I have decided to write up some of my thoughts on Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash. This is part one of an unknown number of articles that will start with the anime and then progress to the light novels.
If you have never heard of Grimgar, well I hadn’t either until more recently. I first discovered this due to two Serania community members. Recently I decided that I wanted to track the anime that I was watching and so after a small amount of research I ended up on AniList. You can find me there at my page. Due to setting this up, one community member shared their list as well and they had only TWO shows listed with perfect scores. Those shows were Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash and Land of the Lustrous. As of writing this, I haven’t gotten to Land of the Lustrous just yet but I have dived into Grimgar.
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash started as a light novel series in 2013 and is still running to this day. The LN(light novel) then spawned a manga(2015) and anime(2016). I personally have never read a LN series from Japan before and thought most animes were inspired by mangas. I am finding that there may be a significant portion of anime that start as LN.
I have wanted to write up some of my thoughts on this show because there were many different things about that really stuck out to me. First, let me start off by saying that this post will contain spoilers. This anime is an Isekai (other world). Which means the characters appear in the world of Grimgar from somewhere else. Normally in other Isekai, the characters show up and have knowledge of the other world that helps them out. They usually are also extremely powerful for reasons. This show is a little different in that the characters have no knowledge of where they have come from other than some small inklings of “it’s weird that the moon is red”. The characters are also not super heroes, they do not have unique powers or abilities, they are normal humans. While the trope of amnesia isn’t unkown for games and other media, that is usually limited to the main character. In Grimgar, this group isn’t unique, many others have come before them and they all share the amnesia.
I personally feel that the isekai (other world) genre is very over used. Many stories seem to have the isekai trope purely because it is popular and not because it adds anything to the particular story. Sometimes the character coming from another world is almost so irrelevant that it doesn’t get mentioned or have any bearing on anything past the first 2 minutes. This story from (2013) is near the beginning of the genre becoming super poplular and also does something different. With so many characters all having this shared amnesia, it gives them something in common. It also provides the audience with an interesting mystery.
When I started watching the show, I was slightly put off by it. The show has some scenes that are a bit perverted that felt unneccessary. After reflecting on it more (and after having read some of the LN at the time of writing this), this is due to the main characters all being in their teens. It is clearly aimed at a teenage, mostly boy, audience. I am very glad that I stuck with the show though.
The world takes very strong inspiration from video games, specifically RPGs and MMOs. Now as far as the audience is aware though, they are not in a video game. They do not have player huds or anything similar to what was seen in Sword Art Online or Rise of the Shield Hero. One of my hopes for the story is that the world does not end up being a video game. If that happens I feel that a big chunck of impact will be removed. In Grimgar, the people who show up almost entirely become voluntier soldiers which are essentially adventureres. Upon signing up they receive their first money in the form of 10 silver and told “Good Luck!”. What this show does well is bring the viewer along with the thoughts and motivations from the main character Haruhiro. You get just as much internal monologue as you do vocalized communication. Learning the world along with the character really brings the audience in and gives a sense of being invested. The characters have to learn how to earn money to survive in this world and they do so by fighting monsters. This is a bit of a unique take on survival and living in a place that is both unknown and the only known. Nothing else comes to my mind that hits on these points and it makes for a really engaging story. Unfortunately the world presented in the anime seems to be a very generic fantasy world. Other than how the characters get here, nothing else really seems to give it a unqiue definition. Speaking of the world, the anime art style was a little odd to me. It grew on me but I don’t think I would want to see it in lots of other shows. The characters looked standard but all the backgrounds had this water painterly style. Meaning it had low definition on a lot of the background.
BIG Spoiler incoming
Something that rarely happens in anime and other media is hard consequences for actions deserved or otherwise. This world does not hold back any punches. It is a gritted world to live in and this becomes immediately apparent upon the first encounter the team has with a goblin. To take a life is not something that is easy to do and they learn this right away. Presenting characters realistically like this is not something you see in many other places. Having a life taken from a major character is sometimes shocking but quite frequently, not permanent. This is not the case in Grimgar. The party loses their leader Manato. Reality sets in. The show deals with emotions both good and bad and is refreshing in a world of shows with shallow characters. I feel that most media shys away from major character death and if they do go down that route, they undo it shortly thereafter. Meaning they never have to deal with the consequences of such a thing. You get the shock value but none of the resulting emotions and character growth that would come from it.
The action in the show is quite enjoyable and isn’t just mindless sword swinging. They frequently talk about and use strategy. The final climax of the anime is what happens when their experience is put to the test when the unexpected happens. It is full of some great action, and emotional highs and lows. It is a great ending to the show. I do mean that literally as the show ends with this final encounter and it doesn’t feel likley that they will ever create another season. It feels horribly unfinished and well.. that is because it is. We are left with no resolution on the other world bits at all. How did the characters get here? Is there a reason behind it? This all lead me to read the light novel. I had discovered that the anime covered books one and two. The anime is mostly book one actually but does sort of rush through book two as well.
Thoughts on the LN series starting with Book One coming soon..