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Grimoire of Zero
Episode 3

by James Beckett,

How would you rate episode 3 of
Grimoire of Zero ?
Community score: 3.9

It's only been a few weeks, and Grimoire of Zero already has me torn on how I feel about it. On one hand, I like the characters and their rapport with one another; Mercenary and Zero's relationship is especially fun to watch develop. On the other hand, the plot and world-building just aren't doing it for me so far. I mentioned last week that the first two episodes felt a little too leisurely for my liking, but this week's episode was even more lackadaisical in its plotting and pacing. I'm all for taking time to establish the world and tell more standalone stories, but GoZ isn't doing so in a way that I find very compelling so far.

My main issue would be that nearly half the episode is spent on our characters arriving in the city of Formicum and subsequently going clothes shopping. The episode doesn't need nearly ten minutes of time devoted to introducing Formicum, because the city is painfully generic and lifeless. The design of the place is ripped straight out of any Western-themed fantasy setting made in the last three decades, and the only noteworthy aspect of the city is that it apparently contains a higher-than-average beastfallen population. This setup could have potentially provided an interesting juxtaposition of peoples, showing what life is like for the humans vs the beastfallen and how their communities have grown because of that tension. Other than a few prerequisite scenes of Mercenary's team being shunned by innkeepers, we only meet a couple other beastfallen characters, and they're little more than sneering villains that provide Mercenary with a much-needed excuse to get into a fight. This episode has the opportunity to really dive into what makes its world unique, but it spends most of its first half on tired gags involving Zero's lack of social graces and wanton nudity instead.

The second half of the episode is an improvement, because when Zero and Mercenary decide to do battle with a lecherous, slave-owning wolf, there is at least some kind of plot to follow. I do find myself wondering what the point of the whole affair was, outside of the welcome (but disappointingly brief) battle between the beastfallen. The only thematic takeaway is Mercenary realizing that witches are just as capable of being abused and mistreated as humans, which is a fine lesson to learn and all, but it feels repetitive since Mercenary learned the same thing last week. Plus, the slaves weren't actually witches, so the lesson feels even more tacked on. Unless, of course, the lesson is supposed to be that humans and witches are both being enslaved, but the issue of beastfallen owning slaves is brought up earlier by Zero and Albus, so it doesn't seem like something that should surprise our fuzzy protagonist that much. Maybe it's just supposed to be a one-off story of Mercenary and Zero being heroic and nothing more.

The fact that I can't really tell you why this episode exists is Grimoire of Zero's problem in a nutshell. I'm fine with the story taking its time to unfold, and I can even handle the setting being little more than a mishmash of familiar tropes. My real gripes stem from the fact that none of it seems to be going anywhere. We get tidbits of potentially interesting developments, such as the beastfallen's apparently uncontrollable, sporadic bouts of human-devouring mania, but then the episode diverts from this more creative trajectory and settles for telling a tale I've seen a hundred times already. The show isn't boring me to tears yet, but if things don't pick up soon, I fear the waterworks will be inevitable.

Rating: C

Grimoire of Zero is currently streaming on Amazon's Anime Strike.

James is an English teacher who has loved anime his entire life, and he spends way too much time on Twitter and his blog.


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