Gringar's story had been rough and jumpy throughout the first few episodes, the story rather slow to include beautiful, beautiful scenery, and this time, sadly enough, is no different. Spoilers are unavoidable. Seriously.
Episode 4: Sky Dancing with Ash is apparently here as Haruhiro's stepping stones toward leadership. It all started like any other episode, slowly telling us that Manato likes animals, and that Shihoru finally talks with a boy.
After that, another one of Grimgar's timeskips. We find out all of a sudden, through Haruhiro's roll call, that everyone has gotten themselves new skills. Again, shame that everything must be packed in one roll call. But nice battle, though.
And after that battle, the group relaxed. Now, as an attempt for the anime to give some character to our heroes, it decided to do another roll-call, this time by Manato. We found out that Moguzo was the tank, Ranta was the reckless, Yume was the brave, Shihoru will always be there. Seriously, this show focuses on long, wordless shots and less time on character or story.
And then, Manato never called out Haruhiro's forte. Perhaps we'll really be focusing on him, then.
Actually, that part where Manato never called Haruhiro's name foreshadowed stuff. Seriously, spoiler alert after the next image.
They were ambushed. Haruhiro fell. This time, unlike Ranta's wrong guess at the first goblin, they were fighting against numerous higher-level (yes, I used a game term) goblins. And thy were retreating all well and good, and they escaped.
Except, Manato had been hiding a grievous arrow shot to his back. Despite the group's best efforts, he passed out after telling that he trusts Haruhiro.
Right, this scene was a little strange. One, how did Manato hide an arrow sticking out of his back while running? Perhaps adrenaline... but there was no point on hiding that. Perhaps to stop the others from concerning him? That's quite overused in some shows.
Then, he was brought to a temple, perhaps the guild where he trained, and the priest declared that he was dead. Perhaps it was a death too imminent, the death of some character who hasn't developed that much in our minds and hearts, and it did not hit quite hard. Except perhaps when the girls broke into tears.
This also made me think, that the point of this episode is simply to kill off Manato, and raise Haruhiro as the group's leader, after being trusted by Manato. At this point, I am questioning Grimgar's storytelling again.
And then, we had some (lots, actually) static shots over some emotional music. Art like this was what I waited for, not the story.
So, Manato died just for Haruhiro to take the lead, another proof of Grimgar not existing for the story. But this void in leadership could be a problem in the next episode. I'll wait.
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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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