Summary: Thrown into a foreign land with nothing but hazy memories and the knowledge of their name, one can rely only on fear, survival, and instinct. A group of strangers is given no other choice than to accept the only paying job in this world:
The role of a soldier in the Volunteer Soldier program, and eliminate anything that threatens the peace in their new world, Grimgar.
When all of the stronger candidates join together, those left behind must create a party together to survive. Despite its resemblance to one, this is no game. There are no redos or respawns; it is kill or be killed.
Manato, a charismatic leader and priest; Haruhiro, a nervous thief; Yume, a cheerful hunter; Shihoru, a shy mage; Mogzo, a kind warrior; and Ranta, a rowdy dark knight.
The story follows them as they try to work together towards no greater goal than simply keeping food on the table, and a roof over their heads.
But, their equipment isn't free, and it will cost money to care for it, just as it will cost money to pay a Guild member to teach them new skills and spells. When they struggle to kill even a single Goblin, 6 on 1, how will they endure?
My Opinion: This was a magical ride from start to finish. If I had to use a single phrase to sum up this show, it would be "Kill or be Killed". The show sits in this magical little niche between the gritty realism dark and edgy shows fall into, and the light-hearted revelry of friends working together in a magical world. It doesn't really suffer from the drawbacks of either extreme: It doesn't faff about with excessive romances, and it doesn't grind your face in the mud saying, "IT'S SO REAL, REALITY SUCKS DOESN'T IT".
I think the magic behind the show is that it focuses on the characters survival, to keep things moving forward. I don't mean the life-or-death fighting, but the day-to-day need to buy food, and repair clothes, and pay for lodging. In real life, you don't have eternity to mourn or lament your failings and mistakes, you need to get up for work in the morning, no matter what happens, because if you stop thinking, if you stop working, if you give up, all that awaits you is death. It keeps the show rolling, which is important for a 12-episode season.
Having said that, I want to talk about something I've noticed. I remember thinking vaguely like this before when Rokka the Six Flowers came out. Is it just me, or are people super hostile to any fantasy setting show that doesn't drown itself in almost shounen'esque shallow action? It's like the only thing people can accept coming from a fantasy settings is big flashy magical effects and battles, and characters screaming for power and bravely hero'ing it up. I understood it more from Rokka, because that show gave all of the wrong impressions of what it was going to be, but Grimgar never onces makes itself out to be full of flashy action. It's always zoomed in on the characters and their life struggles.
So let me take a moment aside to tell you: This show is very close to being a straight up Slice of Life genre. It just happens to be a Slice of Another World's Life.
I happen to think it's wonderful, but every episode on crunchyroll had several comments bitching about either the pacing, the characters, or just in general nit-picking everything. Hilariously, they even nit-picked about how Haruhiro gets riled up by and nit-picks everything Ranta says and does. Hypocrites criticizing hypocrites eh? It sometimes amazes me that people fail to see that characters acting hypocritically is a Human trait.
To be fair, the characters have a bevy of old archetypes on display, but for once, I think they felt natural. It's very rare you find anyone who isn't a narcissist, that is perfectly happy with every aspect of how they are. To me, it makes the characters more human, that they endeavor to grow outside of who they were yesterday.
The entire time, I was just waiting to hate Shihoru for being the shy-quiet archetype...but I didn't. She actually puts in the effort to grow. In a longer running season, would I have expected her to completely leave her shy nature behind and become out-going and boisterous? Ha, hell no. Anyone with a scrape of sense in their head knows that people don't change so easily. It's not a matter of her changing her nature, or any of them changing their nature. Rather, it's a matter of them becoming more comfortable with who they are, and realizing that they don't have to be someone else to fit in and get along with others, even people they don't like. Ideally, if you have the option to avoid someone you don't like, you do. But life is never so simple, and sometimes you have to put up with people you dislike or hate, and that's a good thing, because it helps you to grow as a person. To learn how to accept things as they are, and work with them.
That's this show in a nut shell, besides the touchy-feel-good moments all over the place. A group of individuals, learning how to live with each other, because they have to, if they want to survive.
Normally, I include an Impartial Opinion section, to basically try and summarize how my opinion of a show changed throughout its run, and what I think of the show overall at the end, but...
I watched Grimgar basically all at once. So my opinion exists only for the whole, didn't have time to let it slowly develop week by week. Since I didn't have the chance to deduce misconceptions, or make assumptions on what would happen next, I don't really have any fallacies to dispel. So I believe my simple opinion will suffice this time.
All things accounted for, this show was:
Great
and I give it a whole-hearted Recommendation.
So long as you understand you're getting into an almost Slice of Life show, where the draw is the characters and their story, there's a lot to love here.
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