Hai to Gensou no Grimgar – 03
Don’t you just love the big lug?
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Well, it does look like some things are becoming much easier for our crew, but it’s still far from wine and roses. Lets’s catch up with them… |
Goblins and Eggs in Briefs…
Yume on the kill….
Well, even though they have their share of ups and downs, the crew never manages to lapse into despair. I loved this episode, as I’ve loved the two before. There is a perfect balance of laid back moments to contrast the life-and-death actions they need to undergo just to survive. We start this one with Ranta being 100 percent unapologetic about his recent “nocturnal wanderings”. Even under duress, the most he worries about is his lack of experience, and how much the wall let him down. You go Ranta! You’re well on you way to earning a special vice demon….But this isn’t just a touch of throw away banter as it later has some bearing in Yume’s discussion with Haru. I don’t think she out and out wants him to peek, but I think she’s telling him that she trust’s him to be a gentleman and a bit of peeking from him wouldn’t hurt, so long as he isn’t an arse like our dark knight.
Goblins understand how hard it is to appreciate Ranta…
As far as slice of life moments go, I do find it interesting that we go into underwear. It’s really nothing you think about most of the time isn’t it? You have a pair, until you need to change, and they you find another. It’s one thing to worry about food, as anyone can, but to worry about undergarments, that tells you you”re really missing your old life. I like how they can use moments like that to tell us just that; without laying it on thick.
…oh, and casualwear is important too…
Now, aside from underwear we do have the big lug Moguzu growing into his domestic duties. He can cleave the head of a goblin like no one’s business, but it’s even better to know he knows when to keep a stew from over-boiling. Something tells me he’ll make good use of that food that Haru thought might go to spoil; maybe even opening a restaurant somewhere down the line as some former adventurers are known to do. He can even carve his own decorations.
But for all of his moves, we can contrast to Shihoru, who has yet to come out of her shell. We’ve discussed her body image, and she has displayed a terrible amount of shyness for a girl her age, so we’ll have to go deeper into her character as the show progresses. I do wonder if team leader Manato is going to be the one to do that? He seems to have his hands full just towing the line, and this episode shows him wavering in a private moment with Haru.
Always keep the odds on your side…
So, for all the character building moments, we have to do the dive into combat don’t we? This was pretty much world-building 101 stuff; We have the Arabakia Kingdom, and our main group is exploring what used to be the human-held city of Damura. Natch they have to stick to the outskirts and work their way in. They play the game smart, not hard, and have learned not to step on each other’s toes. They hold back while fighting, looking for the right moment to attack. Which isn’t to say they’ve gotten tons better. They are still pretty low level, and very much have to improve if they want to advance beyond the goblins mooks they got here.
Whereas most high-fantasy stories would be happy to give us their slice of life moments in small doses somewhere in between huge huge action set pieces, Grimgar continues to keep things, as I said, “actual size”. We’ve all seen plenty of fantasy that stars the serious ass-kicking ass-kicker and his troop of ass-kicking ass-kickers kick plenty of kicking-ass with all the crazy power-ups and enchanted toys, and I have no doubt in my mind that this world of Fantasy and Ash has just those sorts – somewhere out there. But they can stay out there and mind their own business. For now, I am more than happy to watch this crew making the best they can of their newfound and strange arrangments, while trying to live the best life they can.
Could they be meeting a quest-giver?
On the other side…
About skylion
All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
It seems odd, but I really like that they went into so much detail about their poverty that they were talking about underwear. It just highlights how they struggle in so many ways just to get by from day to day. The characterization and pacing is juuuust right for me.
I think a lot of “trapped in a game” (or whatever you want to call this) anime focus too much on the leveling up and killing. Another rewarding part of gaming is crafting items, exploring new places, cooking, and forming a mental/physical map of new places. In fact, sometimes I like those sorts of thing more than the fighting! Grimgar acknowledges this and gives us lots of interesting scenes. Moguzo cooking really resonated with me as something I’d do if I were trapped in this world and needed to support my group somehow. He really is pretty adorable!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Yeah, it’s fun trying to fit yourself into Grimgar isn’t it. I’d be some sort of spoony bard, maybe? I like a mix of martial and magic, and I like to tell dirty stories, so perhaps I would be singing for my supper….
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
The whole underwear bit shows that the author put some real thought, or research, into his work. In a pre-industrial world making clothing is labor intensive and time consuming. Fibers have to be spun into thread (the spinning wheel was a major domestic advance–prior to that spindles were used and women would be making thread constantly), thread woven into cloth and cloth cut and sewn into garments and all by hand. Even with wages being low clothing would be relatively expensive. So the poor would be wearing mostly secondhand (even thirdhand?) clothing until it’s reduced to rags. Then they would wear the rags as long as they could.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
It’s interesting to compare this to “Gifting this Wonderful World” because both of them have a survival aspect to them. The major difference is that Grimgar plays this seriously, while Gifting plays it for laughs and parody.
Grimgar isn’t the author’s 1st work though. He wrote an earlier series, Bara no Maria/Rose of Maria; which revolved around the adventures of the androgynous mercenary Mariarose. Lasted for 22 volumes, I think. Has anyone read that one before?
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Both Highway and I have discussed how fun it is that we got two shows on opposite sides of the spectrum on one level, yet still very much alike on a few more. Good times….
I’m not aware of any of the author’s work. I’ve scanned over the fan translation of the LNs for this show, but that never really gives you insight into a writer’s personality…
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
It’s the authors’s afterwords that give insight into their personality, and that’s if they choose to talk about it at all in there.
But as I did mention previously, Grimgar’s author stated he’s not very good at socializing, and he loves online RPG games.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’m not very good at socializing either. But I wonder if the author is the same type I am? Me, I can go out and about just fine, however after about 15 minutes or so, I’m usually ready to drink the rest of the bar…Actually he’s probably the shy type…
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Another cute and atmospheric episode. I like seeing them struggle through such a world and actually survive day to day. The whole underwear thing really hit home. They never talk about that in series like this. However, it would be something you would have to consider if you actually lived there. And it’s probably even worse for the girls, because unless getting sent to this world did something to their reproductive systems, those times of the month have to be hell.
I still have my romance ships of course! 🙂 I really have it right now as Shihoru and Manato, and Yume and Ranta. It’s pretty clear that Ranta actually likes Yume if he can ever get past his immaturity and pride. But they seem to be in that classic “hate turns into love” romance. As much as I like Haruhiro, I think his job as narrator and him be kind of a bland nice guy really kind of excludes him from such a romance ship. He’s got to be there to observe the others to tell us what’s happening.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
LOL. Yeah, the things they don’t discuss! We can only cut down so deep when we go for a slice of life, right? But again, I have to hold up how well those scenes were written and directed. We’ve seen other examples where the animation goes wild and the VAs have to talk a mile a minute, going through lame jokes….I’m glad they went the other way here….
Those are some good ships, but I will add that Haru fits nicely into the triangle shape….
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Yeah I get the feeling from the hints in the show that its more of a triangle with Ranta>Yume>Haru :3
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Yep, that’s looking like the most interesting fit. Welcome to Metanorn, ProtoSovereign. And don’t let Highway’s crankiness below, get to you…
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Thanks Skylion ^.^, and yeah Highway is like that but that’s why I like reading Highway’s comments which are so different. It gives me a totally different perspective on matters. I actually found metanorn ages ago when the first season of Durarara was on, I think I was on ep 22 at the time but after reading up on durarara I think I left. Anyhow I came back to lurk a year or 2 later and then I basically lurked until my most recent first post when I had a comment I really wanted to make XD. I also read some of the old posts while watching the anime that the posts were about so I think I’ve been reading too much metanorn 😛 , time for rehab.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
As usual, you favor the wrong character. 😛 Ranta’s a brat who’s completely on the wrong path, and I would imagine that unless he starts changing, quickly and completely, he will be the greatest threat to the happiness of this group.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Ranta is a lump of barely molded clay. He’s in that weird middle land between man and boy and he still thinks the best way to get a girl’s attention is to pull on her proverbial pigtails. We’ve seen him beginning to mature a little, I would be happy to see the journey.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Yeah I feel like he’s a lonely insecure person looking for attention as hinted with he’s comments on the uses for a summoned demon. He’s probably on of those people who will do ‘bad’ things to get others to acknowledge them, even if the acknowledgement itself is negative in nature. He might also not be self confident with all that false bravado, but maybe that’s just a part of being insecure cuz its obvious he’s trying to convince himself that what he’s saying is true. btw I’m enjoying this series way too much.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’m enjoying Ranta, he feels genuine, if not a little off putting at times.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
I thought Ranta would rub me the wrong way but it is like you said so he doesn’t.
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
Man I hope the LN author realize Show ▼
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Please forgive my edit, but I thought that that was information that really needed to be in spoiler tags.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Hello, L3MPO, welcome to Metanorn.
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POWUH: iLurker with 2 comments
Thanks for the reminder.
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POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
…hahahaha I just couldn’t help clicking those spoiler tags 😛 . Now I have to spend the next few minutes erasing my memories… ok all good now!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
That’s a thing. I know everyone clicks the spoiler tags anyway. But at least this time it’s your own curiosity that spoils it, not someone’s posting it.
POWUH: iLurker with 2 comments
Are you a fan of Yume too? Man she sure becomes so popular in anime, I’m surprised. The anime staffs are doing a nice job with her fleshed-out adaptation.
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POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
I’m not necessarily biased towards any one character at this point they all seem interesting to me atm. Also I do plan to read the nanodesu translations of the LN very soon. The show is still building itself up, getting into gear so to say and the characters have only been in Grimgar for a week or 2 getting used to life. So “all in good time” is my mentality for ships in this series atm.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
For right now I’m looking at the show in general terms, so specifics, as far as shipping is concerned in on the far horizon.