Twelve Days of Fantasy and Ash (Christmas Special Part 8)

Mary finally opens up at the start of episode 8. She has gotten familiar enough with Haruhiro to start calling him by a nickname, and is familiar enough with the group to participate in their traditions. They have a quick discussion assuring each other that they are committed to keeping each other safe. Mary isn't completely comfortable with the team, but she does trust them enough to consider them friends.

One thing you will see often in Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash that is not present in any other show that I know of is a somewhat human characterization of monsters. The first few goblins the team saw fought to the death to defend themselves, and this episode has a great reminder of this. The goblin that killed Manato is shown with his crossbow atop a building pretending to shoot another goblin and making sound effects. Then it cuts to a group of goblins playing cards, and even two playing chess. Grimgar is the only show where monsters are given such attributes, making them seem as realistic as possible, just for our heroes to come murder them all.

After so much emotional buildup seeing the team at their weakest and most frail, there has to be some sort of payoff. And that payoff comes in this episode. The goblins that assaulted them before and killed Manato are dealt with in a truly great action scene. The goblins refuse to go down without a fight. Their human aspects allow them to strategize around our heroes' plans. Despite the goblins' best efforts, each member of the team gives it their all, utilizing all their old and new skills to take down their enemy. There is only one problem. Just as Manato was killed by a shot to the back, the goblins set a trap and Mary got shot.

I kind of have to complain about this. It is a complete misdirection. All the goblins are defeated, and Mary turns out fine. There are two things that event could be used for in the narrative: a panic moment, or a callback to Manato. Both of these are completely unnecessary. Everyone watching is already on adrenaline due to the fight scene, so a panic moment does nothing but make you feel worse, and a callback to Manato is meaningless in the sea of Haruhiro bringing him up in conversation. I guess it can be meant as a character moment, solidifying Mary as being a tough member who isn't going to leave any time soon, but this is a pretty ineffective way of doing that. I'm not saying this because the show is bad because of the event, but because I would rather see an improved version. I don't know, maybe this was more effective when you watched it, because you did watch it, right?

Finally with a reliable source of revenue, and with loose ends tied up, everyone visits Manato's grave and Haruhiro presents him with a volunteer badge, the item they were all hoping to eventually buy. The rest of the episode is too slow and emotion-driven to provide a good description here, to go watch the episode. This is one of the better ones.