The Fall 2014 Anime Preview Guide

The Fruit of Grisaia

Theron Martin

Rating: 1.5 (of 5)

Review: Despite a rather ominous prologue about whether or not someone deserves to survive, the first episode of this new effort from studio 8-Bit (Infinite Statos, Rail Wars!) largely plays out exactly like one would expect of a visual novel adaptation (which it is), and a rather boring one at that. The protagonist, Yuuji Kazami, is introduced as someone who wants to transfer to a “normal” school. Despite seeming like an ordinary (if remarkably cool-headed) teenager, intimations are dropped that he may have a dangerous background, including being familiar with guns. The “ordinary” school he transfers to certainly has some characteristics that aren't that typical, such as prison-like security only five other students – all girls, naturally! – attending it, but it at least pretends to be normal beyond that. Most of the episode involves Yuuji going around and meeting the various girls and getting at least a basic sense for who they are and what they are about – or at least what they seem to be about, anyway, whether it's the class representative who favors dressing as a maid, the girl who wants to be a tsundere for some reason, the shy girl, the redhead who acts like a sexy “big sister” type and does not seem particularly concerned about Yuuji seeing her bare chest, or the loner girl who's handy with a box cutter. Even beyond the redhead he gets an eyeful of panties in most cases, but despite claiming to not be good with “big women,” nothing particularly seems to faze him. Which is good, because as the episode's final scenes show, he is far from the only student at the school who is potentially dangerous.

Though Yuuji does win some points by not being fazed even by bared breasts, that is more than balanced out by how utterly tepid most of the dialogue is. Almost none of it is interesting, nor are any of the interactions between Yuuji and the girls beyond possibly the one involving the chest-baring incident. None of the girls seem all that interesting, either, at least not at first; they are all fairly ordinary visual novel harem bait. The frequent panty shots in addition to the aforementioned scene leave no doubt that fan service is an intended significant component, too. The one thing the bails out what could have otherwise been a complete failure of a first episode is the last minute or two, where we see that, whatever else the girls may seem to be, they are just as unordinary as Yuuji is in background.

But does the fact that (for example) the girl who dresses like a maid is working on bomb paraphernalia in her room create enough interest to warrant coming back for another episode? If this runs anything like Azuma no Riddle, we may only gradually be allowed to piece together the various truths and stories going on here, and if that mean setting through several episodes more of insipid dialogue, it just isn't worth it, especially with unremarkable technical merits to back it up. If the fan service does not serve as a buffer for you during the slow parts then this one probably is not worth the time and effort.

The Fruit of Grisaia is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Nick Creamer

Rating: 3

For once, an adaptation I actually have experience with! I've played through a fair amount of the Grisaia visual novel, and that by itself made me pretty interested in seeing how this adaptation would turn out. The first episode is a very solid introduction to what Grisaia is all about - Yuuji is a mysterious transfer student to an even more mysterious high school, where all of the six students have their own various Dark Secrets. This episode introduced everybody in a series of scenes that pretty much demonstrated what they're all about - there's big sister-type Amane, little sister-type Makina, literal maid Sachi, tsundere-wannabe Michiru, and mysterious, box cutter-happy Sakaki.

Beyond introducing the characters, this episode also established the fundamental contradiction at the heart of Grisaia. The production here was actually extremely good, and the episode set up a variety of well-shot dramatic moments, most of which pointed to some underlying “darkness” beneath the standard harem surface. Lingering shots emphasizing the high walls and security cameras of the high school all ground in the fact that Something's Not Right Here, and the episode's final moments went way overboard in their desire to do the same. Dark secrets for everybody! This underlying self-seriousness runs contradictory to the show's many moments of pure harem standbys - the relentless panty shots, the archetype-ready character gags, the fact that one character literally wears a maid outfit. It's an uneasy alchemy, and the fact that the show's attempts at seriousness often tumble straight into maudlin self-parody don't help matters.

That said, this episode was also impressive in a variety of ways. The character designs, direction, and animation were all quite good, and all worked in service of making both comedic and dramatic scenes land effectively. These aesthetic strengths were also fairly varied in their application - Michiru's bevy of silly expressions and Yuuji's carefully animated slouch pulled equal weight in defining their characters. And though a fair amount of the humor leaned on generic anime gags, Yuuji's no-nonsense deadpan and the show's energetic animation had me cracking up a few times - scenes like Michiru's introduction, which relied too much on the flat writing in the visual novel, here were dramatically elevated by the energetic physical comedy. The writing is likely the show's weakest element, so the more Grisaia leans on its strong production, the more it'll be able to get away with both its sense of humor and its desired air of seriousness. Grisaia wants to be two shows at once, but with execution this good, it might just get away with it.

The Fruit of Grisaia is available streaming at Crunchyroll.

Bamboo Dong

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)

Review: While there are some properties that give an advantage to those who are familiar with the source material, either by giving them a glimpse of events to come, or providing additional insight into the characters' personalities and backstories, The Fruit of Grisaia isn't one of them. It is very obvious from the get-go what the series is trying to do and accomplish, and while that's great for those who haven't had the time or means to go through the visual novels from which it's based, it's also a little tiresome. The various story elements are a little too on the nose.

Main character Yuuji seems like your normal, everyday high school boy, but when he transfers to a new school, things are immediately different. He craves a "normal" school life, but while the school appears "normal" on the outside, it obviously isn't. The sprawling complex is attended by only six students, and it's watched over by a number of ominous security cameras. And there's more. Although the other five students seem like ordinary stock characters—the maid girl, the tsundere (who is flustered when she's called out as being the tsundere), the beautiful but aloof girl, the big-breasted older sister girl, the cutesy one—the twist is… they're not ordinary. In fact, they're all tools of destruction, with penchants for bomb-making, lock-picking, knifing, and other non-ordinary trades. Even Yuuji is not without his secrets, revealing several scars on his ripped physique.

On the one hand, it's a little clever. The series is juxtaposing rehashed anime stereotypes against a darker truth. The maid is so overdone and so ridiculous that it's supposed to be shocking that she's actually a bomb expert. And the twin-tailed tsundere knows she's a cliché, which contrasts her sneaky little smile all the better. But the problem is, even this very "good on the outside, but dark on the inside" masquerade is a cliché in and of itself. Even without the slow pan to the security cameras, or the dead pan jokes about prisons, or the violent bus crash imagery, it's clear where this show is headed. There's no need for the exaggerated winking and nodding, and the overblown dramatization of the character archetypes. It's so deliberate that it almost feels like a comedian explaining his joke until the last chuckle dissipates into an awkward cough.

To give the series credit, though, it does leave viewers hanging and curious for more. Despite what one might think about its execution, it does offer enough of a hook to warrant checking in again next week, whether it's to confirm the nature of the students (for those who haven't played through the VNs), or just to catch another glimpse of the requisite panty-shots, underboobs (the main boob is censored), and man-butt that populate the scenes. The story might not be Just Another Harem, but it certainly doesn't want to deprive viewers of any of the kickbacks. And at the very least, it may help some viewers slog past the more tedious aspects of the show.

The Fruit of Grisaia is available streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rebecca Silverman

Rating: 3 (out of 5)

Some shows put everything right out there in the open, while others play their cards more carefully. The Fruit of Grisaia, our second show this season with a French re-title, is a little bit of both. It starts off much more the former – Yuuji has just moved to a new town and started a new school. Although it claims to be an “ordinary” educational institution, it has only six students and one teacher and everyone lives on campus in those special anime dormitories that are nicer than most apartments. Naturally all of Yuuji's classmates are attractive girls – Sachi, who dresses like a maid, Amane, who has big breasts, Makina, who talks like an infant, Michiru, a self-professed tsundere, and Yumiko, who pulls a knife on Yuuji and tries to stab him when he speaks to her. Wait, what?

And that's where The Fruit of Grisaia keeps a few things in the shadows. We suspect that there's something odd going on almost from the minute we meet Yuuji – the police have nabbed him for unknown reasons the minute he came into town. The whole school seemed a bit odd, but hey, this looks like a harem show, so why not just have the six of them living together? And with all of the panty shots – we see each girls' underwear up until Yumiko is introduced – you could be forgiven for thinking that the ominous voice-over and rotting apple in the very beginning were just throw-away ploys to grab your attention. The last few minutes, however, give us a very different idea. Yuuji, it seems, had an older sister named Kazuki who died. Amane has a flashback of a deadly bus accident where everyone seems to be wearing a familiar school uniform. Are these girls the only five who survived? Did Kazuki die in the accident? Why is Sachi building pipe bombs? All of a sudden we've got a lot more to think about than Michiru's serious snaggle-tooth.

While it feels pretty clear that this is based on a visual novel, the story still progresses at a decent pace, and I didn't find myself checking to see how many minutes were left. Michiru's somewhat metafictional discussion of her tsundere state (“Tsunderes have it hard, you know!”) is actually pretty funny, and Amane's reaction to Yuuji walking in on her changing clothes is refreshingly violence-free. (It is, sadly, not censorship free – hello, blinding white light!) While it does trade in a decent amount of harem show clichés, The Fruit of Grisaia also looks to have an interesting story to tell. It definitely merits another episode to see where it's going to go.

The Fruit of Grisaia is available streaming on Crunchyroll.

Zac Bertschy

Rating: 2

Yuuji Kazami isn't an ordinary high school kid; he's a curt, condescending badass with a mysterious past being transferred to Mihama Academy, a gigantic school complex inside camera-festooned prison walls that only has 5 students, and they're all female. Kazami meets the ladies of Mihama Academy one by one - first there's the helpful maid, then there's the busty outgoing redhead, the soft-spoken loli with a speech impediment, the tsundere blonde, and a dangerous long-haired brunette who only shows up at night and threatens him with a box cutter. He returns to his room after his first day to find the redhead undressing in his room (complete with hilarious censorship), remaining topless for most of their conversation before declaring herself his "big sister" and offering to make dinner. This is based on a porno visual novel, in case you couldn't tell.

Naturally, things aren't what they seem at Mihara Academy, and we're given a glimpse into the shocking dark twists that await us! The busty redhead picked the lock to his room and has a flashback about a violent bus crash! The maid is fashioning a homemade bomb in her dorm room! One of them is petting a kitten! The one who had a box cutter... still has a box cutter! And to top it all off, Kazami's keeping a goddamn sniper rifle in a locked case under his bed! Oh the sexy darkness we're in store for~

The Fruit of Grisaia is your average grimdark harem show based on a VN, with midrange production values, cheap CG and some pretty clunky writing. Most of this episode is Kazami earning his "mysterious hardass" cred (and it's a pretty hard ass, as you'll see in his weird Patrick Bateman-style nude scene early in the episode) by wandering around the school being cold and condescending to the ladies. Obviously the show has some shocking shocks to shock us with later on, but they're only heavily hinting at the ~dark secrets~ that are bound to come. The opening credits feature a spinning CG apple that grows spoiled and becomes part of the logo, which probably tells you everything you need to know about the thematic underpinnings they're going to throw at you. There's a metric ton of fanservice - everyone's panties are on full display, and the redhead just hangs out naked for a while near the end (but you'll have to buy the bluray for nipples, as usual).  It's the kind of show that wants you to take it very seriously while still being aroused and deciding which girl is your favorite, which is kind of the point of shows like this, but I found the setup and particularly Kazami's disposition to be goofy as all get-out. I couldn't take it seriously, so if you're like me, it might be good for a laugh. Otherwise it's a pretty confident production that isn't pretending to be above its source material, so I have to give it points for that.

The Fruit of Grisaia is available streaming at Crunchyroll.