Forum - View topicI Left My A-Rank Party (TV).
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Edjwald
 Posts: 1956 |
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I Left My A-Rank Party (TV) Full title: I Left My A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! Source: Light Novel (ongoing @ 4 volumes, Written by Kōsuke Unagi, illustrated by Super Zombie) Demographic: Shounen Animation Studio: Bandai Namco Pictures Genres: action, adventure, fantasy Themes: harem Plot Summary: As far as adventuring goes, supporting your party is a thankless job—even more so if you're just a lowly red mage like Yuke Feldio. So, when he gets fed up with his A-rank party of total a-holes, he ditches them for some former students—a trio of girls who just love his company. The thing is, to conquer the world's greatest dungeon and achieve his dream, he'll have to teach these cuties a thing or two, and he may learn there's more potential within him (and them) than he ever knew. Air Date & Platform: January 11, 2025 (Saturday) Available on: Crunchyroll Episode Count / Runtime: 24 episodes [EDIT: Added the rest of the fancy opener stuff. -TK] |
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Edjwald
Posts: 1956 |
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I think I was able to copy and paste <==edited from "copy and past" Tony's format this time though I didn't want to improvise demographic or themes...
Anyhow, I knew everything I needed to know about the animation level of this anime in the first five seconds: namely, that the animation style was going to be anime generica. And don't get me wrong, anime generica isn't bad - it's basically competent at getting the most out of a low budget, and it has graced many anime that I've liked over the years such as I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years or My Unique Skill Makes Me OP even at Level 1 or By the Grace of the Gods or Chillin' in My 30's et al to name the first few that come to mind. But for the most part, anime generica style is a sign that the anime themselves are going to be fairly generic, with hopefully a few bells and whistles or a quirk of attitude somewhere in there like the anime I just mentioned. More often then not, the anime are mid to low. And there are exceptions to that too, like this season's Tasokare Hotel or Tonai No Yokai-San which are very original. I knew everything I needed to know about the basic plot of this anime in the first five minutes. The MC is the unsung hero who supports his supposedly A-level party so selflessly that he gets abused for his efforts. He is utterly scorned and abused, and so he leaves his party to find new companions who will utterly adore and appreciate him to the opposite extreme. Check subtlety or complex characterization at the door. From that starting point, the original hero party is going to start crashing, and the underappreciated hero is going to rise. I think the first (and best) time I saw this formula was Banished From the Hero's Party yada yada Quiet life on the Frontier, but it's been copied with less success or thought ever since, with Beast Tamers and Strongest Tanks and Banished Healers and so on. The numbers are set, now to paint by them and hope that there is some world setting or character quirks or whatever to make the anime stand out a little. And yeah, I probably could have just skipped all that and said that the anime seems generic and predictable, but I'm snowed in and a little bored  . I honestly expected to have lost power by now, but somehow I don't think I've been spared because I was fated to watch this anime...
I will say I was relieved to see that the MC wasn't the high school teacher of his former students...He's 20, and he briefly instructed them in one of the Adventurer's Guilds tutorials for basic adventurers a half a year ago, which means they're probably 18? (fingers crossed) Not that I expect there to be any overt romance...this MC seems solidly of the clueless protagonist stamp. And the MC being a crafter who comes up with workarounds could bring about some cool moments. As far as I can tell, this anime is everything it aims to be, which is, at best, not bad. You can hate on it or shrug your shoulders, but you should know exactly what you're getting, and if you're just looking for a little harmless time passing squarely in your comfort zone without much challenging brain activity involved, this might be the anime for you. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 3070 |
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Yeah, it is pretty much one of those. That is not inherently a bad thing but the secretly OP member of a party leaving and ending up in another group while finding happiness and success there is nothing new. I also fully expect Yuke's previous party to fall down from grace and try to get him back with some underhanded actions to make the whole thing complete.
That said, the varied monsters, all the different kinds of magic, the handy relics and also the streaming show that there is some creativity and that it is not all generic. Seeing the Clover party rise up and make a name for themselves could be pretty fun to see. The biggest surprise for me is seeing that the show has 24 episodes. You do not see relatively unknown anime get that many episodes from the start, or is the source material of this incredibly popular and am I just not aware? |
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Gisan Otaku
Posts: 111 |
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With only 227 episodes posted for the web novel, 24 anime episode sounds about right. As usual, some of the WN episodes were filler and some only cover just a few minutes of time. It was a quick read. I will say that the first scene of the anime does play a role later on and things do get a bit more serious as this story progresses.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 3070 |
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A complete adaptation, that is pretty rare for a show like this.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 3070 |
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Yup, there we have the old party falling from grace spiel (and being too stupid/arrogant to realize why). Sooner or later they will come to face the truth and thus become a pain/threat to Clover in wanting the mc back (always the case in stories like this). I am thankful that the second episode has started to give a bit more character to the girls since that is badly needed. The magic once again looked good and I am glad that the streaming element got more attention since that is something relatively unique to the show.
Seems like a fun enough watch. |
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Edjwald
Posts: 1956 |
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Yah, I watched it cos I still had a bit of an anime hankerin' after Solo Leveling. Kind of like eating plain rice cakes when you're hungry.
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Edjwald
Posts: 1956 |
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I might have been too harsh last week. I compared watching this anime to eating a rice cake when you're hungry, but without being more specific, that kind of implies that the anime is bland and tasteless, and that's not really what I meant. I meant that it doesn't offer much in the way of surprises, and I don't think it does - the ex party leader showed up to offer the MC his old job back right on schedule, for example - but it's not flavorless.
I keep rolling my eyes over how wide eyed and unreservedly adoring the rest of Clover is, and I'm not sure that Chesty the Elf has gotten to shine in any kind of aspect, personality or dungeon performance wise, but even if predictable, the parts involving watching some decent people work hard and get somewhere are kind of satisfying and pleasant on a very basic, easy to please level. Maybe more like a peanut butter sandwich than a plain rice cake? Edited for indiscriminate typos. Last edited by Edjwald on Sat Jan 25, 2025 3:08 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 3070 |
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Streaming element aside the premise is indeed basic and with a lot of cliches, so I get what you mean. On the other hand, despite being safe (so far) it is entertaining with enough attention to detail and charm to make it worth watching (for me anyway). The animation is good too and the goal of reaching some end game dungeon with a portal to another dimension sounds pretty interesting. Seeing the rest of the party grow stronger over time might be fun too.
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Edjwald
Posts: 1956 |
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Did anyone else notice that right after encountering a trap where dozens of spears skewered a space from every direction, our supposedly efficient, prepared, and hard-working MC then proceeded to spend the next two minutes walking backwards while he talked to his party behind him? It was driving me crazy. Good luck using that trap detecting lantern with your head facing your @$$ there, ace.
That aside, yup, I'm still watching this anime and still reasonably enjoying it. In fact, I thought that the shadow stalker thingy was fairly cool. In double fact, of the tri-fecta of mediocre non-isekai fantasy anime that I'm watching right now (along with Bogus Fruit Bastard and Something Something In Spite of Apprasing Something Something I'm the Strongest,) this anime is probably my favorite of the three and I have no idea why. It's relaxing I guess? Looks better? |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 3070 |
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I would say that A-rank is a few steps above Fruit Eating and OP Appraisal in several ways. There is the better animation and use of music for one. The episodes are also not rushed and the world/setting feels decently set up. Finally there are the likable characters and the show just having a fair bit of charm and competency to it (meanwhile Fruit is very much without charm imo).
As for episode 4, the dungeons are quickly becoming unpredictable. That Shadow Stalker was a pretty nasty opponent to deal with. Sooner or later the monster will come running out of the dungeons. Otherwise I like that with each episode the girls are showing development in both becoming better adventurers and more fleshed out characters. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 3070 |
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As of episode 5 things are getting intense. I expected the visit to that nightmare dungeon to be an end of season type thing. That said, they are going in to investigate and not clear it...but things do not tend to go as planned in this show. Otherwise they bought a nice home, the loser party is in a downwards spiral and will surely not be a problem when in that very dangerous dungeon. Cat girl has also arrived a bit sooner than I expected.
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Edjwald
Posts: 1956 |
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I've settled in to watching this. For every non-isekai fantasy that I'm enjoying a lot this season...I Might Be a Guild Receptionist, Ubel Blat, and Tasokare Hotel...there's a corresponding non-isekai fantasy that isn't particularly original but that I'm still watching. Even Given the Appraiser Class, Possibly the Greatest Alchemist, and this one, I Left My A-Rank Party.
But this is the most solid anime from that second tier list, IMHO. It's midrange, but its consistent, and it doesn't blow all of its opportunities to bring in some new slants, and I'm starting to like the characters even if they are a bit "Gary Sue and Mary got Married" it's still kinda gratifying seeing decent characters with some common sense climb and grind their way up. Or maybe down since they're dungeon crawlers. So yeah, if this show keeps up this level of non-annoying wish fulfilment and keeps bringing in the occasional new monster or magical streaming development, I'll stick with it all the way to episode 24. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2765 |
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Out of sheer boredom-induced desperation I watched Ep1 of this show and some snippets of Ep3 and 4 and can't see how descriptors like "bland", "generic", "tropey", etc. don't dominate the reactions but if you like it, far be it from me to criticize. I'd watch for signs of mental issues though because I think 24 episodes of this might melt something...
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Edjwald
Posts: 1956 |
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Welp, I believe I've mentioned all of those things, and have spent a good portion of this thread trying to figure out why I'm watching this show anyway. So here's the thing. I have 9 shows I'm watching that I'm loving right now. I have 5 shows I'm watching that I'm digging. And I have 3 shows remaining that I might still drop, this one and Medaka Kuriowa is Impervious to My Charms and Possibly the Greatest Alchemist. I don't really feel passionate about any of them one way or another. Last post I mentioned three non-isekai fantasy shows that seemed pretty low tier, Bogus Skill:Fruit Master, Something Something Appraisal Skill, and this one. I said that I liked this one the best, and it was faint praise. For me, it's like the difference between 2 stars and 2 and a half stars. If you want to argue that Solo Leveling is one star, I'll do my best to knock you out, rhetorically speaking. If you want to argue that this show is one star, knock yourself out. As for why I have my own preference, I like the female lead in Fruit Master, , but I thought the MC was a brainless glory hound and not really interesting. Loads of potential for creativity with the fruits, but I didn't really see it get realized. I'm not really a fan of shows where the MC goes from whipping boy to OP almost instantly either, though there are exceptions to every rule. Solo Leveling took a season and a half for Jin Woo to become S tier. I dropped Appraisal Skill because the MC went from whipping boy to OP a bit too fast - sure, several months passed in one episode, but it was still one episode. Also, - not a small consideration - the animation was ass, and the show just bored me. That show also had loads of potential with an MC who could adapt different monster abilities, but no real development in that regard that I saw. So I guess the reason I'm still watching this one even though it doesn't exactly thrill me is that it doesn't specifically annoy me. Sometimes the all positive female cheering section gets a little obnoxious, and if I wind up dropping it, that will probably be why. The animation is mid tier, but its still decent, certainly better than the other two. Every now and then the show throws in something new. The shadow stalker, for example, was a minor monster, but it was much creepier and more effectively presented than the last episode of Appraisal Skill, where the monster fight with Zoid that the show had been leading up to for some time fell flat IMHO. Even the fight with the shark head monster in today's episode was better. The MC isn't OP - he's a bit of a Gary Sue in his personality, but he's a support magician who works hard and has been working hard and is still working hard, and his team's progression is step by step. I like that most of his effectiveness comes from studying and strategizing and being prepared. It took the new party at least 3 episodes just to get a house. Appraisal guy is having audiences with the king and staying in luxury suites. The show brings out some distinctive little touches from time to time. The upside down and sideways spiraling abyss labyrinth with strange little furniture bits wasn't awe inspiring, but it was way cooler than the prosaically portrayed castle full of undead that was supposed to be scary in Fruit Master. The magic compass that detects wind differentials in today's episode was fairly cool, and so were the visuals of the Harry Potter style scout with the invisibility cloak. Nearly every episode has some artifact or spell that isn't just another healing elixir or magic sword. Smurky has mentioned the streaming, which is a new fantasy slant. So, yeah, nothing special, but I find it watchable enough. Barely. |
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