Review of The Fruit of Grisaia

"The Fruit of Grisaia" is one of the most uneven animes I've ever seen. It has moments where it is genuinely quite good, and moments where it is laughably bad. The content varies from near-ecchi levels of gratuitous boob and panty shots to decent relationship drama to somewhat disturbing horror, in a way that seems rather uncoordinated rather than deliberate. The story concerns a boy with extensive military training, something of a Jason Bourne type of government-created super-soldier, who is more-or-less an ethical person and claims to just yearn for a typical high school experience. He is sent to an unusual school which has justa few other students, all of them comely lasses of course. It's not the most original plot in the world but what in this genre of anime really is?

In the style of many animes it then explores the back story of each of the girls in a semi-episodic format, through the lens of their relationship with the main character. These stories were where the series got so uneven, some of them are laughably cliche and inexplicable, but I did find three to be pretty good, if not exactly triumphs of realism.

It is just so weird to me, even by anime standards, that an anime would juxtapose panty shots with the heavier content in this series. As decent as the series was at times, it never really rose to the next level like other episodic not-really-a-harem shows.

For me, the silver lining is that the second season is so much more highly rated. I haven't watched it yet but I easily hung in with this one because of the promise of these characters and premise but with a better overall presentation. Here's hoping that pans out!