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Gundam Ironblooded Orphans was a great entry into the Gundam Franchise after the last few failures. It felt more grounded in reality, with protagonists that we could empathize with. Everything about the series was great. The story was good, a bunch of child soldiers struggling to make a living and better life for themselves. The art was mostly crisp, the sound was excellent, and I greatly enjoyed it.

However, without wishing to spoil, the ending is bittersweet as hell and possibly the most bitter ending in Gundam because of how the writing got screwed up around the middle of the second season. What happens knocks the ... story down a few notches as it leads to the ending, and you really can't get a sense of satisfaction from it.

It could have ended a lot worse, but it deserved better.

Ultimately, this was nothing more than a glorified commercial for Fate Grand Order. It’s a beautiful commercial, mind you, and I want more of it. But it doesn’t really have any depth on its own and relies solely on being a fan of the Fate Franchise to even understand the concepts beyond going to the past to save the future. The characters are hamstrung from the moment of its creation because they can’t dedicate any depth to them and the only one who really stands out is Caster.

If it had more episodes to build up, it could have been great.

It should go without saying that “trapped-in-another-world” anime are pretty common these days. Most of them tend to focus on the protagonist becoming either the savior of the world or some awesome badass gifted by the gods with a unique power. It makes sense, given that they were pulled into this world for some reason, but it tends to become easily predictable and formulaic.

Hai to Gensou no Grimgar (Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash), which aired in January of 2016, is different in that it follows the ordinary young men and women that end up trapped in their world, without the skills or anything special going ... for them (in the beginning at least). The grounded setting that follows their daily life as they work to make a living has made it one of my favorite anime this year.

The foundation of the story is your stock and standard “trapped-in-another-world” plot that is all too common. However, in this case the time-tested foundation is used to build a rather solid and intriguing story that explores how ordinary people would slowly adapt to their setting by showing us just how glamorous that sort of life is if you only have ten silvers to your name, a week of training under a guild, and no way to return home, in a more cynical setting without getting too grim-dark.

The setting is fairly firmly set in a fantasy world, it’s even in the name of the show. However, unlike most shows of this nature, it does a fantastic job of establishing early on that life is rather hard for those that live in it. The people aren’t exactly friendly and virtually everything costs money, meaning that if you want to live you have to work.

The characters are unabashedly human in how they behave. They’re not just archetypes that spout out heroic lines and do things for the sake of justice. They do what they have to in order to live, while sharing different opinions on it.

The animation is fluid, watercolor backgrounds, the fight scenes are done quite well when they don’t just show a still of the characters performing a technique and giving a lecture on it in the narration, and you can feel just how clumsy they are at first. There are some scenes that could be better, but it’s nothing horrible. And the music carries the tone of the show, a somber tune during the depressing moment and a placid tone during their valued downtime.

Overall, Grimgar is a Fantasy anime that has many things that I love. It is a story with a rather simple and narrow plot, people who land in a new world and adapt to it over the course of a few months. The wheels that turn the world, overarching debates on morals, and grand battles are left out of the equations to give it a more grounded exploration of these characters and the immediate setting they live in, but doesn’t shy away from the very real, very human consequences of their mistakes and actions.

If you’ve got a free day, go out and watch it where you can.

Here's my overall review of Re:Zero:

At first glance, we have a “trapped in another world” premise combined with some good old fashion heroics towards a damsel in distress with a hint of politics on the side… at least until things get dark. Then we get psychological elements mixed in due to the nature of Subaru’s power, Return by Death, and the story begins to explore human nature, how one’s perspective of another can shift depending on circumstances and interactions with the same person, and just how far you can push someone before they end up broken shell of a person.

It’s an interesting premise for sure, ... but one that can be done wrong on many different levels. What saves it from that is the fact that, despite our main protagonist being essentially immortal, Subaru is very much human in how he acts and behaves, and how just a small change in behavior or circumstances can cause a butterfly effect of epic proportions.

The setting is a High Fantasy genre, set in a world removed from Earth and filled with Beastmen, Spirits, Magic, and varying levels of technology that are rather on the low-end. I won’t call it original and there’s nothing I can say that stands out above other shows with this sort of setting. It is what it is.

The characters of ReZero are, at a first glance, what you’d expect. Subaru is the hero, Emilia is the reclusive heroine, the maids are distant, etc. However, thanks to the premise, whatever expectation you have towards these characters at that first glance are upended when next you see them. This gives them character development by showing the characters from multiple angles when faced with the same challenges.

The animation as a whole has been… well, I’ll say okay overall. The music, on the other hand, carries a lot of emotions when the show calls for it.

Overall, Re:Zero is a fantastic show that puts a twist on the “trapped in another world” story, showing the effects of having a power like Subaru’s, as well as how one can rise from tragedy and come out ahead. It does tend to have more low-points around the middle, and a lot of death, but those only serve to make the high-points sweeter. If you’ve got the stomach for it, you’ll probably enjoy it.

The premise of the story is how Chise eventually ended up in Elias’ care during the beginning of the manga series. However, because the story starts at some undefined point after that, to tie it into the source materials, it has to be framed in a way that sounds both natural and fitting for the setting. So, in order to allow us to get a feel for the characters, it’s framed through the medium of a story told to Elias by Chise upon finding a book she receives from Angelica Barlei, the woman we see at the beginning of the video.

The setting, as far as ... we can tell, is set in the modern time-period. Magical creatures, magus, and other otherworldly things exist alongside buildings, cities, and the usual trappings of society.

The characters of the story are somewhat hamstrung by the premise, namely that Chise is the primary protagonist while everyone else is basically a secondary character. Because of this, it’s… relatively hard to get a strong feel for the other characters.

The animation quite pleasing to the eyes, with no major hiccups that you’d find in some longer-running series. As for the music, I’m not an expert but even I can tell that it fit splendidly.

Overall, this is a fairly decent production and a visually pleasing entry into the series’ franchise that I find myself fond of. However, because the expected audience are readers of the manga series, this isn’t exactly newcomer-friendly in regards to the characters and setting. You really will have to read the source materials to get to know the facts better.

That being said, if you are a curious fan of the Supernatural or Slice-of-Life genres and haven’t read the series yet, this is your ticket into seeing a tiny bit of what’s in store for you and should be watched.