Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest Anime Series Review
The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest: A Familiar Fantasy Journey
The tale of Alec Ygret begins with his aspiration to follow in the footsteps of his mentor, Eldas, the banished court magician. Determined to avoid Eldas's fate, Alec seeks to initiate change within the court from a position of influence. However, his efforts prove futile, leading to his own banishment. From this point, Alec embarks on fresh adventures, reuniting with old friends and forging his own path. This premise sets the stage for what quickly becomes a deeply familiar journey through the landscape of fantasy anime.
A Familiar Trope Collection at Every Turn
This series carries a significant stylistic burden, often burying its glimpses of potential storytelling and lore beneath a mound of standard fantasy anime tropes. Viewers will encounter fight scenes that overtly resemble role playing game boss battles, dungeons that often blur into one another, and an arrogant prince whose elitist disposition inevitably leads to his downfall. We are also introduced to a girl driven by a quest for revenge, characters burdened by the loss of parents, and, most prominently, a protagonist who, like so many before him, is cast aside as if worthless. Alec Ygret often feels like a placeholder, his mildly interesting backstory serving as a substitute for a truly distinct personality. He does, however, integrate well with his former adventuring squad, Lasting Period, and their unwavering loyalty and honorable camaraderie provide some genuine, heartwarming moments amidst the conventional narrative. This is typical fantasy anime fare, so unchallenging in its approach that it can cause a viewer's gaze to drift, making the series appear shallower than it might truly be.
Stylistic Stumbles in Battle and Sound
The anime's presentation of combat is a notable area for criticism. Despite reasonably decent art and animation, the fight choreography and pacing consistently feel stale and lack fluidity. Characters habitually shout out the names of their attacks, strike enemies, and then patiently await their turn as the enemy retaliates, much like a turn based video game. One particular skirmish between Alec and a guildmaster features a volley of loudly screamed taunts, reminiscent of children trading insults during school recess. Furthermore, a fight against a dullahan character features computer generated imagery that many might find visually jarring. Adding to these issues is the profoundly distracting soundtrack. It is laden with an excessive number of emotional cues that are jarringly direct and hyperbolically applied. When a battle is meant to be exciting, the score inflates with symphonic fortissimo that sounds both generic and artificial, persisting relentlessly until the conclusion of the fight. Conversely, more somber sequences are underscored by mournful piano melodies, aggressively attempting to induce a sense of forced melancholy. The overall effect is as if the score is patronizing the audience, assuming viewers are too emotionally oblivious to grasp the scene's intent without such overt musical guidance. This problem is compounded by a dub that feels consistently lifeless and flat.
A Rushed Beginning and Unfulfilled Potential
The narrative details Alec's early learning from Eldas, the banished magician, including instruction in magic and a warning to never become a court magician himself, lest he suffer the same fate. Despite this caution, Alec pursues a position as court magician for the kingdom of Galdana, hoping to reform the system from within. It is implied that Alec invested considerable effort to secure this esteemed position, as the series mentions his feat of reaching the sixty eighth level of a challenging dungeon against daunting odds. While these details might be more thoroughly explored in the original light novels, within the anime, Alec is unceremoniously dismissed from the court within the opening ten minutes of the first episode. Flashbacks and present day expository dialogue offer fleeting glimpses of Alec's prior achievements, though they ultimately fail to provide substantial depth. Fortuitously, he soon reunites with his old adventuring squad, and together they set off on new adventures, driven by a shared goal of becoming stronger.
The first half of the series proceeds rather smoothly, albeit imperfectly, with its conventional dungeon crawls, boss encounters, and a clever subversion of the common trope where a small, seemingly weak character is chased by a large beast. In this instance, the vulnerable character is revealed to be a cunning trickster whose frailty is merely a feigned part of his strategic combat approach. However, a significant missed opportunity arises during the underground arena confrontation between Alec and Galdana's royal prince, Regulus. The anime's decision to gloss over Alec's prior working relationship with the classist prince substantially diminishes the dramatic impact of the first half's climax. Prince Regulus struggles to reconcile with the fact that a commoner like Alec possesses greater strength than himself. A more focused exploration of their dynamic could have paved the way for more developed characters and offered meaningful commentary on class conflict. Instead, Regulus's personality remains regrettably one dimensional, portraying him as a crass, insecure snob who childishly sulks when someone less privileged surpasses his talents and abilities. Furthermore, given Alec's initial ambition to reform the court's system, pursuing this objective could have led to a far more intriguing, albeit antagonistic, relationship between the two. Alec might have embodied an idealistic, naive antithesis to Regulus's cynical, classist traditionalism, with their ideological clash serving as the pivotal catalyst for Alec's banishment.
The Paradox of Pacing in the Later Half
The second half of The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest simultaneously picks up pace while also suffering from prolonged narrative elements, creating a paradoxical viewing experience. The new primary objective involves Alec being compelled to retrieve a core from another dungeon. Along this quest, he becomes entangled in the mission of a young girl named Olivia, who seeks to exact revenge on a malevolent individual responsible for her mother's death. This plot line feels more concentrated than the earlier sections of the anime. Unlike the underdeveloped relationship with Regulus, the series dedicates a substantial amount of screentime to Olivia, unfolding her character arc over six or seven episodes. Her story is imbued with mystery that culminates in an interesting twist at the conclusion. While not overtly complex, this arc provides more substantial character development than Alec's entire journey across the twelve episodes of the series. The primary drawback during this period is that Alec, his companions, and Olivia are frequently forced into fights that lack genuine engagement, all building towards a final boss battle that feels unduly protracted.
Concluding Thoughts: A Potential for More
Despite these criticisms, one should not entirely dismiss The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest. Even with certain aspects feeling glossed over, the series leaves enough unresolved plot threads to potentially be explored in a second season. If the sole purpose of this anime adaptation was to cultivate interest in the original light novels, then it has succeeded admirably.
