Apr 9, 2016
Hai to Gensou no Grimgar is yet another take on the "stuck in an MMO" premise. If you're thinking it's another Sword Art Online or Overlord however, you'd be sorely mistaken. When compared to it's contemporaries Grimgar distinguishes itself the most by disempowering it's cast and focusing their internal conflicts.
Ironically, the minor aspects which makes this another "MMO anime" are by far the most shallow and inconsequential parts of its narrative. For example, the plot is weak because it doesn't explain or explore much of anything with regard to the premise. Characters very occasionally use words from the real world they don't remember the meaning
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to like "cell phone", but otherwise there's not enough of the real world to make the MMO world stand out. The premise also hamstrings the opening. The characters wake up without a clue how they got where they are and are told they have no choice but to join a guild and fight, and the characters just roll with it. I don't think it's possible to conceive a more bland and contrived motivation for these characters to fight. And again that is the premise at fault. It robbed the characters of potentially interesting backgrounds and made their motivation to fight emotionally empty.
This all said, Grimgar is not a bad show. It simply takes a few episodes to get legs underneath it because of the awkward premise. Admittedly the first surprise of the show was something I predicted a couple episodes in advance, but it still worked to Grimgar's benefit because it was the catalyst to giving Grimgar the emotional touch it was sorely missing. And while the surprise itself felt flat for me, what followed evoked genuine emotion which is no easy task once the well has been poisoned. From that point on Grimgar is a very solid show about working together, understanding one another, and dealing with loss. It's slowly paced but the watercolor backgrounds and delicate music complement the tone of the show very well. This isn't to say the fight scenes or animation are sub-par compared to other shows with this premise. Fight scene pacing can be a bit formulaic when they're dealing with fodder, but when its integral to the progression of the story it's generally good.
Ultimately however, Grimgar is unfinished, no surprise since it's an adaptation. I don't consider that an excuse though. It covered one minor arc of a story that seems destined for bigger things. With more episodes it's possible the MMO aspects could have been fleshed out into something more interesting and important. Platonic relationships between characters could have had time to turn romantic and the opening might have had more time to give the characters proper motivation to fight in the first place. In the end, while I enjoyed Grimgar, I see too much missed potential.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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