Retired adventurer Bel is now a teacher, gardener, manager, and caretaker, but he was once a warrior of renown. An incident left him without the lower half of one of his legs. And while the condition left him depressed, it also brought him the greatest treasure in his life. Bel finds a child crying in the woods, hay arranged around her basket to ward off spirits. Being a gentle soul, Bel takes her in, rears her, and teaches her how to be an adventurer. It’s no surprise, then, that the child, named Ange (Angelina), decides to become an adventurer herself, leaving home at age 12. What’s surprising, however, is that Ange blossoms into an S-Rank adventurer, and her party is often called on by her guild to extinguish the most violent of monsters. Ange’s impressive power and determination to do good, as well as the mighty teamwork her party possesses, means that she’s very rarely able to take extended time off. She hasn’t visited her beloved father in five years. But one day, she’ll finally make it home.
The opening scene, filled with screeching and a flashback in muted colors, feels straight out of your usual isekai, making it seem that this series will be regular fantasy fare. But then the soundtrack plays a tune that sounds exactly as if it’s from the scene in Fellowship of the Ring where Gandalf is approaching the Shire for Bilbo’s birthday, complete with that lovely flute. From there on out, episode one shows that this series is as much about the heart as it is the sword, with Bel demonstrating his kind character to villagers and his daughter alike, and Ange constantly being delayed from visiting the father that she adores. What a lovely, lovely episode, ending with a narration that’ll have you on the verge of tears. Wait, that was just me? Ahem. Anyway, the animation is admittedly mediocre (the action scenes are terribly meh), but the beauty of the scenery makes up for it. The artwork for the pastoral setting in the series is special, and the character designs are interesting too, conveying a sense of realism and uniqueness that fits with a medieval-type fantasy world. The fact that pixies and spirits are brought up right up front, and a tree-like monster attacks the village later, lets us know that the magic of this world leans toward that of the British Isles, and I’m all aboard for that. In fact, I’m all aboard when it comes to this series as a whole if it remains just as heartwarming as it was in episode one while finding a story to keep me entertained. At the very least, give me more of that flute theme, please!
My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
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