Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash - Reviews

Many problems but enjoyed watching it 

Wow, people are suddenly trapped in a fantasy world where people fight to get stronger and there's a ton of fanservice. Welcome to not Sword Art Online 5, also known as Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, with some of the most gorgeous art out there. The best thing about it? The butt.

Seriously, there's nothing much special here beyond the art and the fan service giving proper appreciation to booty. There's thin (at best) writing, so that's what we're left with. This show would have been amazing in 2010-2012, but now it's just run of the mill... with some ass to make up for it.

I could tell how it tries to be more mature, but it isn't really. The annoying but actually pretty good guy is still annoying, the annoying but actually pretty good girl is still annoying, the tropes on which this is based on have been beaten to death. Seriously, it even rips the class system off of World of D&Diablo. But beautiful buttocks go a long way.

Going deeper, it's not that Grimgar isn't enjoyable. It is, in a slightly less superficial way than the shows it clonedcopiedbased itself upon. It isn't deep, but none of the hits of the genre are. But I'm just sick and tired of protagonists being either mopey or upbeat with nothing in between. I'm not wowed by new worlds. Gorgeous backgrounds aren't enough anymore. Still, the backside is bestside.

Writing (story and characters):

While it isn't bad, Grimgar's writing just isn't good. It takes a page from Log Horizon's slice of life bits to develop characters, but keeps a higher percent of things actually happening. There are some nice things going on. Of course, there isn't much in the way of plot as this is a character based show.

Premise: simple. People thrown into new fantasy world. Plot: basic opening arc. Everyperson and his everypeople band stop sucking and become kinda ok. Something special: not really. The story could be summed up in a paragraph, and you wouldn't miss out on much. It's not bad, it just is not enough to add anything.

No need for being snippy here, the characters of Grimgar just don't have enough going for them for that. All the personalities are bland, and even their quirks are boring (or annoying). There is character development, but not enough of it to make any one of them interesting. The protagonist is supposed to give the added value, and he doesn't really suck, but hearing him mope just gets on my nerves.

Despite the characters in a character based story not being good, the writing isn't bad. Grimgar has enough to keep the viewer interested. But unfortunately, it ends with the end of the introduction arc to a story, it's the first act, and it won't be getting anymore. It's well done, and I wouldn't be quite as scathing if the show was double in length and had more. Maybe I'd even enjoy the slow pace. We'll never know.

Art (animation and sound):

Here we go, A-1 deliver once again. The artwork is fantastic. It takes plodding writing, a trivial and overdone story, bad characters, and just puts them in a fantastic world. It's spectacular, with an emphasis on spectacle. And dear god, do the bottoms pop out.

As expected of A-1, the animation is beautiful. The backgrounds are rich and detailed, the use of different palettes for different locations and moods is professional and well thought out, the character designs aren't quite generic. But really, it's all about the wonderful rumps of various waifus.

As far as this goes, the audio was passable. The voice acting was only annoying for two characters (Annoyance McEdgelord "Knight" being particularly grating), the soundtrack was unimpressive but not thrown in your face outside of montages and some fight scenes. The effect usage was actually pretty sharp. Still, not bad, but not great.

There was a lot of good to the art, namely posteriors. But really, it isn't enough to salvage an incomplete story that just isn't good. Perhaps great audio would have saved the day, though I doubt it.

Overall:

For people who liked Log Horizon but want something a bit more mature, Grimgar is pretty awesome. For the rest, just give it a skip.

 ***THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW***

Hai to Gensou no Grimgal is an anime that has a few standout elements but ultimately falls short on the quality side.

Story: 5/10

I'll admit upfront that I am a sucker for these whole dropped into a new world MMO feeling stories. What's different for this anime than say Log Horizon or Sword Art Online is that our characters have no recollection of any memories before entering this new world. The story follows a small group of misfits led by Manato. He, Haruhiro, Mogzo, Ranta, Shihoru, and Yume must fight mobs every day in order to receive monetary compensation which pays for food, supplies, and lodging. This is interesting at first but I thought that at one point the plot would elevate to some new idea like groups forming together to take down an impossible foe. I was disappointed that the show decided to solely focus on Manato's group only. There are a couple twists and turns but overall the show almost felt stale.

Animation: 6/10

Seriously what the f*** happened over at A-1 Pictures? I understand that the vast majority of anime studios outsource their work to independent artist and are pretty much just managing different sources of work but there are some serious quality issues in this anime. Starting with the horrid moments, there are scenes that literally have characters in still form bouncing back and forth in the background. Like they took a still position and just bounced it left and right to make it look like they were moving forward. Then there are serious continuity issues. In one of the later episodes, Ranta loses his helmet in a battle. 5 minutes later however we clearly see him escaping in one scene with his helmet on then it disappears one scene later. I can understand this happening in a big blockbuster film but in a drawn anime...? Unacceptable. Lastly there are just pure lazy scenes with horrible quality character models and background elements (ledges, chairs, ext.) The quality control was just really, really bad for this anime.

I do however want to give praise to the absolute gorgeous backgrounds for the show. This show has some of the most drop dead beautiful backgrounds I have ever seen in an animated show. The quality of the backgrounds is the only reason I did not give the animation category a 3/10.

Sound: 6/10

The sound quality was pretty decent. The voice actors did a good job hitting their marks and the ambient sounds for the world seemed to fit well. The music when present was kind of generic sounding but worked for what was needed.

Characters: 4.5/10

I really and I mean really wanted to like the main characters but they put forth almost no effort to break out of their generic shells. I especially despised Ranta's character even when he seemed to be humanized towards the end of the show. The only two characters that seemed to grow and actually show reasons to like were Haruhiro and Mary. Other than those two however it is hard to come up with reasons to like the rest of the cast other than they are “cute” which is not a valid enough reason for me to care.

Overall: 5.4/10

I absolutely loved the art style and backgrounds for this show but almost everything else was pretty poor. I really wanted to like the show but it looks like it was managed pretty poorly and things might have been rushed for certain episodes. I hope that if it gets a second season that the animation studio puts forth more care and effort. There is potential here in the future.

Enjoyment: 5.5/10

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Awesome Drummer

 

This is an interesting anime and definitly worth watching. However you have to make it past episode 4. The first 4 episodes are a bit slow as the characters are finding their way in their new world. After episode 4 that seem to find their stride and things pick up. Over all a good anime, I gave it 4 stars.

*Yawn*, some teens are trapped inside a fantasy world and are fighting monsters for a living as specific archetypical classes.  Sounds real fresh and original, right?  Let’s just get to the specifics, shall we?

ART: 9/10 – The show’s visual art is far and away its strongest suit.  Almost every aspect of its visuals need applause.  The setting and backgrounds are well detailed – and frankly beautiful for the fantasy feel.  Likewise, the animation is solid, with fights that were surprisingly well choreographed.  The sword clashes and general combat all felt pretty organic, and was a generally interesting spectacle.  I only docked a point for visual effects because I thought the spell effects were sort of cheap and monochromatic. 

SOUND: 6/10 – The show’s sound was largely unremarkable.  Admittedly, I’m writing this review now a couple weeks after I had finished the series, and nothing about the show’s music or soundtrack comes to recollection.  For me, who sponges good or otherwise catchy themes; that says something.  I was largely unimpressed with the voice acting; but I’m learning much of that might be my bias against Japanese voice acting (wherein female voices creep me out for how child-like they sound).

STORY: 1/10 – What a mess.  Well there’s the premise, wherein a bunch of amnesiac teens wake up together to find that they’re in an unfamiliar fantastical world where they must choose a video-game class archetype and kill monsters to make a living.  Don’t worry if you lost count at how many clichés I just listed – I did too.  What’s worse, is that there’s absolutely no exposition at all here – and ***SPOILER ALERT*** the mystery of where they’re from, or how they got there is never determined – it’s actually never even explored or questioned.  So to recap:  a half a dozen teens wake up together in a fantasty world, and decided to fight monsters together to make money to live on.  And none of them seem to care to know how – or why – they arrived at that situation.

The pacing is bottom of the barrel bad.  You can spend almost entire episodes on a single encounter, or a flashback, or you can watch dozens of encounters get fast forwarded through with a musical soundtrack overlaying all other sounds.  Both of these effects happen often; and there’s pretty much never a happy medium.  Likewise, I couldn’t stand to give the show even a lick of plausibility because the rules of the world were so terribly explained.  I’m good without the shounen-esque info dumps; but some understanding to how all the magic was working would have been appreciated.  Heck knows there was more than enough dead space to insert it into.  Then there’s the main character’s superpower to trace psychedelic lines to deal impeccable deathblows.  Why?  Because series lead, that’s why.

There are subtle hints at complex themes; but the themes are only ever glossed upon, and never developed or fleshed out.  The series actually had a powerful opening to me, what with how guilt driving – and essentially grotesque – the ganging up on and killing of that first goblin seemed.  The creature was afraid and desperate; and the main characters (most memorably Ranta) were appalled by what they had to do.  This was a powerful theme; but it gets washed as quickly as it arises.  Before long Ranta is sadistically dismembering enemies because “I’m a dark knight!”  The show tried to barely hint some romance; between Haru and Yume in one scene, Manato and Shihoru, and Haru and Mary in yet another.  All were glossed over and completely un-pursued in the long run.  My take is if you’re going to include romance; at least develop it somewhat.  There’s not even your typical clash of jealousy between the two women who obviously like Haru.  The inclusion of death in the story (and for that matter, the generally high stakes present) are good things; but the death was poorly done.  It happened quickly (in a relatively short series); and it did have a massive impact on the characters, but quickly became virtually the only plot point.  Everything because about “Dead character would have done this!  Dead character would have done that!  We’re doomed without dead character!!!!!”

There’s not much to say about the story’s conclusion.  And there’s no wonder; the lack of a premise or plot made any chance of a conclusion impossible.  The entire story was “we gotta pay the billz” so there’s little and less to say from there.

CHARACTERS: 5/10 – The show took the low road with characterization and decided to make their abilities and personalities alike as simple archetypes.  Thief, Dark Knight, Hunter, Mage, Warrior, Priest, etc etc etc.  In combat they performed almost precisely as their class dictated; and what’s sillier, is that their abilities (I believe they were called “skills”) could only be obtained by purchasing them.  Not by practice, or hard work, or even something cheesy like “leveling up”.  The personalities were fairly rigid amongst the characters as well.  Ranta was unapologetically angry and bitchy the whole time; while Shihoru was shy and timid in every single scene.  Haru, our lead, was pretty much just a bland self-insert with no real traits to speak of. 

The backdrop that matters (i.e. the stuff for all the characters who started together) is completely absent.  You’re reminded this fairly often, but the show will never both pursuing your curiosity here.  The only backdrop otherwise given is with Mary; and even then, it’s purely a mechanism for excusing her bitchiness rather than leading the plot somewhere interesting.

There is character development, even though the process of changing is there, Ranta does have his heroic moment.  Mary does stop being such a bitch.  Somethings do change.  As for most of the cast including our self-insert lead?  Business as usual.  I threw a pity point in for catharsis.  The characters kind of sort of barely seem to be reconciling the fact that a friend (who they knew for a couple weeks) died.

OVERALL:  4.5/10 – Skip this one for all I care.  There’s nothing to see here.  Even Sword Art Online is better than this show; for at least SAO has a good and fleshed out premise (even if nothing else).  Like I said, the visuals are gorgeous here; but the spectacle will quickly lose its flair as soon as you realize there isn’t – and never will be – intriguing context surrounding it.  A generic “trapped in a fantasy world” theme that tells you to your face that it’s not even trying.  Ask yourself, “What would this show have lost if the characters were just amnesiacs in this world without the presumed transportation from another world?”  You’ll then realize that the premise is troll, and you’re stuck consuming the laziest writing this side of Re: Zero.

 

ART SECTION: 9/10
General Artwork 2/2 (outstanding)
Character Figures 1/2 (a bit generic)
Backgrounds 2/2 (beautiful)
Animation 2/2 (well done choreography)
Visual Effects 1/2 (good)

SOUND SECTION: 6/10
Voice Acting 2/4 (ok)
Music Themes 2/4 (unremarkable)
Sound Effects 2/2 (great)

STORY SECTION: 1/10
Premise 0/2 (barren and overdone)
Pacing 0/2 (terrible)
Complexity 1/2 (subtle hints, but overshadowed)
Plausibility 0/2 (none)
Conclusion 0/2 (Open and unresolved)

CHARACTER SECTION: 5/10
Presence 1/2 (wonky)
Personality 1/2 (one-dimensional and archetypical)
Backdrop 0/2 (almost none)
Development 1/2 (choppy and disjointed, but it’s there)
Catharsis 1/2 (rushed and brushed upon, but it’s there)

VALUE SECTION: 1/10
Historical Value 0/3 (none)
Rewatchability 0/3 (too slow and uninteresting)
Memorability 1/4 (very little)

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 4/10
Art 1/1 (good)
Sound 1/2 (ok)
Story 0/3 (vacuous)
Characters 2/4 (bland archetypes)

VERDICT: 4.5/10