Story:
Following the several years I’ve been out of the loop with anime, my recent return started with watching some of the more prominent shows. Chief among these was the infamous Goblin Slayer which, despite all its undeserved negative press, turned out to be a fantastic balance of drama, parody, and action set in an ostensibly “MMO-style” world. To that point, in the wake of Goblin Slayer I’ve been noticing the “MMO-turned-anime” genre seems to have exploded in popularity, and the once-unique premise of the .Hack series from so many years ago is now plastered about the scene. This creates a challenge for each show in this newly-founded genre to try to establish itself as unique in some way.
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash attempts to parallel a story arc much in the vein of Goblin Slayer, but ostensibly lacks a genuine direction in which it wants to go. The first episode tries to do quite a bit of world building and character introduction, splashing an enormous amount of lore and content for an initial 20-minute run. Where many series would focus on the successful heroes, however, Grimgar focuses instead on the rejects, and sets a fairly strong hook in the viewer with the promise of an interesting story to come. What ends up following, though, is disappointment after disappointment as the show spirals off into a spastic back-and-forth between drama, ecchi humor, action flick, and romance. Ultimately it fails to be competent at delivering any of these things, and the only thing that manages to keep the show afloat is that the characters themselves (with a few minor exceptions) are well-written and interact cogently together on-screen.
The world of Grimgar is just too generic and bland to jump the hurdle of mediocrity. By episode four, the entire arc of the story is essentially explained, and it becomes clear that much of the mystique and intrigue behind the characters’ past and the world’s history are little more than plot devices to move a series of obvious story points forward. This creates the rather pointed issue of the watching the show to devolve into the act of “going through the motions”, as once the viewer is presented exactly what will happen the anticipation of character growth just loses its luster. Once the appeal of the characters begins to dim, the show as a whole rapidly falls apart, and the end result is a decidedly average anime that tries desperately to be something more.
Animation:
Stylistically, Grimgar has a very unique aesthetic. Much of its backdrops are done with a painted-watercolor tone which, while unique, ends up feeling very stagnant for most of the show. The animation budget seems haphazardly thrown together; for example, there’s a snowfall episode toward the middle of the series that’s absolutely gorgeous, but in the middle of it is a very awkward panning CGI scene which harkens me back to the early 2000s. The fluctuation of animation versus stills adds to an overall tacky feeling, and the emphasis of “new skill of the episode” fight scene animations seems to have soaked most of the graphical resources. All in all, it’s unique but definitively average.
Sound:
Both music and voice acting were apt, but generally unremarkable. Ranta’s seiyuu, however, was quite annoying, and the constant shouting and bluster become like nails on a chalkboard after a while. Still, I felt like the music salvaged as much of the dramatic mood as it possibly could, and Haruhiro’s monologues were solid and balanced the right amount of emotion with stoicism that defined his character so well.
Characters:
The characters are, hands down, what gives Grimgar all its initial appeal. The show opens with twelve young people, who seem to range in age from mid-teens to late twenties, teleported to a strange world with fragmented memories. Almost immediately, the characters are forced into a mercenary-style lifestyle of hunting monsters for survival, and everyone in the world but them seems in on the charade that many people are summoned and only a few survive. Right off the bat, the group of twelve splits into two groups of six, with the first group parsed off by many of the older and more competent kids under the leadership of an archetypical heroic type named Renji. This leaves the remaining six to form together as a rag-tag band under a charismatic-but-uncertain priest by the name of Manato. It sets the stage for an interesting rivalry which rears its head prominently in the first episode but will then never again be touched.
Of the misfits, Haruhiro and Yume are the stars of the show, acting as surprisingly-mature and well-developed leads who react to the circumstances of the show in a believable and genuine fashion. Manato and the rest of the gang supplement them well, and indeed there’s a certain appeal watching the band of rejects work their way from incompetent buffoons to average monster hunters. There’s a lot of splashed character development in the soup of drama, boob jokes, tragedy, and clown-like shouting that follows these two, especially when it seems Haruhiro and Yume start to form a closer bond while trying to deal with the fact that Grimgar isn’t a world of all fun-and-games smashing goblins upside the head. Yet, while the show tries to take itself seriously at times, it constantly throws Ranta, the resident over-the-top class clown, in the middle of the duo to make a flat-chest joke at Yume or create random drama with Haruhiro.
As the show drags on, Ranta takes more and more a prominent role and, as the worst character in the show, sets Grimgar on a voyage destined for failure. The show climaxes with a whirlwind of deus-ex-machina tropes that end up dumbing down all the previous character growth while placing Ranta center stage, which creates a strong souring experience that makes the viewer just glad to be done with the show.
Overall:
While not the worst series I’ve ever watched, Grimgar is formulaic and bland with just enough character to make the viewer not want to drop it outright. It’s worth a once-through if you like the genre and are willing to be unimpressed with a story that fails to live up to its potential, but it’s an average show through-and-through.