We haven't really gotten anywhere in these five episodes, and to think, this is already the mid-season. Last time, we saw our heroes adjust after the drastic changes, one of them being the arrival of a new group member who seemed uncooperative. Thankfully, this sixth episode, Her Problem, while being slow, is a bit better at storytelling. A bit. Spoilers, intentional or otherwise, follow.
Quickly resolving the matter at the end of last episode by Shihoru apologizing, which turned to be a revelation for Ranta that Haru had hugged Yume 'tightly'. Not much to say but for the usual hilarious-ness. Although, Shihoru could now more openly talk with the guys, which is quite nice.
Surprisingly, we got a new OP scene. Or rather, a more boring collection of stills. But thanks for not changing the song.
What is fascinating is that Manato is still here, along with adding Mary into the team. But she seem all nice and smiling here, so what will happen in the next episodes, I do wonder?
It begins when the group meet together at the morning. Apparently Haru being courteous to Mary did get in her good side. Well, from this scene I predict that she could be a (tsundere-ish?) cliche character who had a mental injury some time ago, who will warm up slowly and will get the group together better than ever.
And we are back to where we left off after Manato died, with the group regaining some of its teamwork, killing off a group of goblins. Fine fight over a fine backdrop, all there is to see here.
Though still, Mary still keeps to her own. All efforts of our team warming up to her is not reciprocated, and she threatens to leave if Haru does not agree with her way of doing battle, passively, from the back.
And we arrive back at the tavern, where Mary sat alone. And then, a guy approaches and talks to her--perhaps a little more warmly then they did. Well, at that point I hoped that this wouldn't just be some guy important for the plot, to be thrown away next episode.
And then we have a scene where the ghost (or memory) of Manato appears. We see how much Haruhiro doubts himself, which resulted in quite an emotional scene, when the crickets stop cricketing and all there are were the voices of Haru and Manato.
From this scene, there are a couple of things I would point out. One, this is why Manato is still in the opening song. Two, the silence reminds me that so far there were no insert songs and long scenes with no dialogue. We could really go somewhere here.
A bit of another conflict is when Haruhiro and the team offered Moguzo to buy him a helmet so not to get himself as easily killed. Apparently this team effort did make Mary open up that little bit more, protecting Shihoru and more surrisingly Ranta, who she clearly hates, during a goblin ambush.
See, at the end of the day, Mary have opened up quite more, though still declined the group's offer to eat dinner. She does seem different, or in the words of Yume, "cute." (Which again shows us the preferences of Japanese people. Sigh.) This will indeed be the case of some cold-hearted woman opening up to her teammates.
And the fact that she opened up in only one episode meant that this show is really going forward.
Also, apparently that guy that talked to Mary was a party leader. Haruhiro and the others meet up with him, only to be introduced to another guy who once was in the same party as Mary.
That guy told us the classic, predictable tale where Mary was the most cheerful in their party, which was a successful one. But then, they were faced with a very strong Kobold 'boss' (if we could say it that way, as this is not a game, unlike Sword Art Online), where three members were killed. Mary, who escaped with the guy, became grief-stricken as she is now.
We could say that Grimgar shall be those cliche-filled series, who could not even beat Sword Art Online but for the gorgeous art and music. But, at the very least, we actually went somewhere through this episode, with Mary opening up to the party. We'll hope next episode shall take us farther.
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Hai to Gensou no Grimgar is originally a light novel by Ao Juumonji, and adapted into anime by A-1 Pictures.
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