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I haven't posted on Anime Suki in a long time, but this particular anime compelled me to do so.
I thoroughly enjoyed most of Granbelm. I felt it was a decently creative mix of elements and likely inspirations, that came together remarkably well. It looked good, the action scenes were solid, a lot of the direction was superb. And I still think all of that.
However, I was disappointed with Granbelm's ending.
I think the issue here is that anime of this type - you know, with a certain level of seriousness, and with a certain degree of supernatural/fantastical elements - tend to focus a little too abstract and lose sight of what tends to truly resonate with people. And I think Granbelm is now one of the more clear-cut examples of this.
Ultimately, I felt that Granbelm never effectively portrayed magic as this great evil that needed to be wiped out. The only people we see effected by magic are people directly involved in the mage battles, as there's no indication whatsoever of any "collateral damage". This is in sharp contrast to how magic is portrayed in many other anime (such as Madoka Magica and Fate/Series), causing it to feel actually rather mild and relatively harmless here in Granbelm. I'm not saying its totally harmless, certainly, but it just doesn't register to me - either intellectually or emotionally - as something that must be done away with. The arguments made against magic in this show are almost entirely abstract and philosophical. It's almost all theory and opinion, really. And, ultimately, it wasn't very convincing to me.
By extension, I wasn't a huge fan of Ernesta's wish, feeling that she had a glorious opportunity to do something more worthwhile here. Beyond that, the personal downside to her wish, what it would mean for her as an individual, is actually quite nightmarish, in my mind. I mean, who would want to exist, forever, as an imperceptible shadow, completely unable to interact with other human beings? Who would be willing to suffer such a horrible fate merely to get rid of something that seemingly only effects a small handful of people, really?
So yeah, the ending totally doesn't resonate with me at all.
One positive is that this ending makes certain anime endings look better to me in retrospect.
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