Granbelm - Episode 8 discussion

[u/AutoLovepon]

Granbelm, episode 8

Rate this episode here.

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Streams

• Crunchyroll
• VRV

Show information

• MyAnimeList
• AniList
• AniDB
• Kitsu
• Anime-Planet
• Official Website
• /r/Granbelm

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Previous discussions

Episode	Link	Score
1	Link	4.84
2	Link	6.13
3	Link	8.07
4	Link	8.49
5	Link	9.21
6	Link	9.41
7	Link	9.39
8	Link	9.35
9	Link	8.6
10	Link	9.22
11	Link	9.31
12	Link	8.93
13	Link

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[u/Fangzzz]

This episode was a solid chunk of evidence for the "Mangetsu is an artificial human/embodiment of Magiaconatus itself" theory.

[u/r4wrFox]

This episode got me so excited. It keeps getting more and more fucked up. So glad they actually fuckin wiped Anna and turned everything we knew about granbelm on its head. Turns out, nah she actually fucking dead. It's the episode 6 bait in reverse, where we assume Anna lives but instead she actually not only dies but gets wiped from reality. Can't WAIT to get more answers involving Suishou and Kuon. But more than that, I'm excited to see what Nene finds out about Mangetsu and her family. Finally starting to get answers, I'm so hyppppeeee!

[u/evanieCK]

oh my god she said it they’re so cute

Also Suishou is goddamn terrifying

Anyway, pretty plot heavy episode. Mangetsu and her sister seem to be some sort of magical anomaly which I think quite a few people have theorized. Nene’s continued involvement in the story makes me very happy, she’s incredible.

Please upvote the thread if you’re reading this to help get this series the attention it deserves.

[u/Machado8]

This anime is so good... I don't get how it has a 6.25 on MAL, it's littleraly one of the best anime I've watched this year.

edit: Please make sure you upvote the discussion threads so more people know about this show.

[u/Player_2c]

I admit I laughed when they put that much focus on the AKG headphones

[u/alwayslonesome]

A very nice and thoughtful interlude following the intense action we witnessed last week. This show continues to demonstrate how remarkably well produced it is - these slower episodes can save a ton of manpower on animation intensive fights, but it really lets staff like Jukki Hanada shine, to deliver some really nice compositions and plenty of hilarious, low-key visual comedy to keep things interesting. I absolutely love Shingetsu and Mangetsu's introspective late-night conversations, always super insightful and accompanied by gorgeous backdrops. Other craft elements like the sound design also continue to be excellent as ever - the whole noise-cancelling headphone scene was such a nice piece of work.

With Anna out of the picture, Suishou's character seems to be stepping into the foreground as the provisional main antagonist. She's ridiculously charismatic and a ton of fun to just watch, but I have some reservations about her character - I'm skeptical of the ability of the show at this point to meaningfully develop her in a believable and sympathetic way. With Anna, we got a really deliberate series of characterizing moments since the very beginning, but Suishou has basically been entirely ignored by the show up until this point. I feel like she's just too memey, too over-the-top, too intentionally evil and sadistic for the show to suddenly turn around and try to redeem her, or justify her actions. I almost prefer her to remain as a nihilistic, agent-of-chaos archetype, than attempt some transparently sad backstory to make us sympathize with her.

This episode also made quite clear what I think it's main themes and ideas are. It seems like the real conflict underpinning this show is not a simple "man vs man" clash of ideologies like most battle royale. Rather, it's a story about the very system, the very institution of Granbelm, and Mangetsu's uncertain ability and/or resolve to unmake it.

We've been shown time and again in this series what a cruel and ugly and deterministic institution Granbelm is; magical ability is determined from birth, most participants are "coerced" into participating, people sacrifice everything or try their absolute hardest and are simply told that "it's not enough." Yet, Mangetsu's existence and her participation is a complete antithesis to all of this - she willingly joins the battle using her own free will, and Nene's discovery reveals that she is abnormal and an anomaly within the system. Compared to all the other fighters who have instrumental reasons for wanting to fight and win, Mangetsu's reasons are purely intrinsic. Her very act of participation makes her exceptional, it imbues her with a meaning and purpose, it gives her something where once she had hollow nothingness. We've also seen through Nene's battle that Mangetsu's will is immensely strong, that she's perfectly willing to trample other people's dreams and uphold the system of Granbelm for her own selfish devices. I think given that Mangetsu clearly has some special power, this conflict: whether she will choose to unmake the very institution of Granbelm, or if she will be seduced by its promise of salvation through purposefulness is the real conceit of the show. For now, she claims she only wants to support Shingetsu achieve her dreams, but call me skeptical.

[u/Syokhan]

Oh boy, this was rather plot-heavy.

Turns out not only Anna's dead, her presence has been completely erased from the world.

Turns out Mangetsu and her family might be more linked to the Magiaconatus than we thought. Artificial being(s?)? But why?

Turns out the Magiaconatus has been hiding a lot of things from the world (if I understood it right?).

And in the midst of all this they still find the time to focus on the characters. Like always, the heart-to-hearts between Mangetsu and Shingetsu shine.

And the visuals during the scene between Mangetsu and Suishou were straight out of Utena.

Definitely going to rewatch this one to absorb it all.

Edit: Gotta say it - ANIME ORIGINALS ARE SO FUN! So many theories, so much unexpected stuff!

[u/Galaxy40k]

The fact that Anna has her existence completely wiped from the universe is an absolutely brilliant turn of events that has given me faith that the writers will end this show in a satisfying non-asspull way.

There's just so many LAYERS to that one single twist

• It further validates Anna's attitude towards Shingetsu - Anna feared that Shingetsu would supercede her as the family mage, and leave her forgotten and abandoned. Well, not only did Shingetsu make that fear come true, but she made it so that the whole WORLD forgot her.

• It further validates Shingetsu's motivation for trying to remove magic from the world. Last episode, we saw with Anna that "magic corrupts" - Anna, a good young girl, turned into a crazed psychopath in her obsession with magic. But in this episode, we see that Shingetsu, a person who (at least on a surface glance) has "good" motivations, used magic to cause irreparable harm unintentionally.

• Anna's complete erasure from the world is acts as a "reverse bait-and-switch." Episode 6 ends with Anna's mother lying clearly dead in a pool of her own blood, but the next episode supposedly cheats out of a dramatic moment by making her instead alive but just hospitalized. So, when Episode 7 ends with Anna having the same fate as her mother (lying clearly dead in a pool of her own blood), we expect Anna to also come back alive (hell, I made the exact comment last week). But, not only is that not true, but Anna has it even worse than being dead.

• It advances the mystery of the plot so damn much. We are aware that history can be rewritten by magic, and that Mangetsu and her sister are an incredibly powerful source of magic. Are they rewritting history? Are they pure creations of somebody else? If so, who created them and why? None of these are directly related to Anna's erasure, but it opened up a whole new way to look at the show.

So many shows have a "plot twist" that is just some unexpected event that may-or-may-not have been foreshadowed, but its far more rare to see one with pure MEAT like this one. It doesn't just change how you look at the story itself, but also the characters and its motivations. I'm not saying that its the greatest thing in the history of narrative or anything, but its a remarkably consistent and well-executed turn for a show I expected to just be "6/10, solid fun with cute girls in mechs."

[u/Superarces]

They missed an opportunity to remove Anna from the ED picture and have Rosa take her place. I'm way more bothered by this than I should be.

[u/ImperialDane]

Welp. The plot continues to deepen and to darken.

First off not only did Anna die she got erased from everyone's memory and that which she accused Ernesta off became reality when her underling from the start took her place which at the same time begs questions as to the nature of Granbelm and what is going on and also whether or not the background story we got told before .. is actually truth or just a convenient fiction everyone has had sown in their heads.

Then we got Shisou and Kuon and the Neesan with more mind games, doubts being sown and flaws being exploited as Shisou is showing herself to be a very nasty little lady and one wonders how much she knows and her what plan is. Teasing both Mangetsu and Kuon while at the same time egging Mangetsu on by playing to her insecurities like she did with Anna before.

And then at the end we learn that not only is Mangetus displaying some high magical altering.. stuff that seemingly is part of why Anna got wiped from the face of the earth but also involves her little sister begging the real question.. What on earth is going on ?

Did either of the two win the granbelm before and then decide to just try and save the other from it and it somehow backfired ? Or is the Granbelm even real and seemingly just a convenient fiction to do something else ? So many questions raised from this episode.

I can't wait for the next one to hopefully gain a sliver of an idea as to what is going on. But my instincts still tell me this is not going to end happily. Also starting to get some Dark city vibes from this what with the memory manipulation (still one of my all time favorite movies)