- Genre : Fantasy, Adventure, action, political
- Studio: A-1 Pictures
It’s Friday night, I’ve had a very long, very exhausting and very productive week so clearly it’s time for some Winter Games! I’m about to just start making up my own story line for this show – it’s not like the writers have any clue where this is going anyways…
Actually, I’m being really unfair here, they know exactly where this is going and they are going to get us there as quickly as possible. Watching Grancrest is like watching an epic told strictly in bullet points. I’m wondering if the manga fills in everything that’s missing from the anime but I’m calling this FantasyLite.
You all remember where we left off last week? Great! It doesn’t matter. Horrific bloodbath that could have dramatic political implications and ruin any diplomatic effort for generations to come? Like it never happened! Instead, we catch up to Theo that was sent to convince some lord to join Villar’s cause (as far as I can tell said cause is: not Marinne). Great idea, send a brand new military recruit on a diplomatic mission. I’m not being sarcastic, it was a great idea.
So Theo goes up to this lord guy apparently all alone (Theo’s alone, not the lord guy) and the lord guy (let’s call him Harvey) is waiting in front of his castle with all the villagers.
- Harvey: Sorry dude, I’m sticking with the chick
- Theo: cool, cool. I’m fine with it but my guys are probably gonna attack so you may want to take these fine folks and skedaddle before that.
- Harvey: kk – then kill me and let the peeps keep their houses.
- Theo: wow you’re super nice – I dun wanna kill you.
- Harvey: You’re nice too. I’m switching my allegiance to you!
And they never saw Harvey again….. I assume. Honestly, why is this particular lord important. I’m asking because I don’t know. Meantime my man Lassic eviscerated some Knight dude and he won too. Yay!
Strap in folks – that was basically the opening tag. This show guys, what are they running from? Anyways, another ball and another half dozen new characters later, we get a weird scene with a temper tantrum from what I assume is Villar’s ex who’s still mad about the flower arrangements (prove me wrong people, there’s absolutely no proof that that’s not exactly what happened) and we get the luminous return of that delicate gentleman who almost got married in the first episode. Ahh the first episode, so full of promise.
After some meaningless time filler, delicate lord dude, who is apparently a big deal and called Alexis has a super secret meeting with Theo to tell him…he still likes Marinne. I guess he wants Theo to pass her a note? Anyways, attempted assassination ensues, monseigneur whiskers appears for some reason (and speaks!), and the episode end on Alexis leaving on a carriage that seems to have materialized out of thin air (his first carriage having been lost when the horses ran away spooked by a dozen assassin ninjas). There was probably a more subtle way to carry out an assassination. The whole “from the shadows” aspect of the job seems to have escaped some of these fine murderers.
What can I say. At this point I’m not even mad I’m just confused and tired and mad… By far my biggest takeaway from the episode (aside from some glaring hoyay I may be imagining in desperation), is that Theo is on BFH. That’s Big Fat Hero to you! He’s personality seems to be limited to “noble”. With little to balance that out and another narrative that left me desperately trying to build something out of crumbs, I’m really straining myself to care what happens to any of these people.
We didn’t see much of him at all this episode so I’m still holding out some hope for Villar and it’s always nice to Mittens-sama (I have no clue what the cat is called) but this story just deserves better than this treatment. I don’t even understand how people can call it generic, at this point we really don’t have enough information to make that call…
Predictions
Plot: I dunno…. something something war were declared? How about this, someone will try to impute Theo’s claim to lordship? I know that’s super precise and really unlikely but at this point.
Character: An important character will get hurt.
Astral is currently traveling so he may not be able to keep up with the games this week (although he may also surprise us all) but Leap and TPAB are diligently continuing the battle. I actually love the fact that we have drastically different tastes (well I have drastically bad different tastes). I read their reviews Sunday evening to see how they contrast and it’s made these shows so much more fascinating for it. Don’t you agree?
