GRANCREST!!!
This post follows long thought about an anime, called Grancrest Senki. The day I watched it was one of those days where boredom hits you and depression is not far behind. I just decided to beat the feeling with some good storytelling, and I have to say, I was genuinely impressed. The anime did not end as crazily as I would like, but the plot, the philosophy driving the society and the world depicted there glued me to the screen, I had to finish it. Grancrest follows one man, Theo Cornaro, on a quest to rescue his homeland from the tyranny of an evil Lord, who was basically running the state like a crime Lord. He meets Siluca Meletes, who is a mage (a magic user), while she is being harassed by bandits, he rescues her, and from there begins a bond that grows and blossoms in predictable yet beautiful ways throughout the series. The series has a far deeper plot than this, but I can’t type everything, I suggest you follow this hyperlink to get an explanation, or you could watch the series here. WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
What captivates me the most about movies, anime and the likes is the way they bring the world, the setting in which the stories take place, to life. Animation has a uniqueness in this regard, they have more creative freedom to bring many sorts of universes to life, and make it believable. If you look closely at the setting, and what the characters say about it, you can see so many ways in which fictional universes, in their apparent implausibility or impossibility, mirror aspects of our reality we take for granted. They bring a lot of our assumptions to the fore and scrutinize them, however good or bad the scrutiny or the thing being scrutinized is. The death note anime will make you scrutinize your ideas on Justice, as correctly analyzed by the YouTube channel Wisecrack. The blockbuster marvel movies will make you reconsider the similar themes of justice, power, law, and law enforcement. The simple arguments people still have over whether Thanos was right in Infinity war exposes the deep themes and assumptions people have on life. What Grancrest brings into focus is are the themes of societal organization, power and authority, its abuse and sharing, using the language of Chaos and Order that sound very similar to that used in Warhammer 40k (coincidence?). The way all the various lords and rulers of the region, including Theo Cornaro, plan on bringing order is a strong central government, with an Emperor, a monarchy which will subdue the magical chaos of the land with the order of his crest (an intricately designed magical symbol). The fascinating thing about the way this world, is that like the seven deadly sins anime, and even maybe the Magi anime, they make use of a lot of Christian concepts, and in what I can call unusual ways. If I miss any other philosophical interpretation, you’d have to forgive me, this is the lens my eyes can see with right now. The world of Grancrest is rife with demonic chaos, a symptom of what appears to be organizational chaos in the human way of living that includes government, law, ethics, and beliefs. This manifests as intrusion of what appears to be evil creatures, corrupting influence on the wild life and similar things I’m sure warhammer fans will know (again, coincidence?). The defining thing that Grancrest proposes with this system is that it presents a quite interesting perspective on the materialist view of human individuals, beliefs, ideals and institutions and their effect on the physical world and reality itself. The materialist views the world and the humans within it as nothing more than the sum of their material parts. Essentially meaning, you are just chemical interactions in your brain, there are no supernatural realities, and any interaction in nature, between humans and nature, and even between humans, is purely physical. But Grancrest proposes an alternative: The supernatural exists, and we have a direct hand in its appearance and workings. However, this comes with a twist: In order for humanity to progress, we must rid ourselves of this supernatural chaos by imposing natural order. The way this order is achieved is by combining the crests of all Lords into one imperial crest that will be powerful enough to subdue the chaos. One interesting thing to note about places rife with supernatural chaos is that the society is usually corrupt, rife with superstition and often backstabbing, as illustrated with Theo Cornaro’s hometown, which is basically run by a crime lord, the land is the most chaos infested area of the greater continent.
Crests are a unique part of this world, they are made with the same stuff as magical chaos, but are ordered into an intricate pattern whenever a living Lord decides to display it, and it is a symbol of order, since they are a form of flag (Which have crests). The larger and more intricate the crests, the higher the rank and authority of its wielder. The relationship between chaos, order, crests, government and society portrayed in the anime leads to some interesting conclusions and interpretations. If we interpret this allegorically, treating the fantastic elements of the story as a symbol for the chaos of large scale governance that happens in “superstitious” and “primitive” societies, we see some parallels. Some non-theists say that all religion is superstition, meanwhile major religions call lesser religions and even secular philosophy superstitions. Whatever you call superstition, many would agree that superstition does not help society, and even acts against a society’s progress. The solution is to get rid of these superstitions, and replace them with a greater worldview, one that integrates and subsumes the smaller conflicting stories, history and worldview into a greater narrative, a narrative or worldview “crest” if we can call it that. This worldview and history, which is usually symbolized in real life flags, gives the populace something greater than themselves to serve, to give them direction, and to pledge their allegiance to. In this atomized world of ours, where we’re so connected, yet so disconnected, a similar chaos to the Grancrest situation, we seek something greater than ourselves, to be free yet bound, to be consumed by the collective yet be individuals.
Imperial Crest
The Christian take from this is how this order was brought about. Power is concentrated in one man, Theo Cornaro. He assumes all the crests, subduing all the chaos in one great imperial crest. In the anime, a prominent religious sect (Which is obviously their version of Catholicism) believes crests are a gift of God, and in some peculiar turn of events, gift Theo with their most prized crest, which they call the Holy Grail. It is independent of the wielder, not dissolving with the death of the wielder. It is around this crests that others are organized. To bring order, God’s power is invested in one man, sound familiar? All in all, this is an anime with potential. If they ended it better, it would have been a masterpiece, I genuinely hope they make a second season. In the meantime, thanks for reading this extra-long post, I hope you enjoyed a new perspective on this anime. If you have any thoughts on it, new perspectives I definitely missed, tell me in the comments section, I’d love to see them.