Hai to Gensou no Grimgar: Furoagari no Kabe ni Kaketa Seishun - One More Centimeter

10/10, 100/100, 1000/1000.
Its just episode 2.5, it doesn't contribute to the main story, its not something that teaches a lesson, its not about the struggle of overcoming your flaws or becoming closer to the people you care for.

This is about heart. not love, not friendship or kindness, but of the heart of a true man. It is a story of the yearning of the soul, for what can never be attained, a story of the struggle of men, and doing what must be done. It isn't about winning or losing, nothing so juvenile. It is about doing what is right, and staying true to ... yourself. Those who cant understand the beauty of these eleven minutes, simply can not comprehend the heart of a true man.

Not even worth a watch, doesn't brings anything new to the story or even character development, well besides making the male cast look more immature and juvenile. Weird and awkward dialogues doesn't make it easier to watch and they're painful to go through.

Animation is average and nothing special, but what can you expect from something that it's only 11 minutes long?

As for the music, well it's annoying and unbearable to listen to and the whole idea for it it's just pathetic and stupid. A very poor attempt to show series in a new light and make it funny.

A prime example of an animated garbage and ... waste of time, avoid by any cost, there are far better special's out there for far better series that offers more enjoyment.

Other reviewers are saying this episode has nothing to do with the actual anime, or that it was a mindless shallow waste of 11mn of your life. BUT THEY ARE SO FKN WRONG!

Only 11 minutes long and from first glance it looks like any another typical bath peeking perverted scene that shows the shallow story that questions the creators effort in even making this. BUT its far from typical and if anything it the deepest 11mn of your life. PLease let me explain.

You will have to have watched the original anime to understand what im saying. In my review for the original anime I ... have stated that this anime is by far my favourite and most original RPG style trapped in a fantasy world game anime yet.

This anime portrays the reality of life. With all its rewards and consequences, victories and failures, beauty and ugliness that life gives us, the anime beautifully orchestrated and somehow intertwined all this and its genre into a masterful tapestry.

So this 11 minute special is definitely an additional piece of art that shows the reality of life within the anime but rather is reflects the characters current spiritual state.

The boys and the girls are surviving in the fantasy world. They have gone through a series of confusion and losses. Real life and death consequences. Thus their hunger for survival increases. To survive no longer became a need, but more, a reason for their existence.

The proof of existence that they are alive, alive not to just survive the world, but alive in the sense that they can dream is shown by the ability to hope. That they can be excited for the future, that they can live for something, that they have ambitions, that they have a sense of desire which ultimately gives them purpose for their existence.

The biggest thing that the team struggled was purpose. They had no idea what their purpose was in the fantasy world (also since their memories was wiped before arriving there). So the only thing they can do by default was to simply survive. But this special episode breaks that paradigm. It gives these boys a sense of excitement, desire, purpose, eventually "life" that they havent felt in a long time since arriving in the world.

"this is where our dream lies...lets drink to that. To this moment. To being alive. Now let the curtains to our dream rise" this is the quote that builds the pivotal foundation for this episode. Haruhiro says this as he looks at the wall that stands in the way between them and the girls who are taking their baths. He says this after Ranta redefines and counters Haruhiros statement that they have lost their humanity. Ranta says "no we have won by losing. Our instincts our hearts won". With this Haruhiro says "I see...so we have won without even realising...victory?" This ultimately means that Haruhiro and the gang at first felt like they have lost humanity by being such a low life pervert but really it means they have won because they are operating out of their natural ability to dream and desire as a man. Something that they havent felt in a very long time since coming into the world.

The world made them feel like they were trapped and were doing things that felt inhumane in order to survive. They were functioning out of an indifferent robotic like setting. Eating, sleeping, working mindlessly without no real dream thus ultimately losing their humanity. However in this episode they break out of that for the first time, they have found a desire, a dream that could be costly, but valuable enough for them to risk it all and go for it. It contradicted the purposeless life they were living and for the first time felt they were living for something. Therefore Haruhiros revelation brings breakthrough, the fact that their "hearts won" by being able to hope again is what mattered.

Ranta keeps insisting that they go for it and asks the question "wont you regret it?" if they didnt. Here Manato brings the drop. He says “I might regret it. I cant say for sure I won’t regret it. But what do you think is going to happen if we go further? We are already excited right now. it would be bad if we were to get even more. We would go past the point of no return, but then we would have to head back. to our room. the four of us together. I dont think I would be able to endure that.” Here Manato is ultimately talking about the fear of being disappointed by hope, the fear of failing, the fear of understanding the limits of their capacity, the fear of knowing that their best is not good enough. He ultimately brings the reality check of hoping, desiring, dreaming is dangerous because in reality it might not be met. And he says that the consequence of not even trying and regretting it later is much more bearable than ultimately hoping for it but being disappointed by failing.

Then Moguzo brings such a powerful statement that reveals an important perspective. He didnt passively wait around, he innitiates by being the sacrifice for the team (which is symbolic of his role as the tank) and says "we cant back off now." Haruhiro ultimately understands that "we're alive...thats right. We are alive. Right now we can be sure of that". He finally understood that for them to go even this far into peeking meant they have already achieved alot. That they were already operating out of their hopes and dreams which wasnt even possible from where they have come.

In conclusion. This 11 minutes special episode is sooo deep that you can almost miss the beauty of the message thats inside it. ITs camouflaged by fan service and typical ecchi anime humour but if anything it portrayed the depth of life that challenges the audience if we too are alive or simply just living in our world.