Oh, boy, this series. This was one most anticipated animes this season because I love a story that goes deep into politics, philosophy, and morals. Stories about characters who either fighting for what they believe in and/or their country but also might be struggling with themselves while also struggling to figure what is truly right and what is truly wrong.
This anime had all the potential to be just that, but from the very beginning it has struggled to maintain a proper flow. What's worse, there was honestly no reason for it to be like that. As of now, this anime has made me more appreciative of A-1 product that everyone else hated. And I'm probably going to piss some people when I bring up that one anime so I ask you to please bear with me when I do bring it up.
SIMPLE TO UNDERSTAND
The premise of this anime is simple enough to understand, especially if you're long time fan of fantasy novels. Medieval/Renaissance fantasy setting, complete with magic, creatures, castles, and battles. Those who hold a title do not posses their through a magic sword, but instead a magic crest, hence the title. Naturally, wars are fought over these crests in addition to everything else that goes along with it.
The series take on politics well done for the most part. Some people have called Grancrest the "Game of Thrones" anime and it pretty much is except without all the sex and nudity, for the most. For me though, this anime reminds me more of Tad Williams Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy which I read back in high school. You have characters here who are caught up in a war that's being fought for the wrong reasons yet they have no choice but to see it through.
All of this has the making for a good fantasy epic... except there's ONE major problem. THE PACING.
DIFFICULT TO FOLLOW
The pacing of this anime is all over the place, and it is what's killing this show right now. And what's worse, there's no fucking reason for it! Right from the start the show just rushes to get the next battle or the next political talk or whatever without ever slowing down! If this was twelve episode one cour anime then yeah, I could understand why they would do that because they would have so much to tell yet little time to do it. But since this is a twenty-four episode series, they have plenty of time to tell the story properly! But they're not!Iin the end you're left asking yourself: Why? Why are they rushing so much when they don't need to?!
Now I know some of you are going to be saying, "It's A-1 Pictures, DirectorK. What do you expect? They always botch things up and that's why they suck." I'd be inclined to agree to you, but... I have two reasons not to.
One, A-1 Pictures is not the only anime studio out there who have made mistakes like this. Every studio out there, young and old, anime and Hollywood, have had their own fair share of hits and misses. So in the end, it would be cheap of me to blame it all the studio just because everyone else hates it for whatever reason.
Second, as much I agree with the people who bitched about The Asterisk War, another one of A-1's light novel adaptations, if there's one thing the studio did right with that show it was the pacing. Now don't get get me wrong, TAW does have a shit ton of problems, but at least the studio handled the story's pacing surprisingly well. A-1 actually went out of their way to tell the story properly despite the generic tropes and cliches. In other words, TAW was easy to care about if your really tried and ignore all of its problems, unlike this show which leads me to my next point.
DIFFICULT TO CARE ABOUT
In a story that is as big, deep, and powerful as this one, you need to have characters that you can care about and follow from start to finish. Unfortunately though, because of the botched pacing it's damn near impossible to care about any of the main characters. Why? Because they're never given the time to develop properly because the anime is more focused on other things getting through them as fast as it can. And any characters you do manage to care about either disappear after a time, possibly never to appear again, or they die.
The side characters aren't any better. They only serve the purpose of moving the story along in rushed manner, making you wonder why they even put them there in the first place. Then you have the characters you really couldn't give two shits about or just outright hate when they start making stupid decisions. And since I'm on that subject, I might as well bring up what between Marrine and Mirza at the end of episode nine. If you've been following this series you know what I'm talking about.
BEGIN RANT
Now I understand why people were disturbed and outright hated that scene, but you need to remember what time period this story is set in because this kind of thing happened quite a lot. Hell, what do you think Game of Thrones is all about? That kind of thing happens almost every season! If you're a GOT fan you should be used to this sort of thing by now.
In Marrine's case, I understand why she did what did. After seeing what Mirza could do in battle she would rather have him as an ally than an enemy. As a leader of a nation, it is her responsibility to care both her people and her soldiers. And that requires making difficult decisions. However, with all that being said, what Marrine did there was just plain... STUPID.
Now again, I understand why she did it, but I find really hard to believe that a woman of her stature would lower herself to that level. If would have made more sense if she had been forced into that situation or if Mirza had approached her instead of the other way around. What's worse, is that she doesn't even take the time to think it over! She just immediately goes along with Mirza's proposal as though she's done this sort of thing before! Like seriously, come on!
I honestly have to give Mirza credit for not only going through with it, but also keeping a straight face when she agreed right away without hesitation. If it were me, I probably would have burst out laughing and said, "No, sorry. You're not worth it. Thanks for the offer though!" and left. I say that because it was very clear that Mirza was only testing her and that he wasn't being serious. I honestly don't what he was trying to gain out of that, other than the obvious, but seeing how he's suppose to represent the Arab culture of this world... well, I think we all know just how badly women can be treated in that part of the world.
I was actually aware of this scene before that episode aired and I was hoping they would change it but even that was too much to ask. it wasn't act itself that disgusted me it was the fact that it made Marrine look so pathetically weak! Both as leader and as character! All she had to do was to say no and to stand her ground because Mirza probably would have joined her anyway. Then again, maybe that was the entire purpose of that scene. It was designed to show just how much of a coward Marrine truly is and that she'd been waging a pointless was from the start.
END RANT
So, getting that little rant out of the way, I'm going to bring up The Asterisk War again in comparison to the characters of this show. Despite the characters being the typical tropes, as you would expect out of a harem anime, TAW managed to make the characters likable in a way that you could get behind and follow them because they were given proper character development.
To put it simply, when you have one anime that is generic while the other isn't yet has better pacing and character development than the other, you know something's wrong. And it's a damn shame because I really want to like these characters but so far this anime hasn't given me a reason to.
WHERE TO GO FROM HERE
The pacing needs to slow down and the characters need to be developed more. Grancrest Senki has gotten off to a really rough start and that needs to change through the second half if it wants make any significant impact. However, I am worried that since they rushed through so much the studio may not have enough material to get through another twelve episodes and that may forced to put in some pointless filler. The show still has potential, but it's going to be really interesting to see how A-1 handles it from here.
I'm DirectorK and until next time, stay tuned!
