Finished series: Hai to Sensou no Grimgar
We've finished watching Hai to Sensou no Grimgar. The basic theme is, once again, about people being pulled into a game world. But this time, there are some very interesting twists added. For one, they do not remember their 'old' lives. For second, while they learn skills and spells, and there is a 'cool-down' period etcetera, the combat is really, really gritty.
New arrivals in the world are given 10 silver, and they are instructed to become Trainees in the Volunteer Army. The country is at war, but here, at the frontier, people are needed to fight against the might of the No Life King and his monstrous minions. The Volunteer Army keeps the goblins and all in check, so that the people in the city may live in peace -- since there are no soldiers of the 'official' army to spare. But everything costs money -- even getting an official induction in the Volunteer Army costs money! If you want to eat or sleep, you need money. And the only way to get money, is to kill the goblins and kobols and loot their corpses. But there are start-up costs, such as getting training to become a certain class, armour and weapons, etcetera.
The main characters are a bunch of people who form a party after all the strong people have banded together. They are weak and always strapped for cash: in the beginning the whole party isn't even strong enough to take down a single goblin! I really like how they depict a pitched and desperate battle with a single goblin: they goblin doesn't want to die either!
But the focus is really on what the characters are thinking, how they are coping and how they interact with each other -- which I really like. The designs are very nice, and especially the background, which have a water-colour look. There's plenty of nice music to set the mood in the series, especially in the earlier episodes.
There's not much that's wrong with this series. We really liked it, and even though it has a theme that's been done to death, the twists make it really fresh and interesting. I would watch a second season of this for sure.
New arrivals in the world are given 10 silver, and they are instructed to become Trainees in the Volunteer Army. The country is at war, but here, at the frontier, people are needed to fight against the might of the No Life King and his monstrous minions. The Volunteer Army keeps the goblins and all in check, so that the people in the city may live in peace -- since there are no soldiers of the 'official' army to spare. But everything costs money -- even getting an official induction in the Volunteer Army costs money! If you want to eat or sleep, you need money. And the only way to get money, is to kill the goblins and kobols and loot their corpses. But there are start-up costs, such as getting training to become a certain class, armour and weapons, etcetera.
The main characters are a bunch of people who form a party after all the strong people have banded together. They are weak and always strapped for cash: in the beginning the whole party isn't even strong enough to take down a single goblin! I really like how they depict a pitched and desperate battle with a single goblin: they goblin doesn't want to die either!
But the focus is really on what the characters are thinking, how they are coping and how they interact with each other -- which I really like. The designs are very nice, and especially the background, which have a water-colour look. There's plenty of nice music to set the mood in the series, especially in the earlier episodes.
There's not much that's wrong with this series. We really liked it, and even though it has a theme that's been done to death, the twists make it really fresh and interesting. I would watch a second season of this for sure.