Just when it seemed like peace was at hand, the chaos arrived. Specifically, the wedding that would unite the Fantasia Union and the Factory Alliance ended with deaths and a world now on the brink of wars due to the chaos converging at the event.
A month later, this leaves Siluca Meletes, a young mage, having to serve a Lord she has no desire to serve, but her life changes when she meets a young man named Theo Cornaro while on her way to her new Lord. Seemingly inexperienced and kinda reckless, the ideals he professes is enough to convince her to enter a contract with him. And thus, the two begin their quest to stop the chaos.
Have to say, reading Record of Grancrest War the manga is an experience if you’ve only watched the anime. There are a couple reasons for that:
- The manga began serialization three years after the light novels were released.
- The anime, almost infamously, cut a lot of material from the LN to tell its own story.
- The art style in this manga is going to throw you for a curve.
So in longer words, the manga got started in 2016, three years after the LNs were released. While it’s likely not a 1:1 adaptation of the source material, it’s probably closer to it than the anime, which had to cut a lot of material in its 24 episode run. Starting with…the character’s personalities?
Maybe it’s just me, but Siluca and Theo come off as a lot younger in this adaptation than the anime. The anime did its best, but they did seem somewhat mature in many moments, from how they spoke to each other to how they reacted to certain situations. The manga totally has them come across as youths fighting a war, whether it was them being combative as they talked to the villagers to Siluca’s reaction to Theo seeing her pet Majesty Balgyary.
If you’re going, “Hold up, I could’ve sworn Theo deferred to Siluca a lot more?” to “Wait a minute they went to a village?” to “I could’ve sworn Siluca was alone when she petted Majesty Balgyary”, then to be accurate, they went to three villages in one chapter…and yes, this was exactly my reaction as I got to these points.
So in general, the anime cut out potential comedy and some personality. For example, the manga begins with Siluca explaining she’s bored of this wedding taking place. This might be unnecessary to show in the anime so it’s understandable that they instead showed her yawning. The village moment, in retrospect, is pretty illuminating. We see Theo and Siluca actually doing some ground work after taking over the original Lord’s domain. You see how the people rally around the two while also seeing Theo’s awkwardness as he proclaims he doesn’t need to tax the villagers while the villagers can hear him (Siluca obviously points out they have to, just not so crazily). You get a sense that these two almost can’t get along as they eat food with a mother and daughter from the village and begin to argue over how a Lord should properly act.
…In the anime you get 40 seconds, at best. And Theo never went to any of the villages!
Now, this actually doesn’t mean the anime wasn’t correct in cutting certain things out. For example, remember when Aishela showed up in the anime? It’s padded out in this manga, complete with the classic girls grabbing boobs scene (this could be the artist’s choice by the way). But it really shows where they had to cut corners, likely due to budget, or them thinking a scene like showing how Majesty Balgyary meets Aishela wouldn’t really matter.
The art is also going to be either you like it or you don’t. Well, outside of certain action scenes where it being in two-page spread form looks awkward, I think the art is drawn really well. It’s just a case where these characters, from their expressions to any time Siluca blushes, will probably feel bizarre after watching the anime.
But despite that, it does ultimately feel like Record of Grancrest War, but with additional details. A huge criticism of the anime is that certain moments were lacking due to not enough explanation, and the manga might be able to solve that. Not all of it because it’s not the novel, but it’ll at least adhere closer to the source as best it can. In general, this volume covers all of episode 1 and about half of episode 2. So yeah, it ends with them getting ready to face off against Lassic David. I can only hope the battles are far sharper than what I’ve read, but I can’t deny I’m still intrigued by this fantasy story, and I will look forward to checking out more volumes.