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Al's Anime Reviews - The Banished Former Hero
a year ago
Deemed a "good-for-nothing" for his low level and lack of a god-given Gift, Allen is stripped of his noble status and banished from the Duchy of Westfeldt. But Allen has a secret: He was a great hero in a previous life, and he's thrilled for the chance to finally live the way he truly wants. His drama-free existence, however, is soon interrupted by a desperate encounter with his ex-fiance. As a former hero who still possesses the incredible powers of his past life, Allen can't ignore someone in need, no matter how much he might like to.
I was gonna dock The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases points for being an unnecessary double-episode premiere, but then something magical happened. In the middle of episode two, the renowned blacksmith who doesn't wear a shirt under her thick leather apron for some reason revealed our hero's special new sword, a legendary work that she promised would surpass the treasured divine blades of old. And it was the most embarrassing thing I'd ever seen. Of the thousands of swords I've seen anime and game characters pull out, this one was among the saddest, goofiest pieces of animated metal I can remember. I laughed out loud at it and went 'Oh nooo~" like I was watching a kid fall down during a gradeschool Christmas pageant. It was so pitiful that it pepped me up during what was otherwise a dirt-flavoured show about nothing of interest.
"Pitiful" is really the best word to describe this whole premiere. It's one of those shows that was obviously tossed together as quickly and thoughtlessly as possible, evidenced by the consistently awful, lifeless animation and art. Even the opening introduced in episode 2 is just reused footage cobbled together from the first episode with some filters thrown on to make it less obvious. It's like the kind of long-dismissed no-effort shit that companies like 4Kids or Saban would do back in the day--but hey, since we're in an age of people defending bad localizer decisions to the death, who knows, maybe that'll be more accepted now. Characters move and emote with the grace of a plastic bag in a street gutter occasionally catching the wind. Action scenes are at best stills, at worst incomprehensible nightmares of editing to disguise how little has actually been drawn for any given moment. It's almost begging to be put out of its misery. Or my misery. Or both.
It doesn't help that there's not a single original idea or character in this whole thing. This show is a ripoff of a ripoff that was aping countless other ripoffs. Allen, our protagonist who looks like someone tried drawing Chrom from memory, says he wants to use his new life doing as he wants and not worrying about the responsibilities that wrecked his previous life, yet he sure is doing a lot of heroic deeds and standard RPG adventurer shit all the time. Saving princesses, slaying dragons, getting magical blacksmiths to craft legendary swords... Gee golly willickers, it's almost like the whole reincarnation gimmick is just a way to justify Allen being monumentally stronger than anyone else yet still looked down upon by the villains! Meanwhile, his companions are entirely bereft of personality, existing as vaguely feminine sources of conflict for Allen to resolve and eventual love interests for him to be the only important thing in the world to. And of course, his evil family who thought he was a failure and disowned him are secretly the bad guys behind all the bad things happening in the kingdom, and their banishing Allen for his failures will doubtlessly prove to be their demise.
It's the most boring power fantasy this side of the ostracized nerd revenge fantasies in stuff like Arifureta. The story wants to indulge in the underdog story by proving the doubters wrong without ever having to work or worry that victory isn't assured in every encounter. Put that together with the terrible production values and you have a recipe for a show so bad it'll make you sad just looking at it.
I was gonna dock The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases points for being an unnecessary double-episode premiere, but then something magical happened. In the middle of episode two, the renowned blacksmith who doesn't wear a shirt under her thick leather apron for some reason revealed our hero's special new sword, a legendary work that she promised would surpass the treasured divine blades of old. And it was the most embarrassing thing I'd ever seen. Of the thousands of swords I've seen anime and game characters pull out, this one was among the saddest, goofiest pieces of animated metal I can remember. I laughed out loud at it and went 'Oh nooo~" like I was watching a kid fall down during a gradeschool Christmas pageant. It was so pitiful that it pepped me up during what was otherwise a dirt-flavoured show about nothing of interest.
"Pitiful" is really the best word to describe this whole premiere. It's one of those shows that was obviously tossed together as quickly and thoughtlessly as possible, evidenced by the consistently awful, lifeless animation and art. Even the opening introduced in episode 2 is just reused footage cobbled together from the first episode with some filters thrown on to make it less obvious. It's like the kind of long-dismissed no-effort shit that companies like 4Kids or Saban would do back in the day--but hey, since we're in an age of people defending bad localizer decisions to the death, who knows, maybe that'll be more accepted now. Characters move and emote with the grace of a plastic bag in a street gutter occasionally catching the wind. Action scenes are at best stills, at worst incomprehensible nightmares of editing to disguise how little has actually been drawn for any given moment. It's almost begging to be put out of its misery. Or my misery. Or both.
It doesn't help that there's not a single original idea or character in this whole thing. This show is a ripoff of a ripoff that was aping countless other ripoffs. Allen, our protagonist who looks like someone tried drawing Chrom from memory, says he wants to use his new life doing as he wants and not worrying about the responsibilities that wrecked his previous life, yet he sure is doing a lot of heroic deeds and standard RPG adventurer shit all the time. Saving princesses, slaying dragons, getting magical blacksmiths to craft legendary swords... Gee golly willickers, it's almost like the whole reincarnation gimmick is just a way to justify Allen being monumentally stronger than anyone else yet still looked down upon by the villains! Meanwhile, his companions are entirely bereft of personality, existing as vaguely feminine sources of conflict for Allen to resolve and eventual love interests for him to be the only important thing in the world to. And of course, his evil family who thought he was a failure and disowned him are secretly the bad guys behind all the bad things happening in the kingdom, and their banishing Allen for his failures will doubtlessly prove to be their demise.
It's the most boring power fantasy this side of the ostracized nerd revenge fantasies in stuff like Arifureta. The story wants to indulge in the underdog story by proving the doubters wrong without ever having to work or worry that victory isn't assured in every encounter. Put that together with the terrible production values and you have a recipe for a show so bad it'll make you sad just looking at it.
Drag0nK1ngmark
~drag0nk1ngmark
Honestly they need to give shows a break and come up with something original. Like take away the reincarnation stuff and you got a pretty good premise of someone deemed useless is actually useless and a liability, like go all in on the idea of someone who wants to do his best but can't and stick with it. Have the MC start as weak and pathetic that they gotta get stronger, but still can't, maybe due to a disease they are born with that hampers their growth. Maybe a curse planted on them by a witch, anything else than this. But anime needs a yearly junkfood shows to make room for the real meat, so who am I to complain?
