Show Summary
The show follows an adventuring party who calls themselves the Survivors. A fairly typical high fantasy world filled with slimes, ogres, and all kinds of similar monsters. Everyone in the group has some kind of trust issue bad enough to the point they have given up on most of humanity but found some kind of comfort in this group. It is said by the narrator that one day, this group who cares not for humanity will be the one to save the world.
Interesting Premise
I like this idea of a group of people who gave up on everyone coming together. They form this kind of mutual bond of mistrust, even amongst each other. Each person has their vice they indulge in for filling the void in their life, and they formed this party basically to continue to indulge in them. Nick became an Idol Geek, Tiana is a gambler, Curran constantly dines on really expensive food, and the former priest Zem loves his booze and women. One rule of the group is that they will never interfere with the other's hobbies.
None of these four are at all unlikable or bad people, and I like that the mistrust they have feels genuine. It never goes so over the top with it that it's hard to buy into, and it's really easy to get behind all of them.
Predictable, But Fun to Watch Character Growth
Yes, they are learning to trust again. This is the obvious route the story was always going to go in, but it's not a story that needs some great twist. What it needs are characters you like and believable growth down that path, and that's exactly what you get here. It can feel like it's moving a little fast, but that's not a huge knock on the show. It may not offer any real twist you aren't going to see coming but concerning the character's story that's fine.
They are slowly building another threat in the background, and I think that is inevitably where the plot will get more in-depth and interesting for things beyond just these characters. That said, I am kind of putting my trust in this show to continue to be good after this season. If the only real focus remains solely on the characters learning to trust, I feel like it could start to get a bit dull if it goes on too long.
Bond is annoying.
Slight spoiler for an early episode, they get access to The Sword of Bonds, a piece of lost technology (More scientifically advanced ancient civilization is a thing in this world), that can unite two people who share a strong bond. The sword itself has a personality, as well as a human form it can take on. The big issue here is the personality between forms seems entirely different from each other, and it's hard to believe these are the same character.
Furthermore, the human form is obnoxious as hell. He does not fit into the party well, and considering his real role is to fuse various members of the group, his fighting capability is largely pointless. If this show has an anchor, it's human form Bond.
Plenty of plot threads to follow.
The end of this season left you with a lot of things to follow up on. Something is going on with Tiana's old professor, and they are planning to do something with the stolen Dragon King Gem from Curran's past. I'm left wondering how a lot of things like this are going to play out in the next season. The show did what a first season needs to, establishing what it is to expect and leaving you wanting to see what will happen.
Fights feel too short.
The fights are pretty good, but they all feel like they end prematurely, except for one near the end. The characters do a lot to carry the show, but at the end of the day you have a party of adventurers in a pretty high fantasy setting that are to one day take on the Demon God, action is going to be what a lot of people come in here looking for.
Sparse action is fine, so long as it's satisfying when you do get it. But I can only think of two fights I thought were interesting over the twelve episodes. With stakes rising, I'm hoping season two will be able to improve on this.
Decent art design with occasional moments that are fantastic.
Overall the design is pretty basic. It's all good, but not much stands out. That said, from time to time you get a fantastic design out of nowhere. The highlights being any of the characters Uniting into one look fantastic, as well as the design of The Stepping Man and White mask.
Overall Thoughts
It's a really solid show. It's nowhere near what I would call a classic, but I do think it stands a bit above the average. I care about the characters, the visuals are good, and there are some satisfying fights to be had. More so, I feel there is a lot of room to grow in the coming seasons and I'm looking forward to more. So long as you don't set expectations too high, it's worth a watch.
