It’s hilarious how much better animated this pre-opening sequence of Rit and Red finally sharing a bed in Shin No Nakama episode eight is compared to, well, most of the series so far:
I keep wanting to call Shin no Nakama an Isekai anime, but it actually isn’t. No teenagers accidently transported over from Tokyo here, even if the world does have the look and feel of a generic fantasy videogame derived isekai, complete with a Hero and Demon Lord. Like most isekai anime, Shin no Nakama (full title: Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party o Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life Suru Koto ni Shimashita or I Was Kicked out of the Hero’s Party so I Went to the Boondocks to Enjoy the Slow Life) ultimately derives its setting from the Japanese tradition of Tolkienesque fantasy that started with Dragon Quest, hence the similarities. Like most isekai stories it also started out as a self published web novel, before being polished up to become a commercially published light novel which then got a manga adaptation and finally this anime. Not surprising that it’s a bit derivative in its setting therefore.
The plot too is not that original. Red was kicked out of the Hero’s party allegedly because he wasn’t good enough but actually because somebody was jealous of him. The Hero destined to defeat the threat of the Demon Lord was actually his little sister, but while he had a Blessing that made him really powerful really quickly so as to protect her, he also reached his limits quickly and could no longer grow. So he reluctantly let himself be talked into leaving the party and moved to Zoltan, as far away from everything as possible. There he met Rit, whom he first got to know when he was still travelling with the Hero. Rit had always been attracted to him and now that she had the change, she decided to give up adventuring like he had and run his pharmacy together. Most of the series so far had them struggling to do so as the wider world seems determined to interfere and drag them back into the fight against the Demon Lord, while the Hero and her party are suffering from his absence.
Throughout this, the slowly budding romance between Rit — who knows what she wants and isn’t shy expressing it — and Red is what kept me watching. Usually this sort of anime keeps things ambiguous, with maybe a harem of possible love interests assembled around the hero. And even when a true romance unfolds, it’s kept chaste. No sex allowed even as the camera makes sure to capture every haremette’s bouncing chest and every other episode has a bathing scene. As you can see, that’s not the case here. Red does fall in love with Rit, they do sleep together and while it’s not on camera, they’re having sex. Or would if they didn’t have a guest staying over. I like it. It’s nice to see a series not afraid to have its characters fucking, while being mostly free of fanservice as well, apart from the slightly impractical adventurer’s outfit Rit wears. As such, Shin no Nakama is my guilty not quite isekai of the season.
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