First Impressions / Grisaia no Kajitsu

「銀の弾丸で狙う場所」 (Gin no Dangan de Nerau Basho)
“Where to Aim the Silver Bullet”

So, yeah…ignore everything I said about routes last week.

After a smattering of scenes featuring all our characters to various degrees in the last two episodes, this week it’s suddenly all Michiru, all the time. Yumiko stages a bid for attention with a solid ‘vulnerable maiden‘ routine but that is nothing compared to Michiru’s output. She does comedy! She does drama! She does action! She does romance! Michiru comes out of nowhere to demonstrate her multipurpose heroine chops. Despair, all ye haremettes! Matsushima Michiru hath descended!

This episode marks a definite entry into the Michiru route, even if there were no previous indications that we were heading this way. Indeed, in this episode we went directly from the setup (an awkward kiss with something Michiru-shaped) to the route’s first climatic juncture (this). For those new to the franchise, in the original visual novel the kiss actually features as the very last chapter of the common route (though the chapter this episode is named after, in which Yuuji and Michiru have their faux-philosophy discussion, is much earlier) and the traffic accident does not happen until we get halfway through Michiru’s route. That’s a lot of content that has been passed over (though I suppose they can still go back for some of that later, even with our limited episode time). Considering that a lot of that content was romantic relationship building fluff, if we were destined for a ‘True Heroine’ (and again, we may not), Michiru is probably not the one. Isn’t it sad, Michiru? That said, the most slighted character is still Tunafish Man. Yes, Tunafish Man. Alas, his shall be the untold story, of an unsung hero who doesn’t even get proper screen time.

While that description of the state of affairs may sound rushed, I actually didn’t have much problem with it myself. That said, my judgment has been poisoned by meta-knowledge from the VN; I naturally don’t feel the need for as much development. I’d love to hear what anime-only viewers feel. Maybe the foundations still look fragile from a more objective perspective. What do we actually know about Michiru? For the sake of analysis, let’s go through what we learnt in this episode, and for that purpose I’ll share some of my watching notes with you all:

  • Michiru suffers from weird chest pains. Public service announcement: if you have a weird chest pain, please see a doctor about it, even if it could just be heartburn.
  • Michiru is sometimes not Michiru. Or perhaps she’s disassociative. We’ll probably never know because there are no psychiatrists in anime.
  • This stuff is supposed to be Ramune candy. Right. I hope Michiru’s not chemically dependent, in more ways than one.
  • Cat treats shaped like cats? They must taste like cannibalism (their favourite!).
  • If you have time to jump in front of a taxi you have time to just hail it. Calm down, old chap

…Er, so not all of those were about Michiru—apparently my notes are just mostly snark. The point is: they did an awful lot this episode.  Did it feel rushed to you (for anime-only viewers and otherwise)? Did you feel sufficient empathy for Michiru’s cat? In fact, did you feel empathy for Michiru’s empathy for her cat? I can’t really tell myself. I will, however, commend the choice of lighting for the scene. The VN didn’t have the twilight glow, and it certainly set a different sort of atmosphere for reveals like this.

Peeking outside the garden ~ looking ahead

From this episode, it seems that the structure of Grisaia no Kajitsu is going to be heroine routes interlaced into the common route. That’s going to be tricky to do for some of the routes, so I’m looking forward to seeing how that’s handled. For now, I’m happy to focus on Michiru. Despite all her silliness, Michiru’s route hides a rather layered and ultimately satisfying story. It is, perhaps, my second favourite route of the five in the original VN. I think I’ll take the fact that the anime’s starting with it first as a sign that they consider it a confident opening act.

 

Full-length images: 16, 17, 19, 30.

 

End Card

46 Comments

  2. This episode completely blew me away.

    I never really liked Michiru but in this episode, she hits all the right buttons. Since there’re 2 Michirus, lets call them Michiru B for the usual blue eyed tsundere klutz while Michiru G for the other serious Michiru

    Harem, comedy and romance aside, Gaisara is shaping up as one show that I must get my weekly fix.

    But what was the icing on the cake was definitely the cab scene. For some unknown reason, tears were almost coming out and it kinda shows that Michiru B might have some baggage that she’s still lugging around and that she’s not all lout, klutzy and tsundere.

    Looking forward to Yuumino…

    BTW, how many episodes is this?

    Makise Kuristina
    Reply

    2. I’d say Chiruchiru B is more of a klutz than anything else. My policy is to dislike tsundere but her unconvincing tsundere act makes her more appealing. And I like her voice-actress.

      celebrinen
      Reply

  3. As an animal lover, and especially cats, yes, this episode was really painful for me. Not so much the accident, but the taxi scene… first it was the contrast between Yuuji, who knows it’s hopeless, and Michiru who still holds hope (and I was hoping too), but especially seeing the poor cat licking those treats as if to confort Michiru, only to cough blood… So yes, while the rest may have been rushed, this scene was done really well IMO (sniffle / wipes a tear)

    Weird d
    Reply

  4. Guess it was too good to last. While the previous three episodes did blaze through the common route at breakneck speed, I never really felt that they were moving too fast or skipping anything important. To be honest, the VN itself could have used some editing. But this can’t even be described as aggressive pruning, they outright eviscerated a good 95% of Michiru’s route. I don’t know how the anime only viewers feel about it, but to me they’re rushing through things so fast that not even the bare bones of the story are left and the emotional impact is far less than it should be. Meowmel’s death was sad, but in the VN it was freaking devastating because of how much the characters (and reader) had gotten attached to him. I’ve got a terrible feeling that they’re going to try and go through all five routes in the next nine episodes (two ep. per route) which won’t do any of them justice or leave time for the humor that made the VN so good. If so, the rest of this adaptation will be a shambling braindead husk of what it should be, Show Spoiler ▼

    Hochmeister
    Reply

  6. Well, although Michiru is not my favorite heroine of Grisaia (I like her characther A LOT, but not as heroine), seeing her route like this is something sad. I’ll put two images that I found on the internet (credits to GrimaH) that show what was animated (the red cross) and what they skipped. To sumarize, they skipped all the romance between her and Yuuji as well the initial drama between her and the “second her” (maybe they’ll put it in the next episode, who knows).

    Knowing that it’s only a 1-cour anime, it makes sense that they only jumped to the important parts and skipped all the rest, and it’s also making sense if they’re going to animate Meikyuu and Rakuen (since in Meikyuu Show Spoiler ▼

    But still, I wished that at least some of the romance between them would get covered. It’s a little shame.

    Anyway, here the following images regarding what was covered. Next episode we’ll probably continue on the Show Spoiler ▼

    Higure
    Reply

    1. Next episode is titled “Vox in Box”, so it looks like that’s not all they’re going to cover. Show Spoiler ▼

      Yeah, I … really don’t know how they intend to fit all that in. And Michiru’s route is the shortest in the vn, too. If they’re really going to give every route two episodes, then this is … not going to end well 😡

      Tunafish Man
      Reply

  7. I absolutely adored this episode. While I felt that episode two was way too rushed and wasn’t as good as it could’ve been, this episode was where I wanted this show to be. Sure, it has it’s flaws and could’ve been a tad bit slower with how it did things, but really, I think they did a pretty good job regardless.

    Okay, guys, is it just me or did the art seem to go a bit down this episode, or am I just crazy?

    dytianquin
    Reply

  8. I have mixed feelings about this episode, it was way too
    rushed for vn viewers, though i dunno how the anime viewers
    feel about this. If the cat scene made you cry a little then the
    vn version will drown you in feels.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    showtime
    Reply

    1. Shit, that actually makes me want to avoid playing the VN. T_T
      Wonder what possibly even more depressing things (though a dead cat is already among the worst things for me) have yet to happen in the anime.

      boingman
      Reply

  10. I am conflicted with this episode. One side of me really likes this episode because of the awesome direction why a side of me is sad because i know they skipped alot of things. Anyway Michiru is still an awesome character and Meowmel’s death is still painful. Really looking forward on how the next episode is gonna unfold now.

    Gsutave154
    Reply

  11. So they are going with the harem structure that is created by the third game and not the original game’s individual heroine routes. It’s a good way to do it if they plan to animate the second and third games as well, since the first and third game’s story don’t really mesh without this retcon.

    Peter Cao
    Reply

    2. It would not have been as bad if they’d ended it there. Heck I’d have accepted it if Yuuji had finished Meowmel off quickly to end his agony (as I suspected he’d have done had Michiru not arrived). But no, they had to show us that lenghty scene afterwards. For an episode that felt ‘rushed’, they sure took their sweet time there to make us feel down.
      (group hug with cat lovers)

      Weird d
      Reply

    3. Don’t post that. 🙁
      I watched the latest Akame episode yesterday, but just finished this episode and the cat scene hit me so much harder. Shit, that was depressing. Damn you Grisaia for making me feel like that. As an owner of a cat that is often outside there’s always the fear that this might happen. T_T After the episode I directly went to my cat and petted her like a madman!
      RIP Meowmel.

      boingman
      Reply

  13. As an anime viewers only I got to say that it was good episode, the pace flows just fine. Probably gonna try to play the vn to see the skipped materials if I have some time though.

    cryarc
    Reply

  18. Anime first viewer here.
    It seemed A-ok! with me.
    If they cut out a lot, well it just struck me as tackling the meat of the situation and what interactions mattered the most. So I enjoyed it.
    However, I refuse to ride this train if that kind of ending is something to expect a lot of.
    Talk about ripping my heart right out of my chest and throwing it off a cliff into a pit of spikes.

    Kabble
    Reply

  21. Didn’t michiru Show Spoiler ▼

    Now I wonder how Show Spoiler ▼

    Edit note: it would be best if you put these VN differences in spoiler tags, just in case these are details that become relevant later.

    tokiwa
    Reply

  23. Welp,there go my expectations that the anime might actually fix some of the pacing issues the VN had by shortening the common route. That was all fine & dandy of course,but doing all routes in 13 eps? Ohhhhh boy…

    On the positive side,this was still moderately fun to watch but it’ll be a decent-to-good anime while it could’ve been a very good one. You just can’t have an extremely character driven show without taking the time to give proper characterization to the characters.

    MgMaster
    Reply

  24. As a VN player (that’s still currently playing) I think this ep was rushed. The tuna-fish man wasn’t given proper screen time though I think that’s was okay since there wasn’t much character-wise development to give or enough lulz. HOWEVER I would hate it if they won’t properly show the Show Spoiler ▼

    That said, I also didn’t expect them to take us to the Michiru route already. Let’s see where the show will take us from now on. Meanwhile, I’ll still be playing the VN ahead so the anime would be a little spoiled by the time I watch it. Thanks for the post Passerby, cheers ^^

    romcomgod
    Reply

    1. I was glad when the Tunafish Man was called Tuna Man (as that is the true translation of the name). But I would agree that I wish that they had given it better screen time. (Need to play the VN properly…)

      sachiotakli
      Reply

  25. I was very surprised when they pulled the Michiru route out of nowhere. But judging from the the amount of episodes and the pace of the routes, I’m guessing that they won’t be doing an “Amagami SS” style adaptation…..

    sachiotakli
    Reply

    1. Whoops my bad, I didn’t know the proper translation was Tuna man. Have you played the VN too? I was taken aback by the ‘jumping through the Michiru route’ myself that I even doubted if I’m playing the VN the right way, LOL.

      Anyway, I’m currently 1/5 through Makina’s, spent first H-scene with Amane and at the laundry(?) with Sachi. I’m trying to play it so that the characters’ routes end simultaneously – It’s my first VN, please tell me if this is a good idea or not. Thanks 🙂

      romcomgod
      Reply

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