The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest – Episode 1

What’s it about? Alec Yugret is a magician who vows to someday work in the royal court so that he can help his banished former mentor clear his name.  Unfortunately, he’s eventually fired by the prince and starts adventuring in dungeons with his old friends from school.

I sort of feel bad for any show that comes after Secrets of the Silent Witch (except for Witch Hat Atelier—we know it’s going to be good).  Monica is a great protagonist and highly relatable in terms of her extreme social anxiety.  Overall, Secrets of the Silent Witch just feels different and fresh in the sea of mediocre fantasy shows we receive every season.  It’s no exaggeration that we are suffering from an oversaturation of fantasy shows that have absolutely no substance, whatsoever.  

It’s challenging to even talk about this premiere because everything about it is so unoriginal.  The episode abruptly begins with Alec learning how to use magic from the banished court magician without explaining how he knew Alec’s mother.  Why did he owe her a favor? Where are Alec’s parents? I have a lot of questions, but I also don’t care enough to stick around.  It feels like it’s trying to create an air of mystery about the magician’s motivations and why it’s important for Alec to figure out the reasons for his mentor’s banishment.  It’s clear that important details are being withheld for the sake of garnering some interest for this series, but it feels choppy.

Since the series is based on a light novel, I can understand adapting certain plot points can be challenging since there’s room for more details in prose than a visual medium.  Objectively, it’s a competent premiere, it’s just extremely boring.  It literally follows the formula that you would expect for this series.  The capable protagonist gets fired and then he starts his own journey where he’s valued by his friends.  There’s nothing unique about Alec nor his comrades to the point where I’m almost disappointed that there’s no fan service.  

At least some fan service would’ve given me something to talk about rather than me trying to find anything even remotely noteworthy to mention.  I can only hope that anime production committees do a better job finding fantasy titles worth adapting because this is getting ridiculous.  You can skip this one folks.  It’s forgettable and it ain’t worth your time.