Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash “Whisper, Chant, Prayer, Awaken” Review – A Tabletop RPG Inspired Anime

<p>Very few anime shows grab me&comma; but <em>Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash<&sol;em> has me hooked with the first episode&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Whisper&comma; Chant&comma; Prayer&comma; Awaken&comma;&&num;8221&semi; thanks to a promisingly funny cast&comma; good writing&comma; and a unique hand-drawn sketch-like art style&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Not knowing what and where they are from&comma; this anime follows a cast of characters in modern clothes trying to survive in the <em>Dungeons and Dragons<&sol;em>-esque world&comma; Grimgar&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s an interesting concept&period; What would it be like if we were dropped into a situation like that&quest; What&&num;8217&semi;s fascinating is that they remember speech from their old world as one of the characters say&comma; &&num;8220&semi;It&&num;8217&semi;s not a video game&period;&&num;8221&semi; The main character&comma; Haruhiro&comma; mentions that they speak words that they remember&comma; which don&&num;8217&semi;t make sense in the world they are in&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;99503" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-99503" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-99503" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;04002434&sol;grimgar-fight&period;jpg" alt&equals;"grimgar of fantasy and ash 1" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"450" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-99503" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash<&sol;em>&comma; FUNimation&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In this new world&comma; they have to strengthen themselves and defeat monsters for the voluntary army to gain money&period; They can also sell whatever loot they get from fallen monsters like horns&comma; fur&comma; etc&period; If you are a fan of <em>Sword Art Online<&sol;em>&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll probably like this series &lpar;or at least this episode&rpar; because it&&num;8217&semi;s actually from the same studio who made it&excl; If you are a <em>Dungeons and Dragons<&sol;em> fan&comma; this might appeal to you too&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The writing of <em>Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash<&sol;em>&comma; while cringeworthy at times due to some sexual innuendo&comma; has been stellar so far with a likable main character &&num;8212&semi; who is annoyed that everyone thinks he has old eyes &&num;8212&semi; and a cast of characters that banter off each other well&period; However&comma; a perverted innsman near the beginning of the episode feels out of place and made my skin crawl&period; He is the character who is supposed to introduce us to how the world of Grimgar works&comma; but it just came off as awkward&period; A discussion about flat chested and big breasted women was in this episode too&comma; which once again felt out of place and screamed fan service to me&period; It took me completely out of the story&comma; and it felt forced&period; Unlike <em>Sword Art Online<&sol;em>&comma; it seems as though there will be a progression of skill and strength for the characters&period; They each learn a different class and train under a master&comma; and at the beginning&comma; they fumble and struggle to fight off just two goblins between the six of them&period; It reminded me of when I first played <em>Dungeons and Dragons<&sol;em> and how horrible your characters are in the beginning while laughing at the same time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The art style is similar to <em>Sword Art Online<&sol;em> and <em>Fairy Tail<&sol;em> with clean animation throughout&period; Everything looks bright and the environments around the characters are drawn like a watercolor painting&period; It looks wonderful and brings personality to the world&period; The establishing shot of each town and location is also given by a sketch like drawing&period; Each character design looks like it would fit in a <em>Dungeons and Dragons<&sol;em>-esque setting&comma; but they also provide that Japanese anime flair that people love to cosplay in&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;99484" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-99484" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-99484" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;02&sol;04002533&sol;grimgar-town&period;jpg" alt&equals;"grimgar of fantasy and ash 2" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"448" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-99484" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash<&sol;em>&comma; FUNimation&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The sound design and the English voice acting are top notch&period; The sounds of animals in the woods and the flow of water unspoiled by the modern world around us sound wonderful&comma; and the clashing of swords is exactly what you expect&period; The voice actors give great performances and clearly reflect the personalities that the anime is trying to portray&period; Some of the voices may sound a bit mature for the characters sometimes&comma; but overall&comma; the cast sound natural while speaking to each other&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Definitely give <em>Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash<&sol;em> a go and see if you like it&excl; The story is intriguing with these modern day characters being thrust into a tabletop-RPG like setting&comma; and the production quality from the animation to the sound design is top notch&period; However&comma; the out-of-place fan service scenes could take you out of the story and the world that the anime is trying to present&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;