Review of The Fruit of Grisaia

While the rest of the world was fangirling over the likes of the Fate/Stay night remake, parasyte and psycho pass season 2 I happened to be watching some stuff on the side until the aforementioned ended. For example shows like Amagi Brilliant Park, Terraformars and Selector spread WIXOSS. All of which seemed to falter in some way or other. However a certain show called grisaia no kajitsu happened to catch me by surprise. Story: Yūji Kazami transfers into a school for students with troubles. He is there to have the normal student life he never had up to this point. While being asked to notinvolve himself in the other student’s problems he disobeys orders and does everything in his power to help his class mates overcome past traumas and help them to have a care free school life.

I watched the first three episodes of this when they were released and I saw potential for a good anime so I decided to wait for the season to finish before I went back and re watched it. I have to say I was really shocked by what these girls went through. Troubled by pain they all find methods of coping and all the female cast put on a brave face in front of the others.

The story is about Yuji helping each of the students to accept and overcome the problems that they have, sometimes using extreme methods in order to do so. Stories vary from each of the female characters.

I do feel as if certain characters arcs were more rushed and I do feel that certain arcs are blown out of proportion in comparison to others. If I’m being honest there isn’t really an overarching story besides Yuji trying to live a normal student life and failing spectacularly.

Characters:
Yūji Kazami is our main protagonist and mysterious transfer student who wanted to experience a normal life in high school. Yuji is a very rational and level headed guy. His skills and personality is detrimental to helping other people out in dire situations. He feels compelled to investigate the girls and wants to know of their situation, it kind of feels like has the instincts of an older brother to all the girls. I do feel that we didn’t get enough information about Yuji, he is still a relative mystery and I would have liked to see a back story for him, but who knows? There’s a second season announced!

Michiru Matsushima is a bleach blonde fake-tsundere… yeah. She took on the act of playing a tsundere since others found it comical. She struggles with the fear of loosing loved ones and has an identity crisis. Yuji helps her to realize that she has to move forward in life and find the things that make her happy.

Yumiko Sakaki is a moody girl who at first didn’t take a liking to Yuji. Assuming the worst she attempts to slash him with a box cutter numerous times and states her animosity towards our main protagonist. Yumiko has problems with her dad and the dispute led to her leaving and pursuing a life of freedom. It does eventually catch up with Yumiko in her arc.

Sachi Komine is a hard-working maid girl who is the most dependable person in the group. Sachi goes through extreme lengths to accomplish requests, going so far as to milk a cow for someone who wants a glass of milk… Sachi’s arc consists of her learning to be a bit more selfish for herself as it is sometimes good for her and others.

Makina Irisu is a child like and I quote ‘fool’ Makina has farther issues in a sense as she bribes Yuji to become her farther. She is sought after in the series by a shady group in which Yuji steps in to help out with.

Amane Suou is the final member of the group. She is a mixture of childish, responsible and strange. I suppose it could stem from her tragic back story, but that’s something I’ll discuss in a second. She takes an interest in Yuji when first introduced and she sets her sights on dating him.

Now I can’t give the full details on each of the girls in the series as it would cause spoilers, but their situations are more dramatic and tragic then I’m letting on.

Each character gets an excellent amount of screen time and the female cast is developed very well. It’s their relationship and journey with Yuji that definitely helps them all to progress by the end of the series. Other minor characters such as JB (Yuji’s boss) and the principle lady are not really worth mentioning as JB is the only relative character worth mentioning beside others.

Sound:
I couldn’t find the OST anywhere so I can listen to it again. However from what I recall in the anime few tracks stand out, but it suits the dramatic, romance tone in the series as well as the quiet laid back moments.

Art:
The art was well done. The scenery was very well done and it was great during the shifts of tone throughout the series. The character designs weren’t great. It consisted of the stereotypical loli girl, flat chested tsundere, big breasted red head, adorable pink haired girl and the black haired beauty. I was actually shocked to see that 8-bit did this series since they also directed encouragement of climb and the infamous Infinite stratos

Enjoyment:
I’ve been debating with myself for a week on how much I liked the series. On one hand I feel as if it was all very rushed and thrown in for shock factor and another part of me thinks it was well done with excellent character development. I probably have to say I overestimated this show. Bad pacing can slow down the arcs of the characters and while there were elements to make it a very well done series, I felt that Yuji’s lack of a real objective just makes this seem like a show about him running to the ‘damsels in distress’ hell even Issei from Highschool DxD had a real motive that his passion drove him for. I do feel let down by the series, but I will give Amane’s arc an honorable mention for shocking and surprising me and leaving me sick by the end. Other than that the others character arcs were also well done so I will give credit where it’s due.

Overall:
This show had potential, but slacked off in some areas. Good character development is a redeeming factor, but overall this is a bit of a let down. I would recommend you give the first few episodes a try and if you decide to finish the series beware of episodes 10-12 as it is very graphic and disturbing.

Overall I give this show a 7/10

Thanks for reading guys, have a nice day!