Granblue Fantasy The Animation Season 2 Episode 7 Review

Do These Characters Move? Granblue Fantasy, I’m Not Sure.

In the absence of being really caught up in the story here, or even distracted by characters that are particularly interesting, I’m really starting to pay attention to how little animation seems to be present in Granblue Fantasy The Animation Season 2. Episode 7 puts this particular trait on full display with scene after scene of nearly stagnant characters standing dead centre and reacting while nothing happens in the background.

It isn’t as though season one was particularly polished in its animation however, I’m finding as season two continues it feels like even less effort is put into breaking up the endless scenes of sitting and eating or standing and talking. The occasional fight sequence or chase scene that used to pop up is feeling further and further away. It is like they used all their oomph on the Katalina back story and now we’re just kind of hoping that the gloomy clouds on the haunted island and the constant background changes as we meander through Io’s memory will somehow confuse the viewer into thinking something is actually happening.

And I guess they do occasionally open some doors and Gran does stand in a circle with Ferry to summon the ghost ship. However there’s just not much visually going on and the plot of this episode can entirely be summed up by the girls wander around Io’s memories while the other characters rally to find them. it isn’t exactly compelling and the few moments where it looks like Io might really be in trouble are swiftly moved on from.

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Even when we finally get to the ‘villain’ of the piece it is more a homage to the Wizard of Oz and if anything else there’s even less being animated in this scene. We pan over plenty of frozen faces of previous victims but there’s no actual movement going on here. Murky colour palette or not it just isn’t interesting to look at.

All of this adds to the basic underwhelming feeling that season 2 of Granblue Fantasy continues to dish up. Admittedly season one was hardly mind blowing but it almost feels like season two is aiming to be as forgettable as humanly possible. And if that is it’s aim, it is succeeding admirably.