Hai to Gensou no Grimgar - Episode 1: Startlingly Beautiful

A friend recommended me of this new show, Hai to Gensou no Grimgar (灰と幻想のグリムガル, Grimgar of Ash and Fantasy), praising its beautiful style. I have thought about it for a while, so I immediately downloaded. Just watched it last morning, in the bus. Some spoilers will be present in the following review.

The first scenes of episode 1:  Whisper, Chant, Prayer, Awaken, did not disappoint. We were immediately introduced to this amazing, watercolor-esque art style.

A scene several seconds into the first episode. A lovely fight on a lovely backdrop.

The story started with a goblin fight. All I could say, is that it is quite nicely directed. It was quite fluid for my eyes, or perhaps that was because I was too much distracted by the fascinating art style. Last time i was too distracted by the scenery was, I think, Shigatsu (which was also made by A-1 Pictures). No 'comically funny anime expressions' to ruin the show, and jokes (shamefully, with a bit fanservice) doesn't hurt.

Looks like the whole team is already quite comfortable with each other. I haven't memorized all those names yet, except Haruhiro. Hope he'll be memorable. Shame for him to not be for a show this beautifully painted. His friend is the usual show-off, ladies-man type of character, though. Also a shame if he can't be made memorable.

Then we get to see when everybody arrived at Grimgar. Interesting, they lost their memories. I do wonder whether this could transform into something like SAO. I hope better.

After that, sadly, they opted to tell, not show, each other's path, and just a quick peek at Haruhiro's training. Perhaps the author could have invested more time in the timespan... timeskips like in SAO could be painful to the mind. But, they'll do what they'll need to do in order to fit a series in a dozen or so episodes.

Jokes and fan service unavoidable in anime. Just please, don't let it spoil an epic fight.

Audio. Nothing too distracting to complain from the voice actors, nor the sound effects. Music was fine and calming, though I never pay too much attention to background music.

So, overall, the first episode showed lots of promise with its amazing watercolor-looking art style. I just hope the story will be complex enough to etch into the memory.

I'll close with the show's closing scene:

next episode review

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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.