely there's much more to adapt.

Final Ratings.

7/10 Animation
7/10 Sound
8/10 Plot/Story
9/10 Characters
10/10 Enjoyment

41/50 = 8.2 = 8/10 Very Good

Fantasy Fan? Hurry and binge it.
Ignore the negative reviews.
Anilist has gotten to the point where FMAB isn't rank 1 any more we have the likes of Frieren and a Mid-piece special episode at the top. I'ts abundantly clear the masses cannot be trusted.

The road is narrow, where there are many people there's a good chance it may not be your best option.

Hope this helps.