First Impressions / Grisaia no Kajitsu

「甘い食生活」 (Amai Shokuseikatsu)
“Sweet Diet”

Just when I was thinking that the autumn anime season has been fairly tame in the ecchi department, in jumps Grisaia no Kajitsu to fill that niche with gusto. From the outright scandalous to innocently explicit innuendo and everything in between, it’s like someone on the production staff decided it was about time they earned their R rating. High school setting aside, we’ve gotten very adult very quickly and if any of you were still considering doing family bonding with your kids over anime then…well, I guess Le Fruit de la Grisaia isn’t the show for that. Have I made myself clear yet? While there exists a sanitised, PS Vita version of the visual novel, this anime is not it. There will be sex! Drugs! Rock ‘n roll! Oh, the humanity! Won’t someone think of the children?

Crude comedy aside, the rest of this episode jumped all over the place, seemingly in a hurry to get through the common route. While last episode focused on Yumiko with a side helping of Makina, this week the focus turns on the other three girls, so that everybody gets a turn. I suppose Yumiko is finally on nominally cordial speaking terms with Yuuji and Makina has been converted into a loyal grunt, so the first part of their development is nominally done. Of the three remaining haremettes it is Amane who gets the most focus, and not just because of her rampaging hormones. Like in the visual novel, she guns very hard for Yuuji (or perhaps just his pants) right out the gate, and manages a confession this episode. All just to get some guy to call you Onee-chan. That’s some progress, I guess. Congratulations! Marzipan!

For Michiru and Sachi, they get their screen time mostly through comedy skits. Michiru is still silly, but now she’s silly with a cat, and if the internet has proven anything it’s that people never get sick of cats. She’s also uncannily sharp and even helpful sometimes, but of course she’s not doing it for your sake, baka. I did enjoy Yuuji actually needing help; it’s refreshing seeing the unflappable Yuuji just doing goof once in a while. Sagara Sousuke was definitely funniest as the butt of jokes. No character can just be allowed to go around being flawless for too long. Make them suffer! Get pie in their faces! Keep them mortal. That said, I don’t actually see what Yuuji’s problem was; Sachi is an arts-and-crafts savant. You’ve got to admit: sharks are definitely the cutest epipelagic, man eating, non-mammal apex predators in the sea. At the very least, they’re cute by association. Remember: you can’t spell Selachii without Sachi.

Peeking outside the garden – looking holistically

Since this is episode three already, it’s time to pass some judgments. So far, Le Fruit de la Grisaia has, in my opinion, been done solidly enough. Visually, the series may not have been animated with the same technical prowess as some other studios (I swear, ufotable is just showing off sometimes) but there’s evidently some money in the budget, which compensates. There’s some art inconsistencies here and there (especially in far shots) but nothing’s anatomically grotesque, and a few shortcuts are necessary and forgivable. What may divide the audience the most, though, is the level of fanservice, ramped up to Naughty Titillation levels this episode. On my part, it feels like Le Fruit de la Grisaia is selling itself a bit too hard to the lowest common denominator here. Sure, the original VN was also very risque—being an eroge and all—but that stuff always felt rather distracting. If you can port your entire game to the Vita and remove all the sex then it just goes to show, it wasn’t really all that necessary in the first place. To lean on it again shows a lack of self-confidence, perhaps. Or maybe they just want a very faithful adaptation. The lowbrow humour has still been all in good fun, so you don’t have to mind it either way, but your mileage is going to vary on this one.

As for our progress through the plot, believe it or not the entire first aid scene with Amane occurs relatively early on in the common route in the VN. So we’re about half-way through. On one hand I want to tell them not to rush it (this episode felt a bit rushed, to me) but on the other I understand that there’s a lot of material to get through. It’s a difficult balance; development is an intrinsically slow process, but Le Fruit de la Grisaia, as the first of a trilogy, is pretty much all about development. Having already read the VN I can’t really tell for sure when the anime has done enough, so I’ll need second opinions on that one. There’s still some fairly important things they need to cover before they should divert into a character route (assuming a linear progression), so I doubt we’ll dive into those just yet. They’ve managed to keep my attention so far, even in the common route. Let’s hope the staff has a good game plan to work with from here.

Full-length images: 11, 17.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「あなたの愛した世界」 (Anata no Aishita Sekai) by 南條愛乃 (Nanjou Yoshino)

End Card

60 Comments

  3. https://randomc.net/image/Grisaia%20no%20Kajitsu/Grisaia%20no%20Kajitsu%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2004.jpg
    Just sniffing Yuuji’s bed
    https://randomc.net/image/Grisaia%20no%20Kajitsu/Grisaia%20no%20Kajitsu%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2017.jpg
    Just measuring yuuji’s waist
    https://randomc.net/image/Grisaia%20no%20Kajitsu/Grisaia%20no%20Kajitsu%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2011.jpg
    Just Michiru being annoyed by the cat

    Nope nothing “horny” about this episode.

    Kirigiri
    Reply

  6. Sou Amane’s a bitch in heat/
    Rolling ’round in a man’s bedsheets…

    I had discounted the idea that they’d show this scene (for obvious reasons), but it seems the spirit of lewdness has managed to shine through. At this rate I wonder if they’ll go so far as to adapt some of the H-scenes… either way, the blue-rays are gonna sell like crack. It makes sense that Yuuji would turn down her girlfriend offer, she’s pretty much tripped every suspicious bone in his body (i.e. all of them) by coming on so strong. Yuuji continues to be one of the highlights of the show, and his deadpan snark is even more amusing when coupled with dead eyes and SHAFT head tilts. All hail our glorious male tsundere!

    Overall I enjoyed this episode a lot more than the last one since it was focused on (dirty) humor again instead of Yumiko’s twitchy stabbing hand. Makina’s now a completely different and much more fun character now that she’s opened up around Yuuji. Meowrell also made his debut (the cat voiceover on the VN was the best) and has assumed his place on Michiru’s head, and they even managed to characterize Sachi properly for once! Hell, we even got an early cameo of the slutty maid! I really hope they continue to focus on the humor SOL more than the drama, those were the parts of the VN I enjoyed the most. We’re still in the common route (haven’t even hit the first choice at this point in the VN), so at this rate if they have 12 episodes they could easily do one route, and with 24 they could concievably work in all five. They haven’t diverged much from the source material so I’m still not sure where they’re going with this.

    Hochmeister
    Reply

  7. There are rumors going around saying they are going to do 24 episodes, but I also heard it was only suppose to do 13 episodes.
    I hope they do 24 because I would like to see them do all the girls routes. Anyone have any other information or thoughts?

    Ashton
    Reply

  8. As a reader of the VN I’m very pleased to actually see some of these scenes animated. Specifically Bitch in heat and Shark pouch/Auto piloting Yuuji. That hitting the wall screaming Sleeping is needed bit was hilarious as $%^&. Lurking in the forums I’m getting that this might turn out to be 24 episodes, which I sincerely hope is true. I want others out there to really enjoy the story of Grisaia and really see what it has to offer. COME ON 8-BIT MAKE US PROUD!

    Tomislol
    Reply

    1. I felt as a reader of the VN, that they kind of skipped around a lot. Do you think they are going to go over some of the stuff they skipped in the next couple episodes, because the order the VN was in didn’t really have a chronological order?

      Ashton
      Reply

  10. I think next episode we’ll see if we are how many episodes of common route we will get. really enjoying the comedy so far so I really want that extra cour.
    NICE THAT THEY FINALLY SHOWED THE ED!

    gustave154
    Reply

  13. This was a good episode. Yuuji’s true colors finally shined. Makina’s, too. It captured the humor of the common route pretty nicely.

    There are a bunch more skits from the common route I’d like to see animated, but at the same time, if they only have 13 episodes to work with, well … they’d better actually get a story going, at some point … I’m hoping for Amane’s route. Surely the glimpses of Angelic Howl in the first episode weren’t just a tease? And they’ve got to find a way to bring in Kazuki somehow. She was in the promo materials.

    But, before moving on to adapt any of the girls’ routes, there’s something important they’ve got to animate first.

    Got to disagree about the ecchi. I could take or leave the h-scenes in the vn (although Makina’s and Amane’s were quite funny), and I do find the constant panty shots kind of distracting. But I like Grisaia’s raunchy humor a lot, and I wouldn’t want them to tone it down. Grisaia is really funny in general, but some of the funniest jokes were lewd ones. Like Yuuji’s running cadence. And the conference at the beginning of Makina’s route. And the scene where everyone interrogates Michiru about her masturbation habits. Well, life’s a long and twisty road. Sometimes you have a phase like that. Masturbate like a deranged ape to your heart’s content, my friend. But try to work on thinking up something else to do with your life. In between sessions.

    Tunafish Man
    Reply

    1. To be clear, I don’t particularly mind the raunchy humour; that was always part of the VN (and I must applaud the translators for doing all the double entendres so well). It’s more the tenor that the ceaseless panty shots have set for the show. It’s like they’re trying to sell me titillation instead of using sexuality for comedy. Being a rather cynical soul I always get wary when I sense that someone’s trying to sell me something. It could really just be me. As I said: your mileage will vary.

      Passerby
      Reply

      1. Okay, yeah, agreed about that. I could do without all the panty shots too. It’s an eroge adaptation, so fanservice is to be expected, but there are other ways they could have filled that quota (more scenes where Amane carries on normal conversations while butt naked; scenes of the girls talking in the bath; animating the part where they all go to the beach).

        Oh, here’s a better way they could provide fanservice. Animate the skit were Sachi cleans the bath … with her maid outfit. And then shows up to school the next day in her underwear. There we go.

        Tunafish Man
        Reply

  14. I’d give any money if people would stop constantly comparing every shows animation quality to Fate/Stay Night like it’s the sole possible highest standard of achievement when it comes to anime. The implication is starting to get really old really fast and not everybody is as madly in love with their character design style and too fast to really make out style of combat so I’m finding it really presumptuous that that’s supposedly the absolute uncontested be all end all. Mostly I’m just growing tired of Fate this Fate that in unrelated series discussions. There are other shows than Fate/Stay Night with their own appeals and ways of handling things after all.

    John Hunt
    Reply

    1. This one’s at me, isn’t it? Could be. Well, I didn’t actually say any of that stuff, but I’ll bite anyway.

      Animation is a difficult gig. Movement (especially of humans, since we’re most self-conscious about it) is extraordinarily complex. The art of animation is the art of fooling the human eye into believing in that movement, for the sake of suspending disbelief. You can, of course, throw huge amounts of money at it so you afford to go into a lot of detail, but there are practical limits. Therefore every anime takes shortcuts; the trick is how well you disguise their use. This is a matter of technical skill, and vary between studios. Yes, even ufotable takes shortcuts. But they’re also quite good at disguising them. 8bit? Arguable less so. But it’s hardly anything to get worked up about.

      I will probably continue comparing Grisaia to UBW now and then, simply because UBW is the other big VN adaptation this season. It’s direct competition! How can I ever resist? Unless you meant ‘give any money’ literally, of course…

      Passerby
      Reply

  15. In case anybody was thinking of them, here, the GIF-s you were looking for.
    While at it though, why not think up an alternative Yuuji’s reaction monologue (compared to anime episode) that would still fit his personality? =3
    TLDR; I thought up the captions for fun, you won’t find them in the corresponding VN scene.

    1)Amane GIF
    http://folderman.aki.gs/s/fa15484.gif
    “…..I did consider them masturbating behind closed doors in their rooms before,
    but really now, in my room with a wide-open door???

    2) Amane GIF Version 2
    http://i.imgur.com/lnIiX2O.gif
    “….well, it is a nice show.”
    *starts thinking up the song he’ll teach Makina later*

    3) Sacchi GIF
    http://folderman.aki.gs/s/fa15490.gif
    “…I did ask Sacchi for some sort of anti-sleepiness therapy,
    but woah, this is stronger than the strongest coffee.”

    4) Yuuji GIF
    http://i.imgur.com/Co7QLob.gif
    “A maid. A loli. A twintail tsundere. A kuudere. A busty onee-san..
    What is this doki-doki I have in my kokoro? Arggaghahgag.”
    *bang* *bang* *bang*

    Techim
    Reply

  20. One thing i know for sure is going to come out later is the beach scene and the English practice. Those are two of the best scenes in the game..

    The studio sure picked up wonderful parts of the VN to animate. Brilliant adaptation so far. But i wondr how theyll adapt every girls route? Will it be clannad style or Yosuga no Sora style?

    Red HeartGold ZX
    Reply

    1. Yup that is the biggest question right now since we don’t know how long the common route
      is gonna last and how many episodes we are gonna get.
      I am hoping its like omnibus format but theres no reset so Meikyuu and Rakuen can happen.

      gustave154
      Reply

    2. The head tilts and the close up shot of Yuuji’s pupils dilating (around 14:14) were two things that immediately screamed Shaft/monogatari to me. I suppose it’s to be expected since Watanabe Akio is also this directing this series.

      Warau
      Reply

      1. I suppose it’s to be expected since Watanabe Akio is also this directing this series.

        He’s not directing the show (that’s Motoki Tanaka’s job), he’s just the animation director.

        DiabloCthulhu
        Reply

      2. Thanks for clearing that up. Watanabe Akio is indeed the Animator Director for Grisaia and the Monogatari series. I’m not 100% sure what this position does specifically (wiki vaguely states it may include character design, background animation, and any other aspect of animation) but it’s likely because of him that we’re getting the Monogatari-esque sequences that flesh out the general scene envisioned by the actual director. Unless there’s someone else related to SHAFT behind the scenes.

        MassTempestPvP
        Reply

  26. The episode was awesome (holy shit they really animated the whole Running Cadence, and it was one hell of a way to start the episode, too). They cut out most of the Thrilling Extreme Sports chapter (which is a damn shame, I was really looking forward to “what-the-hell-kind-of-game-is-this?” game and Show Spoiler ▼

    but the episode was great nonetheless (they even briefly showed Asako). Though the lack of subtlety is killing me. They should just rename it Grisaia no Subtlety at this point. And I guess we’ll have to deal with the derpy animation and pantyshots (I’m starting to think that they really have pantyshot quota that they need to hit every week) the whole show. Oh well.

    Speaking of fanservice, what the hell was up with the scene where Sachi was measuring Yuuji’s waist? Not only she moaned but her head also moved in the suggestive way. I don’t think that innuendo was necessary.

    Also, the ED is fantastic, especially visually (that “Last Supper” painting).

    DiabloCthulhu
    Reply

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