Grisaia no Kajitsu

Yuuji Kazami is a transfer student who has just been admitted into Mihama Academy. He wants to live an ordinary high school life, but this dream of his may not come true any time soon as Mihama Academy is quite the opposite. Consisting of only the principal and five other students, all of whom are girls, Yuuji becomes acquainted with each of them, discovering more about their personalities as socialization is inevitable. Slowly, he begins to learn about the truth behind the small group of students occupying the academy—they each have their own share of traumatic experiences which are tucked away from the world.

Mihama Academy acts as a home for these girls, they are the "fruit" which fell from their trees and have begun to decay. It is up to Yuuji to become the catalyst to save them from themselves, but how can he save another when he cannot even save himself?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kazami, Yuuji Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Matsushima, Michiru Main

Mizuhashi, Kaori Japanese

Sakaki, Yumiko Main

Tanaka, Ryouko Japanese

Suou, Amane Main

Taguchi, Hiroko Japanese

Komine, Sachi Main

Shimizu, Ai Japanese

Irisu, Makina Main

Tamiyasu, Tomoe Japanese

Kazami, Kazuki Supporting

Tomonaga, Akane Japanese

Harudera, Yuria Supporting

Narumi, Erika Japanese

Tachibana, Chizuru Supporting

Yanase, Natsumi Japanese

Oslo, Heath Supporting

Ogura, Mitsutoshi Producer

Yamazaki, Asuka Producer

Kosuge, Hidenori Producer

Kanemitsu, Kazuhiro Producer

Reviews

Jan 4, 2015

Darknesser

Recommended

Grisaia no Kajitsu Review

So. Where to begin ? Grisaia no Kajitsu debuted as a visual novel, and it was quite highly praised. So, like several other visual novels, since it was starting to get very popular, Front Wing decided that it was time to adapt it into an anime, to further boost the popularity of the VN. However, most of us know that adapting a visual novel into an anime is a very "hit or miss" decision. Either it's a complete success, like Clannad or Fate/Stay Night UBW, or it's a complete disaster, the that will forever tarnish the reputation of the source material. ... It's understandable, because most adaptations don't get more than a one court anime, unless they're from some big studio like Key. And trying to adapt a VN of 50+ hours into a 12 episodes anime can be quite hard. So which one is it ? Will Grisaia no Kajitsu (I'll call it GnK from now on) be remembered as one of the few VN that got successfully adapted, or will it be simply another anime to add to the heap of horrible adaptations ?


Story : 5

To be perfectly honest, GnK doesn't have too much of a story. Yuji Kazami, the main character, join a private school, where there's only 5 other students, all girls. We'll talk about each of them later on. Pretty much that entirety of the story after the intro consists of the girls backstory, and how Yuji interacts with each of them. Because of this, GnK's focus isn't on the story, but rather on the characters, which can be both good or bad, depending on how it's done.


Characters : 8

Like I said before, there's not much to the story. So for me to give GnK such a high rating, the characters must be pretty good, right ? WRONGS !! You've got the typical mysterious transfer student, a maid, a generic tsundere, a loli, the Kuudere and a girl who REALLY wants a boyfriend. That said, those unoriginal characters become much, MUCH more memorable when you take their backstories into account. You quickly realize that nobody is normal at this school. It's like everyone is wearing a mask, desperately trying to forget their own history. Everyone has a f***** up past, and that's what make those characters so interesting. Each of the five girls have an arc. During those arcs, I ended up caring a lot for the same characters that I immediately dismissed as boring and uninteresting after the first episode.


Sound : 8

The musics are pretty good and fits well the scenes in which they appear. The EDs were good, but I didn't find them as noticeable as the opening. The voice actors also do a good job, I don't have any complaints here.


Animation : 8

It looks great for a 2014 anime. The dark colour palette fits the dark side of the story, and the character design is pretty good, none of the characters look the same.


Personal Enjoyment : 10

When I first started watching GnK, I wasn't really sure if I was gonna like it or not. But as I watched it weeks after weeks I eventually started to be really looking forward to the next episode without even noticing it. It was especially painful to wait for the next episode during Amane's arc, which is easily the best in my opinion. I've seen a lot of people who said that they didn't like it because it was too weird, but I'm a weird person myself, so I actually enjoyed it's weirdness.


Final Rating :

So. Should you watch GnK ? YES ! But it's not for everyone, so it really depends on your personal tastes. One complaint that I often heard, was that it was rushed, and took out way too much scenes from the VN. But I didn't play the VN, so I didn't noticed that. To me, it wasn't rushed. The character arcs had a good pace, with the exception of Sachi's , which would have needed at least another episode. So is it a good adaptation ? Honestly, I don't know. Those who played the VN will probably be disappointed by how short it is, but as a standalone anime, it's successful. And with Season 2 & 3 confirmed, all remaining questions will hopefully be answered.

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So ! This was one of my first review, and this definitively won't be my last ! I have a lot of improvement to do, and I know that. That's why I would really appreciate if you guys would leave me feedback and/or tips to improve my future reviews by commenting on my profile or sending me a PM ! Let me know if there's something you feel like I should improve, whether it be the length of the review, if I need to talk more or less about a certain subject, or anything else that you think needs improvement ^__^

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Feb 25, 2015

Veronin

Mixed Feelings

For nearly every minute I spent watching Grisaia, I kept asking myself the same question: "Why the hell is this only 13 episodes long?"

The natural response would be that the studio did not have enough budget to stretch the production any further. And while that does contain some truth, it does not excuse 50+ hours of story from the visual novel being jammed into a meagre four hours of animation. True, there's a lot of crap in the visual novel that could be cut out with little of value being lost. But when necessary story and characterisation is rushed through so quickly that you can ... barely even tell what the hell is going on, there is a major problem.

The suits behind the adaptation failed to understand that they could simply lighten down on the pace and leave the rest of the story for later seasons. Cover half the content from the visual novel, and if it sells well enough (and it almost assuredly would given the popularity of the franchise), cover the rest of it in a second season. Great, everyone is happy. Instead of that, we get "Grisaia: The Compilation Series". I can't imagine anyone except the most devoted of fans is satisfied with the result.

It's difficult to judge the Grisaia anime for what it is rather than for what it should be, considering nearly every issue is in some way related to the pacing. The characters frequently engage in acts of nonsense because the anime doesn't have any time to explain their actions. Sachi's episode is just laughable as it immediately transforms the naive, innocent maid into some dangerous psycho without any reasons as to WHY. A few minutes later and again without reason, she changes back into Stupid Lovable Sachi, and at that point it becomes a mystery who or what her character is even supposed to be.

Most egregious is the 'romance' between the protagonist, Yuuji, and one of the heroines. Within the first five minutes of her arc, Yuuji and said heroine become a couple after an impromptu make-out scene. It's all well and nice when an anime actually has the guts to show two characters kissing, but in Grisaia's case, the two are so unfamiliar with each other that they may as well be still be strangers. It does very little to make their relationship feel natural, and until it becomes clear what the girl's reason for hitting on Yuuji all the damn time are, it just feels like the two are incredibly desperate and don't actually care about each other. And that still doesn't change much by the end of her arc. Whereas in the visual novel it is obvious that Yuuji has genuine feelings for and a desire to protect her, in the anime's case it's just "hey, whatever, man". Yuuji is only wooing the girls because they offer themselves to him so easily.

Because the story is whiplashing from one heroine arc to another so quickly and without break -- often with only a single episode to separate them -- it is easy to get a headache from the overwhelming onslaught of drama. It's a ceaseless wave of story bombshells, 'shocking' revelations that in fact do not feel shocking whatsoever because of the needless fatigue it puts on the viewer. By the time you're done watching the first or second heroine arc, it becomes very clear how the rest of them are going to play out. Girl has crazy past, Yuuji comes in to save the day and help them overcome their trauma - again and again.

Yumiko's arc in particular feels very out-of-place and contrived, considering how she suddenly spills her entire past to Yuuji despite hating his guts and trying to stab him IN the guts only moments earlier. Hell, even the reason why she's afraid of men in the first place is skipped over and scarcely mentioned. And Sachi's arc, again, is laughable for the massive 'twist' it pulls at the end, contrasted with the complete indifference of the two people involved. I think only Michiru's and Makina's arcs are the ones that are done even moderately well, and even then I would struggle to label them anything more than merely OK. Makina's route has some issues as well, namely why the hell Yuuji -- especially when one considers his line of work -- is destroying his entire life to help some random loli he knows little about and has only been friends with for a few days. Michiru's route is largely forgettable; I actually had to rewatch parts of it to even remember what happened since the show was such a damn blur.

Another problem, if largely irrelevant to anime-only viewers, is the lack of Yuuji's witty monologues. They are what made the visual novel so entertaining and are what turned Yuuji into an actual character and not merely a collection of 'cool' and 'badass' traits like he is in the anime. Sure, he's still likeable in the anime (especially with the addition of an appropriate voice actor), but there is little to make him interesting except in contrast to the billions of mentally retarded harem protagonists. Granted, it's difficult to carry his monologues over without the show feeling awkward -- anime and visual novels are two different mediums, after all -- but it would not hurt to have added a little bit more of Yuuji's thoughts, especially during the comedic scenes. The anime adaptation is inherently inferior for not having that.

I think what frustrated me more than anything was the show's endless, pathetic need to have panty shots at the worst times possible. A character will actually be DYING and it will still have the nerve to stare at her panties. WHAT? Seriously, what the hell? Rather than drool over panties like some 12-year-old who just found out about porn, the staff should try maturing a bit by focusing on things that people actually do (and which are an actual part of the VN's story), like sex and kissing and everything in between. The show does at least have the courage to show Yuuji kissing several of the girls, so it's not entirely a lost cause, I suppose. And yes, 'several' was not a typo; Grisaia is undoubtedly a harem story, even when it decides to throw two characters into a romantic relationship.

On the bright side, the survival backstory within Amane's route is actually given a proper amount of screentime (surprising, I know!) and is a genuinely engaging story as a result, even if it isn't necessarily pleasant to watch. As in pretty much any story about a group of people surviving together, they all fall into madness at some point, and some of the things they do, like eating maggots on their wounds in order to escape starvation, will likely make you feel like vomiting. So do be prepared.

The artwork is... well, not great. The characters look out-of-place and even like blobs in a number of scenes, though the letterboxing effect is a nice touch and gives the show a more cinematic feel. Some praise can also be said for the audio. The OP - particularly its instrumentals - is a great piece of music. Godly, perhaps. It's a shame there wasn't more like that in the actual episodes.

Can I recommend watching Grisaia? If you're an anime-only viewer who has not read the visual novel, I would say no and tell you to go read that instead, especially when it has arguably the best fan translation that has ever been released. The anime is not a worthwhile story on its own, and unless you're craving for a mediocre harem anime with a cool protagonist, you're only going to find yourself frustrated and alienated by the ridiculous pacing.

If you've already read the visual novel, though, Grisaia is still a decent piece of fanservice despite my endless complaining. Seeing the story in animation and not just pictures certainly makes it more dynamic, and the addition of a voice actor for Yuuji makes him feel much more human. It's not an ideal adaptation by any stretch of the imagination, but it works, and for some fans that will be enough.

Let's just hope they don't repeat the same mistakes in the other seasons.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jan 9, 2015

Valkqt

Not Recommended

Be it for the dorky humour or the sporadic bouts of humanity in the individual routes, Grisaia no Kajitsu enstablished itself as a force in the otaku world strongly enough to pique my curiosity and get enough funds for anime projects.
The first adaptation covers the story of the first game and all five routes, but it is immediately evident that the series is cheaply made for a quick cash grab. Recycled backgrounds, vital parts of the story missing to fit screen time, rushed pacing and incomplete characterization aren't going to be noticed by VN readers exclusively, but casual watchers as well.

Fundamentally, it's the same ... thing as the novel: Yuuji is still a one man army when he needs to be, and the cast is still a relatively standard set of girls (tsundere, loli, onee-san, kuudere and maid), but it doesn't really work because of the reduced screen time, and if the novel was nothing special itself, the adaptation is even less competent at being a harem with touches of drama and shares the fate of many incomplete VN adaptations. Watch only if you have at least a passing interest in girls with dark pasts or if you care about the latest popular franchise.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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