Granblem thoughts

Let me talk about Granblem. Granblem is the perfect example of a show that has some positive aspects to it, but yet manages to mess up those positives to create a script that ends up being more frustrating that it would be without the positives. I do think there are some good ideas to it but the combined whole is imo very bad. It's not just a case of the bad outnumbering the good, it's also a case where the show symatically goes out of its way to take every good idea and possible interesting point and routinely ignores them rather than developing them to their fullest, and in its place the show manages to provide something that is much worse in its place.

 The idea of its basis is nothing special, there have been many dark magical girl shows before and there will be many since. There is no interesting twist that at the start of this one but yet there is hope that I had due to the mysterious nature around it. Sadly that mysterious nature is never brought to an interesting conclusion. The answers that were provided for it were mostly disappointing, my curiousity did not feel fulfilled. The cast is a very mixed bag, and it's were the good ideas come from, however it's very much split between interesting characters and uninteresting ones imo. On the interesting side, we have the character from the first episode. She doesn't get much screentime but she is working for the "villian" side and seems to be trying her all to prove herself. Ultimately she fails and loses her powers while getting kicked out. I thought it would be interesting to see how she reacts to lsoing her powers and how her live moves on, to see how it would effect her and how the loss effects her. But no she is written out of the script after that. There is Anna who is the early antagonist who seemed to have a bloodlust for Homura-clone (more on her later), and tries to defeat her at all costs. I will be talking more about her later. There are some other girls who are introduced later who are side characters but have their own interesting reasons for fighting. And on the uninteresting side there is a Homura clone, a Madoka clone, (I'm using these names because I forget their real names and they're honestly much more confusing to me) and a phsyco girl who spends the whole time doing nothing but getting under other people's skins and being a general peice of shit that is completely unenjoyable to watch. With several interesting characters, you'd hope that the show would know what it was doing and give focus to them and hopefully midigate the long term impact of the awful ones.... YOU'D HOPE......

 Sadly Granbelm does not do this. And while the minor characters at least have their episodes it all feels so unresolved to me. Anna for example has some great characterization where you get to see why she was made in the rageful mess that she is and get to see her decent into insanity. But as good as it is, the show first needs to get a better idea of scale as having her charge in with an oversized axe does not do a good job of making the conflict believeable. It's way overdone and clashes with the more seriousness of her demeanor. And more importantly the show neds to resolve it. It had a great moment in episode 7 where the show could have flipped itself on its head and could have made itself novel when she basically stole power and tried to use it to take out Homura-clone. She could have succeeded and dashed the expectations of Homura-clone and her defince in not being able to be beat. It would have been a huge shocker. And not only that there would be a lot more interesting places to go from it. Now rather than a more generic and tame story of a girl trying to erase magic and be the hero, you now have someone who has to come to terms with their insane outbreak now with the satistifaction of winning but the complete loss of where to go next. You basically have other characters scrambling to pick up the pieces and make things right, which sounds so much more interesting. This is espeically the case since so much effort went into developing Anna and she is built up to be much more relatable and understandable than the blank, boring, Homura-clone. But instead the show goes straight by the book and Anna is no where to be seen the rest of the show. Literally. They erased her cannonally. Which sounds like a great idea to do to the most interesting character of the show when the show is barely half way done.

 Furthermore in Anna's absence we get more of psycho girl who fills in the villian role now. Which means yay instead of more good characters we get more bad characters. Unlike Homura-clone who I can see the argument for having something to offer, (even though I disagree, as I feel like she barely developed and she was always uninteresting to me), psycho girl has nothing to offer. She's basically mean and cruel to people because I mean why not throw a psychopath into a dark magical girl series. It'll make it darker. There is no themes related to her. There is nothing enjoyable about watching her mock others and still win out. It's like Homura-clone except she's clearly a villian, and an uninteresting villian at that. The show actually has a chance to take her out early as one of the side characters has a big beef with her and shows a good chance of eliminating her. Again this would be a big twist as she is clearly the last vilian left and would leave us with 4 episodes of technically good-sided characters. The show even builds up for it to happen. Only to have her mess up and then lose. And then of course the last final episodes and spent between the battle of homura-clone and psycho girl.

 Not only does this show go out of its way to build up interesting twists and ways that it can buck the common trends of dark magical girl shows and then dash them by going back to the same common tropes and uninteresting fodder, but it also manages to pick out the least likeable and interesting characters and have them be the focal point as the show goes on. It is very hard to be invested in a story when the only characters still left in the battle are neither likeable or interesting. It makes this last stretch of battles uninteresting. Even worse is it's hard to completely get behind Homura-clone. While I don't doubt her reasons to win are good and selfless (Because of course they are, can't have a hero without having this pure good mindset amirite?) I am not convienced by her train of logic so it's also hard to root for her because of her ideals. The only reason I ended up rooting for her is because I hate psycho girl that much more, but honestly I would have been so much happier if no one won.

 Then there are the twists that the show does so. The madoka-clone being a doll twist is averagely put together and doesn't really move the needle much. That said it does bring along more uninteresting plot lines as the main characters try to find ways to self-sacrafice themselves repeatedly. Which is... uninspired imo. Heck the whole final episode is basically just confiding and expressing the lengths of Homura-clone's self sacrafice for a good 24 minutes. It's... not interesting when it felt like she didn't even grow to get there, nor does it feel like it was actually needed. It's not like other shows where there is a large looming threat going around. This Granblem thing has been going on for hundreds of years, it feels like the average individual is not effected, and the ones who end up suffering are those who join the Granblem and lust for its power or what not. It's almost as if there could have been a more interesting way of solving the Granblem problem. At least I think there are.

 The twist around psycho girl was terrible and seemed to be a very bad job of trying to get sympathy for an unsympathic character. It did not work. Nor did any of her twist actually explain why she as like how she was. Sure being stuck in that role for years, being close and never getting to be on top is pretty crappy. However it doesn't really reflect on her personality at all. Why did that make her into a psycho? Why is she so twisted now? Exastialism? Sure maybe. But I don't think most people turn into total dickwads just because their actions don't matter anymore, at least not to this degree. The connect between the two is very weak, and imo its a wasted attempt to try to get the viewer to like this unlikeable turdmuffin which ultimately is wasted as it is poorly done and not needed. Heck this girl isn't even needed in the first place. She provides nothing of value and actively makes every scene with her that much worse. The only good there is of her is hoping for her demise which was... not nearly good enough to make up for the fact of how awful she is on screen. (I also don't really want to be in the position of having the sole reason I want to see a character be on the screen is to want to see them suffer)

 And ultimately the Granblem thing itself doesn't feel well thought out at all. It feels scrapped together and just there for the dark and edgy storylines of the show. There wasn't enough put into Granblem and why it is how it is to make it feel convincing or interesting. I was very curious as the show started, but ultimately those answers never really felt answered. They were just kind of done until it didn't matter any more. It felt very anti-climatic. There was no eureka of understanding what made the show work and putting all the pieces together like say Kemurikusa. It was more a, "Well that might work I guess? I don't know."

In short, Granblem has some good ideas and some very bad ones, and almost always the good ideas are aborted for the bad ones. The plot isn't that well thought out or connected. The show is way too tropey imo and ultimately follows undesirable and uninteresting paths rather than the more novel and interesting ones that they set up. I find a harder show that fits the bill of wasted potential than Granblem and that makes it at the very bottom for me for this cat. It could have been really good. But alas it is far from that.