Granblue Fantasy is an ultra-generic high fantasy anime based off a cell phone game, because of course it is, and it is also powered by the thinnest fantasy tropes possible. Its attempt to adhere to the cell phone game’s dreamy style and its music (composed by veteran Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu) are the only things that elevate this bog-standard offering past the fantasy equivalent of easy listening.
Here’s a quick list of tropes Granblue Fantasy adheres to:
Plucky guy protagonist: Our hero Gran is Nice and Brave! He immediately decides to help the mysterious girl because he is Nice and Brave. While inoffensive, it’s not exactly compelling.
Helpless damsel: Our love interest Lyria has one of the most classic “idiot anime girl can’t even run” runs of all time.
Painful pointless mascot character: Gran is haunted by some floating little dragon turd whose character design isn’t even appealing and whose removal would only serve to improve Granblue Fantasy .
Evil Empire: Lyria and her knight in shining armor, Katalina, are escapees from a literal evil empire. They are evil because, uh, they are bad. Bad empire! Mean empire! No biscuit!
Beatrix from Final Fantasy IX : Okay, this trope can stay. Katalina is the devoted, competent, kind-hearted knight in shining armor who shepherds Lyria’s escape.
Idiot Evil Villain: Complete with a cackling voice performance that chews more carpet than a malfunctioning vacuum cleaner, he manages to lose Lyria and Katalina, fail to recapture them and then allow Lyria to get far enough in the use of her powers that she is able to summon Bahamut.
Bahamut: Bahamut. Because I guess Leviathan was on vacation and Cerberus was too busy? This is probably a summon in the mobile game, so the team’s hands were probably tied, but I’m tired. Somebody summon Clifford or something.
Magic McGuffins Everywhere: Lyria wears a big blue one on her chest, the Idiot Evil Villain had a little purple one in a can. Crystal McGuffins, Simba, as far as the eye can see…
On top of all of these trite and tired elements, the animation is honestly pretty lacking; sometimes it feels like you can literally count the frames on one hand. (At least the character designs are pretty and intricate, with a certain generic blandness at their absolute worst.)
All that being said, there is a certain kind of milquetoast charm in an inoffensive arrangement of the utterly familiar. The second episode of the two-part premiere is a little better since it begins to flesh out the characters just a little bit (Gran wants to see his dad and has been training his whole life to do so; not an earth-shaking motivation, but adequate) and explains how Lyria’s McGuffin saved Gran’s life, which provides an eye-rolly but satisfactory reason for Gran to leave specifically with Lyria and Katalina, whom he’s just met.
Granblue Fantasy is not likely to work your brain or your eyes too hard. If you’re hankering for a high fantasy flavor where nothing too bad is likely to happen and everything will probably turn out for the best (which is not a desire I scoff at), then Granblue Fantasy may suit you. However, if you want something more original or compelling, you’ll want to take a look at better examples of the genre. Snow White with the Red Hair or Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash may suit you better in that case.
Will you be watching Granblue Fantasy ? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
