Review of The Labyrinth of Grisaia: The Cocoon of Caprice 0

Le Fruit de la Grisaia was a series that tore me to bits. On one hand, I found it to be a decent series because of its different approach and overall feel for a harem series, since it didn't completely focus on ecchi/comedy, and it wasn't really a standard harem as obvious from the first five minutes. On the other hand however, I hated this series because while watching it, there were certain things that irked me, such as character importance, the explanation of the MC and his character traits, and my overall queasiness while watching this. So, with this OVA, whatkind of twisted story will it reveal?

Author's note: Trust me, there will be NO SPOILERS.

Story (8.53/10): Meikyuu's story follows up pretty much right after Kajitsu, opening with a scene with Yuuji and JB discussing about a report that she has to make. Because of the insufficient detail that Yuuji has given, she asks him personally about what kind of life that our strange, stoic, and expressionless protagonist has. And let me tell you, boy was this a story.

The whole runtime of Meikyuu is used to tell Yuuji's childhood up until his early pre-teens where his guardianship changes and where Rakuen starts. The thing about this OVA that sets it apart from at least 95% of others, is the fact that it has such a long runtime. Not many OVA's actually get an hour long runtime in order to tell everything it does, and because of this, this OVA does really well on the storytelling aspect because everything is told in a clean, organized manner, while also being quite detailed on certain parts. There were a few areas of the story I feel were lacking (mostly the last bit), but overall, I felt like the story was very cohesively done.

As for the actual story itself, it was done relatively well. There were moments (several moments in fact) where admittedly...I thought the show had gone WAAAAYYYY too far, but even with that, I still found this to be a very well-made story that answers the biggest question people had after finishing Kajitsu, who is Kazami Yuuji? Overall, I find this OVA to be a perfect bridge between the two seasons because it answers a lot of questions and ties into what happens later on in the second season.

Overview:
+ Explains "Who is Yuuji?"
+ Good pacing
+ Detailed story points
- (Personal complaint) Kinda fucked up...

Characters (8.33/10): Of course, since this OVA was mostly about Yuuji, let's talk about him first. Yuuji in this OVA is quite obviously the star of this OVA. Because the first season left the viewers confused as to really who this guy was. (Unless you played the VN's, you probably were asking yourself that question.) With every scene, you get to know a little bit more about how he became the man he is today. With every horrified expression, you tally up the "Unseeable" things those dead eyes of him have seen, and with that, I felt is the reason why this OVA is good. A lot of his character traits make sense after seeing this, and that works really well for the series.

Aside from Yuuji, the other character that deserves mention is Kazuki, Yuuji's sister. Likewise to Yuuji, we get to understand what kind of person Kazuki is as well growing up. We saw her in Amane's arc, but we didn't know all of her backstory. For the most part, Kazuki's role for this OVA was to more or less serve as a sort of catalyst for the events that occurred in Yuuji's life, tying in what happened with her to Yuuji's story in order to make one cohesive timeline. They put more emphasis as to who she is, and I think that also works very well.

In terms of side characters, Meikyuu does a lot of setup. A lot of the characters that are seen/mentioned in this OVA are characters that we know or will know. As a whole, they don't really serve much more than contributing factors to how Yuuji became the way he is, but it is because they serve this role that they show a little more worth as characters rather than just cannon fodder or background characters.

Overview:
+ Good character explanation
+ Additional character info for other characters
+ Decent side characters

Art and Sound (7.21/10 and 6.00/10): Admittedly, the art and sound for Grisaia may be a bit lacking. In the art department, the show itself doesn't actually look all that bad. A lot of the show utilizes this very bright neon colored style of palette in order to showcase its characters and some pretty good detail when it came to certain aspects of the show, such as the detail on the guns and rifles, that looked rather good.

However, there is still one thing that personally bugs me about the artstyle, and that is, eyelashes. On every female character in the series, they have this red hue on the ends of their eyelashes. After looking at the VN images and noticing it myself in Kajitsu, Meikyuu, and Rakuen, this is an intentional art design flair. The thing is, it looks weird. It looks like every girl has a weird rash around their eyes and it really, really bugs me. I've seen this in other anime, and it just looks weird when characters have the eye design look a different color other than black.

In terms of sound, there's not really much to say. The OST for Meikyuu is rather small, and there's nothing really exceptional about the music that was played, mostly because the show sort of just dives right into the story.

Overview:
+ Decent artstyle
- The eyelashes really bug me
- Pretty much non-existent music

Personal Enjoyment (3.98/10): So, even with all of the praise I give for the story and the character development, why does this OVA get an abysmal personal enjoyment rating? Well, to answer that simply, I...really just don't like Grisaia. There, I said it. From a quality aspect, this OVA is actually really well-made. It's not a perfect 10/10 for story, but there's really not much I can say about something that benefits the series it's in. It makes sense, it tells the audience what it wants to tell, and it's actually interesting. It's really interesting. But in terms of personal enjoyment...there are aspects, several aspects about it that I really don't like personally.

Did I like this OVA?

Quality-wise, I think this was a really good OVA. It had a good story, good character development and character building, and it goes straight into Rakuen without any hesitation. Literally, the end of Meikyuu and the beginning of Rakuen are scenes that go one into the other. For me though, this...really isn't the series for me, and I'll explain why.

What didn't I like about this OVA?

Ok, ok. This is really my personal complaint for not just Meikyuu, but Grisaia as a whole. I find this series to be really...really...REALLY...fucked up. There are things that happened in Kajitsu that scarred me a bit, (I'm a weak person), and there were a good number of things that happened in Meikyuu that had the same effect on me, and it was a couple, so I was trembling in my seat for a while. (Jeez, now I understand why Yuuji has those fears...) Because of who I am personally, my enjoyment of the series dipped significantly, to the point that I will most likely never touch this series ever again after watching it. It's still a good series, don't get me wrong.

Would I recommend this OVA?

If you've seen Kajitsu and want to move onto Meikyuu, I would say it is not just recommended, but necessary for you to watch this OVA first. (Don't make the same mistake I did.) The reason being is not just the fact that this OVA was released between the two, but because a lot of the details in this tie over to what happens in Rakuen, Grisaia's second season. Overall, I believe that it would make the viewing experience more pleasurable because the plotline would make more sense. Plus, the opening scenes of Rakuen wouldn't make sense unless you've seen Meikyuu first, so there.

Overall Score: 8.03/10

Author's Torment: Oh god...my eyes...I cannot unsee any of that now... (I am a very weak-willed person.)