Throughout the 2010's decade, the biggest trend in anime stories was fantasy adventure, specifically to portray modern people trapped in a medieval fantasy RPG video game. Some are a bit more literal with the concept, not even trying to hide it. "Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash" (officially translated in America as "Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions") was a 2016 anime that was right on the nose. But even if the story was lazy, this type of setting is popular across all media for a reason, and there are many other ways to sell a show. Like visuals.The sheer beauty is what sets "Grimgar" apart from the dozens of similar anime to it. The environments throughout look like water color paintings in motion, with plenty of sunlight and sunets peaking through the leaves of trees and concrete pillars. The character designs themselves, while not especially unique, are also thoughtfully well designed. But those backgrounds shine (literally) and absolutely steal the show. Seriously, like water color with pastel color palettes and charcol outlines on a canvas. And sometimes with paralaxing or overlay on 3D buildings with a moving camera for a more impressive effect. If you look too closely, you might think the art looks like concept art, an unfinished version prepared before the real backgrounds were made. But nay, I say, for I have long thought concept art trumps what tends to end up in the final production, and I give high credit to A1-Pictures for having the courage and vision to see this style through. The animation itself is a bit more standard, but does put in some nice little character details in quieter moments, and have some good choreography during plentiful action scenes.OK, back to explaining the story of "Grimgar." Frankly, it's thin enough to barely take up a paragraph: without remembering who they are or how they got there, a group of modern teenagers wake up in the fantasy land of Grimgar, and quickly learn they have to make a living by killing monsters as amateur soldiers. And so they do. The main cast is a group of six that form their own team, a band of misfits left behind by the others. They seek out stray Goblins and attack in an attempt to steal whatever they carry (weapons, amulets, teeth, etc.) to sell. You know, like a video game. The show does do some interesting things with the setting, mainly in how it depicts violence. The goblins and other enemies are clearly living creatures, with their own towns and livelihood, possibly even families. To randomly attack one would make you seem like the bad guy, wouldn't it? In the first few episodes, the violence is raw, and the characters are shaken up by how it feels to sink a blade into a living creature, to have it struggle for live while you stab it again and again. But while this theme does reappear throughout the show, the story doesn't really do much with it. Similarly, the idea of having a home outside of Grimgar and how they originally got here is quickly dropped, despite its importance in the first few episodes. Instead, the story focuses entirely on the characters learning teamwork in this unfamilar environment, dealing with loss (no one is safe here, even if you are featured on the promotional art), and trying to become a family despite their differences. That in itself can be refreshing in its simplicity, if the characters weren't so predictable and/or unlikable: Ranta in particular is crude, selfish, and overtly confident, and barely grows as a character even when the story calls for it. Not to mention how the two girls of the group are treated, both instantly bonding with each other rather than any of the boys for sexual tension and avoiding and perverted thoughts some of the boys (inevitably) have, and often being the subject of ill-placed camera shots at their chest or bent-over behinds. It's clear that the entire cast was originally in their teens (between 12 and 18 I'd say, with most around 13 or 14) before arriving in Grimgar, and their awkward behavior towards opposite genders shows that (and unfortunately, the writing clearly presents this from the male perspective, sometimes in uncomfortable ways).
Annoyances aside, the slim story does succeed in being a satisfying adventure as we watch this group learn new abilities (again, this is a game and doesn't try to pretend otherwise) and move up in the world. While we don't really get an ending, we do get a satisfying break point at what we assume would be be hundreds of normal extra hours playing into the future. The action set pieces work well, and the visuals make it worth watching. The sound design is also solid, not necessarily for the music, but for the sound effects and overall design. Similarly, the voice acting is commendable in helping give emotion to it all.And man, those backgrounds... seriously, if you are looking to grow your collection of fantasy-RPG anime, "Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions" should be among the top five purely for how good it looks. If video games looked that good, I wouldn't mind staying there for the rest of my life either, even if each day was just one mission after another without a story to hold it together. As they say, in all video games, it is you, the player, that makes the story as you go. It can make even simple things seem much more important when you are involved.