Overview

In case you missed it, my review of the first cour of Record of Grancrest War can be found here. This post will specifically be about the second cour of the series as well as my opinions on how this cour compared to the first (there will be first cour spoilers).

If I remember correctly, the first cour of the series left off with the deaths of Villar Constance and Margaret Odius, the redheaded mage who was contracted to him. This is the turning point for the series for our protagonists Siluca and Theo.

Up to this point, Theo was serving under others (mainly Villar Constance) as a way to gain enough power to one day go back and free his homeland of Sistina. After the death of Villar, however, Theo becomes the leading lord of the Union, albeit from the shadows.

While freeing Sitina is still Theo’s primary goal, he now also holds the fate of the rest of the lands in his hands. This part of the series begins Theo’s true rise to power as he attempts to collect the Grancrest, become the first emperor, and free the land from the age of chaos.

(More) Characters

Last time I mentioned four of the most important characters in the series, Theo, Siluca, Lassic, and Irvin, so this time around I’ll skip over those and instead mention some of the other characters who greatly impact the series in the second cour.

Alexis Doucet is the leader of the Union, although by the second cour of the series he considers Theo to be more worthy of leading than he is himself. He was originally scheduled to be married to Marrine Kreische, now the leader of the Alliance.

Although Alexis and Marrine are the leaders of the two main opposing factions, they’re still in love with each other although Marrine doesn’t want to admit it. The Great Hall Tragedy which took place during their would-have-been wedding is where the series began.

Priscilla is a priestess of the Order of the Crest whose goal is to one day end the age of chaos by combining the Holy Grail crest within her with the Grancrest of the would-be Emperor. For most of the series she’s an unimportant supporting character, but her Holy Grail actually serves a purpose later on.

The last character I’ll mention here is Dimitrie, the Vampire King who resides in the Forrest of Eternal Darkness. Originally introduced in the first cour of the series (I think), Dimitrie comes back as one of the primary antagonists later on. Unfortunately I felt the final battle against him was lackluster.

Conclusion

I had some complaints about the animation in the first cour, and to be honest, the animation wasn’t really any better throughout the second cour. That said, I did find that the plot became much more interesting and I was actually looking forward to watching this series each week.

However, even after finishing the series I rated it at a 6/10 which I believe is what I rated the first cour. The increasingly interesting plot of the latter portion of the series wasn’t enough to make up for the shortcomings of the anime. It still has a slow start, and less than stellar animation.

If you’re looking for a series with a lot of good action/fight scenes, this probably isn’t the anime for you. Instead, this is more for those who want a longer story about the politics surrounding warring nations in a fantasy setting.

The second OP for Record of Grancrest War has multiple versions. The second version of this OP can be found here.

Overview

Record of Grancrest War is one of two series I’ve been watching which started during the Winter 2018 season and is continuing in the Spring 2018 season; the other being Darling in the FranXX. Since that means this anime isn’t yet complete, this review will only be covering what has happened so far (15/24 episodes).

In this anime, the land is split into many small kingdoms which are each governed by their own lords who have a magical crest that proves their right to rule their land. By defeating other lords, one can obtain more crests, thereby making their own crest stronger. If one person combines all of the crests then they become the emperor of the land.

However, there are two rival factions who are each trying to complete this emperor’s crest known as the Grancrest. One side is the Alliance and the other is the Union.

Even though both sides want to use the Grancrest to unify the land and stop the constant war, for some reason they can’t seem to work together despite there actually being nothing stopping them from doing so.

Characters

There are two main protagonists who we follow throughout the story: Siluca and Theo.

Theo Cornaro is a wandering knight who left his homeland of Sistina so he could gain power as a lord and one day return to overthrow the tyrannical rulers, the Rossini family. He fights with a sword and a sleeve-like shield.

Siluca Meletes is a mage who contracted herself to Theo because she didn’t want to serve the lord she was supposed to. She was one of the most accomplished students at the mage academy and wants to help Theo reclaim his homeland and eventually unify the continent.

Besides these two, there are a number of important supporting characters, but I’ll just go over the two who have been the most important in the series thus far, Lassic and Irvin.

Lassic David is a lord who was defeated in battle by Theo but decided to pledge his loyalty to Theo because he believes Theo has the power to unify the continent. He’s considered one of the most formidable military leaders around.

Irvin is basically the same character as Sebas from Overlord or Wilhelm from Re:ZERO. He’s essentially a butler who doubles as an assassin with extraordinary fighting ability that would rival that of any top knight. He pledges himself to Siluca after recognizing her potential as a mage.

Conclusion

After the first episode, I wasn’t entirely sold on Record of Grancrest War, but over these past few months, I’ve begun to like the anime more. That said, for now, I still only have it rated at a 6/10.

While I think the story has gotten better, the animation is still fairly lacking. It’s kind of like the Boruto animation where they animate something partway and then say “good enough.” While this wouldn’t matter for most scenes, it’s very noticeable during fight scenes.

I think if the animation quality was better then the overall viewing experience would improve and so would my rating of the series.

Anyway, despite the animation quality, this is still an anime that I look forward to watching every week which means it must be doing something right. I may start doing weekly reviews of each episode, but if not, then expect a final review of the series once it concludes at the end of this season.

My review of the second cour of Record of Grancrest War is available now.