Red, who is formerly known as Gideon became a prominent figure in his fantasy world in assisting his sister the hero defeat demonic entities. After a party, Gideon's comrade forces him out of the hero party and surrenders his fate to live in the countryside. Under a new alias, Red decides to start an apothecary where he can relax from the high profile life in the hero's party. However, drama brews when his comrades actively seek him out even the hero; All while this is happening a dangerous presence has befallen the party. Will they be able to uproot the source of evil plaguing the party or will they lose each other before they succeed?
Story & Characters: 5/10
Banished from the Hero's Party takes a slice of life approach to the fantasy RPG world; Unlike series that focus on a main character and accumulation of their party, this series focuses on the disintegration of the party while also dealing with overbearing adventurers and demonic entities. As a result of the slice of life approach, the story tanks in development and entertainment because the world feels very vaguely developed; Principles aren't explored beyond explanation and even the antagonists dive in and out of the story from time to time. An example would be the blessings: A lot of the world's characters especially in the Hero's party use the power of blessing but it isn't explored outside of what is mentioned in the beginning about how younger generations accumulate their blessings. In a way, it feels haphazardly put together in order to add convenience for the Hero in the end. The main character and his apothecary is a nice touch although not new and the inventions could have been utilized for a potential end goal but it appears to be a minor element to Red's character to pass time in his quiet life.
Art & Sound: 6/10
The art isn't the best nor is the animation; Banished from the Hero's Party has a more vibrant and saturated color palette with lack of shadow or textured undertones. This gives it that plastic-ish visual appearance which I personally am not fond of - In some moments of the series it feels budget especially given moments where the character profile shots/long shots deteriorate in quality and consistency. It's not necessarily a bad thing but it does feel distracting to watch.
The sound was fairly simple; The same light hearted melodical tones were played while Red is in the village. Same with the suspenseful background music on scenes involving controversy among the Hero Party's members or Village conflict. Voice actors were fairly suitable to their characters.
Overall & Enjoyment: 5/10
I was expecting a series where the main character hides his powers until trouble finds him; And although it did start that way in the beginning. Suspense was killed at every angle with small-fry enemies that could have been dealt with in the beginning but just got out of hand because they didn't get focused by characters. The ending was also a nice slap in the face with sentimentality among characters we barely understood or had a meaningful build up with Red/Gideon in the beginning. All of it is surface level an d slice of life style which I assumed would not resulting in it not being my particular type of series.
