Anime Review: Granbelm Episode 1

Granbelm Episode 1

Studio: Nexus

Genre: Fantasy

Streaming: Crunchyroll

When I saw the preview image for Granbelm, I immediately got Madoka vibes from it, with the pink-haired cheerful looking girl and black haired serious-looking girl as the main focal point. Additionally, Granbelm is also a magical girl fantasy anime with dark leanings. However, things take a bit of a twist halfway through the episode… because these are magical girls in mechas.

The first episode of Granbelm starts off strong – the soundtrack is hauntingly beautiful and the animation quality is extremely high. From the beginning scene, there is a definite atmosphere of mystery and hints of darkness. We are quickly introduced to our pink-haired protagonist, Mangetsu, who comes across as sweet, perhaps a little dense but very normal. This is portrayed nicely in how her sister teases her for making bentos (lunch boxes) for her classmates at school and implies that Mangetsu’s kindness is something which people often take advantage of. Remembering that she has left one of the bento boxes at school, Mangetsu runs back to retrieve it (despite it being the middle of the night) and then things take a drastic turn.

We are introduced to a whole group of girls very quickly who are revealed to be witches, who use their magic to summon and control huge mechs called ARMONIX. Mangetsu is thrown into the middle of all this with very little explanation, and like her, it’s rather confusing. There are too many characters introduced at once to really be able to tell them apart beyond character archetypes – the redhaired angry girl, the flighty joker, and the jealous underdog. Shingetsu, who unexpectedly allies with Mangestsu, is the only one who receives a little more depth and even that is limited. She also provides an explanation as to what is happening – these girls are all at war with one another to become the top mage and gain tremendous power. Little is expanded upon beyond that, however – the pacing is too fast and erratic to allow it. We are plunged into fight scene after fight scene and it all seems a little muddled.

The animation is definitely one of the strongest parts of this series and the fight scenes alone are visually stunning. Plot-wise however, I wasn’t sold on this series so far – there is potential for sure, but the storyline was very much put to one side in this initial episode, in favour of showy action scenes. Unfortunately, this makes the series seem shallow, with little depth to it beyond its gimmick of magical girls who pilot huge robots. I’m a pretty big fan of darker magical series, particularly those with gorgeous production but the lack of psychology in this one so far meant I finished the episode with little interest in continuing.

Click here for more anime reviews