It’s time to take a look at Granblue, one of those classic adventure type anime. It does a good job of letting you know that it’s based on a video game because there are a ton of characters and concepts running around throughout the series and there isn’t really time to get to all of them. Perhaps more of them will show up in the next season but you get the feeling that this is a title that will hit all of the major points, not necessarily bothering with the smaller ones here and there.

The series follows a guy named Gran who lives an ordinary life in his village. He has a pet dragon named Vyrn and the guy has trained in the ways of the sword although he hasn’t yet had to use it in combat. His chance arrives when a girl named Lyria falls out of the sky and the government wants her. Gran fights off the attackers and a knight named Katalina appears who will help out as well. Despite this, Gran is quickly murdered in his first boss fight so Lyria links her life with his by splitting it in half. Now they are bonded and he can even have a glimpse of her impressive summoning abilities. It’s starting to become a little more clear why they want her. The heroes now have two main goals, to find all of the crystals for Lyria that have a summoning monster and stop the empire, while also getting to the final island where Gran’s father should be. Gran got a letter from the old man that he would be waiting for him there.

Along the way the characters meet more adventurers and buff up the party. So why exactly do I say it feels more like a tie in than a full adaption? It comes down to the character designs. For example the heroes will be wandering around when they see a shop owner with a really detailed design offering them a handy item. You get the feeling in the game this was probably a fun little side quest or something and then you would unlock the character. The climax of the season also really puts this into perspective as a ton of random heroes show up to use their signature attacks and save the day.

I should say right now that this is pretty awesome. I imagine that hardened fans of the series probably got an extra big kick out of this but I would say that even non fans should be able to have fun with it. Cool designs are cool designs after all right? I dare say that quite a few of the guest stars seemed like they would even be more fun than the main cast. The thunder guy reminded me of a character from Draglade. Then you have the swordswoman who was like Erza mixed with Rin. A lot of potential here and maybe they’ll show up in the next season but of course it can be hard to balance this. Not every character is going to be able to be able to get their own moment after all. That just would not be possible.

So this is like when you’re reading one of those comics where at the end it reminds you to check out the movie. The show can still hold up on its own to be sure but you will be tempted to check out the games afterwards. Beyond that, the production values for the series in general are good. There’s nothing here that I would say is great by any means, but it’s definitely not poor which is the important part. The animation has some nice cuts like when Gran is dodging energy blasts or clashing with soldiers. While this may be a bit of a diss, I actually thought Gran’s quick fight in the first episode was the best battle. Not necessarily the best animation but you really felt the weight behind the blows.

There were a few fights later on where the characters are clashing but you don’t feel quite the same level of impact. Then you have the soundtrack which is also good. There are some solid tunes here and there. It is not very high tier or anything but they work well enough with the show. The opening is rather weak though, I think they definitely could have done a much better job there. It’s sort of soft for an adventure title like this.

The pre arc was a good way to get used to the characters. Gran is a solid main character who you can always count on to get the job done. He may not be the most powerful and he’s no genius but when the chips are down he gets the job done. I don’t have any issues with him and it’s always nice to have a sword fighter as the main character. His pal Vyrn is okay as the animal mascot kind of character. He never really stands out or does much in the fighting but he’s a good guy so I guess that’ll have to do. I can usually take or leave a character like this. Ultimately he won’t affect my enjoyment of the show one way or the other.

As the main heroine Lyria does a pretty good job. She’s unfortunately not all that good at fighting but is always ready to jump in there and help Gran when needed. Her summoning abilities are absolutely super handy as well so you definitely can’t count those out. She maybe keeps to herself a bit too much which lets the villains manipulate her a bit though. Mainly near the end of the series this became an issue but it was the one main time where she didn’t look so good.

Katalina is one of the better characters as she is a great fighter and does a good job of looking after Lyria. She is one of those all around characters who can work as the main fighter or be an assist as needed. You definitely want someone on the team to have that level of variety as needed. I think she may need a power up at some point though. While her skills are very good, she is basically a normal swordswoman while the other characters have elemental attacks and various supernatural abilities. I’d say that pure skill can only get you so far in such a world.

The first main arc introduces us to Rakkum who would go on to become the pilot. His backstory about wanting to drive a flying ship and everything going crazy from there was definitely intense. He’s a fun enough guy but I dare say he is completely out of his league. His main weapon is a gun and yeah the show explains how he can blow up a mage’s staff so they can’t use it but that’s not all that impressive. It relies on the mage not being very smart after all. Every time the gun works I have to shake my head a bit. This guy has a ton of plot armor but he’s still a fun addition to the crew.

The arc introduces us to some characters who are not so good though. Drang and Sturm who I can’t take seriously at all. Drang is clearly set up to be some kind of a super mastermind who just acts silly to get people to drop their guards but it almost works too well. Whenever he’s on screen you know that the guy is not a threat at all. He’s just going to get absolutely dominated over and over again while his partner Sturm keeps stabbing him for no reason. It doesn’t help that they don’t do much in either of their fight scenes. I’m going to hope they do something more in future arcs because they were definitely a bit of a letdown. The powers seemed interesting like Drang has a bunch of elemental orbs but they simply don’t amount to much.

The Tiamat summon was definitely fun though. I always like to see these figures show up even if I may not find the fights quite as interesting since they’re so huge. I can at least enjoy the prestige and all that. Bahamut is definitely the best summon in the series though and Lyria is lucky to have unlocked him first. The guy spams powerful energy blasts the whole time and even with his arms tied up, the guy is an absolute monster. He is not unbeatable in the series but he definitely wins a whole lot more than he loses.

After that we get to a new village where one of the top political figures in the land has been kidnapped. His protege Io wants to help find him and the heroes do their best. This ends up crossing them with the Black Knight and some golems. The Black Knight is one of those characters who definitely has a lot of potential and should be a pretty fun villain all the way but for now hasn’t done anything yet. You know they’re really going to enjoy stretching this out for a while with her and I wouldn’t be shocked if she mostly ends up sticking to the games. For now though I do enjoy her character and you know that she will be very powerful.

Io is one of the best new characters to join the crew. The heroes desperately needed a full mage and while she is still in training, she still knows more magic than the rest of the crew. I imagine they will have to keep her from getting too strong for a while since that could destroy the whole balance of the crew but in the meantime she is still an asset either way. She also has a lot of fun banter with Rakkum the whole time so they make for good rivals.

We then start to get into the climax. There was a one shot episode with two treasure hunters who are likely characters in the game but the main thing is Lyria finally facing her fears and the whole cast taking on another summon. It makes for a good climax that is very flashy and everyone gets to show what they’ve got. Lyria finally gaining more confidence is also a good thing so hopefully that will stick. It made for a pretty solid way to cap things off not counting the bonus episode. The characters have gotten closer to their goal, although since we don’t know how many islands are in the way, you don’t actually know how far the destination is.

It’s a pretty clever way to keep this hidden the whole time. There are also other characters who show up like the lady with the vines and the old eyepatch version of Rakkum who felt completely redundant the instant he appeared. The cast is reasonably big which is good since this is the kind of video game series where you know the cast is absolutely massive. You can’t squeeze them all in, but as much as possible is definitely a good idea. I think the best way to do this would be to keep on shifting characters every few arcs but for some that might not be possible if they will stay story relevant.

Overall, Granblue Fantasy is a pretty fun show. I would even say it’s a nostalgic one. It feels like the kind of old school adventure that would be fairly episodic and could run for many years. Yes, there is a story of course but there’s not much of one. It’s like Detective Conan where you have the main story but beyond that you could still buy time with daily adventures for a long while before actually progressing things. The characters are fun enough to hold this up so as long as you like an adventure story then you will enjoy this one. It’s probably not a show I would recommend to someone all that highly unless I knew they loved adventure stories though. You have to like a slow burn title after all and you have to be ready for this to not really have a concrete ending. Of course, that’s not really a problem for me though. I never really mind just having things left to the wind as long as the adventure before that was good. I would say my main hopes for a next season would just be to increase the production values quite a bit for the action scenes. Beyond that, just keep up the fun little guest stars and each adventure should be pretty fun.

Overall 7/10