Pacing is all over the place in Gleipnir and it’s kind of hard to watch some episodes because of that. My main issue is that it takes way too long for them to present anything interesting and when they do, it’s killed off in 2-3 minutes and you don’t get any enjoyment from it; it’s lackluster.
Slow pacing isn’t inherently bad and can feel rewarding if done well, but unfortunately Gleipnir has some issues with that. To illustrate this point further, the character introduction feels completely skipped as we’re given some surface-level knowledge about the characters of this show. What follows these characters and their relationships feels very rushed and we’re not given any time to digest these characters. In one episode, our main character and the heroine are introduced, and in the next episode it feels like they’ve known each other for years. It gets even more ridiculous towards the end as we – the audience – have to use our imagination to fill in the gaps of their relationship, and more particularly, figure out as to why these characters are together in the first place.
While Gleipnir certainly had several interesting ideas, unfortunately none of them were even remotely explored. At the start of the show, we get some dialogue about how it was Shuuichi and Clair’s destiny or fate to meet each other. This is an interesting concept and could have foreshadowed something much bigger going on as both of them explore this new setting they’re in, however that never happened. Instead, we got a story in chunks or bits in what almost feels like a random order and after we had to connect everything to make sense of it. To be fair, it’s not difficult to follow and the story is for most part linear. However, at times it feels rather disconnected and random. In addition, we almost never get any explanations, things just happen and that’s it. Even the reason for both of our main characters to fight is never properly explained. I questioned myself multiple times throughout the show with the following question: “why can’t Shuuichi just walk away and revoke his powers?”
That is one of my main concerns of this show, namely the characters. I did mention earlier that they’re serviceable and that’s true. Thankfully, the author never needed to introduce inherently dumb or stupid characters to this show to make things work from a narrative perspective. That, however, does not make the characters of this show any better. Shuuichi is a blank-slate main character who wants to live a peaceful life. Clair is someone who drags Shuuichi in and actually fills him as a character. I was actually intrigued with how well this dynamic worked out and while it is quite typical, it’s done well in this show. You can say that Shuuichi is a passive main while Clair is reactive. This means that Clair moves the plot along while Shuuichi is moved by the plot. This is exactly what makes this dynamic stand out as opposed to other similar dynamics.
While their dynamic is certainly executed well, the same can unfortunately not be said about them as characters. They’re quite typical with Shuuichi being a whiny little prick and Clair being a brat. Though, Shuuichi’s character supposedly “develops” but more on that later. I wish Shuuichi had something clearly defining about him as well as Clair but they weren’t really defined by anything. In addition to that, they never had any motivation regarding anything until much later in the series. This made it a drag to watch because not many plot points were established from early on.
About Shuuichi’s supposed “character development”, there isn’t much to say about it apart from it being really, really forced and out of place. Shuuichi’s character experiences so many tonal shifts and shifts in behavior that you might find him bipolar – and honestly, I thought that was kind of what was going on. I really didn’t like his “edginess” without a proper setup. At times, he had no reason to be pissed but he was acting up with his friends and saying weird things.
Clair, on the other hand, never got as much attention or any sort of development where we see her grow – in fact, we do not get to see how her character changes at all. It is rather shameful because she had a lot of room for development but instead we get to see her asspull survival strategies and having plot armor when it’s needed.
It is also a shame that these characters never got any sort of inner monologues or something that could have made us – the audience – more immersed and understand how these characters think and what they do, instead of second guessing everything.
A major disservice in this show were the fights. How do I begin describing the fights? Well, they’re rather short. They’re rather short, and by extension anticlimactic. A fight begins and a blink later it’s over. Everything else is padded out by fan-service, unnecessary dialogue and redundant exposition.
Fan-service wasn’t terrible in this show, it was alright. They did have a more subtle approach to fan-service with Clair being half-naked for 90% of the show’s runtime. This more subtle approach works well with the tone that this series has set and there is no over-the-head ridiculous ecchi stuff going on and that’s what I actually liked in Gleipnir.
As for the music, I really liked the music for the fights. Some rap-esq beats, dubstep and a lot of other crazy music mixed in which fit very well with the show in my opinion. The opening wasn’t terrible, not so catchy. I didn’t give any attention to the ending.
Animation for the show is really good, things are fluid, and characters aren’t off-model too many times. The animation for the fights felt were very good, especially the last fight. It is a shame that this show is only available in 480p or 720p as that 1080p resolution would have been a lot better and sharper looking. I really liked the art style, especially Shuuichi’s ability and the shadowy abilities. I also liked Subaru’s ability as it was unique and something you don’t see too often.
In all honesty, I liked Gleipnir. It was enjoyable and very entertaining. You have to consider that there isn’t an awful lot of humor in this show – or, any jokes for that matter which is a shame. However it does create a more immersive narrative and goes well with the general dark tone that they’re setting for this show. When going into this, I’d recommend just watching the first 2 or 3 episodes to see if this is your cup of tea but not much happens throughout the entirety of the show. It does have its dark turns and twists and I’m glad that the show didn’t succumb to sheer edginess and actually tried telling its story. With all of that being said…
CLAIR GET IN THE FUCKING TEDDY-ROBOT.
Ratings:
Story 6/10
Art 8/10
Sound 8/10
Character 5/10
Enjoyment 8/10
Overall 7/10
