It’s not just a show thing unfortunately, it’s faithfully replicating the manga here.

Yeah, I had read the manga about two and a half years ago and while I initially really enjoyed it for the cozy travel and the bittersweet start, I gradually lost interest when it became clear that the story was starting to focus more on its mediocre conflicts rather than the travel.

(spoiler)

I specifically dropped it a bit after the maze arc, when they were introducing the new demon villain who had been mind-enslaved to serve a kingdom but still found a way to kill that kingdom.

I was following it as it came out at the time so that probably didn't help either, since waiting a week for a chapter that was about a conflict I didn't care for and clearly wouldn't be resolved for another few weeks made me lose interest. Especially when I was also reading my current favourite manga for the first time around then. And that manga, Witch Hat Atelier, manages to balance amazing vibes while also having compelling "conflict" writing that I enjoyed a lot more.

I'm very glad that the anime has been doing so well though, while I dropped it I still vastly prefer it to the isekai fantasy that was so common for the past decade.