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Old 08-12-2013, 02:08 AM   #1
big bad birtha
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Grisaia no Kajitsu



After almost two weeks of constant reading, I'm done with this VN. Obviously since I'm taking the time to make a topic about it, I really liked it. Off to the specifics!

General Plot
Grisaia no Kajitsu takes place in a new school that is built for kids who are "special cases" or have some kind of deep trauma that makes going to a normal school difficult or impossible. It starts with the main guy, Kazami Yuuji, transferring to this school. This school is the best place he can go to for the "normal" life he wants. Since the school is new and for "special cases", there are only 5 other students enrolled. Most of the VN is about Kazami Yuuji bonding with his fellow students, and taking part in his "part time job", which he wants to hide from everyone else.

Character Routes


Sakaki Yumiko
Yumiko is seemingly the main heroine of Grisaia. The system voice is hers by default, and she appears in the front of all the posters. Though this is weird because Amane and Makina's routes are done by the main writer. Yumiko is the antisocial character in this VN. She starts off completely hostile to the main guy, slashing at him with a box cutter every time she sees him. They never explain this, unfortunately, but he fends off her attacks rather easily, and gets her to stop not too long after he meets her. Everyone calls her "kuudere", which is pretty accurate. For Yumiko's route, I saved it for the last. Since she seemed to be the main heroine, and she is the most similar to the main guy, I figured she would have the best route. Sadly I was wrong. Her route is actually the worst. It's not bad, but is really lackluster. It's similar to Makina's in some ways, but is far inferior. The route is mostly about the main guy protecting her....that's about all that really happens.


Suou Amane
Amane is the "big sister" character. She voluntarily fixes Yuuji meals and flaunts her titties around him, which only makes him suspicious of her. Amane is mostly just a busybody who takes care of people who seem like they need taken care of. Out of all the girls, she's probably the most normal. Amane's route is mostly about her desperately throwing herself at Yuuji. There's a reason for this, which is actually the high point of the route. There's a loooooong flashback in her route, which is the best part of her route. It introduces an awesome character, and is actually really interesting to read. I stayed up until 7 am glued to reading this part. It's just a shame the rest of Amane's route isn't that great. The ending really left me unsatisfied. Actually the bad end was more satisfying than the actual ending.


Matsushima Michiru
What's a VN without a tsundere?! Sadly there is no tsundere in Grisaia, so we have to make due with Michiru, a fake tsundere. Yes, Michiru pretends she is tsundere, because it is a popular archetype. More than anything, Michiru is the clown, always doing dumb stuff. Michiru is pretty annoying until you get to her route. In her route, she's actually a really charming character, since she's not so pushy and loud (and fake). Sadly since the writer is different for this route, he doesn't know how to write Yuuji, and he turns Yuuji into an idiot. He does do something awesome to solve Michiru's problem, but he's completely oblivious to Michiru's advances, which he would catch onto easily in the other routes. Also another problem is that Michiru's problem is umm...not realistic. Everything else in Grisaia is realistic, so this problem of Michiru's is out of place. I'm somewhat forgiving of this, but others hated this part of her route.


Irisu Makina
Makina is the loli of Grisaia. Obviously if you have a bunch of high school girls, one has to look younger than the rest! Makina starts out really shy around Yuuji, avoiding him whenever he is around her. After she becomes more comfortable around him....oh god! She is the source of so much quotable dialogue it's unreal. Everything out of her mouth is pure awesome. She doesn't know much, so she picks up alot of her habits from the other characters, like Yuuji's "guy talk", and Amane's Kyoto talk. For Makina's route, it's sweet and sour. Up until nearly the end, Makina's route is magnificent. She has development with Yuuji that the other heroines don't have, which is especially satisfying, since she's my favorite heroine. The main guy teaches her a bunch of things, which are all fun to watch. Sadly after a certain point, the writer seems to rush the fuck out of the route. Like...it seems like he just pulls a bunch of stuff out of his ass since he doesn't feel like writing anymore. So much was unresolved. This could have been an amazing route if the writer just kept going at his usual pace instead of rushing at the end.


Komine Sachi
Sachi is the "student representative", who takes her job really really seriously. She will perform any suggestion or order without fail, which she often takes to the extreme. An example is that someone suggested her to wear a maid outfit whenever she can...because of that, she ALWAYS wears a maid outfit when she's not in school. I did Sachi's route first, because she seemed like she would be the most boring. Her route is actually pretty interesting, with Yuuji trying to help Sachi through her emotional issues. One of his solutions is bullshit, and way too over-the-top, but the rest of the route is nice. Actually the emotional impact in the end is really nice. I actually choked up quite a bit.

Overall
For the most part, I really enjoyed my time reading through this. Alot of Grisaia is SoL comedy, but with an entertaining cast of characters and great comedy, I actually enjoyed the SoL comedy alot. Another plus is the main guy. He's actually cool as hell, and has just as much story as, if not more than the girls. This is partly I loved Makina copying him. He's not the same incompetent, dull dimwit you get in your usual harems. Every character route has different ending credits, which I think is a first for me. Some VNs have different ending credits for certain routes, but I don't think I've been through one that has special ending credits for every character. Actually some of them are really good (Makina, Michiru, and Sachi). For negatives, I mentioned most of my problems in the character routes. Other than those, I really enjoyed my ride through Grisaia no Kajitsu. Overall, I guess I would give Grisaia no Kajitsu a 8.5. Great comedy, great characters, good development, and psychological issues! It's hard for me to not like it. I look forward to the sequels being translated, since they fill in any gaps this VN left. I want a Kazuki and Chizuru route!
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Old 08-12-2013, 10:35 AM   #2
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Lil' Bluey

Yumiko looks and sounds like a Senjougahara expy. Seriously, the box cutter gives it away. XP

The art is pretty. Though I'm not sure what to make of the story other than it seems like Katawa Shoujo, only with emotional rather than physical disabilities. ^^; Heck, Michiru even resembles Emi!
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Old 08-12-2013, 01:00 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by big bad birtha View Post
Amane is the "big sister" character. She voluntarily fixes Yuuji meals and flaunts her titties around him, which only makes him suspicious of her.
> Big sister character
> Cooking and big tits
> Showing off of said big tits is essential to a big sister character

I laughed at this chain of thought, being a big sister myself.
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Old 08-12-2013, 01:35 PM   #4
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@lbc:

Yeah, Senjougahara is the first person who came to mind when I met Yumiko. Them having the same character designer sort of reinforced that. She's alot softer than Senjou though, if that helps anything.

As for the comparison to KS... yeah it's an understandable comparison on paper. There's more to Grisaia than "girls in a special school fall in love with the main guy", but going into specifics would be spoiler heavy. At the very least, it's not the same boring chore to read that KS is.

@Kaisap:

Go through a few harems and you'll see why I think those qualities describe "big sister" characters. If it's any consolation, the main guy's actual older sister is nothing like that.
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Old 01-05-2014, 12:50 PM   #5
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Looks like I'm going to get a big plot reveal!

Time for some speculah! Sachi Route!

Spoiler: show
Sachi waited for Yuuji in the park until she got gang raped as a child. That's the only possible thing I could imagine worthy of "PTSD".
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Old 10-06-2014, 05:50 PM   #6
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I watched the first episode of the anime. It was okay if you can ignore the horribly shameless fanservice. This show will make any excuse it can for a panty shot. Also UG's internal monologues are gone, so that's one awesome thing gone from the anime.

For plusses....you get to see UG's scowl the entire show?
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Old 10-08-2014, 02:40 PM   #7
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This show takes pantyshots to a whole new level. Mainly in the form of 360-shots, but GODDAMN YOU GUYS PANTIES ARE NOT THAT INTERESTING.
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Old 10-20-2014, 01:01 AM   #8
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Forgot to post last week.

Episode 2 made me consider dropping the show. I forget what annoyed me about it now, but I remember getting really irritated while watching it. The animation is really sloppy too.

Episode 3 is an improvement. While I can't really call it good or anything, it didn't make me wish the episode was over. Also Makina should be in awesome mode next week. So if they don't skip it, that'll be something to look forward to. Kind of annoying they skipped the baseball scene though. That was an awesome scene.

As for my thoughts on the adaptation in general....it's honestly a worse adaptation than Little Busters. They're trying to shove too much damn content in 12 episodes. Not only that, but they're doing a piss poor job of getting Grisaia's mood across. I've seen a few people get the wrong idea about Grisaia just because of the way the anime presents it. There's also the awful fanservice.

The best thing about the anime is that you get to see and hear UG. He's a great protagonist, imo, so seeing him do everything is a plus.

Last edited by big bad birtha; 10-20-2014 at 01:08 AM.
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Old 10-20-2014, 01:08 AM   #9
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Haven't played the game. Haven't watched the show. And haven't gone looking for spoilers. But a friend in town is watching, and I can share that he really enjoyed the first episode but began to be less excited come the second and third because of the male protagonist. What appealed to my friend was, paraquoting his own words, "[The protagonist] just doesn't give a shit." He liked how the guy didn't have the typical J.C. Staff male protagonist reactions that I know bbb can't stand either. He liked how (Episode 01 spoilers, I'm guessing):

Spoiler: show
When the tsundere was being tsundere, the protagonist calls attention to it. "You're a tsundere. Don't pretend that you're not."

In a later scene (no idea which episode) ...

Spoiler: show
when there's some naked girl in the protagonist's bedroom, she makes a big deal about his presence, he calmly asks what she's doing there, she explains that his bedroom is her changing room, and he doesn't do the typical J.C. Staff thing of having a nosebleed freakout.

My friend really, really liked this about the male protagonist. But he says that it's started to disappear in the newest episodes. He thinks he'll keep watching for now because he likes the premise of the story, but he suggests he may drop it if it devolves into a stereotypical harem anime.
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Old 10-20-2014, 08:33 AM   #10
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That comment amuses me because I HATE the meta infatuation certain recent titles have begun to roll with. It's true that Grisaia's lead isn't a beta, but we might be seeing a convention shift in process as such characters fall out of favour.
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Old 10-20-2014, 08:52 AM   #11
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I think his enjoyment came less from meta dialogue / breaking the fourth wall and more from the fact that, as he sees it, the protagonist is a no-nonsense, realistic kind of guy. Like, the scene described (even if meta) is the opposite of a scene where an Urashima Keitarou accidentally trips, plants his hand on the tsundere's boob, he does the whole freakout thing typical of such characters, and she sends him flying into the wall or ceiling. Mind you, I enjoy Love Hina. But I think my friend, like many others, is sick and tired of harem animes all having a Keitarou-like lead. So when he saw that this guy was Keitarou's opposite in many ways, he was thrilled.

As for meta references, I don't mind them for things that have entered the vernacular. Like, no one is going to accuse a character of breaking the fourth wall if he uses terms like NEET or hikikomori, so I likewise don't mind it if ...

Spoiler: show
he says to a girl that she's tsundere. If he specifically says, "You're the tsundere character," then that calls attention to the fact that these are characters in a tale rather than real people, but I don't think it necessarily has to be seen as breaking the fourth wall either. It's a little strange to refer to people as "characters" in the real world but I can see it happening. *shrug*
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Old 10-20-2014, 02:58 PM   #12
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Honestly, I don't think UG really changed in the next two episodes. His attitude is the same. He (not really spoilers, but episode 3 "spoilers" I guess)
Spoiler: show
shows a little more emotion, I guess, but he still acts the same way. Sure, he approaches some of the characters, but that's simply because he thinks befriending them and being familiar with them would be less troublesome than having them all treat him like the plague. He does it more as a formality than anything. For an example of him not changing would be a scene where(actual episode 3 spoiler)
Spoiler: show
Amane is masturbating on his bed. He simply walks in there, takes a drink, and makes fun of her the scene after.


Honestly, I really think the fact that they don't go more into UG's thoughts takes quite a bit away from his character. His thoughts are way more elaborate than his words.


For the tsundere thing:
Spoiler: show
it's not breaking the 4th wall. Atleast not in its original context. UG originally goes "I read in a magazine that being tsundere is a popular thing among guys, so girls often try it." or something like that.
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Old 10-26-2014, 03:57 PM   #13
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I just finished watching episode 4.

The progression of plot and interesting things seems to have been all of 1% so far and the rest has been fanservice. The amount of pantyshots is way off the charts, to the point where it'd be less awkward to watch the girls just sit there naked. I'm not even joking.

All the panties, pantyshots and the occasional masturbation scene are stealing all screen time from a story that apparently is at least somewhat decent in the original visual novel. It's sad and makes me question what the f*ck the animation studio is thinking, and if the low ratings are any indication, the viewers are asking the same thing.

Episode 1 was intriguing, but only at the end of episode 4 did we get any indication that the "fanservice" would stop and we'd get plot progression, and get to see more of the characters as people - and not just as pairs of tits and panties.
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Old 11-03-2014, 08:15 PM   #14
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So we start off with this route eh? Well I can't say it's one of my favorites, but it's an okay route. For the adaptation itself...it's decent. It was an okay bare bones adaptation of this route. The animation went from piss poor to decent, so that's a plus. I'm also glad they included the original ED for her route.

Though they did leave out a bunch of details, so if any questions are had, then press them upon my bosom! I don't feel like listing all of the things that were left out.
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