Saihate no Paladin: Tetsusabi no Yama no Ou

The Faraway Paladin - It's still one of my favourite "not-so-Isekai" Isekai reincarnation fantasy shows to come out of recent years, just behind the juggernaut that is Rifujin no Maganote's Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation.

I'm still very firm on the belief that novelist Kanata Yanagino has done an absolute "masterpiece" for Season 1's content, which covers the first 2 volumes of the LN, that the anime sadly weighs it down to just being decent, if based on the overall production alone. That said, waiting 2 years to finally see Season 2 come out...and while it's still good, it's just not on the same wavelength that the ... author used to write compelling stories that really secured the sole thing that sold the prequel: its humble storytelling that comes from inspiration, not imitation.

It's clear as day that Season 2, which covers the remaining Volumes 3 and 4 of the LN (before the author actually went into hiatus because of his physical and mental health issues back in late 2020), that Kanata Yanagino was feeling the pressure to deliver a compelling story that made his worldbuilding and character writing so great, faltered so much. The basis is that both Volume 3: The Lord of the Rust Mountains and Volume 4: The Torch Port Ensemble were essentially two stories that could be better linked together, but it came to the stage where the author felt that he could write no more with his dwindling creativity, and it's sad to see such an accomplished author having reached the point of a writer's block. Here's hoping that Kanata Yanagino can eventually recover and continue writing his series, though it'd be better if the LN is on a permanent hiatus for millennia.

Getting into the meat of the series' continuation, William G. Maryblood, along with elf Meneldor, has descended into Torch Port, along with the new friends that he made along the way: Robina "Bee" Goodfellow, the halfling travelling troubadour who loves to spread tales of heroic deeds to the public through poetic storytelling and singing (which serves most of Volume 4's content); and mainly the dwarven army of the proclaimed Rust Mountains to reclaim back their rightful place from an evil dragon god who has blindsided them (which serves Volume 3's rather long-ish 2-volume parter content). The Faraway Paladin has so much to do in so little time that it feels as if he could not catch a break, seemingly with all that's happening around him, having to run all around to get his jobs done. But still, Will manages to take time and reflect on his solace (which I appreciate as one of his strong character points) to take retrospectives on the people that helped him mould the character that he is now. And that's the key to writing compelling characters that make you move your heart and appreciate good character writing.

For the anime, however, the entire staff team from the prequel season has been given an overhaul: freelance director Akira Iwanaga leads his team with the ever-so-illusive OLM and Sunrise Beyond studio collaboration, and the production definitely has upgraded a fair bit to look as good as the LN's manga adaptation counterpart. Even Will's VA got an upgrade, from the young-un (VAed by Maki Kawase) to the young adult now (VAed by Shoya Chiba), and he sounds a lot more mature now than he has since his growing-up days in Season 1, and for the better.

The one disappointment I have for the sequel, however, is the OST. H-el-ical// and Nagi Yanagi did an outstanding job with their OP and ED songs for Season 1, and while the latter came back to perform the sequel's OP song, it was decent and a lot more action-heavy with its riff-raff (which actually strikes the chord for Season 2), something that I'm not so used to Nagi Yanagi performing this way since like forever. And while KOTOKO's ED song was decent, just like the OP, I am pretty biased towards Season 1 due to its pure fantasy emotions that did the prequel so much justice.

How ironic, eh? The story and music were (for me) the highlights of Season 1, and those same aspects wore it down in the enjoyment of Season 2. A perfect balance board, I would say, but that's just about the fate of The Faraway Paladin, as far as I'm concerned. It's decent at best, but it still does its fantasy genre justice enough to warrant the sequel for at least a binge.

A story that follows the hero and his party on a quest to vanquish evil, and purify the cursed lands.

This season of The Faraway Paladin revolves around the tale of the rust mountain and its denizens. We follow William going on a quest to help them, where he travels with a band of friends, to cleanse the mountain from the evil that has overtaken it.

The plot is very linear and follows the classic structure of an adventure group going out to save the lands. It is generally done in an interesting way, that explores the road they have to travel and the dangers along the ... way. The first couple of episodes are lead up, and is sadly kinda forgettable, but the rest of the story carries a nice feeling of a true adventure.

When it comes to the characters are they rather basic in some degrees, where some show significant character progression and others are rather stagnant. The main issue is that the characters lack some stronger personality traits, something that isn’t just courageous or just. The characters would have been more interesting, and worth investing more into if the characters were a bit more spiced up.

For the animation is it still keeping the same style as the previous season and seems to be a fine effort, with some good effects during fights.

Overall is this season an improvement from last season and is a nice watch, with a very nice adventure party plot. So i would recommend watching this season if you watched the first one, even though it lacks a bit in the character department.

A marked improvement over season one. That's a rarity in anime. Typically they don't improve, but rather nose dive. Animation has more to offer in terms of flashy action scenes, with a couple that stand out. The art work in general is slightly worse, bad cg, but still good character detail and amazing backgrounds. I still feel the characters are lacking depth, but at least we get to wee a little bit more of Will's internal struggles without it feeling completely forced. The world building continues to be one of the best parts of this anime. The story line feels more solid and less of ... the generic isekai we got after arc 1 in season 1. Still a little generic, but better. Pacing is much better, and picks up quite a bit over the last season which was kind of painful after arc 1. The dubbed voice acting I'd say get's slightly worse. I think the casting for Will is not great, but otherwise I'd say it's still fine, but not great by any means. The op and ed remain ill fitting and generic. However, the ost has more variety in it, which is pleasant to see. Overall, it still has some of the same issues as season 1, but reclaims it's stride for the most part. The pacing of this anime is really what will make or break it going forward. 6.75/10 Dubbed

The second season of The Faraway Paladin took me by surprise – it’s much better than the first season.

I was torn on whether to watch this season or not, considering the first season left me with mixed feelings. The first season started out great but quickly became horribly subpar and so I did not have high expectations going in. However, what we got in this second season was a change of pace and focus that turned The Faraway Paladin into an enjoyable adventure story. The kind of adventure story that makes you think of a tabletop roleplaying game set in a European medieval setting.

While Will ... is still very much an overpowered little snowflake it bothered me much less this time around. It doesn’t matter that he’s so powerful because they managed to give the events that transpired a very distinct feeling. It’s more about the problems that he and his companions solve than showing off how amazing he is. Somehow, despite having such an unremarkable set-up, this season felt much more satisfying to watch. It avoids some of the pitfalls of the first season by being more consistent in tone throughout.

I would have liked to see more gripping dialogue and personality from the various characters, but I guess that wasn’t meant to be. They were all flat and could have used some depth.

As far as voice acting, music and sound effects and so on go, they were all fine. The visuals were about as expected as well.

Either way, I enjoyed myself while watching this anime. However, I am not sure whether we can expect another season, since apparently no new volume of the light novel has been released for a few years now.

Season 1 was a captivating story of a lad coming of age and beginning his journey.
Season 2 continues the story of William G Maryblood as a Lord and Paladin.

Main issues I find as the story continues is that as the story progresses, William's motives and drive becomes much more whimsical and fictional. A fantasy character with no flaws. He becomes less human as the story progresses. A device to drive the story rather than an actual character with strife and challenges. A mythical hero that's been embellished so much so that they don't seem to actually exist like the songs written about him.

Despite the mountain ... of responsibilities he is shoulders with, he just accepts it and just continues to do as he is told. Like a doll. Endlessly repeating the difference between being dead and not being alive as if that's enough to disregard his lack of actual desires. He lives on railroad tracks. A man of god supposedly, but the way he acts is almost robotic.

It is the downfall of the series as a whole. Will isn't real. A fictional hero with fictional desires and fictional wants. That is why he is loved by the gods. He shouldn't exist because he lacks the human element.

Mary and Blood carried season 1. Season 2 is just generic. Bring back Mary and Blood please.

I liked the end of the season, it is a very cute anime, tender you could say.
The cast of characters is very well put together, it feels like the protagonists have become a family. That's nice, you feel like you're part of the adventure.
You want them to do well, you don't want anything bad to happen to them. It is very interesting how the protagonist knows that he is in a privileged position and decides not to exploit it to the fullest. Yes, he takes advantage of it but he doesn't fully squeeze it and that makes it feel very real. It is very ... interesting how its story develops, it is very well written and directed.
The animation is very nice and fluid. The character designs are very good. We see a goddess who is really pretty, I'm not saying anything more.
I highly recommend the anime if you like isekai, it is very noble, the anime does not fail, it is better than the average and can still offer more things. I hope there will be more content in the near future.

En español:
Me gusto el final de temporada, es un anime muy lindo, tierno se podría decir.
El elenco de personajes está muy bien armado, se siente que se volvió una familia los protagonista. Esta lindo eso, sentís que sos parte de la aventura.
Queres que les vaya bien no queres que les pase nada malo. Es muy interesante como el protagonista sabe que esta en una posición privilegiada y decide no explotarla al máximo. La aprovecha si pero no exprime del todo y eso lo hace sentir muy real. Esta muy interesante como se desarrolla su historia, esta muy bien escrita y dirigida.
La animación es muy linda y fluida. Los diseños de personajes están muy buenos. Vemos a una diosas que está realmente linda, no digo nada más.
Recomiendo mucho el anime si te gusta el isekai es muy noble el anime no falla es mejor que el promedio y todavía puede ofrecer más cosas. Espero que haya más contenido en un futuro próximo.

The first season of the faraway paladin suffered from a low budget and poor directing which I feel had failed to capture the captivative and emotional feel of its story compared to the LN and manga counterpart. And while season 2 did improve on animation, the storytelling remains underwhelming.

The story - 5
Season 2 covers volume 3 and 3.5 that is about William's quest into the former dwarven kingdom of the iron mountains to subjugate the evil dragon, with the theme being centered around our protagonist's courage to rise up and challenge an impossible foe. New characters are introduced and we especially got new lights shedded ... on old ones such as Bee, Menel and Stagnate. Sadly just like season 1, there were way too many moments where "it was supposed to be epic but comes off as cheesey" or "MC monologues too much". I won't go over them to avoid spoilers but I can tell so many sences were ruined that it just comes out as being blend and generic. It shows the anime still has poor directing.

Visuals - 7
The better part of the show. Action sences looks significantly better than the previous season but that's not really saying much imo. It's not great but not bad either.

Music - 5
Another aspect that's lacking. There were alot of reused ost from season 1 and I found myself skipping both the OP and ED after listening to it just once, which is rare for me. Last season's music was way better.

Enjoyment - 5
The feedbacks I seen for the second season wasn't as critical as the first one. Many people seem to enjoy the show now which I'm glad to hear. Though since I've already read the novel which was massively better, I can't help but feel often disappointed even when tempering my expectations.

Overall - 5
I would most certainly recommend the light novel over the anime. Or the manga as it more accurately adapts the LN's story. Also, the anime has now caught on with the LN (that has been on hiatus for 4 years now). Only a couple of side stories remain unadapted so we won't be getting a new season for a long while.

Saihate no Paladin had a good premise in the first season that somehow made it interesting to watch. It just shouldn't have gotten a second season. Everything is just bad maybe worse than the first season. There is like literally no interesting filler. you get one episode with 1 to 5 minutes of interesting content and then just a boring part.
Tutorial on how to make slow-paced anime interesting: backstories worth being interested in, beautiful scenery and SFX, main character day activities, and bonding characters.
Saihate no Paladin is a disaster. I read the manga and watched the first season and still, I think whoever worked ... on this is inexperienced. From the feel of enjoyment from the first season because I liked the manga I overlooked a lot of bad things. But you can't overlook them anymore they are everywhere.
Saihate no Paladin should have been made by more experienced people like those who worked on Sousou no Frieren.
Animation - bad
Music - unimpactful/Generic
Source material handling: in a bad way
Entertainment level: nah not worth it, should have dropped it after the first episode
5/10 just because of my high copium level

While the start of the first season was a rather interesting one, in S2 we are given more like the ending of the first season - a rather ordinary isekai OP MC story with no innovation or effort put in it. Let me just give you a quick rundown so you can go watch something better instead.

Story. Typical OP MC isekai stuff: our hero takes on “impossible” challenges while being constantly praised for being basically godlike. This time “The Hobbit” was taken as the source of inspiration and most of the season is about the journey to a fallen dwarven country to kill a ... dragon. Sadly no creativity was put into making this copy so the entire arc was so generic that not once I was caught off guard and I always managed to predict what will happen in the next scene. While being predictable and well telegraphed is better than Deus Ex Machinae events used to dodge poor writing decisions (there is one those here too though), it is still not a good thing.
Characters. You know how it goes. Old ones don’t really show much, new ones are added to praise our hero even more. Only the party has enough screen time but I struggle to say that they had serious development (with the exception of the newbie who went from a wimp to a battle hardened veteran in a span of like 2 episodes).
Art. I will say it looks cheap. Some things look horribly stiff in motion, some scenes are just ugly, but mostly the visuals are “servisable”.
Enjoyment. Well, is it even here? The show is so shallow, generic and forgettable that it doesn’t really feel like I even enjoyed it, more like “I consumed it” and moved on.

So yeah, overall I can only see fans of the show that are OK with any adaptation enjoying the second season. The rest of the potential viewers? Just watch something else.