Hai to Gensou no Grimgar Episode 1 Discussion

PANDEMlC said:
This show had promise with it's unique art style and potentially interesting plot on a tired and cliche genre but after this first episode you can get all you need to know on why it will fail at ultimately being anything greater than it's counterparts. The biggest issue I had with this first episode was of course it's fan service, it was not done so lazily and awkwardly from the rest of the tone that it made me cringe and facepalm at just how sad it was. The whole thief scene and their horribly written eating scene that ends this dull episode. It was such a pathetic attempt at drawing the lowest common denominator in after what had been an incredibly underwhelming episode. They knew their art wouldn't be enough so hey throw in some cleavage, awkward scenarios adressing their cleavage and really unsubtle scenes and angles of girls showing their cleavage! HOW ORIGINAL!

My second complaint and probably the worst part is the story and characters are just so incredibly bland. Nobody has an interesting or unique personality. But worse than that, their reactions to having no memories is incredibly unbelievable. So we're stuck with children who are even too poorly written to care that they're in a place they don't know with people they don't know and the episode treats it like this fun loving casual picnic, when it should be potentially life or death. The one scene we get of actual back story is really cliche and goofy, this overly flamboyant character forces generic RPG rules down some kids throats without anyone questioning it or thinking about it in a realistic way(even though we know that they exist in a modern world with cellphones). Hell they don' t even seem puzzled, they have no memories after all yet treat everything so calmly. Once you realize this show has no idea how to create tension or setup a good mystery you think, "Well what's left to care about?" and that answer is, NOTHING! The show assumes the fan service, cheap and lazy references to RPG like scenarios and pretty artwork will be enough but it's not, it's a cheap distraction from how paper thin every other important aspect a show like this needs to be good.

Lastly I'd just like to say the writing is just, so boring. No idea if this is a light novel adaptation or something but everything feels so unnatural. The characters are as dim as they come and I can only imagine that is due to an incompetent screen writer and director or at the very least a badly written source material in which they had to adapt with mediocre writers of their own. The characters say nothing of substance, it's all bland boring, mindless dialogue in a scenario in which you could be exploring massive amounts of tension, fear and potentially deep philosophical questions. These are modern day people awoken in a world completely different from their own with no idea how they got their, yet none of that is addressed. My final note about the writing and to me is the cherry on top is how these kids who are not video game characters are so mindless and unnatural that they go off to kill smart sentient goblins who by all accounts seem relatively peaceful and even pretty cute. We see them at they end all hanging around a fire just relaxing and talking. Yet we are supposed to be as stupid and mindless as these kids who are going out to kill these creatures as if they're picking apples from a tree. No acknowledgement of the moral questions that come with killing these obviously intelligent peaceful beings for money at all. So I can only assume this show is made for children or an adult audience base that is absolutely incapable of any sort of critical thinking. But then if it's for kids, why the awkward man child like fan service and lack of action? The show is catering towards man children who like pathetic fan service and pretty colors and don't want to think. Just turn on some mediocre anime and get a little chub popping in their sweat pants and relax. What a disappointing show and a massive waste of great artists.