It starts off with strangers waking up in the middle of nowhere with hazy memories of their previous life (they remember things like “cell phone” without knowing what it actually is). Then, they met a man who later told them that they should live as a volunteer army. Strong people want to be in a group with the other strong individuals, which leave Haruhiro, Ranta, Manato, Yume, Shihoru, and Mogzo to be in a group of the weak. It’s certainly problematic for them to suddenly live in a setting where life and death are separated with thin fabric, and also when they are not born to be a warrior.
The story shows a lot about their weaknesses, including on how they can’t deal with the weakest monsters, on how they live with limited resources, and on how they handle their first kill. And like I mentioned before, the story also shows lots of details on many trivial things; it uses a considerable amount of its screen time for trivial problems, which leads into a very slow pacing. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and to tell a plot after plot might not be the point of the story at all. All it does is just to show a ‘life’ in an RPG setting. In the first episode, it’s shown that the people who got awakened have certain memories of their previous life, but there’s no effort showing for the characters to unravel the mystery behind their existence. It’s just there as a plot device to introduce the story. And again, that’s not the point of the story at all.
The main characters are not the most original characters, especially for this type of anime. There is Haruhiro, the thief and the protagonist of the story (most of the story will be shown in his perspective); Ranta, the obnoxious Dark Knight; Yume, the cheerful ranger; Manato, the priest and also the leader of the group; Shihoru, the shy magician; and also Mogzo, the tank warrior who’s also calm and reserved. The charm of the characters is built up through their development. It’s how they will grow up as a team, which also the main point of the story. They will appear in each episode to answer these questions: How will you move on after something bad happened as a team? And how do you acknowledge every single of your teammates? And finally, how do you keep on going as a team?
In this anime, the monsters are not totally brainless. They have their own thinking on how they approach their hunters. They have their own characterization which makes it more realistic than any other anime with the same type.
One of the best features about the anime is its art. The background looks like a painting, which improves the mood of the story. The character designs are also good, and most of them are interesting without being over-exaggerated. Every character designs are mostly unique to its own. The animation is rather humble since there are certain errors on the screen, but most of them are tolerable. While A-1 pictures is producing 3 anime at the same time, it may seem that this anime got the lowest budget compared to ‘Gate or ERASED’. There are many rooms for improvement for the animation part in this anime that turns out to be actually better than the other two.
For the sound feature, Hai to Gensou no Grimgar has a medium quality. It’s not that great and it’s certainly not bad either. The soundtracks are rather forgettable and the concept is mediocre, but there are no soundtrack that is misused or doesn’t fit with the scene. The anime, in my opinion, uses too many insert songs. Most of them are not even necessary. And again, it’s not bad at all.
At first, it’s really hard to enjoy this anime since there are gaps of time between each episode while the anime is still airing, since the anime has a very slow pacing at the very beginning. There are barely anything happened at all in the first 3 episodes which pulls some of the viewers away. But it will improve later on since the characters are developing slowly and steady. And also the anime is actually enjoyable after giving it some time. The enjoyment in this anime is acquired through the characters’ interaction. And as I mention above about KonoSuba and this anime, they complement each other’s enjoyment due to the nature of KonoSuba being hilarious and Hai to Gensou is slow but steady.
In conclusion, Hai to Gensou to Grimgar is a hidden gem in the winter 2016 season that got overshadowed by the presence of the other anime and its weak start. It’s another stuck-in-RPG type of anime that uses a different approach to its story. The anime is to be enjoyed with time and waiting for the characters to grow up and got developed.
End of the review, in the next section I will talk about the main character, Haruhiro.
*************MAJOR********SPOILER******ALERT*****************************
I actually hate Haruhiro as the main character. He’s one of the main characters that I can’t actually stand for some moments in the anime. He’s way too obsessed with the death of his fellow and he’s trying way too hard to be the Manato. “What would Manato do?” Every time that phrases come out, I feel so sick in the stomach. He is stuck in the shadow of Manato’s death for way too long. If most people found Ranta to be unbearable, I found Haruhiro to be worse than Ranta at some point of the story. Ranta is natural, he is what he is, unlike Haruhiro who is still trying to be Manato in every decision and every time. He also complained too much about Ranta. Despite all of that, he got developed quite well at the end of the story and it’s becoming another charm for this anime.
