Anime: Grisaia no Kajitsu

Review
Visual novels... on their own they can be quite satisfying with their tried and true formula. You get to meet the girls, learn about their crazy tales and bizarre behaviors, see some nice artworks typically involving cute girls showing their pantsu or tits or posing in some sexy costume, you may even get a sense of development by achieving some flags and getting a secret scene or two during your progression. These are all assets fit to a game, where your objective is to explore, learn intricate details, and achieve all possible objectives.

Translating this formula to an animated show, however, is not something natural. When you do that, you must take into account the fact the protagonist now has a life of his own and is not only a vessel from which the player make the choices. The cast as a whole needs presentation beyond the point-of-view of the player to make them feel more alive and interesting. The story itself needs to be completely changed so the episodes can be all balanced, the progression be made fluid, and developments be sparse and nicely divided to keep up momentum and to reach a climax.

Grisaia no Kajitsu (The Fruit of Grisaia, Grisaia for short) is one of the most "faithful" adaptation of visual novels I've seen. Every second of the show, every scene, every damn dialogue feels as if you are watching someone else play the game. There is basically zero effort into translating the events of the tale to the new media, and although this can work to please fans of this kind of game, it certainly fails to make a worthwhile presentation.

Basically, Grisaia is about the mysterious Kazami Yuuji meeting the five girls in his new school. The twist is that Yuuji is a sort of hitman wishing for some shot at a normal student life and his school is an empty building with only one active class, where him and the five girls attend. From there you will glimpse details about Yuuji's work and, more importantly, be presented to the five problematic girls.

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1. Visual novel format
   Of course, all five girls want to bed Yuuji from the get-go. You, however, will have one episode dedicated for each of the girls, where Yuuji will meet them, learn about their past, aid them in solving their issues and ultimately consolidate a possible romance. Repeat that for every five girls and then choose one of the girls, as you would in the game, to progress in the romance and reach the finale.
   
   Yuuji...
   However, there is a big nope in this basic visual novel format: Yuuji. The protagonist here is basically an empty vessel, as in a dating sim where you make his choices, and his actions are completely neutral as if to keep you thinking you are the one playing. Sadly though, this is an animation and having a dull protagonist whose actions barely change the outcome of the romance scenes is a terrible move. To make things worse, Yuuji does things like burying a girl alive and finding a dead corpse to fake a death and yet these problematic girls love him as if nothing happened. There is no effort in his part to gain the hearts of the girls, they simply love him for novel-reasons.
   
   The girls
   The first girl you'll meet in the show, the principal of school, will certainly mark you for her annoyingly screeching voice. Beyond that you'll have girls with more "normal" pitch on their tones, yet they can still get on your nerves from time to time. Their designs, however, are damn cute, somewhat inspired by the girls from Shaft shows, who are masters in this department. Considering the visual novel inspiration, however, you can expect every cute girl to be as traumatized as possible, with multiple personalities, mafia past, etc. There are some interesting turn of events with each of the girls, some of them pretty drastic and dramatic, but in the end they are all the deres demanded by visual novel consumers.
   
   but the dialogue...
   Oh man... there is so much nonsense in the conversations it gets harder and harder to enjoy the show as it progresses. Randomly the girl will be all tsundere, then talk about death and afterlife, then speak as if they were six years old and then play sexy and call for booty, and so on. The dialogue exists simply to fill time, as if tossing those letters in the novel screen to make you read would count for more gaming hours. Even when the girls have interesting pasts and personalities, the amount of nonsense you have to read only to learn about basic stuff is ridiculous.
   
   It's a pretty show though
   Grisaia can, however, gain the title of one of the most visually stunning pantsu show of its season. The colorful palette, a sharp and consistent artwork, as well as decently animated scenes makes up for a superb visual experience. Of course, the game-inspired shots do a disservice to the rest, but I probably haven't seem many shows about pantsu shots as gorgeous as this one. Animation quality drops as the episodes go on, but not by a severe degree. 8bit studio already did a decent job at Tokyo Ravens and it seems they are eager to rise in their quality with this.
   

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Comments
I only gave Grisaia a chance because it seemed pretty and reminded me of Shaft works. While watching, I was expecting some harem stuff with bits of comical value and perhaps a light dramatic value as in Clannad, but the adaptation was so damn similar to the actual gameplay it got more and more annoying with each passing episode. I can't say I hated it though, there were some interesting episodes and at some points the show took turns that nearly got me in awe, as in an episode you see one of the girls killing herself with a grenade... but that was fake, so the excitment quickly faded out.

Another terrible thing about Grisaia is its attempt to sound too serious, sometimes even philosphical, but only giving you the basic dating sim template and simulating someone playing a game instead of you. I do enjoy watching someone else play a game, but that is hardly what I'm looking for when I search for an animated show, movie, or TV series.

I can only recommend Grisaia to someone who truly wishes to experience a visual novel while watching a show. Other than that, many other adaptations, even poor ones, managed to translate the content from game to animation in a better and more fluid way.

Knowing that Grisaia is sourced from a VN from Frontwing, which is well known in the H circles, I kind of had an idea of what to expect going in- a harem with girls drooling over the main protagonist with copious amounts of fan service. Fortunately, this fruit tastes quite different from its appearance (Grisaia is a modification of the French word "grisaille", which describes a means of painting in monochrome). Grisaia is about a group of five very special and privileged girls that attend a normal-sized school despite being the only students. This special status is granted to girls who have suffered immense trauma in their lives, and the school is meant as a place of peace and recovery. In enters our protagonist, a calm, level-headed super-soldier like Sagara Sousuke but with common sense. Having decided that he wants to move on from his military-based past, he is sent to this special school to fulfill his wish of an ordinary school life. He is apparently greeted with anything but that- girls with multiple personalities, girls that randomly roll around on his bed and smell his bedding, and girls that attack him at every opportunity. Will Yuuji's prior training be enough to survive this new onslaught?

Grisaia is by no means a normal harem; in fact, the romance aspect is perhaps even questionable. The show combines a typical ecchi-based harem and some comedy with a much darker, thriller-based heroine storyline. This show is really more about Yuuji getting to know each of the girls and eventually helping them heal from their wounds, rather than the girls being all over him. The most memorable aspect of the show is how dark it is; there are copious amounts of gore and blood, in addition to brutal beatings and some hauntingly disturbing scenes. There is probably more censoring due to gore than ecchi in the TV version. Think you've got the guts to watch through it? Looking for something different to try? Well you've found it.

Animation:
The animation in Grisaia is solid. First off, the show is interestingly rendered in widescreen, as if a movie! The show is drawn with a moderately saturated palette, though occasionally you'll be treated to an eye candy of vivid ocean views complete with moving clouds and sunsets, though the studio apparently doesn't understand physics as clouds constantly swirl in opposite directions. The show has some pretty nice backgrounds and a large variety of scenery. The drawing is crisp in general though they occasionally purposely blur parts of the view, as if to imitate camera focus. There is occasional CGI usage for various things such as cars and waves but it isn't too distracting. The characters are also well drawn. All the girls are easily distinguishable and have notably diverse wardrobes. As a unique trait, all females all drawn with red-tinted eyelashes. Overall, emotions are well expressed and reactions are believable, the exception of course is our protagonist who shows very few emotions throughout the show.

There is an unexpected amount of action in this show. Let's just say Yuuji's skills from his prior occupation are frequently utilized. Expect aggressive driving, shootouts, and explosions. The battles aren't like the common minute long swordplay battles found in other action-based harems, it is rather like the battles involving Tatsuya from Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei; battles are often one-sided and end within a few seconds, granted they are very thrilling seconds. As mentioned before, there is substantial gore and blood in this show, so much so that censoring kicked in repeatedly. There is still plenty of fan service as well, so you will enjoy lots of censoring in general with this show. Expect endless panty shots and naughty winds. More unexpectedly, there are also mature oriented scenes including attempted rape and obvious girl masturbation scenes. In summary, the show is more intense than I originally expected in terms of both action and ecchi.

Sound:
The sound package was average overall. The OP is a light pop piece with a pretty weak melody but a fair stringed instrument accompaniment. The show has a multitude of EDs that for the most part follows the particular central heroine for the episode. The EDs range from melancholy to lighthearted playfulness but I didn't find any of them particularly good. The BGM is supportive when necessary but completely absent for a good portion of the show. Though not particularly memorable, the BGM was used to great effect when it mattered; insert songs are also utilized to highlight critical moments.

The VA cast is fairly interesting, composed mostly of seasoned supporting veterans. Kaori Mizuhashi, Hiroko Taguchi, and Akane Tomonaga all share credit for giving their respective characters a bit of flair. Maybe it's just me but I found Makina Irisu's voice to be a tad annoying. It is an overall good performance by the cast overall, especially in the last arc.

Story:
Surprisingly, this show rather reminds me of GTO, especially the aspect of an individual going way out of his way in order to help alleviate the root cause of someone else's hardship. The story highlights five girls, each of whom has extraordinary circumstances. Whether it is political intrigue or a random fascination with bombs, expect some curveballs and some dark material. While the show isn't depressing overall, do expect it to delve into rather forbidden territory, ethically.

The show starts with a few introductory episodes before then having the protagonist work his magic with each of the girls. The girls all have a crazy situation that ultimately requires Yuuji's unconditional military might (and his connections) to resolve, the plot progression is both interesting and engaging. Each arc is something of a self-contained thriller with its own rising action and climax that lasts between one and two episodes. The one exception is the last arc, which lasts a total of four episodes and represents perhaps the darkest, most chilling part of the show. The show ends with a teaser of things to come as a second season is already in the works as of this review. Furthermore, there is an OVA out that greatly explains Yuuji's past and why he goes to such lengths to help others.

Character:
You're not going to find any cookie-cutter heroines here. All of the girls are definitely a bit on the weird side, but given their past you can see why. Expect a good amount of character exposition as well as character development. The girls' attachment to Yuuji grows naturally and it's nice to see the effects linger after a heroine's arc is over, unlike Amagami SS and its clones. Though a tad unrealistic, the fact that the school has no other students (and apparently teachers other than the principal) conveniently eliminates a common source of unnecessary supporting characters. Indeed, the show is very focused on the heroines, and to good effect.

Yuuji on the other hand doesn't get much attention. How did he turn into a super spy/assassin/sniper in the first place? How is he already so "intimately" familiar with girls given his military past (unlike Sagara Sosuke)? As mentioned before, the OVA answers much of this.

Value:
This show was an unexpected surprise, in a good way. What starts as a seemingly ordinary harem, took a drastic turn and attempted something very different, perhaps a bit risqué but definitely memorable. Apparently, the original VN is quite popular too, and there's even a Kickstarter up to get it translated into English.

Looking for something fresh and new? Perhaps something with harem roots but goes somewhere new? I'd recommend giving this a shot, and make sure to taste at least the first heroine arc as the first few introductory episodes really don't give a good indication for the rest of the show.