Anime: Grandeek: The Alternative

Somehow, I am not surprised that so few people have seen or rated this OVA. It's unimpressive, mostly unoriginal, and better forgotten, I believe.

The story has a good premise: oversized swords that are in fact spirits of the elements helping/counselling/possessing their wielder. One of those swords wants to revenge his long deceased master who was betrayed many years ago, and it wreaks havoc in a peaceful village after being freed by a thief. It's up to Tia and her sword Grandeek to save everyone.

Seems good when reading it, but the construction of the story is very bad. There are three stories going on in different time frames, making it very confusing to follow. The information about what's going on is given very slowly and in very sparse scenes, pacing the whole scenario in an eerie but uneffective way. Characters like Tia and Luke seem to have no background and no motivation of doing what they have to do until very late in the story, while other, superfluous characters waste screen time for no purpose at all (like the thief and the fiancé). Oh, and forget about character development, there is none. The script didn't consider that aspect.

The animation seems to come out from a very low budget; some scenes are even pencil sketched without color (Mr. dongato calls it "art", but there is good art and bad art, along with good taste and bad taste, and in the end I still say this scene was pure laziness), some are unclear backgrounds like sky or water with narrating voices, while others are made up from alternating stills. Special effects are sometimes good (like the water drops floating in the air), but overall don't expect much even though it's fantasy. No great fights, no awesome magic and spells, nothing.

Sound is also very low budget. There is one good, but unoriginal, tune with a flute at the beginning, while the rest of this OVA is mostly silent. There's only one song to accompany the end credits.

I feel I can't say more than this about this one: underwhelming, boring, bad pacing, weak script, lazy direction. Just skip it, you'll avoid being disappointed like me ;)