Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside
Composite Rating 10/10

This was going to be an 8 or 9 for me. But the ending pushed me over to a 10.

Animation/Design 9/10

I personally loved the animation.

Characters 10/10 [Spoliers]

Red and Rin are the best. They are such a humble and warming couple. I also feel like they complimented each other soo nicely. Considering one came from the Heros party and the other is/was a princess, they were made for each other. I also like how they took their relationship slow, but that it actually developed as the show progressed.

Ruti was also great. At first, she reminds me of Gowther from the seven deadly sins. But the character develops nicely towards the end. I also love how she breaks bounds in a work that says you have to follow your Blessing gift. Very inspirational.

Tisse may have been my single favorite character. She was really the Hero's greatest friend. The way she saves Red's life, knowing that if she has let Ruti kill her own brother, She would have never forgiven herself. and the way that she was always there for Ruti even after she renounced the Heros blessing. I also

Lastly, the town folk: The town actually felt alive. There were many notable townspeople that actually played a part in the story. And ones that you even want to know what happens next. All in all, I think that they were all great.

Audio/Soundtrack 8/10

The music was nice and fitting. I personally loved the intro.

Synopsis (background information and description)

The anime is based in a world where everyone is born with a 'Devine blessing'. This is like their class, it determines what skills they will get and what they will be inherently good at. The main character Red's sister has the Hero blessing. They are in a party with some others including the Sage. One day the Sage says that the Red is holding them back and that he should leave the party without telling his sister. The nice guy Red is, he leaves the party. He goes far away to open an apothecary. He does odd jobs to get enough money to build an apothecary. On the first day, someone walks in. Rit, a girl he has worked with while being in the Hero's part. She convinces him to let her work at the shop, she helps him with the business side of things and around the shop. She also insists she moves in. From here their romance blooms. They help the town out where they can and get into other mischief.... There is more ... you'll have to watch!

Conclusion:

I love this anime, honestly everything about it. The fact that it was a slice of life that has romance, action, and fantasy. The characters were one of the best parts for me. Red was not a cocky MC or a wimp. He was powerfull and yet humble. And I liked the fact that he knew that he was stronger than most, and not that he was too nieve to see it. Overall, I liked the story and how Red and Rin's relationship developed over the course of the anime. Great show, great development, great ending. 10/10

I feel like this show had some interesting ideas going for it but there were several subplots that just didn't work for me.
Earlier on in it I may have given it an 80 or higher, but by the end I felt like 70 was becoming generous.

The main couple is great, probably one of the more satisfying ones I've seen in a while, and definitely the highlight of the show. Red is a very solid protagonist, especially when compared to all his competition of generic brown hair dude in the fantasy anime scene. He is resourceful and kind, and the reasons he was "banished" from the heroes party made sense, I feel like everyone has doubted their worth in group settings. It's very touching seeing how the Hero's Party struggles after he's gone and them all admitting how much they needed him, except for Ares of course, who lives in denial to the end.
The way Red supports his new community and even guides one of the kids in town who has anxieties over his blessing is also very fitting for the former guide of the Hero's Party.
And speaking of the townsfolk, their were overall great. I felt like they added a lot of life to the story where a lesser supporting cast would have left the world feeling empty and dull. They definitely help Red feel like a part of the community rather than an MC in a world of stock background man #3.
Rit was endearing and I found it really enjoyable to see how considerate she was of Red's situation while still pushing to be involved in his life. If you went by flashbacks alone she could have come off as a generic tsundere but she was much more than that.
Unfortunately, I felt like much of the heroes party was left neglected and underdeveloped though.
The Hero Ruti was developed enough and had some great moments. Unfortunately her blessing shut off her emotions for most of the show which hurt her character for me, I felt like we needed more time to actually get to know the real Ruti.
Tisse was a good addition to the group and it was nice watching her friendship with Ruti grow.
Danan was characterized as all brawn no brain and he had one or two impressive moments but felt underdeveloped.
Theodora and Yarandrala were barely given any development and I felt like by the end i still knew next to nothing about them.
Last of them, Ares was an interesting character and it's impossible to discuss him in detail without getting heavy on spoilers, but as basically as I can describe him, I felt like he was an interesting idea that could have been executed better. He was Red's rival and it would have been nice to see where that rivalry came from, how it developed. The show had flashbacks often, it would have been nice if one of them was able to expand on their relationship more than Ares doesn't like Red, and Red deals with it.

The plot overall was fun early on. Red and Rit work off each other well and they integrate into the town in a believable and enjoyable way. Red helps the townsfolk but he never feels like some op dude who pulls solutions out of nowhere for every issue, in many ways he's just another member of the community there to help out.
It starts to fall apart for me ones they add a bunch of arbitrary plot contrivances and weird character motivations to create conflict for the sake of conflict. I wish it had kept more to the SOL aspects but it started adding conflicts that didn't make sense for the location they were in. Zoltan is repeatedly described as a sleepy and unassuming frontier town with no strategic value and so few resources bandits don't see it as worth their time. So it felt very contrived that several conflicts arose in Zoltan when the instigators had no reason to be there, and that's not even mentioning that by sheer coincidence: the first hero's high-tech, underground, mega lab structure lies right under the the backwater edge of nowhere settlement

It was above par for fantasy anime, and as a sucker for SOL I appreciated it being present, but I feel like the premise had a lot more potential than the execution and was carried by the duo of Red and Rit. Had it leaned more heavily on the SOL side of the premise it would have been an easy 80-90, but as it stands, the story and supporting cast (as good as the townsfolk were) left much to be desired and Red and Rit deserve a better plot. The way their relationship develops is still immensely satisfying, but the rest of the show feels like a distraction from that rather than helping to build it most of the time.

4/10 -- I disliked it more than I enjoyed it. Extremely light spoilers (1st episode).
It looked interesting to me because the whole plot is supposed to be "Man, adventuring? Not my cuppa tea! I'm retiring!". That's actually pretty unique and could lead to a great story! Which it is for like the first 4-5 episodes, and during those the show is greatly enjoyable. The interactions between the townsfolk are especially well done and feel natural. But then the rest of it is... not good. Let me go through my grievances like a list. Yeah, that'll work. An airing of greivances. That'll work.

1. The dude is totally retiring, but you know, he still goes around solving the town's secret/not secret Sackler conspiracy and the gargantuan climatic battle over the last couple of episodes which I won't spoil.
2. The whole premise is that the MC is told off by a guy in the party to leave Episode 1 because "he's not helpful ever" and he just accepts this without any issue immediately, despite the fact that when the hero's party is on screen they cannot stop jerking off the MC in his absence, and at one point say he would be the strongest swordsman if his little sister, the hero, didn't have the blessing to be the hero. They also do literally nothing to look for him until AT LEAST half a year since he disappeared, not including the time before the show when he was wandering around.
3. The romance which takes up a significant amount of screen time is extremely bland and undeveloped, they both say to eachother "Oh hey, I remember you from when we were together for like two weeks a while ago. We were both madly in love with eachother (not really)!" and then the romantic interest just moves into the MC's house.
4. Plenty of plot holes involving major events besides the MC getting booted from the party. A thorough explanation would contain spoilers, so it is not included in this review.
5. The MC's little sister/the hero is obsessed with him because he's the only one who ever talked to her and was nice while also being an awkward and psycho monster killer because of her 'blessing', which itself is not bad, but she never suffers any actual consequences for being super duper scary that she makes people draw weapons when she looks at them. All good! Plenty of trust in the hero's party!
6. The ending is terrible. Not 'French Connection' tier terrible ending, but it's pretty bad. Nobody suffers any consequences except for the two Filthy McRotten dudes, despite the fact that everyone else but the MC by that point have been grievously wounded. That is pretty standard anime trope, where the people who still attempted to murder their friends or those who sacrificed themselves for their friends get healed and forgiven instantly. (because... ????) But also, the MC who is supposedly of a lower combat power (but not really since he's the greatest swordsman ever (except not really because that's not his blessing)) uses a super technique to end the final climatic battle where it gets really dicey in all of 15 seconds using some bullshit move he pulls out of nowhere. A complete deus ex machina.
7. Just like a million other animes, for no reason at all, they shoehorn in a lot of video game RPG elements into the show. Instead of honing their skills or whatever they... gain XP. The only thing that's stopping the show from being an Isekai is that the MC doesn't say he was rebirthed, but it has almost every other trope. Hell, in the lyrics of the OP, they state "born into another world". Were they going to make an isekai but changed it a little at the last minute but didn't redo the song?
8. The show is far too talkative, and the scriptwriters assume that the viewer is dumb as rocks. E.g., in one of the last episodes a character says "Oh wow, the hero has no friends and nobody likes her because she's so socially awkward because she's the hero!"... even though that was established many many episodes ago many many times with many many flashbacks... did I mention this show is OBSESSED with flashbacks? No, you can't just take what they say. You HAVE to show it happening flashbacked. And the final lesson is hit over your head numerous times by the characters dialogues. "You don't be who other people want you to be! be yourself!" Wow, thank you, I didn't understand that at all from the 13 episodes before where the MC was also talking about how great it was to retire and be himself!
9. Generic moeblob art style. Bo-ring! Wow, it's so nice all these animators used their skills to make an animation that is difficult to distinguish from any other isekai released the same year--no, same decade. Great!