Title: Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash Vol. 1
Author: Ao Jumonji (Story), Mitsumi Okubashi (Art), Eiri Shirai (Characters)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Publication Date: June 20, 2017
The Story
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash is another entry into the “Trapped in Another World” genre, joining the likes of .hack//, Sword Art Online, Log Horizon, Accel World and many others. The first volume of Grimgar gives us a more realistic approach to the genre. People were somehow summoned to this world with amnesia. The only thing that they can remember is their own name; however, words that they used to know in the real world are foreign, yet, familiar to them. This shows that they don’t have total amnesia and that their memories are simply locked away.
Haruhiro is the main focus of the story as everyone that was summoned is taken by a guide to the volunteer soldier office. They have a choice of accepting a paltry amount of money and becoming volunteer soldiers or leave and take on odd jobs that pay even less. Outside of this, Britney, the owner of the office, offers little to know information for their survival. Whether they accept the job or not, it is up to them to gather intel and make a living on their own. After some deliberation, a guy by the name of Renji takes action and picks out the strongest-looking people there and forms a party, leaving Haruhiro stuck with those seen as leftover. Manato, a kind boy who Haruhiro befriends almost instantly, goes off on his own. Thinking that even Manato abandoned him, Haruhiro wanders the streets in search of intel when he ends up in a mugging situation.
Manato shows back up to save him and reveals that he went out and gathered intel and wished to make a party with Haruhiro. The two of them join Ranta, a hot-headed, loud-mouthed annoying guy, Yume and Shihoru and, thus, a party is formed. Manato tells them that in order to get work, they need to join a class guild. Haruhiro chooses thief, Manato chooses priest, Yume chooses hunter, Shihoru chooses mage and Ranta chooses warrior, but changes his mind and chooses dark knight, thus screwing everybody over. They decide to head to a tavern, but run into Moguzo, a tall guy who Renji took on as his own, but ditched because he was thought of as too dumb. Manato and the others notice he’s a warrior and asks him to join their party, which he accepts.
From here, the story simply goes into their adventures in order to ensure their survival. It’s pretty obvious that they are complete and total noobs at this as they can’t even kill rats. Eventually, their skills get better and they take down a goblin. As the days go on, they hunt more and more and while the money they earn is enough to live by, it’s the barest of the bare minimum to the point where they’re eating weeds to survive. They decide to try a new hunting ground, the abandoned city of Darumo. There, they run into a goblin that is unbeatable at their level and decide to flee; however, it is discovered that Manato ate a dagger to the back and the volume ends with his survival in question.
The story itself is pretty simple. We’re given the typical set up of being summoned to another world with little to no information. The mystery of that is then put on the back burner in favor of character development. The nice thing about this is that the character development and the story progression are working together hand in hand. The simple notion of “what will they do to survive?” drives the story forward and ends up allowing the characters to grow at the same time.
Characters
Speaking of the characters, there are quite a bit of them here.
Manato is the biggest focus of the first volume. He is the glue that is holding the party together and even Haruhiro comments that if it weren’t for Manato, they would all be dead in a ditch somewhere. Manato has that big brother feel to him. He’s always looking out for the party, offering advice, coming up with what to do, keeping the peace whenever Haruhiro and Ranta get into a heated argument, things of that nature. He does it all with a smile on his face and asks for nothing in return. He is that kind, selfless character and the fact that he chose priest as his job is a perfect fit! Right off the bet, he became my favorite character, but I’m afraid that after the way the volume closed, I shouldn’t get too attached to him.
Haruhiro, as the main protagonist, is kind of weak, but that’s his design. He’s very timid and is always second guessing whether what they are doing is right or wrong. He’s leaning on Manato too much and he considers Manato his rock. Haruhiro also knows what it means to survive, though, but he just can’t grasp the concept fully… like… he knows what needs to be done, but is hesitant to pull the trigger. All the while, he’s wondering just how he ended up in Grimgar. He’s the type of character that is going to let his thoughts get in the way. He’s constantly trying to figure things out rather than just jumping in and doing what needs to be done. It’s the perfect set up for character growth so I’m sure as the series goes on, we’ll see a shift in Haruhiro’s personality.
Ranta is a very hot-headed character and is a big pervert. He’s very obnoxious and annoying which makes him my least favorite character of the lot. The fact that I can say that means that his character type is doing its job well. From getting into arguments with Haruhiro, to making snide comments to even peeping into the girl’s bath, Ranta has no limits to his obnoxiousness. Even the fact that he chose dark knight when he was supposed to choose warrior for his job, shows just how self-centered and selfish he is. I wouldn’t mind if this guy died later on in the series. Just saying.
Shiroru is the passive dismissive type of character. She’s afraid of her own magic as she typically closes her eyes when casting her spell as If she’s afraid to see what the results of her destructive abilities would be. Her magic is also a support type which can stun enemies and allow the others to go in and finish the job. She does care about everyone and is constantly thinking of them, which is why her magic heavily leans towards the support category. It also appears that Shiroru has a crush on Manato as well so it’ll be interesting to see how their relationship grows in future volumes… that is if Manato doesn’t forget the fact that he’s a priest and doesn’t heal himself.
Yume is the happy-go-lucky member of the party and not really anything else at the moment.
Moguzo is the big lug of the party. He is kind of on the slow side, but it’s because he’s just a soft-spoken person. The best way to describe him is a gentle giant. Outside of this, there’s really not much to his character at the moment, but I’m sure we’ll get more on him and Yume in future volumes. We can’t really establish everyone in the first volume as that would be way too much to digest!
Final Thoughts
I actually enjoyed the first volume of Grimgar of Ash and Fantasy. I like the fact that the main character isn’t completely overpowered that can command the Gods as of day one. The series is taking a realistic approach and even dawdles on the morals of life and death. When they were about to kill their first goblin, the artwork depicted how scared the goblin was to die. Then, the goblin decided it was kill or be killed and lunged at them, despite being injured. This prompted the same reaction from the party and they ended up killing it. The fact that they took the time to reflect upon their actions is something most series don’t do. Kirito didn’t really think about that as he went on his merry way turning any and all living creatures into exploding polygons so it was nice to see a series take a human approach to a fantasy setting.
The series isn’t exactly action-packed, but that’s because the battles themselves are more on a realistic scale. There’s a lot of planning and strategy that go into each battle and since the manga tends to explore this, it slows the pace down, but that’s completely fine. It’s very rare to see a series like this take a slower pace, but it means that it gives itself the time to breathe and flesh things out, making things feel more complete.
While Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash just seems like another “trapped in another world series,” it’s using reality as its selling point. This makes Grimgar rather unique and different, but at the same time, offers up something familiar. It’s not radically different, but different enough to be good. I’m looking forward to reading more of this series, especially after the cliffhanger we were given!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
