Now then, were do i even start with this? Guess with the fact that i don't like it too much. I don't hate it as well, and although people have a popular trend of calling everyone not absolutely praising the hell out of something they liked "haters", i'm absolutely not hating on this, or anything else i ever review, just stating my personal analysis of the show based on my knowladge of cinema, story telling, world building and character creation and development(besides, i don't think 6 is THAT bad of a score, but some people seem to disagree and go berserk over anything under 7).
The animation is pretty good, but the actual character art isn't too impressive. Backgrounds are rather good looking as well. The sound is a definite strong point too. And the technical pluses end here, now for the minuses - first of all the story. It is underwhelming to say the least. While the setting itself is a pretty good and original idea, the realization is definitely isn't. The only points where anything actually happens are very far apart, and aside from Manato's death and about two or three other points they are lacking in interest and impact.
Characters. While they are believable and even well written (well maybe aside Ranta, because beats me what's going on with him), they are in fact pretty boring, and that is mostly due to the story's slow pace and the fact that a slow paced short anime is kind of a bad idea in the first place (12 episodes with this kind of progression? you have got to be kidding me! what next, a 12 episode anime based on a page long comic strip?). Aside of Merry opening up and the main protagonist growing something slightly resembling a spine towards the end of the anime, there's no change to anyone, and frankly it would be hard to ask for it in a 12 episodes with this slow pace ( a fester one would allow for it tho).
So in the end, what is Grimgar? Its an anime about a group of misfits (guess you could have called them noobs if it was a video game) who have no talent for fighting but have no choice but to adapt to the new world they end up in. And i'm not saying every show has to be about spectacular people or events (although its a magical world where normal people end up for some reason, its a pretty spectacular setup if you ask me, how you manage to make it this uneventful and almost boring is beyond me) - but it has to be at the very least trying to keep the watcher interested.
Instead Grimgar spends over half its time on good looking scenery with nice peaceful music, pointless thoughts and debates like "I feel bad for the goblins" (why? its not a game, the fact that they are alive is obvious. except they would kill you without a second thought, and you need to kill them to earn money and survive so get on with it!), explanations of standard skills for each character (and everyone who ever played an rpg knows the equivalent of those skills and saw them a thousand times already, why is this even worth attention?), etc, and only the "leftovers" of the time are actually spent on character interaction and development, comedy and action.
Is it worth a watch? Yes, its pretty unique and has an interesting vibe to it between the music, cool background art, and how laid back it often is. But its nothing spectacular and it lacks any punch to it aside about two or three points (Manato's death, the ending, and perhaps the hugging and crying in the rain scene after Manato's death, which was actually emotional and showed some promise for development that didn't come). If i had to describe how it felt about it overall, the best combination of words would be "A lost opportunity".
