Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash - Episode 11 - "Between Life and Death"

Can Mary overcome her fear?

In some ways its strange to begin a review mid-series let alone with only two episodes left in the season (or perhaps series?).  But such is life when you begin and I had to begin somewhere.  To recap where we left off, the party had decided to leave their usual hunting grounds and goblin prey to explore the Cyrene Mines where Mary's previous party had ventured and were almost entirely wiped.  After making good progress on several floors the group ends up encountering a large group of kobolds in a field, lead by the massive Death Spots, the kobold responsible for killing three of Mary's previous party members.

The episode opens with Mary remembering a conversation her old party had about first venturing into the Cyrene Mines.  The actual party members are rather vanilla but it is interesting to note that Mary has a much more upbeat personality than we've seen from her since joining Haru & crew.  She is brought back to reality just in time as Death Spots approaches the party's hiding spot.  Afterwards, they decide to venture to the 5th floor and in their quest to rest up return to where the tragic events in Mary's past happened.

The party encounters the undead versions of Mary's friend and are forced to fight them.  The team, although outnumbering the foes 2-1 is clearly at a disadvantage when it comes to skill, though in the end Mary is able to save everyone, both her teammates and her lost friends. A dominant theme of Grimgar is the quest to move on after loss and while most of the team has already confronted it with Manato, Mary is now able to do the same with the weight on her person.

Unfortunately, the fight with the Undead King's servants attracts the attention of Death Spots and from there the action picks up and this is where the episode shines. The artwork during the chase scene as the party tries to escape is excellent.  Although the fact Ranta is staying behind to try and save his teammates is a little cliche and predictable, it provides a good set up for what should be the finale next week.

For me, the first part of this episode was a little boring, including the fight with Mary's former teammates until she begins to dispel the curse keeping them alive.  The fact she not only casts a spell but embraces all three of them is a touching visual. 

Speaking of hugging, Yume really is the comic relief of the show and provides some needed levity between the action & desperation. Her latching onto Ranta in fear and then screaming at him to let her go cracked me up.  When she's later wondering where she could carry a possible future wolf dog pup in her costume and then looking disappointingly down her shirt was another great moment. Too often in anime, the jokes are over the top and just don't translate well to an American audience, but Grimgar has done a decent job of avoiding that.

The discussion of Mary's teammates turning to nothing but ash was my favorite part of the episode.  The observation that they all at some point will turn to ash is poignant.  It was very similar to the Jewish concept of death, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out if was thou taken: for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return" (Genesis 3:19).  I would not be surprised if this scene was directly inspired by the Biblical verse from the first book of the Torah.  Perhaps in a better title for the series would be Grimar of Fantasy & Dust.