Record of Grancrest War

THIS IS A SPOILERS-FREE REVIEW. IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE SHOW YET, NO NEED TO WORRY.

Grancrest Senki is really the typical anime I would normally be a sucker for. I like the setting, I like the themes it talks about, the animation has it's moments and the art design is a style I tend to really like as well.
So... why didn't that anime convince me?
Well, to me, there are 3 main problems.

1) The pacing: is generally fast (which is not necessarily a bad thing, don't get me wrong) but in this case it really feels too fast. Making key moments and important events fall flat because you don't have the time to get invested into what's happening, that it's already over. For example: wars sometimes lasting half an episode, characters appearing kind of "out of nowhere" and "dying" soon after.

2) The staging : is another problem this show has. Some moments that are very key to the story and/or the development of the characters fall flat due to poorly staged scenes, those moments look good on paper, they should've been really impactful. They could've made me "woah" at them, if they were not poorly executed. It definitely lacks that something to make it really impact you and feel the moment. I strongly believe that a better staging for those scenes would definitely have made the anime greater and less forgettable.

3) Censorship : Without even checking the source material (the light novel) I already guessed this anime had "censored/toned down" many things from it and after giving a quick glance at the manga, which is way more bloody, my guess was correct. Yes there is blood in the anime but it is really minimalistic, and it shows that they also cut out all the "nudity/sexyness" from it. Because in the manga, things can get pretty gore-y and sexy. But it's not always your typical ecchi fanservice, the nudity in the manga in some moments is justified to make the story feel more mature and trashy. (Don't get me wrong the manga definitely has some stupid fanservice) I think it's a shame because this story definitey is supposed to be a more mature, seinen type of anime. The anime kind of is stuck in the middle between aimed for young teens and kids to young adults. They should've gone the "full seinen route" like the manga adaptation did.