Grimgar's story is the same as the other “trapped in an MMO” plotline that follows. A number of people are brought to the world of Grimgar with no memories of their previous lives and they are brought forward to become adventures to survive. The story promptly ends there as Grimgar then focuses on a party of characters, how they interact with one another, and how they cope with their sudden thrust in to hunting monsters to make a living. Unlike other shows that try to focus on a plot, game mechanics, and the world, Grimgar instead chooses to focus on the main characters and how the harshness of being thrown in to something you have no knowledge about.
The idea is fine. There is no problem with the direction that Grimgar attempts to go. The reason why the focus falls apart is because the characters are excruciatingly plain and boring. The main characters have no defining personalities. They lack any depth to their characters. Even halfway in to the show I can barely explain a character to someone who asks me about main cast.
“Hey, can you tell me about that mage girl?”
“Err... Well, she's kind of shy. And uhh... Umm... Her name is Shihoru.”
“Okay, what about the the large guy with the big sword?”
“He's a warrior. He uhh... doesn't talk much. And I guess he likes to carve wood.”
“Well this is lousy. What about the MC? You should be able to tell me something about him right?”
“Err... He... Uhhh... is the MC. Yeah.”
The characters of this show are like white paint drying on a wall. Even as tragedies befall them and they cry to show some semblance of emotion, you end up not caring for them nor do you really empathize. When they speak the dialogue that follows is a jumble of generic interactions. Even Ranta, the character that is suppose to be the loud high-energy guy with his perverted jokes and shouts ends up just being another obnoxious character you can't care for. The few words or tropes you can ascribe to them, and the few character development they go through are marked by cliches. I could go to a local coffee shop and listen in on to two people and their conversation would be more interesting than this show.
The core problem of Grimgar is that it fails in what it tries and forgets about everything else. The story abruptly ends in the first episode, the skill system and game mechanics are only ever briefly mentioned, the characters never go out of the town they reside in and fight goblins for half of the show. The only praise that I can give Grimgar is the first party encounter against a goblin where the fight is executed well and manages to convey the difficulty of trying to kill a living being just to steal its loot. After that the show takes a beeline in to snoozesfill.
