TLDR at the end I wanted to enjoy this show I really did. The furry stuff was a bit of a turn off but the opening intrigued me with how majestic it looked. I really love Londonesque stories and settings. But no this came out as one of the strangest shows Ive watched this year. I came for the fatherdaughter relationship with angst here and there but instead I got some Naruto War arc stuff with plot conveniences everywhere. Needless to say I was highly disappointed. Introduction The story of The Tale of Outcasts shortened to TTOO in this review is an anime that aired in Winter 2023 with a total of 13 episodes. The premise is that this abused orphan girl Wisteria although alone always spent her midnights with a certain demon cough cough anthropomorphic animal Marbas. A great premise indeed. For a human to make a pact with a demon a human has to sacrifice something of utter importance to them. Wisteria was given to some edgy child torturer this was unnecessarily edgy and Marbas saved her though Wisteria had to give up her eyesight to Marbas. This led to Marbas having to explore the world with Wisteria who is now blind and tell her about the beautiful world. This had a great first episode. There were some unnecessarily edgy bits here and there but TTOO built up towards something beautiful. We could have had worldbuilding Marbass pasts and exploring demons lore. This story wasnt only in London but it seems to have built up to have Wisteria go around the entire world. But no the story inevitably turned into some battle shonen. TTOO was already fairly flawed in its second episode with weird pacing but the second and third episode promised us with a lot of great moments and build up. However the plot went all over the place when it tried to have a story structure. I was willing to forgive this. TTOO led me into British politics which the story didnt even execute well. And it seems that Marbas is some crazy legendary demon yet literally no one besides the legendary demons themselves know who Marbas is. The British politics arc however promised us some decent characterization at least and a dive into demon lore. That entire arc although horribly executed gave us worldbuilding and it was forgivable. It gets worse? But then the story took a dive into trash territory. For some reason this anime has a war arc. And this war arc lasted half of the entire run. 6 7 episodes of trash will ruin an entire show. What this show has promised had all been thrown into the corner. The British politics arc already had some battle shonen moments but this war arc changed the entire plot. Was this even about exploring the world because youre blind? Was this even a wholesome slice of life with a father and daughter bond? No it was a war arc and it wasnt a good war arc. A demon and a soldier were obsessed with war so they decided to start a war in London. This had a good concept. Soldiers still want war even after peace has been established. So it wasnt too farfetched. The problem was how it was executed. I dont even know why TTOO suddenly turned into a battle shonen. It wasnt even plot anymore it was just mindless fighting and retreating and more mindless fighting. I love Naruto but this show quite literally turned into Naruto and not even the best parts of Naruto. This show suddenly turned into demons shooting beams at each other and destroying buildings. During the fights they were trying to push the message that having something to protect is better than having nothing to lose. Which was a nice message until they started saying the same thing in every single battle. I dont even know what I was watching anymore. The first episode and the last episode are two drastically different plots. I hated the introduction of magic it felt like a bad isekai at this point. Character Rant Im not even gonna talk about the characters. Marbas is literally an overpowered demon who keeps getting his butt handed by random humans and he was even pushed back by ONE human who wasnt even the best fighter. Marbas suffers your normal shonen power disease. Hes weak yet he keeps overpowering the antagonists despite getting whacked. In the last episode I was convinced it was bad writing. He oneshot a legendary demon despite struggling with the same demon like 2 fights ago. Wisteria is fine. She really doesnt stand out as a main character. All of the side characters arent memorable either. The antagonists were the closest to being interesting yet were trashed on by the plot. The soldier who was obsessed with war had his backstory slowly revealed but it all went nowhere. He even ended up forgetting everything in the end. Another antagonist was this demon who felt like an outcast because the other demons had someone to protect. His entire motive when revealed ruined his entire character. Was he a ruthless and psychotic demon I know demons are supposed to be psychotic but TTOO completely disproved that all because he was lonely? It was unjustified and he didnt even suffer any consequences after traumatizing someone. Animation and OST The animation was alright it was wonky at parts. I hope the manga didnt have cringe coloring because the anime totally made their power ups glow like Naruto. Its just out of place considering what this story was trying to build up to. The OST was crazy though. The opening and soundtrack were the best parts of this anime. I was manipulated by the OST to believe the show was good multiple times. It is amazing honestly. Personal thoughts I dont even know what this show is in the end. I do not recommend it even for a battle shonen fan. Its slice of life premise was bad its character writing was bad and it trying to be a battle shonen was also bad. Why was Beastars popular despite being a furry show? Its because it was a furry show with great writing and a great story. Why was TTOO not popular? Calling it a furry show is an excuse. It was just horrible. Bad writing and bad story and it tried to change its identity in the end. I dont know why I didnt drop it. TLDR The Tale of Outcasts is bad not because of the furries but because it has horrible writing and a premise that was discarded halfway through. The anime lost its direction and it suddenly tried to be a battle shonen with animals. I do not recommend it. Not to someone who wants battle shonen nor furries. Because furries can be great characters too. This is a pass.