Finally dropped this after 8 volumes. Grimgal is a different take on the isekai trope, where our main cast is not somehow blessed with superpowers or are natural geniuses. Grimgal tries to be more realistic and portrays the difficulties an average person would encounter in a foreign world with a relatively harsh environment.

As was often mentioned, the plot progression is very slow. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but after 8 volumes I'm still not sure where this is supposed to go. The biggest weakpoint are however the characters. While they actually grew on me quite quickly, there is hardly any development except a little for the protagonist Haruhiro.
What Grimgal is lacking is meaningful dialogue. Outside of hunting they hardly talk to each other, and when everyone is together it's always the same antics from the first to the eight volume. There is no feeling of the party growing together or even any of the side characters growing.

Grimgal had a nice concept, but there's a limit as to how far you can go with just that.

I like it. Generally RPG-setting LNs have several things that I hate: 1) "OP" main characters who basically doesn't have to try, 2) no death or seriousness to death, and 3) overbearing harem.

Characters in Hai to Grimgar grow, and not in a spontaneous nonsensical manner, They start off incredibly weak. Then they experience tragedies and really close calls as they grow. They aren't OP. The trope where the MC basically breezes through everything because he's "special" doesn't exist in this novel, although he does have a special skill that they are gradually building upon. The MC's character growth is especially good. You can see how he changes/tries to change over the chapters due to necessity and survival, and his insecurities in contrast to the front he puts up really hits home.

There's death! One of the worst things about RPG world novels and manga is that death is trivialized. Dead people come back to life or deaths are brushed off to the side as trivial in comparison to other items. Here, if a character dies, he's dead. It makes the fighting and the close calls that the characters experience much more personal and realistic. I especially love the way they use healing. Healing gave parties the false illusion that they were safe even if they were really close to dying, but suddenly if the line is crossed or if the healer runs out of mana, then reality strikes, and the party is in deep trouble.

BUT unfortunately, we have not escaped the overbearing harem.

One of the weak points is that there are random daily life chapters that I really don't care about.

I truly cant understand why so many people like this coming of age story.

This is not a story about weak to strong. This is a story about people lacking common sense (writer cop out) and how they suffer for it. Fish floundering on land is a good metaphor. During this so very very slow story progression you will read how the retarded characters gain common sense. Apparently this is called plot progression. *ROFL*

... Last updated on March 8th, 2016, 4:17pm

The story is kinda predictable and the pace is slow. The writing makes characters development and inter-thoughts main priority but the characters themselves aren`t necessary likable which backfires as a whole - the main characters manage to piss me off one in a while and I don't mean only the curly head.
The strong points however are the relative realism of the story and especially the underlined themes that will probably became apparent in latter volumes.
All in all I enjoy the novel despite the flaws. That`s because even if the characters are annoying there is a meaning to them being that way, despite it is slow the story progress non-the-less and despite being somewhat predictable the writing is engaging enough to makes you keep reading.
Good novel

I have read up to chapter 20 so far, and plan to continue reading.

Let me begin by stating the problems with this work: it has a slow start and the enemies so far are fairly basic. The first 6 chapters are very slow and are pretty much just there for world-building purposes. The enemies so far are basically just goblins.

Now, onto singing its praises! The combat is interesting and has a visceral feel you don't get in many other works. You really get the sense that there's a lot on the line, it's a fight to the death and one wrong move could easily spell someone's demise.

The characters are very interesting: they have unique personalities with a fair amount of depth and the author is good at showing this depth rather than just telling us about it; I'd even say he's exceptional compared to the other authors who write about "some people transported to another world." The MC in particular feels very real, in particular when it comes to trying to come to terms with his harsh reality as well as realizing his own weakness. Personally, I find that I really "care" about this MC, which does happen in other LNs, but is a very good thing nonetheless.

Additionally, I feel like this work is showing a kind of story I haven't seen much of: the story of the people outside the spotlight. The protagonists aren't a bunch of Ichigos and Narutos, the world does not revolve around them; they are not the saviors of the century's end, they're a motley group struggling to survive in a harsh world while slowly improving themselves and their situation.

I would definitely recommend you read this, at least up to when they fight their first goblin (chapter 8), it's certainly worth it.

... Last updated on May 17th, 2015, 9:16pm

It feels more like a mixture between a regular fantasy novel with a light novel than just a LN, only 15 chapters out, at the time I wrote this, yet it is already a favourite of mine.
For a change on the usual "taken to another world" story we found ourselves looking trough the eyes of a bunch of normal kids, with no recollection of their past life as an advantage and no kind of talent for fighting either to make it worst. They struggle to survive day by day while trying to grow in a realistic way, winning losing, going home with their hands empty sometimes, which could mean having no meal that day.
The novel manages to give us a classic JRPG feeling to it with out taking realism from the daily fights and challenges the protagonist go trough.

i feel this story progression too slow for me to like. It is really boring for me to keep reading and i feel my attention shifting when I do try to give this a chance. Maybe I just don't like this type of story because it seem to drag on and on about what is happening.

Overall I do like the concept, it just doesn't seem that interesting to me yet.

... Last updated on December 21st, 2014, 2:35pm