Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life suru Koto ni Shimashita 2nd

If you liked the exploration of blessings from Season 1, then I think you'll like this season too. Season 1 asked the question "Do you have to live as your blessing dictates?" and answered it through Ruti overcoming the life consuming blessing of the hero and gaining the freedom to live as she wants.

But what if the person with the hero blessing actually wants to be the hero? Season 2 features Van, the "new" hero, and instead asks "Is simply doing as your blessing dictates enough to fulfill your role?" The clash in ideologies between Van, a devout follower of the Almighty who confers blessings, ... and Gideon, the previous hero's guide who has learned to live outside those blessings, makes for a compelling central conflict.

Within Van's party, Theodora (now going as Esta) tries to advise Van to be more flexible, as she's learned from Gideon, but Lavender (a mysterious fairy who loves Van) keeps telling him he's fine as he is. The last member of the party, Cardinal Ljubo, seems to want to use Van, but somewhat comedically throws his arms up in the air when it comes to actually controlling his actions.

Meanwhile, in Zoltan, Ruti is learning to live a normal life with help from Tisse. Much of the extended cast returns to Zoltan as well, and there are plenty of fun episodes with them all. While there isn't as much focus on Red and Rit's romance as there was in the first season, there's still development, and Rit's love for Red makes for an interesting parallel with Lavender's love for Van later on.

The conclusion of the season was very satisfying and wrapped up everything nicely. Overall I enjoyed this season slightly more than the first, since I was more invested in the plot around blessings than the comfy romance (though both aspects are good), but if you care more about Red and Rit's romance I think you'll like the ending as well.

A peaceful life in a village far from the war against demon army, is suddenly disturbed by the arrival of a new Hero.

In this season of Banished from the Hero’s Party, do we follow the normal cast and new arrivals, which are both known and unknown faces. A lot is also about a new Hero that has been found since Ruti has “disappeared”.

The plot very much revolves around the normal life the group has in the village, and how the new Hero is. The plot is very straight forward with little to mysteries or convoluted plots, which makes the story somewhat bland and predictable.

When it ... comes to the characters, do they very much seem stagnant, kinda like the development for them is already done. Which makes the characters feel very flat and simple, which doesn’t help with the already rather bland plot. The new characters introduced do have room for some development but are still very predictable in their behavior.

The animation is the same style as the previous season and holds a very average but smooth animation level. There is nothing very noteworthy about it, but it is not bad either.

Overall does it kinda seem like the story is dragged too far, and the finished characters are put into a new story where there isn’t room for much development. There is one opportunity that is in the season though, since they are starting to hint towards a possible plot line that could bring more into the show.

So I would say that if you really like this show and its characters is it worth watching this season. But if not, would I say you would be better off watching something else.

While season 1's story had a lot of issues but underneath had a beautiful romance developing. Season 2 has nothing developing with a new story with the same issues.

Characters: 7/10

Everyone is still as nice and sweet as before. But the problem is that since Red and Rit are now a couple and engaged, and Ruti has retired from being a hero; this season gives nothing for these characters to do. There are 3 different romance plots that go nowhere since they're only used for jokes, specially Ruti's love for her brother (which would have been interesting to see Red dissuade her if they didn't sweep ... it under the rug). So from ep 1 to the last, these characters remain unchanged.

Story: 6/10

But there is a plot, somehow. There's a new hero and he's a nutjob. You know because 10% of an episode shows how sociopathic he is, until later episodes focus on him. But again like last season, the story refuses to go deeper than it is. The stakes are buried underground as the protagonist tells you again that "you're more than your blessing". And somehow he believes it and apologizes, but because the stakes reside in a cemetery, there's little to apologize for.

Animation: 6/10

It's not an A-lister so of course it's not going to be top notch. It's not bad but not good. But I noticed they lean into the comedic aspect by making more chibi faces. So that's something.

Overall: 5/10
I prefered season 1's gutless story with a side of beautiful romance than season 2's lackluster story with a side of nothing. The story is so lacking that if you watch only the last 2 episodes you won't miss anything important.