fritz.ebert - 2015-12-02 02:38:42

This show is a marvel, all the genres that make this show fits in perfectly. The characters are memorable and hilarious, the story gives you a strong mix of emotions. If you are a slight fan of any of these genres, do yourself a favor and watch this anime. However, be sure to play the visual novel first.

soberbrunner - 2015-04-15 23:47:28

Quality over quantity. A concept which 8-bit failed to understand. As a result, Grisaia is just like a bunch of puzzle pieces where each piece came from a different puzzle. They could’ve completed one small yet perfect puzzle (one route), but instead they tried to form one big puzzle and the pieces just couldn’t connect.

Grisaia no Kajitsu is visual novel known for its comedy as well as its routes. Unfortunately, the god-send comedy that every vn reader loved became scarce in the anime. On the other hand, the routes just piled up and that’s not a good thing. 8bit wanted to make the show as sad as possible, but like I said, trying to fit in everything is only going to lead to a disaster.

If one route was used for the entire show, the anime could’ve been amazing even with flaws. However, the portrayal of multiple routes created flaws just too big to brush aside.

First off, the pacing was way too fast. I mean if a guy who you barely met started narrating the story of his life, wouldn’t you feel kind of awkward? That’s exactly what the show did. They tried to make us feel sympathy and pity for the characters even though we barely know basic information. What do they like to eat? What’s their favorite music? We don’t get any of that. All we get is “Oh hey, this person has a fucked up past so I want you to feel sorry for them.” Sure, it’s sad, but I’d be confused more than anything. Because again, things are going at a rapid pace, a pace where we can’t keep up.

Secondly, the anime doesn’t hesitate to show one problem, resolve it, then immediately jump to another problem. Seriously slow down roadrunner. We need a good one episode to just be a slice of life or comedy. An episode where we can see what the characters are like on a day to day basis. Staying sad & gloomy all the time isn’t beneficial to anyone. 

Lastly, the episodes focus way too much on one character. You’re probably thinking, “Isn’t that the whole point of an arc?” Yes, it is, but it’s a completely different situation, when the next episode, you’re already going to be focusing on someone else. For example, episode 5 could be about Girl A and episode 6 could be for Girl B. Sadly, Girl B has had barely any screen time the past few episodes, so what are you doing just suddenly dedicating an entire episode to her?  The same could be said for Girl A. The show needed a middle ground. A moment where we could just all sit back and relax. 

I’d say one of the only redeeming things is Yuuji’s role in each arc. We get to see just how much of a badass he is, in different ways. His part provides a good amount of action to somewhat but not completely counteract the drama-heavy atmosphere. 

If anything can make you feel sad, then you might just love Grisaia. The comedy that appears every once in a while is great too. Also if you like fan service, then that’s another plus. There are censors though, so they downgraded that too. From an objective standpoint or as a reader of the vn, Grisaia is pretty disappointing. 

Don’t got much to say about the art. The heroines are appealing, Yuuji looks cool, and the chibi scenes are adorable. There are times though, when Yuuji looks like a drawing on a piece of paper rather than an animated character.

I’m sorry, but I’m not a good reviewer when it comes to the sound section. To me, the opening has neat animation and a great beat, but it’s not crazy amazing. I also think the voice actors are perfect.  I guess saying I have no complaints about the sound sums up my thoughts a lot easier. 

I know I said a lot of negative things about how they went about developing the characters, but that doesn’t mean I hate the characters. In fact, I like them. They may not be totally unique, but they do, for the most part, each have at least one refreshing trait. 

Our main protagonist is Kazami, Yuuji. Dude is a badass. He’s certainly different than the harem protagonists we have today. Unlike most harem protagonists, he doesn’t look dorky or like a child. Despite the rampant amount of fan service, he doesn’t blush or stutter. Instead he remains composed and says blunt, but witty comments. There’s also the fact that he’s a strong and intelligent guy in a non-magic/fantasy world. Thanks to that, we get plenty of moments where he shows off just how cool he is. Yuuji is a breath of fresh air in a world of incompetent and super altruistic shounen/harem protagonists. 

Next we got Amane, the big sister character. Well-endowed, she is constantly flirting with Yuuji much to his chagrin. She may be flirtatious, but I think she is the most mature out of the group. She knows when to be serious and actually doesn’t have as much quirks as the others do. 

Then there’s Makina, a petite girl who is initially portrayed as shy, but in reality, has quite the personality. She acts childish, but shows a great amount of intelligence from time to time. With that intelligent and childish personality, comes vulgarity. She may seem innocent, but she’s not. She’s got the tongue of a sailor.  A fair portion of the comedy comes from her use of language and it never fails to make me laugh. 

Sachi is an obedient and polite maid. No matter what the request is, she promises to fulfill it. Because of this the characters are careful with their words when speaking to Sachi. There are moments when they accidentally joke around and Sachi takes it literally, providing comedy and sometimes pity for the girl. Simply put, she’s a girl who’d spend her entire life searching for bigfoot if you asked for it. 

Michiru is an air-head who enjoys acting like a tsundere. Her ignorance can be a good source of comedy, but sometimes it’s just annoying. Couple that with her tsundere actions and you might get ticked off. Everyone has their own tastes, so you might like her, but as for me, I don’t.

The last main heroine is Yumiko. She acts cold or in other words is a coodere, but that’s just because she doesn’t want to be betrayed again. She also thinks she wouldn’t be much of a friend anyways. Deep down, she is a kind and caring girl. Once she opens up to someone, she’s more on the dere side. There’s a running gag between her & Yuuji where she tries to cut him with a box cutter. The characters are shown as chibi so it’s both, funny and adorable. 

We also got the supporting cast such as Julia Harudera a.k.a JB. Besides being someone who took care of Yuuji and his boss, we hardly know anything about her. She’s supposed to be someone who frequently assists Yuuji, but that information just never reached the surface.

The characters don’t reek of one-dimensional and provide tons of hilarious moments as well as awesome ones from Yuuji, but they’re far from well developed. It would’ve been better to keep them at a stand still than force a fast change in them. In the end, whether or not you like the characters is up to you. It’s subjective vs objective.

“It doesn’t matter how much trash you pick up, you’ve just got a pile of trash.”

I’m not saying Grisaia is utter trash, but the quote above best describes Grisaia. Adding more and more stuff isn’t going to magically make the anime better. A combination of mediocre stories will never deliver what 1 good story will. The show should’ve adapted 1 route. There would be some missing information, but the information that is included would surely be enough to get you to understand what’s going on. With multiple routes though, the amount of missing crucial information is way too high. Grisaia no Kajitsu left us with rushed arcs, no time to get attached to anyone, & characters who dealt with their problems at an abnormal pace. Yuuji, the comedy, & the characters, when it's just them during their everyday lives, isn’t going to save the show, but it will at least allow it to be watch-able. 

nhettinger - 2015-03-06 03:13:07

Plot: Yūji Kazami transfers to Mihama Academy, a school with only five female students and prison-like features. Every student in the school have their own "circumstances" for being there, but Yūji is not required to do anything about their situation as he asked for a normal student life.

Story: First things first it should be noted this is a super condensed version of the visual novel Fruit of Grisaia. Some of the story arcs keep the general feel that the visual novel had while others are edited and condensed so much that they loose their focus. I will be giving a brief review of each of the 5 arcs of the anime.  Yumiko's arc is heavily changed at the end but I personally think that it still kept the general feel that the visual novel had. I wish I could say the same about the Sachii and Michiru arcs. They are both heavily condensed and so much is cut that they seem in consistent. I think that the characters retain some of their prominent traits but the emotion that I experienced in the visual novel is heavily lost. Finally, the high points of this anime are the Makina and Amane route which both stay very true to the visual novel. I think compared to the others these two routes capture a lot of emotion of the characters and do the best in fleshing out the cast. Amane's route in particular is by far the best in the show. The ending does get changed but I personally did not mind as it still works very well for the series. The ending in general is also very good in terms of an ending for the anime. 

Animation: The animation of Grisaia is good. The character designs are similar to that of the VN and the scenery is also descent and interesting to look at.  I would say overall the animation is typical slice of life animation. It is overall very fluid and stays true to the source material. 

Sound:  What I really find great about Grisaia is almost the entire visual novel cast also voices their characters in the anime. The exception being Yuji. All of the main heroines are voiced by the actress that voiced their characters in the PSP version of the game. I thought each character was voice really well and the characters were really able to draw out the emotion of the show. THe opening is also very good. 

Characters: Because some of the arcs are very condensed many of the characters loose some time to develop. The viewer can get a general concencus of what the characters personality is but overall I think some characters could have been developed more. The main ones being Sachi , Michiru and Yumiko. Makina and Amane both get a large amount of screen time so there characters have the most time to develop.

Enjoyment: Having played the visual novel I feel my enjoyment may be a bit biased. As I enjoyed the fact that the visual novel was actually being adapted in the first place. So I will try to evaluate it on what others who haven't played the vn will think. Overall Grisaia is very inconsistent. It has a lot of highs and lows. With some arcs being very good and some being very mediocre. I would recommend it if you would like to watch something different from the typical slice of life. But, as I mentioned before the some of the characters are underdeveloped and some of the arcs are very rushed. 

pascale.kunze - 2015-02-20 00:13:29

"Let's bury the depressed girl alive! That'll make her want to live again!" Instant drop. The story is flat and uninteresting. The characters are slightly better done but you get almost no reason for them to be at the academy. Sadly not the anime I expected from the first few episodes. Would not recommend.

strosin.lottie - 2015-01-18 05:43:40

People have problems. Everybody knows that. The problems residing inside people can range from menial like fits of hunger to more serious cases like severe schizophrenia. Grisaia is such a story about 5 females with serious traumatic problems from their past that they seem to have lost all focus on reality and act like dissonant to what they truly believe to be themselves. What have I just described Grisaia as? A generic story of helping girls overcome their traumatic pasts which small romantic elements drizzled in there.

Despite the story being generic, Grisaia does have a slight charm to it. This charm is rather small because a lot of the story, from its source material, was removed to fit within 12 episodes. What gives Grisaia this very small charm is the wide variety of archetypes the viewer can choose from, along with the diverse characters and their distinctive traumatic events. However, that is as far as the charm is going to get towards this anime. Everything else of this anime is rather stale and average at best.

This review could go on for more paragraphs, but I don't need to because it pretty much boils down to what is truly a better experience the visual novel by Front Wing or this anime representation of it? Without a doubt, the visual novel is what is better. On the contrary, is the anime representation of Grisaia worthy of being watched? I would say its ok as an anime representation, only if you are never going to play the visual novel.

fledner - 2015-01-03 20:17:30

nadia87 - 2014-12-18 13:26:13

Hmm this is quite a good anime, you'll slowly get hooked to the main character.
This anime goes quite slow, it takes a while for things to get started. Their isn't too much actions at the start of the show but overall its an good anime. The art is very nice and so is the sound track. I really enjoyed watch the first few eps.

fredrick.witting - 2014-11-23 20:07:53

The first time I heard about Grisaia is when they mentioned that it was a VN adaptation, so I straight away going out looking for the VN itself (plus the english patch). And I have to say, the VN is pretty good (just finished Makina's route).

But sadly the anime adaptation turns out a bit of downfall for me. Too many missing key points in the anime can make most of the Grisaia fans go "boo-hoo" for not adapting the VN well. Even I didn't enjoyed it also!!! But there's a catch. The plot line in the anime itself isn't that bad enough. Surprisingly, it does goes with the flow from the beginning up until now, even though there is still missing some key points that are related to the VN. Nonetheless the plot line is simple and yet follows the original VN, making the new viewers that aren't read or even acknowledged about the VN to have a better understanding of the story without going through the long VN storyline (it's very sad to those, including me to go through all the lines in the common route of the VN for a long period of time).

To those who doesn't read yet the VN, I would recommended this anime for you guys to give a go. Love the story line they put up in the anime. 

And for the guys who did read and eventually finished Grisaia, keep on complaining for the rest of your life.

opal74 - 2014-10-28 05:31:06

So far I am just so unimpressed. I had high hopes for this anime based off its 
multilayered summary, but the execution thus far has been less than stellar and certainly nowhere up to par with my expectations nor my standards.

My only reason for continuing to watch is because there appears to be some sort of mystery unraveling, granted it's often overshadowed by copious amounts of ridiculous, unneeded fanservice. In terms of its premise, this anime has so much potential, but so far all I'm witnessing from it is a clusterfuck of terrible characterization, pantyshots and generalized fanservice, gender stereotypes, and the beginnings of an abusive romance, which naturally is being glorified out the wazoo. 

Mark my words, the only thing this anime has going for it at all is the main character, whom is so refreshingly variant and different from the typical male protagonist prototype of this genre. An actual likeable male lead within the harem genre is truly a rarity to come by, so for that, this anime does get some commendation. Another plus is that the art is breathtakingly gorgeous comprised of a vibrant color palette, fluid animation, and intricate detail, but that can only go so far with the material that's been presented currently.  

Otherwise, this series is so far a hot mess. What am I supposed to take from this creepy nut job breaking into the male protagonist's room to shamefully masturbate on his bed? Or this other nut job constantly trying to stab the male protagonist with a box cutter and all the while this is not only made to be no big deal at all, but there is clearly intent of a romance for this pairing in future episodes. 

Everyone supposedly has a dark background yet to be revealed - instead of all the ridiculous pantyshots, filler, and excessive sexualization of the female characters, can we get to the actual substantial storytelling part of it already? 

icartwright - 2014-10-23 14:24:36

Honestly, I'm still confused about this one. In terms of plot it reminds me of Akuma No Riddle: a guy is seeking "normal" school life and joins a "normal" school, which is anything but normal, since it has only him and 5 girls in it. And Teachers, that are not shown much here. None of those are normal. Like at all. Who the hell are those girls, what dark stuff is going inside their heads? Gos knows, because so far there was not much to speculate on. Which builds up some tension, yes, but if it will go for more than 2 more episodes - it may ruin the show.
The characters... Well, as I said, nothing much was told about them yet. The guy is definitely a trained killer, there is a girl, who likes to cut things (and the guy) with paper-knife, a girl, who wants to be guy's onee-sama, a girl, who is completely dependable on others, a maid-girl, who seems to be able to do anything in terms of acquisition and crafting and a twintail tsundere )who claims, that tsundere is an act or something). They guy acted all cool, but in 3rd episode... He kinda became a smart-ass.
Whole 3rd episode seemed to have change the whole genre of the anime turning into skits (funny, I admit that), instead of dark-past school-life anime. Who knows what will come next?
In terms of art it reminds me of NouCome. Vivid colors with slight blur, some shaft-like neck twitches, some panties on quite nice asses. And white beam of light in the so important a moment in 3rd episode! How could they!?
So... SO far I am still on the fence. At the moment it's somehow balancing between 5/10 and 6/10 for me. If there won't be some explanations starting in next 2 episodes It will drop to 5/10 and I'll most likely drop it. For now - I'm giving it a chance. For the nice asses (I am a buttman, myself)