Generic and rushed are the two words I would use to describe this show. And the majority of issues I have with this show come from that second term, rushed. Because man this show did not know how it wanted to pace itself at all.

We start off with 6 incredibly long and detailed episodes. Just completely teaching us everything about Will’s childhood and his parents, a rather colorful and different group of 3 people. So much backstory and build up, episode after episode. While at the same time asking a friend, who reads the source, to explain things they somehow never mentioned or explained. Nothing was moving at a pace I felt satisfied with, I never felt like the story or even characters were progressing all that much at all. It also started my moment of worry.

Worry for the last 6 episodes of this show, and after those 6 that worry has been justified. What do you do after spending 6 episodes not building any sort of larger story or goal or other characters. It leads to 6 incredibly rushed episodes in which they need to introduce an entire new cast of characters, a new city, a new region, and just general backstory for everything. Along with figuring out how to fit in an actual ending for the season, something to end it on so it has a definite end. After it is all done, I can confidently say it didn’t do it.

In those final 6 episodes we have 3 mini arcs. First of those is our introduction to Meneldor and the forest and those who live in it. Than an introduction to the city, more cast members, and also fighting a wyvern. Finally ending it on a trip through the forest again killing demon beasts and setting up whatever comes next. This is a lot of content, and any one of these could have been a 4 or 5 episode arc if they wanted, but instead they shoved it all into 6 episodes. Which meant none of them felt complete and well done, so much felt cut and rushed and thrown into voice-over so they didn’t have to animate it.

Voice-overs are another issue altogether, the issue with visuals. It does have a unique style, and I do think it looks pretty good at times. The art really stands out when it is done well. But a unique style can’t save lack of budget, which appears constantly. Fights are dull and lack any real impact, characters end up incredibly simplistic whenever they pull back the camera, and entire scenes just lack any animation at all. They will just have a single still image that they pan around in while a voice-over plays, pretty much the cheapest and least interesting method of animation possible.

Now that generic part, this isn’t necessarily a sin. Sure it isn’t super exciting or new, but I love many things I would call generic. But it also doesn’t inspire me to recommend the show, or invest time reading the source. Nobody feels like they are special characters outside of the normal tropes, and the story they tell isn’t really interesting.

I do wonder how much better I would rate and think of this show if I knew they had a 2nd season planned early on, episode 3ish. And if they had built the entire first season along the idea that the 2nd season would be there. You could keep your long intro of 6 episodes and I wouldn’t be worried. You could expand the forest arc, expand the lore and backstory and the fighting and general character building with Meneldor. And finish the season maybe on a cliffhanger as Will and Meneldor walk into the city for the first time, with the expectation being the second season opens up this whole new world. Pacing would have worked much better, and I wouldn’t be worried about how they would end the season if I knew it wasn’t the end.

But in the end, they didn’t do any of that. They gave us a rather rushed show with terrible pacing, mediocre visuals and sound, and generic characters and story. And after it all I just can’t give it a good score, it just fails on too many ways for me. Heck, I didn’t even enjoy my time watching in any real way.