Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru

Shouzou Saitou and his wife, Ine, have been married for nearly sixty years. Though they have not become wealthy or been able to go on a honeymoon in all that time, their love has remained steadfast. The couple spend their days peacefully tending to an orchard of apple trees and receiving visits from their loving family.

While tending to the apple tree they planted on their wedding day, which had snapped in half during a typhoon, the couple notices a golden apple hanging from one of the branches. They decide to eat the apple back at home, and the next morning, the couple awakens to find that they have become young again!

In their new but familiar bodies, Shouzou and Ine are able to live life as they never had before: they engage in more modern activities together, such as participating in a sports festival and playing video games. As they revisit the memories of their young love, the romance between them is rekindled, inspiring similar feelings in the younger members of their family.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Saitou, Ine Main

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Saitou, Shouzou Main

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Saitou, Mino Supporting

Mikami, Shiori Japanese

Saitou, Shiori Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Igarashi, Shouta Supporting

Terashima, Junta Japanese

Takahashi, Setsu Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Nakata, Kousuke Supporting

Kinoshita, Suzuna Japanese

Nakata, Shunsuke Supporting

Mitoma, Kouhei Japanese

Takahashi, Hajime Supporting

Hiyama, Nobuyuki Japanese

Saitou, Kaoru Supporting

Sasaki, Mikoi Japanese

Iizuka, Aya Producer

Ueda, Kiyoka Producer

Fujiwara, Yukiko Producer

Takemoto, Kentarou Producer

Reviews

Jun 16, 2024

KANLen09

Recommended

Well-written

Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again - How it feels great to turn young again, even if it's fiction.

In the Bible, it is stated in the Book of Genesis that there exists the Garden of Eden, which has the duality of the Trees serving different purposes: the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God does not give the prohibition for the Tree of Life, and it's free to be consumed...so why not take this idea, and turn it into an original work? And that's what you get with mangaka Kagiri Araido's Twitter/Pixiv web manga series: Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru a.k.a ... Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again, a rom-com series about elderly people's regression when they eat from the supposed "Tree of Life", and live life to the fullest, as portrayed in their young adult days.

They say, "Second Chances are hard to come by", and this context is given to the main elderly couple of the Saitos: husband Shouzou and wife Ine. After building their apple orchard for much of their lifetime and noticing that one particular tree has grown a golden apple, they don't think much of it and consume it just like any other normal apple, only to find themselves regressing in age. Manifesting romance back in their lively days, and serving as the comedy gag, both Shouzou and Ine begin to re-experience the days of their youth once again, inspiring the people around them and taking the jab of professing how great it is to be young again.

The one-word-liners to describe this show, would be heartwarming, surprising, wholesome, and uplifting, because that's the motive of the original source material to weave daily moments into life that can be enjoyed once again. That being said, Shouzou and Ine's direct influence being their son of Yoshiaki, his wife of Kaede, and their child-cum-granddaughter Mino, it's just relentless comedy gags aimed at the young to ever be so surprised that their parents/grandparents, with all of their infinite wisdom and adding their regression, makes for lots of hijinks that even affect their neighbours and especially the grandchildren, forming their own rom-com circles that you can't help but chuckle at (even if the jokes may be hit and miss). The fact is that while this show doesn't have a plot around it, it uses its setting to good effect, and ultimately comes up as a decent-to-good show that you can watch in your free time. And for that, the show does its sole job well.

Like everything else in the anime, you can take it or leave it as it is. The production by studio Gekkou is rather decent (with a few eye-popping comedy moments), as well as the OST alongside Koresawa's OP and Shouzou and Ine's ED, both of which I feel are just mind-numblingly slow (given that this is a show that has "young" in the name) and giving them the speedbump up would've helped things be livelier.

It's a chill anime that definitely screams the one-off episodic treatment, but if this show is your jam, then feel free to just rest in the laurels of the feel-good show that's just a comfort to watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 18, 2024

MarlsMarsBars

Mixed Feelings

This anime revolves around two grandparents, Shouzou and Ine Saitou, as they turn young again. Before this show aired, I read the synopsis for this series and was immediately intrigued because the possibilities that you could do with a story like this is seemingly endless, and on top of that, the concept of giving grandparents the opportunity to do new things that they never could’ve done when they were younger is very wholesome by itself. When this show actually started airing, I was immediately sold on the cute and comedic dynamics that this show presents due to both Shouzou and Ine turning young again. On ... top of the whimsical nature of everyone else’s reactions to two grandparents being basically young supermodels, the main couple finally gets to experience new things that they never could have experienced during their prime days, which makes the overall perspective that this series presents hit hard. I really like the themes of taking in the simple moments in life and holding your loved ones close, and although this is a very unoriginal message in storytelling, Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again’s narratives deliver on those themes well through fun and heartwarming characterizations. If I were to offer any form of criticism for this anime, I will say that some of the editing isn’t that great (which seems to be a running theme for this seasonal slate of anime), more specifically the audio mixing. Sometimes the backing soundtrack in this series just overpowers some of the seiyuu’s performances, which makes it difficult to hear some character voice lines. I can’t imagine watching this anime in raw Japanese because without the subtitles, it’d be near impossible to hear what some of the characters are saying, especially when it comes to Mamiko Noto’s voice lines for Ine. Another aspect that I have to point out is that this show can be kind of repetitive sometimes. I don’t mind some sense of repetition in more laid back movies and shows like this, especially if the writing is mainly revolving around fleshing out the characters’ lives and their relationships. However, Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again occasionally reuses some of the same comedic tropes and plot points, which makes viewing this show a bit boring at times. Regardless, these minor setbacks don’t hold back the overall cute atmosphere that this show brings, and, for the most part, accomplishes in being nothing but straight wholesomeness. If you need a short and relaxing anime to watch, give Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again a try.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 9, 2024

Cielord

Not Recommended

One of the worst anime I watched.

Firstly, let start with some positivity, and talk about the one and only good aspect of this anime. That being the premise/concept.

An old couple, who has been married for over half a century, one day found their bodies reverting to their youthful appearance. The 2 who faced troubles in the past, weren't able to truly enjoy their time as a young couple. But now, thanks to their current stable life and this supernatural event, could they make up for the past?
This premise intrigued me, creating an ideal setting for a unique romance anime, one that will focus on ... a more mature romance. Which will differentiate itself from the hundreds of romcoms existing. Yet, unfortunately, it didn't live up to my intrigue.

Plot, the series is quite episodic, mainly focusing on the eccentric events surrounding the 2 main characters. Eccentric events being other characters reacting to their transformation or to how amazing they are. When it's not this, it's a 'sad' story relating to the past, or romance between the 2 main characters or other characters. The romance part being the worst of it all, Shouzou and Ine act like virgin middle schoolers, even though they have been together for over half a century (which the series constantly reminds us of) and had 3 kids together. This is so unrealistic and unnatural, and it completely ruins my expectations. What also made me more annoyed at it was that the Mushoko Tensei sequel aired in the same season on the same day. Mushoku Tensei is a series that is actually capable of depicting a mature and developing romance.

Characters, the characters in the series, are the definition of shallow. And you can divide them into 3 categories.
Those who only exist to be amazed at Shouzu and Ine, be it their appearance, or driving skills, or cooking skills, or anything else, because they are so perfect.
Virgin middle schoolers, which is only really the 2 main characters. Cause everyone else need to be amazed by them.
And the combination of them both, which are any characters whose only purpose is being a reaction GIF to Shouzo and Ine. That purpose is to have their own dull romance.

Comedy & Supernatural, the other 2 tags of this series, and like the romance part, they also suck.
For the comedy part, I don't have much to say, with comedy being a more subjective thing, so I guess I can only call it, not my cup of tea.
While the supernatural part... At first glance, I understood the series wasn't going to take it in a serious manner, but the way it executed it was ridden with plot contrivance. The main characters freely use their 'powers' of changing their bodies from old to young, going out of their way to tell everyone they know about it. But do we get some consequences from it? Does the government want to experiment on their body? Do they gain national or international news coverage? And as you guessed, the answer is no.

Animation, I don't pay much attention to the animation of non-action anime, but in here the animation was so bad it caught my attention. Many scenes in the series had the designs look off, to the point it harmed my watching experience.

In conclusion, this series had an interesting premise but a miserable execution. The author seemed more focused on creating a comedic and wholesome anime, rather than using the setting he created to its best.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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	Poll: Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Aversa - Jun 16, 2024	137 replies	by Beguni »» Sep 14, 10:35 AM
	does anyone know if/when the OST will be available (in the US)? fatnat1234 - Apr 7	1 replies	by MessyMarv »» Apr 7, 4:52 PM
	Poll: Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru Episode 8 Discussion IzanaSolos - May 26, 2024	41 replies	by eXtripa69 »» Mar 11, 8:54 PM
	Poll: Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru Episode 3 Discussion Aversa - Apr 21, 2024	49 replies	by Perrier1415 »» Feb 23, 3:55 AM
	Poll: Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) IzanaSolos - Apr 7, 2024	162 replies	by Mariam0012 »» Jan 29, 1:11 AM