Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside

I didn't have super high hopes for this one, as it looked like, basically, all the other animes with this type of title: Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside. BUT! There's no harem! The main lead and his lady love actually have a decent, relatively mature romance! There's some good world building! The Hero also doesn't want to be forced to be a hero!

So, basically, the (kinda evil and/or stupid) deity in this world gives everyone "Blessings" -- which are sort of like guides for their life. You might be a Weaponmaster or an Assassin or, in the case of poor Ruti, the Hero with a capital H. Gideon (our protagonist) is her older brother and Guide. It's basically his job to help her on her hero's journey to kill the Demon King. 

Incidentally, why is it always a Demon King?

Anyway, Ares, the Sage and the biggest wanker I've ever seen in an anime, banishes Gideon from the hero's party by convincing him that he's putting his sister in danger. Gideon changes his name to Red and moves to the part of the world where people go when they don't want to be found. Not even the Demon Lord would bother coming here. He sets up as an apothecary and carries a "D" rank in the Adventurer's Guild even though he's far more capable than pretty much everyone else in town.

Except for Rit, who's actually a princess from Loggervia, who had briefly traveled with the Hero's party some time ago and had a serious crush on Gideon. When she figures out he's there, she immediately gloms onto her second chance (she was a bit tsundere around him before) and moves in with him. 

Here's the refreshing part -- they actually have a good relationship and while there's some blushy bits, it also actually progresses and they are relatively mature about it and realistic. AND THERE'S NO HAREM. Everyone but her kind of underestimates him, but he likes it that way.

Of course, there's stuff going on and the scenes of Gideon are interspersed with what's going on with his sister. She's got a truly tragic life trajectory going on -- her Hero Blessing precludes her from sleeping, enjoying food, experiencing different temperatures--basically, living. And she misses her brother -- BUT NOT IN A CREEPY WAY -- because the last time she really felt things was when she was young and he's her only tie to that.

There's demon blots, betrayal, people searching for each other, and also bits of Slow Life in between. 

It's really good and I'm so happy that it had none of the bad. I mean, Rit could have done with a boob reduction and why anyone would wear clothes with holes in them in the snow while literally complaining about how cold it is, I dunno, but other than that, I can't really fault anything. Okay, maybe that they take a lot of baths and there's some clothes rending--all "okay" because they magically have no nipples. Like, no one does. It's a little weird, mostly because the boobs are just SO THERE.

Tisse, the assassin that's brought in to replace Gideon, was also a joy because she becomes Ruti's first actual friend (and not just a party member) PLUS she has an adorable spider pet called Mister Crawly Wawly. With the Mister as part of his name. 

There's also humour too. Just a really good anime. There's also a second season, but I'm debating about saving it for a while before I watch it. I kind of went fast through season one.

So, am I glad I watched it? Definitey. Would I watch it again? Hm, very possibly, though I'd take a break in between. I will definitely watch Season 2 at some point as well. 

And would I one punch Ares? Yes, yes, I totally would.