The Tale of Outcasts is the anime adaptation of a decently popular manga series by Makoto Hoshino. The anime first made its debut in January of 2023, and since then, it has managed to go under the radar for almost every anime fan.
But an anime set in Victorian-Era England about a girl making a pact with a demon to go on a journey around the world would surely make for an interesting anime.
The Tale of Outcasts anime currently sits on 12 episodes, with episode 13, the season, finally waiting to be aired on the 3rd of April 2023. The anime has a total run time of almost 4 hours which is quite a lot of time for almost anyone. So we decided to write this review to help you decide whether you want to watch The Tale of Outcasts.
The Tale of Outcasts Review: Plot Summary
The anime starts with the scene of a young girl begging in the streets of London, trying to get people to donate to her by essentially guilt-tripping them. She is then revealed to be Wisteria Langley, an orphan who was brought to a church in London and now spends her day begging to make up for the money the church spends on feeding her.
The so-called father of the church routinely abuses her as punishment for the measly amount of money she can collect via begging. He proclaims that it isn’t enough, even though the only food they provide Wis is moldy bread.
Later during the night, Wis taps the glass in her room and calls for someone called Marbas. Her calls are soon answered by a tall man-like lion with long red hair called Marbas, who is also revealed to be a demon.
Wis and Marbas then follow through their daily routine of Marbas telling Wis about stories from his past and Wis listening cheerfully. It is then revealed that Marbas is a high-ranking demon that has lived for numerous centuries and is beginning to grow bored of his mundane life due to the lack of people who could perceive him.
One day while strolling through the roads of London, Marbas saw a poor young girl begging for money outside a church. The sight made him pity the young girl, but soon he noticed the odd nature of the girl’s movement.
Marbas’s growing suspicions impelled him to directly address the girl while fully confident that she wouldn’t perceive him, but to his surprise, she did. The young girl, Wis, could perceive Marbas and act oddly due to Marbas’s odd features as a demon. Marbas took notice of this and was a bit delighted to find someone who could see him finally.
Since that day, Marbas had regularly visited Wis and told her stories about his past. He also tells her about when he attended one of Shakespeare’s original plays.
Wis, thrilled by the story, tells him how awesome it must’ve been, but Marbas calmly replies that it was nothing special. Wis concludes that Marbas must have no friends due to his calm and serious personality.
A few days later, the father of the church tells Wis that a buyer for her has finally come. The father then reveals that the church was just a front, and he made her beg outside to showcase herself to the people interested in buying her.
And finally, some rich guy had taken an interest in buying her after being allured by her pale skin and silver hair. Devastated by this reveal, Wis requests Marbas to take her away, but unfortunately, Marbas declines. Demons are special existences in the human world, and if a demon helps a human without adequate payment, then they will rapture.
Wis learns the reason behind Marbas’s denial and then offers up her soul as payment to take her away from the church, but Marbas still denies it and then explains why demons covet souls as payment. Demons take souls as payments to use souls and extend their lifespans, but Marbas’s lifespan is unbound due to him being a greater demon, essentially making him immortal. Thus Marbas cannot accept her soul as payment.
A disappointed Wis then bids him goodbye. After a few days, Wis is sold to the rich man, and Marbas watches as Wis boards the carriage to leave for her new home. Two demon hunters visited the church later that day, searching for a demon with long red hair. One of the demon hunters with silver hair even threatened the father, saying they knew that the church was just a front for selling children.
The father then reveals that a silver-haired girl recently staying in the church would often talk to herself during the night. After hearing about this, the silver-haired demon hunter enquires more about the girl’s location.
The father then reveals that the girl, Wis, had recently been sold off to a rich lord who got pleasure from torturing young kids. Hearing this angers both the demon hunter and Marbas, Marbas then swiftly leaves, but his angered state alerts the demon hunters of his presence. Later we cut to a scene of the rich lord leading Wis to a room full of torture equipment while rambling about how he wants to heal her soul.
Wis gets scared and tries to escape from the lord, but her attempts end in vain as she not only fails to escape. The lord captures her, but Marbas comes to the lord’s mansion in his human form right at that moment while carrying a bag full of gold to resolve the situation using the human way by buying Wis off of him. But the perverse lord refuses his offer, saying how good of a specimen Wis is.
Marbas starts to slowly rapture due to him helping Wis. Wis then takes the opportunity to escape the lord’s hold as Marbas musters some strength and flings the lord away. Wis then asks Marbas about his condition, but he starts reminiscing about his joyful moments with Wis.
The lord’s mansion lights up on fire as another demon appears. Wis then deduces that the lord must’ve had a contract with the demon. Marbas tries to fight the demon but fails due to his condition.
Wis then sees Marbas’s condition and offers up a solution, a pact. Wis’s eyes were special, and she could see demons, especially Marbas, with her eyes. Her eyes were the thing that allowed them to meet and have those joyful moments in each other’s company.
Wis then offers up her eyes as payment for the pact between her and Marbas. As a result, Marbas’s capture stops, and he swiftly banishes the demon as it recognizes him to be a great demon and one of the thirteen calamities.
Marbas then leaves while supporting a now blind Wis, promising to journey through the world to experience it with her. Later in the episode, Marbas takes Wis to his cabin, to which Wis expresses her surprise, saying that she didn’t think Marbas would actually have or even need a home.
Marbas then tells her how he got this house and a small portion of a man’s fortune as payment for helping him a few centuries ago. Marbas then asks her whether she’ll be able to clean the house, only to once again realize that she can no longer see, thus meaning that the great demon Marbas would have to clean the house all by himself.
Shortly after, Wis’s stomach starts growling, much to her embarrassment. As a result, Marbas decides to take the opportunity to get her some food and clothes she’d need to look presentable in the town.
While shopping for clothes, Wis meets a mysterious man who notices that she’s shopping for clothes alone while unable to see. Still, his companion introduces herself as Diana Blackwell, the daughter of an aristocratic family, and decides to help her buy clothes while sending the man on a break. The man then exits the store only to meet Marbas, standing outside after Wis told him that she’d shop for clothes by herself.
Marbas then notices the man, who is revealed to be Naberias, another great demon and one of the thirteen calamities. Coincidentally, both seem to share a common past as they start bickering like friends over even the most trivial things. Soon they are joined by Diana and Wis. Afterwards, Diana and Naberius leave them after Diana expresses her happiness in being able to talk with a girl like Wis.
Later on, Wis’s brother Snow the silver-haired demon hunter comes to Marbas’s cabin and is determined to take his sister back, whom he had finally found after years of searching, but much to his dismay Wis insists on journeying through the world, Marbas.
Snow acknowledges Wis’s intentions after a short fight with Marbas and then leaves them, swearing that he’ll kill him if he endangers Wis while also stating that he’ll give wrong information to the other demon hunters to keep them off Marbas and Wis’s tails.
The anime then follows Marbas and Wis’s journey through different towns while meeting different demon contractors and uncovering othsecrets along with a war plot in London.
The Tale of Outcasts Review:
The Tale of Outcasts starts with a spectacular first episode, introducing us to the world and the characters while giving an adequate backstory to our main characters. The anime has a great setup for a good slice-of-life anime.
An invisible demon who was bored for centuries finally finds companionship and comfort from a poor orphaned girl. Both decide to accompany each other on a journey to see the entire world is an interesting enough premise that’d garner a lot of fans, exactly like Majo No Tabi Tabi. This similar anime revolves around the journeys of a witch throughout the whole world; it was an instant hit among the fans when it came out.
Majo No Tabi Tabi managed to gain a lot of fans but also garnered many bad reviews centered around the main characters, all of them mostly taking jabs at the main character’s lack of action towards different situations encountered throughout her journeys.
Even though the bad reviews were mostly justified, many fans did not care, and the anime was still regarded pretty highly among anime fans. That is because of a very simple reason. Majo No Tabi Tabi, or Wandering Witch Elaina, delivers exactly what it promises to its viewers: the journeys of a young witch traveling through the world.
But The Tale of Outcasts fails to do so and tries to dip its toes in multiple genres while drowning in the currents of mediocrity, all while trampling on the promises the show made in its first episode.
The anime starts with an episodic nature where the main cast would most of the time travel to different locations and meets different characters. They would encounter some mystery they’d solve and then leave for a new location.
This stays interesting for a few episodes, but all of it starts going downhill when it introduces the plot of another demon and its contractor wanting to wage war to quench their thirst for war.
The “plot” introduced in the later episodes ends up being bland while also introducing some interesting characters only to kill them off while hoping to make the viewer feel some emotional distress for the characters. The anime spectacularly fails in doing so.
Even the plot point of Marbas being invisible to almost everyone to the point of being bored is thrown out the window when every other episode, we are introduced to a new character who can see him. The fights aren’t animated, and the animation is decent at best.
We hope this anime adopts the episodic nature and focuses more on Marbas and Wis’s journey throughout the world and Marbas’s fatherly relationship with Wis.
The Tale of Outcasts Review: Final Verdict
This anime isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it does manage to put a somewhat unique spin on the fantasy genre anime, especially with its setting in the Victorian era. The characters and their dynamics are somewhat interesting, especially since Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson appear in the later episodes.
But the anime will disappoint anyone who wants to watch a slice-of-life kind of anime, as was hinted at in the first episode of the series.
Our Rating: ⭐(3/5).
Also Read: How To Watch The Tale Of The Outcasts Episodes? Streaming Guide
