Grand Blue

Iori Kitahara moves to the coastal town of Izu for his freshman year at its university, taking residence above Grand Blue, his uncle's scuba diving shop. Iori has high hopes and dreams about having the ideal college experience, but when he enters the shop he is sucked into the alcoholic activities of the carefree members of the Diving Club who frequent the place. Persuaded by upperclassmen Shinji Tokita and Ryuujirou Kotobuki, Iori reluctantly joins their bizarre party. His cousin Chisa Kotegawa later walks in and catches him in the act, earning Iori her utter disdain.

Based on Kenji Inoue and Kimitake Yoshioka's popular comedy manga, Grand Blue follows Iori's misadventures with his eccentric new friends as he strives to realize his ideal college dream, while also learning how to scuba dive.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kitahara, Iori Main

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Kotegawa, Chisa Main

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Imamura, Kouhei Main

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Yoshiwara, Aina Main

Asumi, Kana Japanese

Hamaoka, Azusa Supporting

Yukinari, Toa Japanese

Kotegawa, Nanaka Supporting

Uchida, Maaya Japanese

Tokita, Shinji Supporting

Yasumoto, Hiroki Japanese

Kotobuki, Ryuujirou Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Oohashi, Rie Supporting

Yamakita, Saki Japanese

Mitarai, Yuu Supporting

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Maeda, Toshihiro Producer

Furukawa, Shin Producer

Matsumura, Kazuhito Producer

Takahashi, Kazuaki Producer

Reviews

Sep 28, 2018

Stark700

Recommended

College life is a bit different from high school. For those who don’t know, it’s like venturing into a society where some people live by the rules and others makes them. To me, Grand Blue came as a show that explored a carefree life while mixing in adult humor, diving elements, and drinking shenanigans. It’s one of those shows that is hard to not laugh your ass off once you realized what you’re in for.

Based on the manga written by Kenji Inoue, Grand Blue stands out more as a modern slice of life that adheres to a young adult cultural society. Here, we meet a ... guy named Iori Kithara who starts his new life as a college student on the Izu Peninsula. His place of residence happens to be a diving shop known as “Grand Blue” and thus where daily life adventure begins. Now, I should say right off the bat that a show like this relies on stereotypical humor with plenty of jokes in between. If you’re not ready for that, just turn back now.

Grand Blue’s storytelling mainly chronicles the daily life adventures of Iori although plenty of other characters are featured aside him. The main cast consists of diving club, also known as the “Peek-a-Boo”. He meets others including his cousin Chisa, Nanaka, Kouhei, Azusa, Toshio, and Kotobuki. Among this group, the male cast seems more like they are in love with drinking more than diving. The first episode immediately sets off the humor with the nakedness and adult jokes from the very start as we meet the core members. That is to say, Iori himself also lacks common sense when he attends his first day at college while being half naked. Judging from just this impression, it should be easy to recognize that the show love to make fun of its characters. It uses stereotypes that makes fun of college life such as young adults drinking and partying. Then, there’s meta-humor that plays on jokes with the nudity. It’s also self-aware being that it never attempts to disguise its humor. Certain characters are very aware of their actions regardless of consequences and this often sets off the wrath of others such as Chisa.

For the main female cast, it consists of a colorful group with a diverse range of personalities. The most level-headed person in the show is Chisa who takes many things in life seriously. She also loves diving and geniuely enjoys the feelings of being in the azure ocean. She’s like the anti-Peek-a-boo member in the show as she can’t tolerate being embarrassed. Because of this, there’s often a clash between her and Iori as the two gets into compromising positions. The end result is often Iori taking the blow and Chisa face palming herself. However, it’s also noticeable that she does care about Iori especially during brief flashbacks before them. Often times, I guess you could say that she misses her childhood with him and reliving those moments brings a peace in her mind. Then, we have Nanaka who seems to play the role of an older sister type for the main cast although at the same time, she also has an unhealthy infatuation towards Chisa. It’s the type of humor that makes fun of siblings but in a sarcastic way. Azusa is the senior student who behaves much more like the guys in the show. Her bisexuality is hinted at many times and often makes sexual jokes at others, especially Iori. Last but not least is Aina, a freshman who is much shyer compared to the others. She does go by another persona early in the series so watching her sometimes may remind you just how different her two personalities are.

Between the guys, a main selling point in the show is the character chemistry. Regardless whether you like it or not, there’s an abundance amount of humor when the guys interact with each other and it often comes off as absurd humor. The most prominent is between Iori and Kouhei. They are often observant but says things that may be interpreted in the wrong way. They often get into trouble with the women in the show too given their actions that disregards common sense. The two also gets into many bickering moments. Early in the series, the series also makes fun of the guys with porn jokes. And let’s not forget about the drinking. Pretty every male character in the series loves to drink whether it’s alcohol, beer, vodka, wine, or whiskey. As you may expect from action that results in consequences, the guys behave like drunks while stripping naked and causing questionable scenes. The series pokes fun at this type of adult humor by covering their private body parts with black censored circles. It’s the type of self-aware humor that you’ll witness quite often.

So now what? Is this series just a giant ball of meaningless humor? Or is it something more deceptive that people misunderstands? To me, Grand Blue stands out as a show that deals with adult gimmicks and stereotypes but makes it into a humorous flick. It seems like a popcorn entertainment and you’re not wrong if it feels like the story went nowhere in the end. However, the shows knows how it operates and inserts every joke with a clear intention. The guys in the series acts bold and behaves in ways that wild college students do. The girls are slightly mild but it doesn’t detract them from getting into the party on occasions. There’s a lot of running gags with the drinking jokes, nakedness, and misunderstandings. It’s what the series uses to sell its humor. If you’re in it for actual diving, there are some moments too with info dumps. Don’t expect this like a relaxing slice of life as it’s far too hyperactive to be considered as such though. Watch this for the pure entertainment and forget common logic. That way, you’ll grow to love Grand Blue.

Zero-G has honestly been an unimpressive studio. Their lineup consists of shows that I hardly see anyone talks about these days (Battery, Dorei-kun the Animation, Dive!!). Their production quality is hardly stellar either. Thankfully, they managed to step up to the plate and capture the magic for this show. It deserved a glorious quality and got treated such way with the beach setting, aquatic ocean, and sunny atmosphere. Character designs also feels real with the cast looking like they are college students (although Aina sometimes makes me question this) Fan service is literally in every episode but they take the extreme during party scenes and drinking segments. Finally, I love the way characters reacts that pushes the envelope to the extreme. Iori and Kouhei are prime examples of this while others such as Chisa and Nanaka also have their own moments. Expressions of shock, anger, and confusion is shown right to your face in ridiculous ways. Thanks to the talented voice cast, it brings the best out of those moments. The OP song also adapts a playful feel to showcase the themes of the show. The ED theme song makes fun of pop culture such as karaoke that’s so fun to sing along with.

As a fan of the manga, I think Grand Blue established itself as a self-aware humorous showstopper. Taking the risk of glorifying its humor made this show look like a joke at first glance. However, once you get sucked into Grand Blue’s themes, you’ll find love with this show. From the adult humor to the numerous character gags, it’s an anime that plays with itself. It’s a Summer sensation.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Oct 8, 2024

yadnusbrekker

Mixed Feelings

Funny

Is the peak of comedy in praise of a masculinity that is years behind the times?

Ignoring the tendentiousness of my introductory question, I had some expectations with this series, seeing that it is no less than number ELEVEN in the manga charts here (to give you an idea, it is above series like Kingdom, Punpun, Houseki No Kuni, 20th Century Boys and Nana) and also that a couple of acquaintances had recommended it to me. So I said, well, I'm not in the mood for dense and dramatic stuff, and it's 12 chapters long, so if I like it, I'll pick up the manga. Why ... not give it a chance?

You can see that the people I know aren't immune to adoring things that outside the weeb spectrum wouldn't get half as much praise as they do. And mind you, not every seinen has to be a drama about the human existence and suffering, we need stuff that's easy to digest in the art we consume. The point is that my relationship with this series expresses something very obvious: comedy is subjective, and making it is very difficult.

Although I don't think it's fair to detract from that aspect of the series, because in some moments it's the only thing that saves it from being nothingness itself. It generated this strange thing that only Japanese comedy can generate in me: at times there were well-executed jokes that made me laugh out loud and at other times the degrading sex jokes employed made me think that it's not that hard to realize why Japan has had a declining birth rate for years.

I guess if I can sum up the comedy of this show in two words, it would be: bro humor. I don't know if that term exists but I'm going to coin it. In and of itself the fact that they go for hyper masculine rhetoric behind several of the gags presented in this series is not a problem (shit, JoJo knew how to do it very well). But the fact that a large percentage of the ridiculous and excessive debacle that this series handles is entirely between groups of men, excluding a lot of the female characters from the comedy, doesn't do it for me. And if that wasn't enough, let's sexualize the girls without their consent, because that's hilarious without a doubt! It also doesn't help the constant screaming that is this series, and although that's not something that usually bothers me in anime, here there is an excess of testosterone being expelled so intensely that I'm sure my estrogens formed new antibodies to the point that my ovaries were about to pop out of my body, pierce the screen and hit some of the male protagonists.

This gives me the perfect excuse to talk about the characters, because with the null plot that this has, I don't even think it's worth to talk about it. They're not the worst characters I've ever seen, but they lack... something, I don't know, I feel that none of them have a strong enough personality to impose themselves in a strong way in front of the whole sequence of intense situations that happen to them. Neither of them have much depth and in general their way of being is reduced to a specific gag, and if there is conflict, it only matters on a micro level in a certain situation. There are a couple of funny interactions (Azusa believing that Iori is bi for example, or the two muscular boys which in general I found to be nice enough, although except for the hair color they are the same character twice) but not much more than that. The reduction of characters to a specific gag gets particularly awful with Nanaka (because this isn't going to be the peak of Japanese comedy without gratuitous incest!), Iori and Kohei's classmates (I suffered through their segments a lot) and especially between Chisa and Iori's interactions.

Chisa especially is a character that frustrates me, because she's another eminence of female characters being victims of reductionist male writing. Usually she would be the character that stupid girls like me would have to identify with, and I suppose if it were another type of series she would work for me. But the only thing I can conclude about her is that there's no reason for her to surround herself with those people, being that she's constantly exasperated, and that she's was concieved as a character to have a shy girl that even though she CLEARLY doesn't want to be in compromising situations, the story puts her in them anyway because it's hilarious to see girls in sexual scenes, especially if they don't want to do it! Not to mention the fact that she and Iori are cousins and for half of this season there are jokes about them being a couple, sorry people but nothing in the way they interact says “cousins” (how are you going to make comments about your cousin's ass?) even if this is an attempt to appeal to that fetish, they are failing miserably in the process. Something that even struck me about Chisa, is that more than once they use other characters to tell us how she feels. Weird af if you ask me. At least Asuza is cool and Aina has a bit more range in terms of her personality and for some reason the fact that they called her “Hekabo” always made me laugh, I don't know if it's because I imagined her with that bizarre makeup or what the hell.

Considering what I just said, this series made me conclude something interesting about comedy anime set in our world. Even though it takes place in a realistic setting, with characters that you could run into in real life, doing things that the average Japanese person would do, the situations portrayed at times are so absurd that they border on the far-fetched. And as much as you can tell me “it's a comedy, you can not take it so seriously” yes, that's true, but there are limits to how far I can let humor go to modify the ways of human interaction in such an extreme way. Especially if I feel that the characters don't do enough to make the lack of realism employed at least enjoyable to watch (I mean, GOD, WHAT PERSON WITH A MINIMUM OF RESPECT FOR THEMSELVES LETS HIS FRIENDS INTERRUPT A SEXUAL ENCOUNTER AND STILL BE FRIENDS WITH THOSE PEOPLE? not to mention that they claim not to have a partner and then live crying, anyway, I insist, then they wonder why their birth rates are declining).

You can see that the escapist and ludic theme reigns supreme in this anime, even if there's a lot of humiliation and extreme interactions involved, since at the end of the day it's an “ode to youth” and living a dream. In any case what I see here is a fourth-rate wet dream that would probably come from the mind of someone whose only contact with the world and with art is comedy anime, because (although maybe I'm giving people too much credit) I find it hard to think that someone who is not used to anime could conceive of this as “peak comedy”. Maybe I didn't turn my brain off enough and I overestimate too much what I consume, but clearly my brain isn't going to turn off if I watch humor that degrades women!

Maybe I'm asking too much of anime, who knows. Maybe a little more diving would have made this more digestible for me, at least I expected that when it started. Maybe less sexualization would make me a little nicer to what I see, but then again maybe my western brain likes to talk and complain about the things weebs like. If the manga is anything like this, I don't think I'll read it, and its position on the charts will continue to baffle me, though if I decide to leave my dignity behind for a while maybe I'll watch season 2.

Anyway, I think I got a crueler review than I thought, despite my complaints it's not the most offensive or degrading comedy I've seen and if you're better at turning off your brain than I am, there's a chance you'll enjoy it. The animation delivers and despite everything, it's funny at times even for pretentious sourpusses like me. But I think I'm better off watching Nozaki-kun, at least there the gender roles are not so strongly delimited.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jan 14, 2025

AnimeExplorer21

Not Recommended

Funny

I went into this show with a lot of expectations, thanks to all the hype. People kept saying, "Oh, it's one of the funniest anime out there," and honestly, I feel like I missed the joke. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate over-the-top humor and ridiculous situations, but this? It just felt like it was trying too hard most of the time. Like that one friend at a party who keeps telling the same joke, hoping someone will laugh, but you’re just sitting there sipping your drink, waiting for it to end.

Let’s talk about Iori, the main guy. The dude has zero backbone. I ... get it, he’s supposed to be this everyman thrown into absurd situations, but come on, bro, stand up for yourself! Watching him constantly get dragged into drinking contests or stripped down to his underwear while he just awkwardly smiles or panics… it wasn’t funny after the third time. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion, except you don’t even care about the train.

And then there’s the comedy. Look, I’m not some stoic guy who doesn’t laugh—I wanted to laugh. I really did. But half the jokes were just loud yelling, dudes getting naked (again), and overused gags that felt stale after two episodes. Like, I get that naked guys are funny in certain contexts, but when it’s 80% of your humor? Eh, it gets old fast. My face was so blank most of the time, I could’ve been mistaken for a statue.

The diving part? Oh yeah, remember how this anime is supposedly about diving? Because the show sure doesn’t. Every now and then, they throw in these beautiful underwater scenes that made me think, “Okay, maybe now it’s going to get serious and meaningful,” but nah. It’s like the anime itself forgot it had a plot and decided to double down on its frat-boy antics instead.

And can we please talk about the lack of romance? I’m not saying every anime needs to have some grand love story, but they teased something between Iori and Chisa just enough to keep you hoping for something—a confession, a real connection, maybe even just a moment where they’re not awkwardly arguing. But nope. Nothing. It was like ordering a pizza and getting an empty box. A little disappointing, you know?

All that said, I won’t lie—there were a few moments where I cracked a smile. Like when Kohei gets into his otaku rants or when the older guys act like total lunatics. But those were rare, and they weren’t enough to carry the whole show.

So yeah, I’d give Grand Blue a solid 5/10. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever watched, but it’s definitely not something I’d recommend unless you’re really into slapstick humor and drunken chaos. Maybe the manga is better? I dunno. Either way, it’s one of those shows I’ll probably forget about in a few months.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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