#The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of Rust Mountains

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“If I don’t pay you or you don’t accept payment, that can be taken as your work, your ‘sincerity,’ not having any value.”

Kanata Yanagino, The Faraway Paladin 3 Primus: The Lord of the Rust Mountains

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▶️ THE FARAWAY PALADIN: THE LORD OF RUST MOUTAIN, IL PRIMO EPISODIO ARRIVERÀ SU CRUNCHYROLL IL 7 OTTOBRE!

La prima stagione dell’avventura fantasy, tratta dall’omonima light novel scritta da Kanata Yanagino, è già disponibile in streaming sottotitolata in italiano.

Come vi avevo anticipato, con questa seconda stagione c'è stato un cambio di staff e di studio: i nuovi episodi sono diretti da Akira Iwanaga (Mononokean l'imbronciato, Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest - Stagione 2) e realizzati presso OLM e SUNRISE BEYOND. 

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Saihate no Paladin: Tetsusabi no Yama no Ou (The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains) - Episode 1 Preview. Premiere: 7 October 2023

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Fall 2023 Anime Roundup

Anime of the Season – The Yuzuki Family’s Four Sons

I don’t know if it was because this adapts a shoujo manga, or because the premiere episode aired with abysmal machine-translated subtitles, or because people just weren’t in the mood for a slice of life when all these powerhouse shounen adaptations were airing, but this went almost completely ignored across the English-speaking anime fandom despite being a delightfully heartfelt story about four brothers living on their own after their parents suddenly died.

While many stories dispense with parents just to allow their young characters the freedom to play around, this series deals with their absence in a more grounded way. It looks at how high school teacher Hayato is alienated from his peers and is running himself ragged by raising his younger brothers himself, how the middle two brothers, both first years in middle school, clash with each other in their efforts to be helpful, and how the youngest brother, who’s only in the first grade, doesn’t know how to feel about parents he lost while he was so young. All of this drama is perfectly balanced out by lighter moments of fun interactions between the brothers and the multi-generational family across the street, as well as an optimistic framing. It’s clear that whatever struggles these four brothers will encounter, they’ll pull through together somehow. 8/10

First Runner-Up – Overtake!

Just like mecha anime are rarely about the robots, this formula racing anime is less about motorsport than it is about a struggling mid-career photographer and a teenage F4 driver changing the course of each others’ lives through racing. It touches on racing in a way that’s friendly to newbie and gearhead alike, and the races are animated and framed in an exciting way, but the real story is the characters, and touches everything from grief, to job anxiety, to the enduring trauma of the Touhoku earthquake. 8/10

Second Runner-Up – My New Boss Is Goofy

While the first episode was a little weak, it gains its footing after two or three episodes, and becomes one of the warmest and coziest slice of life series of the year. Momose’s lingering anxiety from his abusive boss at his last job provides just the right amount of saltiness to keep the sweetness of his new boss, the earnestly kind but a bit airheaded Shirosaki, from feeling too saccharine. 8/10

The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains – It’s a bit of a shame that this series has not gotten a terribly good production, because it is the best D&D-flavored fantasy adventure series I think we’ve seen since Record of Lodoss War. It has a real sense of stakes and scale, where battles aren’t won on guts and the power of friendship alone, and the hero really has to work for it alongside other powerful people. 7/10

Tearmoon Empire – The do-over element of this story makes it feel like it belongs in the otome isekai bin, but it is, in fact, a straight up fantasy about a princess sent back in time to her teens after being beheaded by revolutionaries along with her diary, letting her fix what went wrong. Watching Mia accidentally set everything right and gather loyal allies was extremely entertaining. 7/10

I’m in Love with the Villainess – I’m not generally a fan of romcoms centered on an obsessive girl doggedly pursuing her crush who wants nothing to do with her, but it was all so over the top here, and also clearly a bit of a front put on by the pursuer, that I couldn’t help but enjoy the ride. It’s nice to get some good, silly queer romcoms for a change. 7/10

Dead Mount Death Play Part 2 – All of the conspiracies and schemes set up in part one come to a head here, revealing characters’ backstories and complicated loyalties. It leaves off on a good stopping point, but I hope there’s another season, as not a whole lot has been resolved, and I want to know what everyone is going to do now. 7/10

The Ancient Magus’ Bride S2 Part 2 – Whether or not you enjoy this arc is going to depend upon how much you like Philomena and the other students at the college, because she is the center of the story here, for better or worse. I preferred the focus on the fairies and other folk of the countryside in season one, but it was satisfying to watch Chise unravel the mysteries surrounding her new friends. 7/10

Migi & Dali – Part absurd comedy, part murder mystery, part psychological thriller, this was a delightfully unusual little series about identical twin boys pretending to be one person to get adopted by a couple that lives in the idyllic town their mother was murdered in so they can investigate. If you can hang with some bizarre situations, this is a fun ride that sticks the landing. 7/10

Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions – I don’t know how I feel about the big reveal concerning Ron’s background, and the mystery writing isn’t particularly clever, but I really enjoy the manzai comedy-like dynamic between Ron and Toto, and the cases they investigate often have equally entertaining characters. 7/10

Dr. Stone: New World Part 2 – I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to watch any more of this series, but I picked it up shortly after it finished airing, and I ended up enjoying it. Even if I prefer the science focus of the first season, the shounen adventure action of this arc was entertaining enough. I’m still just a little cranky about how none of the female characters are part of the “science team”. 7/10

Under Ninja – I guess this series about a modern-day ninja who infiltrates a high school along with other ninjas to fight some kind of inter-organizational battle falls under the dark comedy category, but I’m not going to lie and say that I totally understood what it was going for in the end. The visuals were a bit of a mixed bag as well. 7/10

Helck – It was nice to get a two-cour fantasy series that wasn’t an isekai, and had a number of creative story ideas and likeable characters. The storyboarding and animation could only be described as so-so, and a chunk of the story is told in flashback, which holds it back a bit. 7/10

Spy x Family S2 – Even more so than the second half of season one, this season felt like it was aimlessly spinning its wheels. The characters are still plenty charming, and the production is still solid, but the story lacks focus. 7/10

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent S2 – This season follows basically the same ground as the first, sans the drama with the second saint, with Sei still working at the institute, going on expeditions to fight monsters, and getting romanced by Captain Hawke. It all makes for a pleasant and laid-back isekai story, but it is disappointing to have an adult protagonist for a change, only have her act like a young teenager capable only of blushing and stammering around her crush. 7/10

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead – After screaming out of the gate with an extremely strong premiere episode that showed a zombie apocalypse being a welcome reprieve from corporate drudgery, the series’ story and production steadily declined, ultimately coasting into a generic shounen-style action series with one-note characters by the end. 6/10

I’m Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness – A powerful magician nicknamed Demon Lord rescues a woman he found on his property who is fleeing a plot in her country. It was cute watching him teach her how to have fun and be a little selfish, but nothing in the writing, acting, or visual presentation ever rises above just okay. 6/10

HYPNOSISMIC -Division Rap Battle- Rhyme Anima PLUS – There’s a lot I enjoy about this campy sci-fi series where fighting has been replaced by hypnotic hip-hop battles. The character designs are fun and colorful, the story has good twists, and the characters are entertaining. The rapping, however, is just not good. 6/10

After-School Hanako-kun – This was only four ten-minute episodes consisting of side stories, and not a sequel, and as nice as it was to see the characters again, it felt a bit aimless, like the jokes lacked punchlines. 6/10

Jujutsu Kaisen S2 – I can’t remember ever falling off a show as hard as I’ve fallen off this one. Season one was everything I ever wanted from a battle shounen, while this season took much of what I loved and sent it through a paper shredder. I won’t say it’s wrong to chain fight after fight after fight while killing off popular characters, but it’s not a story I’m interested in following. 6/10

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Hay fecha de estreno para "The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of Rust Mountain"

El anime "The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of Rust Mountain" (@faraway_paladin) ya tiene fecha de estreno.

Se han revelado una nueva imagen, video y dos nuevos miembros del elenco de The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of Rust Mountain, la segunda temporada de la adaptación al anime televisivo de la serie de novelas ligeras de fantasía. La serie se transmitirá en Japón por TOKYO MX los sábados durante el horario de las 22:00 a partir del 7 de octubre de 2023, con una transmisión adicional en BS NTV durante…

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The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains

By Kanata Yanagino and Kususaga Rin. Released in Japan as “Saihate no Paladin” by Overlap. Released in North America digitally by J-Novel Club. Translated by James Rushton.

I’m reviewing this as one giant book, but it actually came out as two books here, called ‘Primus’ and ‘Secundus’ – in fact, Amazon thinks that those are the titles, and forgot about the whole Rust Mountains thing. It works better to see them as one big book, though, which is what the author intended. The first volume simply stops, and the second picks up right where it left off – there’s no real attempt to separate them. As for the plot, our square-jawed hero and his elf friend are here to take down an ancient dragon, helped out by some old friends and some new dwarves, including one who becomes Williams’s squire, despite being of royal blood. He is told repeatedly that if he fights the dragon now he will die, and he should gain more power and influence by letting a few people be killed so he can take it down more easily. As you might imagine, that is not how William rolls.

William is the star of this series, and the narrative fits itself around him, meaning it too tends to be like he is – straightforward, a bit humorless, and painfully, PAINFULLY earnest. This is actually the main selling point of The Faraway Paladin, which is miles away from any other fantasy light novel we have out there – there’s not an ounce of cynicism or irony in it. William is Good and True, and he can do impossible things thanks to the help of his friends, the training of his parents, and MUSCLES, which he points out are awesome several times throughout the book. The closest we get to cynicism is the villain, who is a very well-done ancient dragon, and would very much like to tempt William into allying with him to that he can sow chaos. He should know better.

The book reads quickly, and the action sequences are very well done, with no confusion about what is happening at any time. I was a little annoyed with the introduction of a tsundere elf girl, whose sole purpose seems to be to get rid of the ho yay that existed between William and Menel (there’s a lot of teasing of William for not having found a girlfriend yet, further driving the point home). Al is a good addition to the cast – it fits that someone like William gets a squire that’s almost as serious-minded as he is, and the two work well together. The translation is also good, though the Kindle version I have has both the dragon and the Gods speaking in bold text, which can get very confusing when three of them are all speaking at once – perhaps one should have been italicized instead.

Again, if you want to read a light novel but are thoroughly sick of the cliches of the genre, this is an absolute must-read. It’s the Lord of the Rings starring Superman, basically. I look forward to seeing where it goes next.

By: Sean Gaffney

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Saihate no Paladin: Tetsusabi no Yama no Ou (The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains) - Episode 11 Preview. Premiere: 16 December 2023

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Saihate no Paladin: Tetsusabi no Yama no Ou (The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains) - Episode 12 Preview [Final]. Premiere: 23 December 2023

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Saihate no Paladin: Tetsusabi no Yama no Ou (The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains) - Episode 8 Preview. Premiere: 25 November 2023

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Saihate no Paladin: Tetsusabi no Yama no Ou (The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains) - Episode 5 Preview. Premiere: 4 November 2023

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Saihate no Paladin: Tetsusabi no Yama no Ou (The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains) - Episode 2 Preview. Premiere: 14 October 2023

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Saihate no Paladin: Tetsusabi no Yama no Ou (The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains) - Episode 10 Preview. Premiere: 9 December 2023

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Saihate no Paladin: Tetsusabi no Yama no Ou (The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains) - Episode 9 Preview. Premiere: 2 December 2023

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Saihate no Paladin: Tetsusabi no Yama no Ou (The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains) - Episode 7 Preview. Premiere: 18 November 2023

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Saihate no Paladin: Tetsusabi no Yama no Ou (The Faraway Paladin: The Lord of the Rust Mountains) - Episode 6 Preview. Premiere: 11 November 2023