(There will be SPOILERS in my review)
[Story]: (7.5/10)
A group of people have been unknowingly transported into an unknown world and 6 people from the group formed a party together to survive this world where death is a high possibility and the chances of being brought back to life is non-existent.
You know how many times I dropped this show? Two.times. I gave this show 2 chances just so I can finish this show from start to end which is going to be the first show that I managed to finish after giving it 2 chances. Now, how is this relevant to my review, you ask? Here's your answer. The reason why I dropped this show two times is that god-forsaken horrible f*cking pacing for the first 4-5 episodes. It was unbearable and and I was literally forcing myself to stay awake because my eye kept closing every minute. If you take a look at my list, you can see that I have a good track record of watching slow pacing animes and giving them a score of 9 (even Fate UBW) but Grimgar is not one of them. I understand that what Grimgar was trying to do was show how a beginner like them will do against a Goblin and what they'll do to overcome that weakness but they did not do it right.
I can summarize to you what's going to happen in the first 5 episodes. The characters have a conversation, they go out, fight a goblin, they either win or lose and they walk around the village until the episode finishes. The latter was just so badly done because what you're seeing is literally just a slideshow of them walking around the village and an out-of-place insert song playing in the background. I'm not saying the insert song was horrible or anything..In fact, it was a great song but it was so out of place. For a dramatic song like that, I expect them to use it when someone dies but no one died in that scene. Therefor, to me, it was out-of-place.
Ranting aside, one of the reasons why I liked about Grimgar is its realism..Even though I didn't like the pacing, what I did like is how the characters don't go all "super saiyan" mode and they don't suddenly turn overpowered just for the sake of advancing the plot. Fighting in this world is extremely dangerous and characters can get hurt or die any time, no matter how important they are to the story. We see the characters planning out on how to kill the Goblins and executing said plans to achieve it and just like how life won't always go the way you planned it out, the same thing happens here. Their plans can fail at any time. It's also refreshing to see the characters struggling to kill a single Goblin (one of the most weakest enemies) which is a rarity in the medium. It shows us that killing a living being is not that easy. Also, just because Grimgar has similar resemblance to a RPG world doesn't mean that death can be taken lightly. In Grimgar, death is final. Once they're dead, they stay permanently dead with absolutely no chance of being revived.
As I said above, Grimgar did a great job exploring realistic themes such as poverty, coping with death and survival. Since I already talked about the latter, I'll only talk about the first two. For the first one, I never expected an anime to explore such theme. I mean, I was very surprised when I saw the characters not only struggling to fight a weak enemy due to their lack of fighting experience but to also struggle just to meet their necessities. At the end though, we see them overcome this issue by working hard, just like real life. You don't just get whatever you want by doing nothing. The 2nd one is coping with death which is the main focus in the 2nd half. When Manato died in the first half, he wasn't just swept out of the show just because he's gone. He still played a huge role in the 2nd half, either by the way he affected the party's performance or by appearing in Haruhiro's imagination. It tells us that he still lives on even though he's gone. The coping with death and many more aspects like the character development (which I'll explain down below) was so well done that the 2nd half made me forgive the flaws that the first half had and bumped my score from 6 to 8.
"Bring ooonn the fanservice!" /sarcasm
There really isn't a lot of fanservice in the show but there's still a few fanservice throughout the show. Half of them used as comedy and half of them focusing on Yume's ass. What is it with A-1 Pictures and ass shots? In SAO II (Another show by A-1 Pictures), Sinon's ass shots dominated the show and in here, Yume's ass shots can be seen in almost every episode. I guess I have a new name for this show.. "Grimgar of Yume and her Ass".......No? I'll stop.
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[Art/Animation]: (7/10)
The character design may be great and the art style may be unique but this is one of A-1 Picture's inconsistent animation I have ever seen. The action scenes are sometimes a pain to watch because of their use of still shots and there was one scene where the characters' legs weren't animated and the characters looked like a bunch of cardboard cut-out going up and down to make them move.
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[Sound]: (8.5/10)
There is a lot of out-of-place insert songs in this show which would explain why the animation was so inconsistent and the constant use of still shots in action scenes. They most likely blew all their budget so they could pay that girl ( (K)NoW_NAME ) who sung all of the insert songs, including the OP and ED theme songs. Now the OP and ED theme song(s)
The OP theme song is Knew day by (K)NoW_NAME and the ED theme song is "Harvest" by (K)NoW_NAME. The OP theme song, for me, is just average and I don't think I'll ever listen to again. On the other hand, the ED theme song is one of the best dramatic song that I have ever heard. If A-1 Pictures is going to make another anime that will make people cry, they better hire (K)NoW_NAME because she can do a dramatic song that can make people cry.
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[Characters]: (9/10)
Grimgar's character growth can be explained in one word..Amazing! Unlike SAO or any other Action/Adventure Fantasy shows out there, the characters literally start out as a bunch of weak party who can't even defeat one of the weakest monsters ever. As you watch the show from start all the way to the end, you'll notice how much these characters have grown and it's making a guy like me cry for weird and unknown reasons. It's like watching your kid who can't do shit to a person who can take care of himself.
Manato's death also contributed to the party's growth. That is so wrong for me to say but that's what happened in the 2nd half if you watch closely on how this party grew from a bunch of incompetent f*cks who can't even defeat one goblin to a competent party who works together to defeat multiple goblins. That's not to say they've become an overpowered party though. They just learned how to work together and how to get stronger.
When Mary joined the party, she turned out to be one of the worst characters I have ever seen.....or so I thought. I guess that's what character development does to you. It explains why Mary was so cold towards her party members and why she's so stubborn when it comes to healing her party members. It was a rather depressing flashback if I say so myself. Mary eventually got along with Haruhiro and his party because the party understood what was going through her mind and they helped her overcome whatever her problem is. She turned out to be one of the best and fleshed out characters I have ever seen.
Same goes for Haruhiro. He started out as a bland protagonist but when Manato died, it affected him greatly because he was the best leader the party had and this inspired Haruhiro to become a great leader for the party because he knows that only he can do it. He also cares about other characters' feelings and when Mary joined the party, it became even more noticeable that his character has great leadership skills because he cared about Mary's feelings and he did everything he could to help a party member, which in this case, is Mary.
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[Enjoyment]: (8/10)
Grimgar pissed me off in the first 5 episodes because of how poorly the pacing is handled. By the way, this is coming from a guy who watched a lot of slow pacing animes. After 5 episodes though, the show gets a lot better and it turned out to be a good show but not the greatest.
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[VERDICT]
"Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash" managed to dug itself out of the grave after the 5th episode and turned out to be a good show out at the end. However, if you can manage to ignore the infuriating pacing at the first 5 episodes then this might be one of the best A-1 Pictures anime for you because while the story may be decent, Grimgar has one of the best character developments I have ever seen. There's also Grimgar's realism which is the first ever realistic Action/Adventure Fantasy anime as far as I know. If you're looking for a show that has a similar premise to SAO but done better then this is the show for you.
[OVERALL]: (8/10)
Pros:
+Grimgar's realism in so many aspects
+Show explored realistic themes such as poverty, survival, coping with death and etc.
+Unique Art style and Great Character Design
+Amazing Character Development
Cons:
-Infuriating Pacing at the first 5 episodes
-Out-of-place insert songs in the first half
