Hai to Gensou no Grimgar – 09
Ah yes, ye olde twiste and grinde technique…
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I find it quite interesting that for a show that takes it’s own time, they can actually slow down and not feel bogged down. |
Six Ways to Enjoy a Day Off
Time for the laundry and other things besides…
On average, the ninth episode of a one cour show is usually going to take it’s time and maybe “stop and smell the roses” (if it doesn’t really indulge in fanservicy beach/swimsuit/onsen spectacles) before either plunging into a new story, if part of the stopping and smelling was to see “what have we learned?”, or gather up all the threads from previous episodes and and focus on how they fit into the larger tapestry. Of course, the colour, texture, and length of given threads will vary, as will the mileage of my statement. Regardless, I’ve always loved episodes like this in general, and really loved this one in specific, with maybe one, possibly two, exceptions.
Being a breather episode, it looks like each character got what they needed in most respects. Mogu got to mull about in the kitchen and carve to his heart’s content, Ranta got away from people; something he probably needs more of than anyone else, Yume probably burned off some nervous energy, Mary maybe got a bit spoiled; I don’t know if cafe-sitting is a luxury in this world, but it seems that Shi just got to wander around and clear her head (crying into the night? goodness), while Haruhiro just likes to keep tabs, seems like he might need the off time more than them, but he does say it makes him feel a bit off up front.
From Damura to Cyrene
Oh great, this guy…
But for all the relaxing, that doesn’t mean they didn’t push the characters and story forward. I think I’ll just drop my first minor gripe here. That Kikkawa is just a sh*t-head; those spoonerisms help nothing, and how he rubbed the pancake comment in….oke-ch on a sist fandwich, dude. With that out of the way we can proceed. Despite the way the news was presented, it looks like things have shifted in the gang’s usual hunting ground; that manky old city of Damaru.
I rather dig the Shakespearean/off screen method they employed to give us that information. It suggests that the world moves on, is changed by the characters actions in discreet ways, and by happening off screen, it show the characters are powerless to control everything that happens; which sticks to the prosaic storytelling method very well. End story, lots’ more nastier goblins came back.
Crossing the bridge…
So with that in mind Haruhiro suggests changing it up, moving locations, and looking into bigger and better prey. After hashing it around they decide this is a good thing. So now we get to my second gripe. Haruhiro is more sensitive than this rather clumsy composition; suggesting they go to the bloody place that Mary lost her friends this soon feels like they, the creators, wanted to just rush the conflict and get it over with. I know they can do better than this.
They did it the very next scene in fact; but it was a cheap ticket to the destination. Once there, however, the shine was on. The superb writing was elevated by perhaps one of Anzai Chika’s best, most heartfelt, performances since just about anything she did as Reina in Hibike!Euphonium. She added so much weight to Mary’s words, really making me believe she was ready to cross the bridge. Both she and Hosoya Yoshimasa worked very well with each other, which is damn good considering some of the plonker-sorts of shows they had last year; 35th Shoutai? Oh…they never got good scenes like this one.
Love how they composed this. From closed off and scared to open and ready….
Haruhiro Gets Beat Up By Barbara…A Lot…
“Son, tell me about your interesting love life, or I’ll make sure you never have one”
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Well, I’ll drop a bit of a bomb here. I poked around the innards of the intertubes and found out that they changed up Mary’s and Haru’s scene. In the LN Mary didn’t even balk at the mention of going back to the Cyrene mines. While I can’t say anything about what happens in the LN (haven’t read, not likely to), I appreciate it going the way it did for the adaption.
I think that anyone that reads my posts knows, or should know, that I don’t fret much about what happens from page to screen. I don’t think any adaptation ruins any original source. So, I’ll get anime Mary’s back here. This is a good progression. If they would have had her do so here as she did in the LN, that would have been a dramatic brick wall. They don’t have the room to explore her mental state, that’s a luxury that print affords you. When you work on the screen, you make the story work for that time frame, and I think having her balk and then find her bravery is an excellent choice. YMMV, or course.
“I’m not fit to be leader”. C’mon Haru, it’s just a treasure and monster hunt….right?
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: iLurker with 15 comments
Man, While the anime did present some good original scene, I really encourage people to read LN regarding Mary, along with Show ▼
, in vol.2
…So now we get to my second gripe. Haruhiro is more sensitive than this rather clumsy composition; suggesting they go to the bloody place that Mary lost her friends this soon feels like they, the creators, wanted to just rush the conflict and get it over with. I know they can do better than this….
Well, this event is different in LN (I won’t say every single details since I encourage perple to read LN. XD)
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POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Well, Show ▼
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
..and since I was very forgetful last time around, welcome to Metanorn, Balanar. Good to have you around. Please feel free to leave comments.
POWUH: iLurker with 15 comments
Show ▼
And nice to meet you too. XD
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Welcome Balanar!! And yes I agree, people should really read the light novels, they do most things better there ^^. The anime did make some good changes though I admit like expanding on Moguzo, but many other things like Mary, yeah the light novel did better, in fact I believe Mary was the one who suggested going to the Siren Mines, not Haru. As for Skylion’s concern about character development, and the journey, sometimes you can make that more subtle, or even have no immediately obvious change occur. Sometimes its about learning something new about them, a new facet of them, seeing them from a different perspective/angle which in turn changes everything (or vice versa). But like you said Skylion, I think they chose to make some of these (bad te he :P) changes becuz they don’t have the time left to show Mary’s changes subtly. Ah, My tiny little sacred cows are being slaughtered as I type. This is exactly what I feared when I realised how many episodes vol 1 took and how many they had left to adapt vol 2.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Just out of curiosity, where are they in the Volumes; going by what you’re saying here I’m guessing somewhere in the middle of the second volume?
As for better? Well, prose is suited for longer passages yes, and you can get more mileage out of your story that way, but you don’t get any moving pictures nor voices nor music. There has to be a trade off. I imagine that somewhere Mary had the time to explain things, but as I said, if they would have done that in this episode it would have been very abrupt compared to what they already built up with her; maybe made her come of as a bit cold at the very least, or poorly written for the adaption at most.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Reading up comments left by other light novel readers reminded me of all the great things they changed/ left out. You get such a better feel for the characters, especially Mary, Haruhiro and Ranta from this part of vol 2 .The nuances are very different from the anime, almost like they are slowly becoming different characters from the source e.g. Haruhiro suggesting the Siren Mines for their new location was really out of character, considering how over calculating, cautious and considerate he is. Or Mary’s overdramatic trauma attack (Considering she suggested it herself in the LN it paints a completely different picture of her). There’s simply too much to talk about when it comes to these changes so I instead strongly suggest everyone find the time to read the novels if they really like this series. Otherwise you are simplify missing out on so much good stuff. Honestly ^.^
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I would suggest that if the characterizations are diverging that much, it might be better to stop trying to compare the two. You think that both Mary and Haruhiro are acting out of character based on the other source, but to me from an anime-only perspective, I thought both of their characterizations in this episode were consistent and authentic, and seem much more so than with the role reversal you indicate was in the LN.
To me, it would seem very out of sorts if Mary were the one to suggest that this group – that she’s just starting to feel more comfortable with – return to the Mines where she lost her previous friends, when they may not be as good as the other group, and she doesn’t seem particularly revenge-minded, not even as much as the rest of the group was in taking out the goblins. Similarly with Haruhiro, in hearing that the ruins of Damaro have become more dangerous, it seems in character for him to suggest somewhere else, but there’s not a lot of choice. Plus, they have someone in the party with experience there, so she could tell them if they were not ready for it.
As well, I thought that Mary’s emotional reaction to the idea was handled well, because it was obviously a trauma to her. It wasn’t like she started screaming or yelling, or had some kind of other breakdown. But her worry is certainly something that should be realized.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Well they did completely turn down Haruhiro’s second guessing of his own actions as leader and lack of self confidence this ep so you’re right about him not being entirely out of character. As for why Mary would even suggesting going to the place of her friends’ deathShow ▼
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Well, I don’t see why I should read the book, when I’m having no problems at all enjoying the show. This isn’t my first rodeo. I nearly lost a friend over discussing a situation just like this when LotR came out. I have another that is so inconsolable one could be forgiven if they assume that D&D of HBO’s Game of Thrones series personally pooped in his copies of the books. I, for myself, cannot sustain that level of anger; nor will I try to maintain any level of real bother.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I’m enjoying the anime very much for what it is. You don’t need to keep comparing it to the LNs, ProtoSovereign. They are different mediums with different requirements. Each should be judged on its own merits, unless the adaptation is bad. And this anime is far from being bad.
I found Mary’s reaction to returning to the mines where she lost her friends quite believable. They’ve shown the rest of the party having to move past the loss of Manato, so why not show Mary taking the steps necessary to move past her loss?
If she was ready to return to the mines without batting an eyelash when Haru suggested it, she would have come across as cold. Unlike in the LNs where viewpoints can shift from character to character, here in the anime Haru is the viewpoint character and he is the only one whose internal thoughts and feelings are the ones to which we’re privy. So we wouldn’t get Mary’s thoughts and realize that she’s not cold about the loss of her friends, but that she had already dealt with that and was ready to move on.
The anime handled that just right for it.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
For the record, and meaning no offense to any parties involved: please feel free to post whatever you like, so long as it stays within the rules. While I feel that it is a process of diminishing returns to focus over-much on the source material given that it’s the television program that is focused on here, I find that I would never want to silence any free discussion. Just know, that there are sharks in this tank, we like to argue, and we will eat you alive if given half a chance!!!!!
Now, about those sacred cows? LOL.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
I wouldn’t be watching this if it was bad… (Well not anymore, I’m kinda over watching bad anime atm) I’m just overly passionate after reading both available volumes during my holidays overseas. As for the sacred cows, yeah LOL lets have grilled beef for dinner. Show ▼
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Pls rescue my poor comment from the maws of Spammy the Dragon, Skylion-sama!! Ah and to sate your curiosity, its about the start of chapter 3 out of 17 chapters in total for vol 2. As for things being abrupt idk I feel its developed slowly enough in the LN Show ▼
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
It looks like they pretty much have Ranta in his place for the anime. He’s the annoying, yet still effective, sidekick with pretenses to main character. IOW, like most people…
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Lol, so you already rescued my comment, thanks. I was confused cuz the time stamp said it was 12:19am… but then I remembered I’m in Australian and Metanorn is probably not hosted anywhere near there…
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
…sometime Spammy chews on the comments to get the taste, then spits them out. Highway can tell you about the time stamps, I have to plead ignorance.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Mary’s light novel design differs greatly from the anime’s. Some readers think the anime version is too plain. What do you think?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CapcwVZUsAAdqUh.jpg
Also, the anime softens the facial features. The LN designs are more angular and somewhat improportional.
https://grimgarthetranslation.wordpress.com/volume-1/color-illustrations/
Vol 8 of the LN comes out soon!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Honestly, I think the anime version looks like a person, rather than something else like a wraith. I prefer the anime look.
Plus, the four drawings you typically get in a LN are usually a terrible source for what things should look like. That’s why animes have character designers.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
It all depends on the LN artist in question, I think. Some LN artists, like this one, have wonky art that needs correcting by anime designers.
Others are so nicely drawn in so much detail, the designers my have problems adapting them for the screen. One nice design I liked was toi8’s designs for the Maoyuu novels, especially how it got the right balance of the history and fantasy look together.
But if the anime designer is also the LN illustrator, then that’s a different case altogether.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
If I would have come across those designs first; instead of seeing Mieko Hosoi’s brilliant work on the anime character design, I would have not thought very much of the series; frankly those illustrations are pretty bland looking.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Well, now you know to NOT ask illustrator Shirai Eiri to give drawings for your upcoming novel. 🙂
Eiri is Grimgar’s illustrator, a reminder.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
That’s not a very good assumption to make. I find these illustrations to be bland. That does not mean I will find all of them bland. Plus, getting a novel published has some slim odds, getting my choice of illustrator for a first novel would be eeeeeeven slimmer.
The rest of the illustrations are quite nice. I just find the “headshots” to be uninspiring…
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
I’m sorry, it WAS rude of me to say something like that.
But if you could choose, which mangaka would you love to illustrate your novel?
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I can’t say mangaka, as I’m not overly familar with many of them; just a general style really.
But, I’ve tagged several US comic book artist to scripts I’ve submitted to companies, just to give them an idea of what I was looking at when I wrote them. Like Runaways and Ms. Marvel artist, Adrian Alphona
But that’s off the top of me head. On a related note, in the US since the 90s we’ve had “manga inspired” art, but never story…
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Myself, I’d like either Akizuki Sorata (Akagami), toi8 (Maoyuu), or Hanaharu Naruko (Gargantia) to illustrate my books for me.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Well, I guess looking at the up and coming hentai/doujinshi artists would be interesting…
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I much prefer the anime designs of the characters. The LN designs just seem off, especially Yume’s.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Hahaha that’s tough question zztop, While Haruhiro does describe Mary as an out of this world beauty, he’s not the most trustworthy narrator. Show ▼
So I do kinda agree that he anime look doesn’t quite do her description justice. You are most correct about the art being ‘somewhat improportional’ but that has a charm in its own right I suppose. Well at least anime Yume looks nice right? 🙂
POWUH: iLurker with 15 comments
LN-Mary look darker but more stylish, while anime-Mary look softer but prettier.
As for “out of this world” beauty description
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POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Lol yeah Haru’s opinion isn’t always wrong I suppose.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Uh-oh! Going by the end picture advertising Goblin’s Journey it looks like one goblin has a thing for Yume.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Well, she is on his mind, that much is for sure. At this point, we don’t know what the thing is, or at least I don’t.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
True, but she is on his mind. And given that she’s smiling and not snarling, I’d guess he’s not thinking of her as a murderer of his friends.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
…that’s a complicated relationship…and I find it strange and true that the power of goblin boners is just as silly for them as it is for humans…
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
A nice breather episode that felt quite relaxing.
After this and the last episode, I’m firmly in the HaruxMary camp, and Mary has definitely grown on me a lot from her introduction. I’ve also been a bit of a YumexRanta fan myself, so I like that little moment of him watching her as well.
So we all go to the mines now? I guess this series will end with them helping Mary overcome this part of her past, just as she helped them avenge Manato.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I don’t know how busy or barren the ports of call are in this particular land of adventure; so we’ll see about future shipping reports. As of right now, the winds are calm.
So yeah, it’s on to the mines, and to the hilariously named Death Spots.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Show ▼
Why not RantaxRanta? He seems to love himself enough for that to fly XD. Personally though idk what camp to be in. Haru himself though seems to want to entrench himself in camp HaruxMary though. 🙂
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 23 comments
I have really enjoyed this series so far. It has a subtlety other anime could use good dose of.
However, I am nervous for where this is going. I’ve been burned by anime so often I’m reluctant to fully commit to this.
BTW how many episodes is this show going to have? Is it a one off or are there plans for more seasons?
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
There really is quite a bit to absorb between the charaters; the show takes advantage of the stillness, something which I agree, lot’s of other stories should find uses for.
I have to admit, “been burned” is a bit vague, but if you don’t want to comment further, I’ll understand.
As far as I know it will have 12, possibly 13, episodes that I know of. I’ve heard a rumor that it continues as a split cour/Summer of this year series, but that’s just as rumor.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
If this is secretly split cour and Konosuba isn’t… I will cry 😀
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Same, I’m waiting with baited breathe. Maybe I’m watching it on too thin ice to even enjoy it atm. What will they do with the remaining episodes… *que scary music*
POWUH: iLurker with 15 comments
Putting all anime-LN difference aside, the anime-storyline still effectively go for season 2 if they can properly set up a little seed. That is *should be predictable*
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If they can manage to give us the same final result despite all changes, I’ll be very eager and thrilled to follow season 2 to the end. An all new experience that will lead to one of the most intriguing plot later on. *major spoiler*
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Stay tune everyone! XD
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Thanks for the heads up, and thanks for using the spoiler tag.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Show ▼
POWUH: iLurker with 15 comments
regarding the 1st *predictable* spoiler
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I shouldn’t have to clarify the 2nd *major* spoiler yet for the sake of (hopefully) upcoming season 2. XD
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Yeah Show ▼
I personally haven’t read vol 3 though cuz I’m waiting for it to finish so I can read in on my phone as a pdf.