Let me preface this by clarifying that I am huge sucker for classical fantasy settings such as this. I've always been into fantasy novels and role-playing games. I used to play tabletop dungeons and dragons a ton like 9 years ago back when I willingly sought out social interaction with humans. I would always ALWAYS play rogue characters so this definitely contributed to my enjoyment of Hai to Gensou no Grimgar. (The main character is a rogue)
Alright, let's start with the bad. Overall characterization in this is poor and most of the cast is very bland as well as unlikable. The best and most developed characters are Mari and Haruhiro. Maybe the rest of the cast gets better treatment in the source material (which I will hopefully read eventually). This series was only 12 episodes, disappointingly. Which is a reasonable excuse for poor characterization. To their credit, the plot was self-contained and loose ends were wrapped up well. However, I think I would have enjoyed a 24 ep series much more with more character development and richer world building. I also didn't really like the character designs. Except for Mari- her hair is so pretty!! god I wish I was Mari
Both the OP and ED were composed of panning stills. Very lazy. When I watched episode 1 I thought it was a production issue that they'd update with something better (I was wrong).
This is a matter of personal opinion, but I really did not like the OST. Music is a major part of this anime. It is used very frequently, not just during action scenes but frequently vocal songs are played in the background while the characters talk. A diverse array of vocal songs are played often. The problem is that it is all j-rock. Personally I don't like rock as a genre, and generally I found that it was totally unsuitable for the setting. Would have preferred a totally different style of OST. That said, some of the background nonvocal stuff was nice.
Some of the VAs in this were pretty good. Haruhiro's voice was really nice. tfw no leatherclad rogue bf
Alright, what's the best thing about this anime? The background art (not character design). The setting looks absolutely gorgeous. EVERY FRAME looks amazing. I was pausing all the time just to admire the art. Huge enjoyment was derived from this. It reminds me of watercolour paints which I used to use a lot.
Like I said before, I'm a huge sucker for classical fantasy role-playing worlds. If you are too then you will probably enjoy this. My personal enjoyment was 8/10, but a neutral perspective might be lower than that.