AnimeLifestyle 3 Episode Review: Record of Grancrest War

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Synopsis(with improvised wording): On the continent Atlatan threatened by demons from another dimension called Chaos, the nobility fought back using Crests, which gave them superhuman powers. However, rather than join forces to end Chaos, the nobles became douche bags, thus fighting each other to gain more Crest powers and lands. The story focuses on Siluca Meletes, a young mage who scorns the feuding lords for abandoning their people and Theo Cornaro, wandering knight and Crest holder who is trying to liberate his hometown from its tyrant ass lord. Joining forces, Siluca, Theo and their allies fight together to end the wars between the nobility twat-waffles and end Chaos.

Episode 1 Synopsis(with improvised wording):
During the wedding between Alex Deux and Marrine Kreische, mage Siluca Meletes watches a Chaos Demon (surprisingly attractive in a weird way) appear and murders the couple's fathers in a very unexpected gory way, the Archdukes of Deux and Kreische, ending any chance of peace between the Fantasy Alliance and Factory Union. Sometime later, Siluca is send to form a contract with a lewd sexual deviant and Alliance Lord Irvin, a former Kreische chamberlain who seeks atonement for stopping Siluca from saving the Archdukes, who got wrecked by the chaos demon. The two are soon attacked by Union soldiers who were sent by Mesto Meadrich only to be rescued by a Theo Cornaro, an independent lord and plain as white bread protagonist, who wishes to rescue his town Village from its corrupt lord. Sensing an opportunity, Siluca helps Theo raise his rank to a Knight and forcefully without consent forms a contract with him. Later, Siluca, Theo and Irvin confront Meadrich and forced him to surrender his Crest and lands with Meadrich's mage Sartorus abandoning his Lord for breaking the treaty of not attacking uncontracted mages. Now with his own domain, Siluca tells Theo her next part of her plans to join the Union rather than the Alliance.

Theo Cornaro
Voiced by: Kentarō Kumagai

The male protagonist possesses a crest (which signifies nobility and gives superhuman powers) he received through defeating a monster, whereas normally you have to get one through transfer from another crest-holder. He has an ideal to bring peace to the land, which Siluca vows to support him in achieving. The main male hero, Theo, is a pretty typical protagonist (although his purity is quite admirable), but he and the logical Siluca may make a good team.

Siluca Meletes
Voiced by: Akari Kitō

The female protagonist. A young mage that has large amounts of talent, and wishes to stop the feuding of lords. She is the first to contact Theo, and possesses a cat familiar that is the king of the cat kingdom, and can travel through shadows. The heroine of the story looks like one of my waifu’s, Saber from Fate Stay Night, which gives her some bonus points. The design for her clothing looks pretty fashionable and cool, so for am liking her forwardness and manipulative personality. She has potential to be a good character, I just hope she doesn’t become just another, damsel in distress and can actually be a strong female lead in the story.

Irvin
Voiced by: Yuichi Nakamura

A demon seal holder, which basically is a seal that gives him extreme fighting capabilities. He is also one of the strongest ones, holding the title of Chamberlain, being one of the guards to the Archdukes (the highest level of crest-holders). His movements are usually unseeable to the untrained eye. He becomes Siluca's guard after realizing her abilities when she was the only one who recognized danger from the Chaos that killed the two Archdukes.

Thoughts:
The fight scenes could’ve been more dynamic, when Theo fought the knights in the forest all he did was shove two to the ground and the rest got scared and began to run way…what? I also felt like they forced the plot to move on according to how they wanted it. Like, the Bride and Groom of the opposing kingdoms looked so lovey-dovey before they got married, but after their fathers died, the Bride just suddenly hated her fiancé, what a cunt-waffle. Sure, the groom fainted in front of the demon which was pretty pathetic, they still could have ended the wars and brought peace to their people. Lastly, it seemed way too easy on how they defeated the Lord and literally took his castle, land and all the residing people all near the end of the 1st episode.

Episode 2 Synopsis(with improvised wording):
Theo the plain white bread protagonist comes to terms with ruling his own territory, but Siluca is worried that neighboring Lords might try to conquer the region before Theo can settle in, and summons her familiar Cait Sith, Sir Balgary, to call upon an old friend and cute bad ass. Meanwhile, Lassic David rallies his troops to attack Theo's domain. Later, Sir Balgary returns with Aishela, an eccentric sexy and psychotic Artist and Siluca's mentor, just as Lord David's troops march on to Theo's castle. Theo and his allies use their superior skills and tactics to beat Lassic's larger numbers. Lassic willingly surrenders his crest and his men to Theo, thinking that he can still conquer other territories under his rule.

Aishela
Voiced by: Reina Ueda

A friend of Siluca's, and also a demon seal holder, as well as a top-class fighter. She exhibits perverted and mild psychopathic traits at times. Aishela is adorable! Obviously, a war freak, and the way she wields her hammer is dare I say enticing. I almost fell in love, seeing her, while kissing one of the enemy captain’s then began to choke the life out of him. She seemed so menacing and sexy, okay I know, I know, there is something wrong with me. She may be contender for best girl in my books.

Lassic David
Voiced by: Satoshi Hino

A former crest-holder and lord of a country next to Theo's. After being defeated by him, he chooses to serve him and transfer his goal of conquering all nations to Theo, as he believes Theo has the power to do it.

Moreno Dortous
Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka

A mage in the service of Lassic and a former upperclassman to Siluca in the mage academy. He is one of the only mages to be proficient in swordsmanship as well, because he believes that mages now need to fight on the front lines too. With this, he is able to overpower Siluca.

Thoughts:
The battle ends when Lassic’s mage is captured. I’d give points for unpredictability, because I didn’t expect the Lassic to actually surrender. He seemed pretty intent in sacrificing everything he had to defeat Theo and take over his land. While Lassic and his mage, Moreno, had good chemistry, I thought they’d be one-off characters. Instead, they surrendered and joined rank with Theo. Lassic is apparently impressed by Theo, and he revealed that he has no ambition of ruling the world. He’s fine serving under a strong lord and just owning a country. The true test of this anime’s quality will be revealed on the third episode. Right now, we’re doing some world building and we’re getting to understand the status quo of the show.

Episode 3 Synopsis(with improvised wording):
Much to Siluca's annoyance, Theo allows Priscilla Farnese of the Order of the Crest to serve him. As Theo's forces begin consolidating their power, Siluca suggests that Theo should take the name of the late hero Cornaro in order to pursue his dream of liberating his homeland Systina. Siluca then begins arranging for negotiations with neighboring Lords to join Theo peacefully, but they mostly decline, believing Theo to be a puppet of Siluca (which is pretty much true). Later, Theo and Siluca race to a mining town where a giant chaos beast has burned the surroundings. After defeating it, Theo and Siluca help the town recover. Later, the King of Savis challenges Theo to a battle who refuses to accept Theo's independence. Though the neighboring Lords let Theo pass, they keep themselves out of the fight because they were , when the miners that Theo saved before offer to bolster his forces. Theo projects his "Battle Flag" with his crest, empowering his troops. During the battle, Theo's forces are able to fight off Savis large forces when the Independent lords join forces with Theo upon learning the King of Savis intention to invade their lands, routing Savis troops and making Theo's rank a Viscount. Later, Siluca meets with her adoptive father, Aubest Meletes, and offers Theo's support to the Alliance.

Priscilla Farnese
Voiced by: Natsumi Takamori

A priestess of the religious Order of the Crest. She has the same family name as the late pope. Priscilla expresses her hope that she can help Lord Theo with, what she sees as, his "divine battle to subdue Chaos". She has a 3-dimensional crest that she uses to heal people. When Siluca starts to voice a possible family connection, Priscilla politely silences her.

Thoughts: I’m concerned about the pacing of the anime, but keeps my attention and interest just enough to see more. The Heroine and Male Hero seems to have good chemistry and dialogue between each other, but can already see clear signs, that the heroine is starting to fall in love with the male hero already. In my personal opinion, I would like to see more challenges, dynamic experiences and depth between two people to really enjoy the romance aspect in a story. The art and animation seems decent but story seems so linear and lack any creativity. I can honestly say, I do not approve of watching the anime, if you are limited on time, but if you do have time and want to give a try, then by all means go far it, it may be more appealing to you. As for myself, I may continue watching just to see more of Aishela and make a final review for the series as a whole.

Characters: 6/10, Crazy psychotic Aishela 8/10
Art: 6/10
Animation: 6/10
Story: 5/10
Music: 5/10

Scale
1=No way this could be this bad
2=Poop
3=Disgusting
4=below average
5=Neutral
6=Decent
7=More than decent
8=Great potential
9=Exceeds expectations
10=Masterpiece