First Impressions / Grisaia no Kajitsu

「セカイ樹の種I」 (Sekaiju no Tane I)
“The Seed of the World Tree I”

Welcome to Makina route, or should I say, the Grisaia no Kajitsu Adopt a Classmate Foundation. It’s great! There’s a streamlined process where you receive a generous sponsorship, pick up the little girl of your choice, and are then free to engage in that completely appropriate parent/child relationship you always wanted.

…

It’s great!

And remember, all characters portrayed are over the age of 18. Of course.

Makina: twice as many episodes for your route

As I noted last week, Makina’s route is probably two episodes because they also take the opportunity to develop Yuuji’s background as well. Even in the original visual novel, The Seed of the World Tree was the one where we see most of Yuuji’s shady organisation and the sordid work he does there. This episode of the anime, Makina route though it may be, devotes a fair chunk of time to developing Yuuji, even if it just mostly narrated exposition set to a montage of Yuuji and Makina jacking Amane’s bike and going on a road trip. Most notably we see Yuuji show sentimentality for a figure of his past, the one he calls ‘master’. We don’t learn a lot (because we need to save something for the sequel), but we do learn that: she took him in, they were close, she is dead. There must be more tragedy behind that but for now it’s enough that we get some exposure to Yuuji’s relationship with his master. Considering that Makina’s story is very much about parent figures it’s important that we at least know something of Yuuji’s own.

Of course, we can’t have Makina’s route if it’s just Yuuji, and fans of her character would be pleased that we had plenty of Makina just being Makina as well. We have Makina getting being silly, Makina wielding a gun bigger than she is, Makina growing an apple tree. That last one may not seem very interesting, but this is a story called The Seed of the World Tree in an anime titled Le Fruit de le Grisaia. This stuff is obligatory. The good thing about having two episodes instead of just one is that we can have fit all that in and still have time for explosions. Yeah, people and property blow up a lot in this anime. Going by Hollywood, I guess that’s a plus.

Two episodes, however, isn’t enough to solve all of Grisaia’s troubles, even if it goes a lot of the way. It had fairly heavy narration, when it would certainly have been more interesting to be shown things like Yuuji living with his master, or Makina’s kidnapping incident. And the narrative had a reliance on convenient exposition machines like Chiziru and Yumiko to deliver knowledge into the hands of the protagonist (I do wonder though: where does Yumiko get her ‘pocket money’ these days? She’s supposed to be dead). The budget also seems to be straining a bit, especially in far shots.

Overall, though, I did ask for more episode time per route, and that’s what we’re getting, and it is a good thing. We got a lot more space to set things up before the big twist. It’s a pretty good hook too. What’s the deal with Makina’s sister, their mother, and the bombing? Why does anyone want Makina dead? What’s Yuuji going to do? I’m interested in seeing how everything’s going to be played out in the next episode. Even though I already know what’s going to happen! I can actually honestly say that I’m looking forward to next week’s episode, even if just out of curiosity, and Grisaia can chalk that up as a success for the team.

Full-length images: 12, 21.

(This week, The Seed of the World Tree I. This week, Etrian Odyssey V is announced. Coincidence? I think not.)

End Card

22 Comments

  1. I haven´t read the visual novel, but i really liked Sakaki and her Senjougahara personality, so i was really disapointed by her episode…
    After the highlight of this anime, so far, being the Michiru episodes, and after watching my second favourite character getting also the two episode treatment, i must say that this should have been the rule for all the routes… I feel sorry for the Sakaki and Sachi rush jobs.
    Hoping for a good one to conclude the Makina story, with all the quality she deserves!

    Kiritsugu
    Reply

  3. It goes without saying that this felt rushed, and that they left out some good stuff from the vn. Like you said, there should have been less telling, more showing in general.

    But damn if this wasn’t a better episode than the last four. Much better written. Makina is so cute! And the scenes where Yuuji watched Makina all fondly, and showed her around his old home, got me kind of emotional. ;~;

    Next week should be a blast. This week was a faithful adaptation, but next episode they’re going to have to deviate from the vn. Yuuji and Makina presumably need to remain safe and happy at Mihama with everyone, because there’s still Amane’s route to cover. I wonder how they’ll change the plot to allow for that … hopefully they’ll come up with some better original content than they did for Yumiko’s episode.

    Tunafish Man
    Reply

  4. I wonder how they would conclude the route next week. There are some things that happen in the VN that probably won’t happen in the anime.
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Tomislol
    Reply

    1. Show Spoiler ▼

      Tunafish Man
      Reply

      1. yeah loli’s arc is kinda interesting and the cliffhanger at the end is quite exciting. i understand maid’s story is worth 1 episode only and they have to cram all the arcs in 12-13 episodes only but i think sakaki’s story deserves more than what she recieved, her story has its potential to make this series more likable.

        Ryuuzaki
        Reply

    3. As I said in the post, Makina shares time and development with Yuuji. I would assume the decision making of the production team was less, ‘who should have 2 episodes?’ and more, ‘who can we afford to cut most of?’.

      Passerby
      Reply

      2. Unfortunately, with their limited episode time something had to go. I suppose the decision was made to pare down routes instead of cutting out any entirely. Yumiko’s must have been easier for them to compress. Her original route in the VN was also similar to Makina’s in ways, so the producers had even more reason to rewrite it.

        Passerby
        Reply

  7. OMG Makina is so adorable.I am really liking her route. And Yuuji adopting her….HNGGG. I really don’t want anything to happen to Makina.
    One thing irks me though. The fact that the kidnapping apparently resulted in ‘aphasia caused by mental illness’. I am hoping that was just bad subbing, because aphasia is brain damage, physical brain damage. It can’t be caused by mental illness. It’s entirely possible that she sustained damage which caused both problems, or that her mental illness might be some sort of PTSD which manifests itself in language. Or the stress of the language disorder might have influenced her state of mind. But aphasia is something completely different, and I’m pretty sure it cannot cause mental illness directly. Of course, if there is someone more qualified in these matters, do correct me if I’m completely wrong.

    Aki-Chan
    Reply

    1. Well, brain damage can cause mental illness, I suppose. And it’s not like we have a full understanding of the brain yet, let alone something complicated like aphasia. That said, medical science has never really been Grisaia‘s strongest suit. If it makes you feel better, think of it as aphasia-like symptoms caused by some unique mental illness.

      (Alternatively, it could be a translation thing. I can’t really tell. What’s catatonia in Japanese?)

      Passerby
      Reply

  8. And another thing: i have a strong suspicion that if all the minutes spent on unnecessary fan service in this anime so far were added up, they would be enough to improve one of the other routes. Probably Yumiko’s.
    Why does this story even need fan-service anyway? It has enough to carry itself as a very good show (story, characters etc.) already.

    Aki-Chan
    Reply

  9. @Passerby

    I really enjoy your reviews :). At first i thought your reviews may lack in quality or lack in picture links ^^ (always love them), but after following your posts every week i thoroughly enjoy your take and viewpoint of Grisaia. Your enthusiastic insights and also comedic writing techniques always allows me to read your full reviews, instead of skimming them and looking at the pictures

    (Rated: Divine’s Gold Standard) imo your writing is definitely up there in the high ranks

    I wanted to point out that the picture links for “Bombing”
    in the sentence “their mother, and the bombing? ” (Last paragraph)

    is the same picture link for “mother”
    I wasn’t sure if this was an inconsistency or a bug which made your original picture change to a different one, or just a mistake? but i wanted it to be known to you 🙂

    Love Grisaia
    Reply

    1. Glad to hear you’ve been enjoying the posts, and thanks for your feedback as to why! It’s always pleasant to hear that I’m doing something right. Little ego boosts like that keep me going.

      Unfortunately, there is nothing profound behind that image link. It’s just a mistake. Thanks for the heads up! It should be fixed now.

      Passerby
      Reply

      1. Thank you for your hard work :)! i hope to read more of your future reviews on a larger variety of shows (maybe some music or sports ones)

        RC has definitely found an invaluable asset to their team of writers

        (I definitely would have wanted to see your take on the dynamic Shigatsu kimi no uso. Even though you may think, it isn’t your type of anime. I still think your viewpoint on it would have been interesting to read)

        Love Grisaia
        Reply

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