Saihate no Paladin
The Faraway Paladin
最果てのパラディン
Born into a new world after a life of stagnancy, Will awakens to the faces of a skeleton, a ghost, and a mummy. Living in the ruins of a city long fallen, the three raise Will as their own. The skeleton— Blood—teaches him to fight; the ghost—Gus—teaches him magic; and the mummy—Mary—teaches him religion and responsibility. Most importantly, they all teach him love. As Will grows up and learns about the world he was born into, he prepares for the day when he must finally set out on his own. For Will, this journey includes a lifelong promise. At their coming-of-age, every adult is required to swear an oath to the god of their choice, with the strength of the pledge affecting the degree of their sworn god's blessing. With his departure approaching, Will must prepare to accept the truth of his undead guardians and embark into a world that even they don't know the state of. Will discovers, however, that every oath must be fulfilled, one way or another. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Born into a new world after a life of stagnancy, Will awakens to the faces of a skeleton, a ghost, and a mummy. Living in the ruins of a city long fallen, the three raise Will as their own. The skeleton— Blood—teaches him to fight; the ghost—Gus—teaches him magic; and the mummy—Mary—teaches him religion and responsibility. Most importantly, they all teach him love. As Will grows up and learns about the world he was born into, he prepares for the day when he must finally set out on his own. For Will, this journey includes a lifelong promise. At their coming-of-age, every adult is required to swear an oath to the god of their choice, with the strength of the pledge affecting the degree of their sworn god's blessing. With his departure approaching, Will must prepare to accept the truth of his undead guardians and embark into a world that even they don't know the state of. Will discovers, however, that every oath must be fulfilled, one way or another. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
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KANLen09
January 3, 2022
If there are 2 things that I can learn from this show, it's the quote of “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, and that the author Kanata Yanagino is a nice and cool dude that not a lot of authors like him actually interacts with everyone on social media, good or bad, for or against, with his utmost eloquence and politeness. The reason why I quote one of Oscar Wilde's famous quotations is that Kanata Yanagino's work is definitely influenced/inspired from Rifujin no Maganote's Mushoku Tensei on its premise/theme. And because plagarism is never a wise move, everything else from then on was his ownpure work, that with the help of his interests in tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons (he REALLY loves RPGs) and what was originally written as practice, Saihate no Paladin a.k.a The Faraway Paladin was birthed and quickly rose in the same web novel site that most LNs got their start from: Syosetu. And everything from that point on was all based on what Kanata Yanagino had penned out, took the advice and feedback from Syosetu readers and fine-tuned to become a set piece that a lot of people really loved until the eventual publication deal came around. I mean, what kinda of debauchery and fate is this that Kanata Yanagino himself didn't even think of posing as kinda a knock-off version of Mushoku Tensei, that slowly transpired into its own material that people like us, now watching the anime, can finally enjoy? Honestly though, call that the red thread of fate that winds with success, and that his nature is strung with understanding and vigor of the international audience that had just begun to pick up on his work and commented on it, and just like the Syosetu readership feedback, he did the same for social media which surprised the hell out of everyone to appreciate him a lot more. I know I certainly did, and huge respect to author Kanata Yanagino. But backing up the case a lil' bit, the strongest suit of the show has to be the story itself. Despite the whole Isekai reincarnation theme being the prevalent core start (which is where the Mushoku Tensei inspiration was carried from), I would have thought if this had started out better as a purely fantasy story, then it'd make sense, but it is what it is, and I'm fine with it since the similarities pretty much ended right then and there. The family aspect continues with William retaining his memories and reincarnated into the fantasy world, where he is taken care of by 3 undead Gods: the hearty skeletal warrior Blood, graceful the mummified priestess Mary, and the crotchety spectral sorcerer Augustus (shortened to just Gus). From there, William's story takes shape with the sequence of events that lead him to this road of self-discovery, what the world entails, and the reason why William's role as The Faraway Paladin takes precedence with all that's happening around him. For a practice piece that turned out to be quite a novelty in and of itself, Kanata Yanagino wrote well with the fascinating world-building aspects that while don't have quite the same valor as Mushoku Tensei, but it's good enough to stand on its own. The problem lies with hit-and-miss director Yuu Nobuta, and just like the reputation he holds in the aforementioned season where he's supposed to direct both this and the delayed Shuumatsu no Harem, this is a decent job of adapting the LN at the correct pacing (I'm following the manga adaptation of the LN, and that is also another good alternative source check). For one, in a rare but common case of bad faith, William is NOT the tongue-in-cheek "sex fiend/criminal or pervert" that is Rudeus Greyrat, although both share a very similar theme of family as its focus (so yeah, screw you ANN for that TWiA segment on this show, it was quite the distaste to get called out by Kanata Yanagino himself). But otherwise, while some people had issues with how William was portrayed over time in the series, I'd feel that giving a childlike feature to the MC shows that he's not perfect for a child that has retained his old memories and just starting out to learn the intricacies of the fantasy world, especially for a medieval time such as this. William's also imbued with religious themes, as evidenced of his utmost devout contract with the Goddess of Light, Gracefeel. That in and of itself, creates the same derivative of most stories with the whole "church is bad" feeling, but I'm really glad that Kanata Yanagino chose to go against this trend, because we've seen far too much of it to become an oh-so-predictable trope. If you need a devout believer spreading a faith long gone in the similar vein of Jesus's Twelve Disciples, William's your guy. The 3 undead gods of Blood, Mary and Gus, really do serve as teachers in Will's growing phase of his life, teaching him the ways of the world and like our dear Lord Jesus, is slow to anger, and rich in love. In many ways, all 3 of them are like "what if's" of a perfect parental figure whom knows how to raise children well, and you don't have to look far to trace their nurturing behaviours: their origins as former heroes whom gave their lives away by making a contract with the God of the Undead (Stagnate) in order for their souls to live on this world, with their lessons now passing onto Will like a newborn child. NGL, Mary, Blood and Gus are a delight to watch them raise Will up by being a man, both figuratively and literally. Even in the face of danger, they exhibit parental traits that understand where to draw the line between going too easy and going too far or harsh on Will, as dangerous as the external world beyond the boundaries can be. As for the other characters, since Season 2 has just been announced, their inclusion into this phase of William's story as the established Faraway Paladin is not undermined here as it sets up the basis for what's to come further in Kanata Yanagino's ever-growing story. William's story (like Rudeus) of stepping out into the outside world has him getting to know lots of people, and for now, his road warrior team comprises of half-elf archer Meneldor (or Menel for short), halfling bard Robina "Bee" Goodfellow, travelling salesman Tonio and renowned warrior Reystov. All are able-bodied at what they do best, and for now, serve as their primary roles until further in the story (which is Season 2 content). If you'd realize that something was missing in what has already been a staple of Isekai and/or fantasy traditions for awhile, the harem aspect is gone, and just like the reverse, the author chose to go against the trend, which IMO worked out pretty good. Overall, I'd say that at the very least, it's so far, so good. The one sole problem is with the overall quality of the show, and knowing the subpar quality of Children's Playground Entertainment as a low-budget studio, it's safe to say that production isn't the strongest suit of the show, and you can tell that it wasn't up to the task of delivering a decent action-heavy show. It's always a given that action and sakuga go hand-in-hand, and this felt like it was trying to hit the bare minimum without going too overboard in shadowing the low quality feel that the entire show just reeks of. Such a shame that a show like this has to be marred by the poor production values, but while thankfully the story elements do keep the show alive, you just can't help but wish that the anime could've gotten a better treatment in the visuals department. At least the music itself is pretty faithful for the times that this show was developed in its historical time, and it adds into the enjoyable experience of the anime. H-el-ical// and Nagi Yanagi knocked it out of the park with their respective theme songs, especially for the former since she started going solo since Kalafina's disbanding in 2019, and has produced hit after hit, of which this is her 3rd single "The Scared Torch" (and soon-to-be 4th with Shuumatsu no Harem). I don't really need to tell much about Nagi Yanagi if you know her from the days of OreGairu, her vocal presence has grown from strength to strength over the past 10 years, and I'm a long-time stan of her music. So while the bias is there, it feels great to hear a Nagi Yanagi song once again after quite sometime, and "Shirushibi" is no different. The experience delivered when it comes to the feels. All in all, everything is said and done about Saihate no Paladin a.k.a The Faraway Paladin, all I wished that could be better improved is two-fold. First, the visuals/animation itself as the studio is less than capable of handling action sequences (see Hatena☆Illusion). Secondly, is director Yuu Nobuta himself in making this adaptation work, which he genuinely tried his best to do so. But despite that, when animation fails, the story holds up on its own, and I'm still excited for what author Kanata Yanagino has in store for us for the future in Season 2. Looking forward, and don't ever look back.
