Saijaku Tamer wa Gomi Hiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita.

The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash - What an inspiring fantasy show of the alternate Isekai option to take note of. Authors, I beg you, please do this more often.

Fantasy and Isekai, they go hand-in-hand, but while the concepts are ever so grandiose, the executions become too great for the protagonists...they just take it up and become the most overpowered people ever. What naive cliché for people to only have that one direction and take charge all of the way, forgetting that there're two sides of the coin. Fortunately, for every 10+ boring, trashy OP fantasy Isekai work out there, there're ... hidden gems that don't need this trope to make its world interesting, and in this Winter season, there's one show like it: novelist Honobonoru500's Saijaku Tamer wa Gomi Hiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita. a.k.a The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash, that isn't trash, but a story of bitter, but heartwarming wholesomeness,

Putting the obvious death-to-reincarnation Isekai trope aside, a girl is reborn in another world, where magical skills are everything, but it means nothing without the recognition of its ranking through stars. The more stars, the more valuable and skilled the person is...is what the typical person would be like, but said girl named Femicia, has a Tamer skill, but has no stars, which she is immediately put as a scapegoat for the village she's in: Latomi Village. Everybody has a prejudice against her starless skill, even her very own family despised the fact that she was born with no stars once the truth gets out around the small village, which doesn't take long for rumours to swell around. Facing abuse and persecution all around the village, Femicia makes her escape, only to meet the local fortune teller who takes pity on her by educating and supplying for her needs, until her eventual natural passing, to which Femicia moves on further away to make a living by herself. Femicia's journey takes a turning point in the midst of picking up trash, when she finds a weak and dying slime, only to tame and give it a name. Together, the new Femicia, dubbed Ivy and taking on the appearance of a boy, together with her slime familiar Sora, starts a new journey to pick up trash and make use of their surroundings.

I really feel the pity for Ivy, having to be so harshly neglected and shunned by her home village, everyone does not go easy on her, including her own family. And this is rather enforced throughout Latomi Village where her only source of comfort is the local fortune teller Luba, who takes sympathy and brings her under her watchful wings to teach everything she knows about survivability. The problem is that the entire village also depends on the same exact survivability on her part, since Luba is also responsible for the village's crop fruits, which are its only source of income, and with her passing, the village head gets even more nonsensical blaming Ivy for the loss of her life, and even going as far as to place a bounty on her. The irony of the short-sightedness of the village head to refuse medicine to Luba for siding with Ivy, and even demanding the latter's head when her death affects the village the most, one child's life is insignificant compared to a lifetime of wealth and reputation, these people are simply scum for what they regard. Needless to say, stars do not affect the limit of a person, and Ivy was but a victim in the fire of bigotry.

Once things reside outside of Latomi Village, the situation only gets better for Ivy and Sora. Ivy gains her confidence, although still terrified of the outside world and its strangers, as she begins to witness that Sora can consume more than just tossed and leftover potions, which improves her chances of survivability significantly while roaming around as an outcast, gaining more followers along the way. Not forgetting her tamer skills for a moment, Ivy soon gains another tamed creature to her side: the high-ranking black panther adanadala Ciel.

As for the humans that she meets along the way, there're a fair few of them who would meet both Ivy and Sora, and would be monumental to their influence:
- The Latome Village's Watch guards of Captain Ogto and vice-captain Vellivera. Ogto, a very loyal servant of the Watch, is serious about his job, but is also serious at taking a liking to Ivy and always having fun with her, to the chagrin of Vellivera who usually has a calm demeanor and having to sometimes take control of Ogto before he does his usual reckless things.
- The party adventurers whom Ivy and Sora will join in their adventures: Flaming Sword's leader Seyzelk and prominent member Lattrua; Lightning King's leader Borolda and prominent meber Rikvelt; and The Green Gale's leader Meela and her older twin brothers Tolto and Malma, who serves alongside her. It's definitely a bit of a challenge to try to converse with so many people that Ivy gets overwhelmed most of the time. But as they say, praise the sun, for these adventurers don't just see Ivy as a growing single-digit aged girl (as a boy), but someone who will grow to become a big asset of their lives, not just an errand boy for their parties, but someone who they legitimately see as a potential to become a great starless tamer growing up. The party adventurers may have magical and physical attributes grown with their skills, but none are as reliable as Ivy and Sora, especially the latter, who overtime has an ability to discern who are their real enemies just by close contact.

You've got to really admire Ivy and Sora's survivability of the fittest. Despite the earlier life problems, Ivy got her act together and don on the tropey "character cutting hair" moment, which is pretty much necessitated for her charcter growth. It's the only way that she can get out and move on from her past, while being supported by the fantasy world's "gods" constantly dropping hints for the progress of maturity.

Despite being a studio mainly responsible for in-between and key animation, this is Studio Massket's first fully featured anime series, and just by itself, the production values are simply put, out of this world. In its 7 years of business since the studio's founding in March 2017, it has participated in the animation phases of a ton of shows, too many to count. And within this show, it just shows of the talent from the staff team behind directors Naoki Horiuchi and Shigeyasu Yamauchi (the latter serving as chief director). Though I have the feeling that this is a rather one-off project to see where the studio lies by its capability of taking full-on anime projects in the long run. We'll see then of where Studio Massket will lean towards next.

The music leans into the entire atmosphere of the anime quite well, actually. VA Aina Suzuki did a great job acting as Ivy, and even for her character OP song, it's a very nice song, with even more impressive rotoscoping visuals that are just gobstopping with seamless quality. Tei's ED song "Because" is a rather calm song that displays more of the show's resting, slice-of-life atmosphere, and that's not a bad thing at all IMO.

The one word I constantly find myself with when watching this show is "surprise", because I'm legitimately surprised at how the show finds itself full of drama and fantasy, yet never once be a victim to the vice of absurdity nor of the typical tropes, which if there's one bad thing, it would be that the show is severely underrated. It's just so tender when you see humanity be served on a platter that matures you and the encouragement of wanting to grow for the better, which on the basis of this show, does that to the fullest degree to "purposefully" hit you in the feels as hard as possible.

Seriously, throw away all OP-ness and fanservice. Saijaku Tamer wa Gomi Hiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita. a.k.a The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash is what we need for a refreshing take on the over-objectified Isekai fantasy trope, with hints of subservient love and care given with a reason no other than to protect a child's innocent growth, yet not stumble him/her when adversities come their way in one's prime.

A tearjerker's story and sense of purpose, you won't find a better one than in Saijaku Tamer with a slow-paced, yet straightforward story that delivers on all fronts.

Recommended for those who like slow-paced shows with good story building, and character development.

Story: The story is very similar to pretty much any other isekai, but what makes it stand out is the execution of that story. It follows the traditional route of introducing characters first and then giving their backstories but handles each element quite elegantly, unlike an average isekai. This gives a fair amount of time to each of its genres and themes, be it drama, adventure, fantasy, or even isekai. You won't easily find an isekai where you get reminded of the isekai element every episode. But still, some of the ... parts of the stories in later episodes might feel a bit stretched.
7.5/10

Characters: The story revolves around Ivy and there are many secondary characters, and most of them impact Ivy's character development. So none of the characters' introductions feel forced or unnecessary. There aren't many cheesy characters that an average isekai has.
8/10

Art and animation: The studio is pretty new, considering that, they did a pretty solid job on both the art and the animation and one will barely notice any flaws in animation.
8/10

Soundtrack: It has a decent soundtrack that might sound like a classic Disney fantasy soundtrack.
7/10

If you liked Frieren, Campfire cooking you'll like this one.

Honestly, when the anime was showing what they advertised in the synopsis, it was great. When it was about actual adventuring/traveling with a slime companion, I was hooked. But the second half stops the pacing dead in its tracks to solve a great mystery, and I dreaded clicking on the next episode every time. I came for cute slime interactions and adventure, but that's not what the main course was. If you were here because you like slime creatures, prepare to be disappointed.

Visuals: Great. I loved the way the anime looked, they animated Sora very well. The colors that were used matched the flavor of ... the show - lighthearted, cheerful, and laid back. No complaints here. Also, the sound was fine. Not going to make a separate paragraph for nothing.

Characters: Whatever. Ivy can do no wrong, which gets old fast when it's the same characters praising her. If she continued traveling to different towns and meeting different people, I would have certainly overlooked it. But it just becomes the same group constantly impressed by her previous-life's knowledge and it's just tiring.
I enjoyed watching Sora evolve physically and mentally more than anyone else in the anime. The little interactions Ivy has with him moved my heart, especially when I got to realize that Sora is becoming more mentally capable of communication. But in the second half, he's basically locked away in a bag with minimal screen time.

The last episode was very good, compared to the arc that it closes. And I don't mean that in a "haha it's good because the anime is over xd" kind of way. I genuinely enjoyed the final episode. I mention this because if you can push through the arc that it wraps up, you're perseverance won't be <i>completely</i> unrewarded. Even with this last note, I still cannot recommend this anime. Sorry!

Final score: 4. That's how big of a slog it becomes.