The Eden of Grisaia

haize78 Jan 22, 2017

4

Pretty much a waste of time. I wasn't overly impressed with the Fruit of Grisaia, but I admit that you remember that anime for all of the fucked up shit it throws at you. In this case, all of that is gone - which should be a relief, I know, but instead works out taking away from this series the little that made it memorable.  In the Fruit of Grisaia, just to sum it up briefly, you had Yuuji, the male protagonist with no backstory, enrolling in a private academy (for no discernible reason) whose only students are 5 other girls. Following the typical visual novel pattern, with multiple stories and multiple girls, the anime dedicated a couple of episodes to each girl, narrating a different - but equally horrific - past for each of them which Yuuji helped them to overcome. The Eden of Grisaia can be divided in two parts: the first 5 episodes tell the story of Yuuji's past making up for the lack of it in the first season; and then the other 5 episodes see the harem/action aspects prevail as the 5 girls (plus some others) get together to help Yuuji fight against a terrorist organization from his past. From a character development point of view the first 5 episodes weren't too bad, that's why I went on watching. But after that, in my opinion, it just went further downhill with all those girls senselessly drooling over Yuuji. I know that's what harems are, but there's no good reason to watch this: the plot isn't particularly good, the characters either, there's nothing original about it - so, as already mentioned, it's a just a waste of time.  

dragoon1104 Jan 17, 2017

10

Let me just say the circumstances surrounding each character is very anime like but the characters themselves are likeable and human like.  We can divide this season into the past (ep 1-5) and present (6-10). You must have watched the first season to understand what is going on in ep 6-10 for character explanations but the way they did ep 1-5 could be a standalone story or you could very well watch it before you watch the first season. The first part is a real tear jerker and will put you on a feels coaster if you aren't prepared while the second part is just an exciting action packed mission.  I would really recommend if you like shows like full metal panic or mahouka kouko no rettousei. Even if you didn't like the first season of this anime which I'll state was was meh in my taste, as long as you got through it and know the story of the girls, this season is so different from the original and in my opinion had everything that the first season lacked.

tollie01 Feb 19, 2017

2

Right, it's confession time for me. If you have been reading my reviews than you may have noticed that I tend to rip the anime a new one. There is a reason for this though and it has to do with the fact that I can't turn my brain off when watching anime. I can't ignore the stupid shown in the anime and this is a problem as most anime are very stupid indeed. In this case I'm not talking about a 90 pound girl catching a multi-ton cruise missile and throwing it back. Yes, it is stupid but it is a stupid that I'll allow. It's anime. Things like this are normal here and I'm pretty much fine with it. It annoys me to be sure but I will not rant about it. So, having explained this lets rip into this anime shall we? Just a heads up: There will most probably be spoilers. The more I hate an anime the more spoilers there will be. ART: There is no problem with the art but this is pretty hard to mess up these days. The animation does what it is supposed to do and it looks good while doing it. SOUND: Again no complaints from me. I have watched the anime a few days ago but can no longer remember either the OP or the ED song. This is how I generally prefer it so I'm fine with it. Voice actors did a good job overall. CHARACTERS: Main character is Yuji. He is a young man with a tortured past that has been trained as an assassin. His wish is to attend a normal school. He got half his wish. Amane is a young girl who attends the school with 4 others. She has a dark secret in her past as well and throws herself at Yuji every chance she gets confusing the hell out of Yuji. Yumiko is the reason the school exists as she is the daughter of a powerful railway owner. She has a bit of a trust issue and tries to murder Yuji every chance she gets. Michiru has a massive personality issue and often acts as an airhead and clutz. Irisu is the youngest and wierdest addition to the class. After a horrific avent in her past she was dumped at the school. Sachi is probably the one in charge of the class but always dresses as a maid and serves every one in school. Asako is a highly trained assassin who works for the Japanese government. She finds Yuki during a raid on Oslo's compound and decides to keep him and train him. Julia is Asako's closest and oldest friend and her supervisor. She later becomes Yuki's boss and she cares deeply for him. STORY: The story picks up right were Labyrinth stopped and the first arc of the series is dedicated to Yuki and his life up to the point where he came to Mihama. Yuki is taken in by Asako, who completes his training as an assassin only this time he works for the good guys. The second arc is to wrap things up with Heath Oslo and Yuki's sister. RANT: This anime has the stupid dailed up to eleven for this series. I could list them all but that would take forever and nobody is masochistic enough to read all of it. Suffice to say that not a second goes by without something happening that is either stupid or impossible. Fortunately for me I long ago stated that some stupid is acceptable for me. In this case it means that a car flying out of a drainage pipe doing a 100mph, a 100 feet up, will land just fine on the roof of a 30 foot boot, coming to a dead stop in just a few feet. Trust me, I know the levels of stupid required to believe that this is in any way believable but I'll allow it. Now what I do have problems with is the funny part where Heath returns to Japan to get Yuki back. He states several times that one of the main reasons he came back was to get Yuki. Alive and in reasonable good health. In order to have him be docile they slap a wristband on him with a digital timer that is counting down. He is told that it contains a bom that will go off if: 1) it is removed incorrectly. 2) the timer runs out. 3) his biometric readings change indicating that he is Up To No Good! The anime then completely ignores the third reason since he is rescued by the girls. Involved with a highspeed chase while being fired upon a attack chopper with everything it has. He meets his sister, who turns out to still be alive, and sets out to kill Oslo and murder the shit out of his men. Let me say this clearly: Heath wants Yuki alive. Yet all his men are trying their best to kill him every time they fight. Oh, the digital armband? Gets unlocked with an old-fashioned key. Never mind that the key is almost bigger than the wristband. Shackles call for an key to open and a key is what we will use. Still this would have pissed me off and annoyed me, the few times it didn't make me laugh. The part that truly is unforgiving was the way the series deals with the women. To this anime, women are either whores, rapists or lolita's. I actually had to sit down and think about some of it because of the way the anime kept trying to slip shit in under the radar. Let me go through it for you so that you can understand what I'm talking about here. Asako is a rapist. She is Yuki's mentor and takes him into her home. A a birthday present she teaches him how to have sex with women and from that moment they are lovers. When confronted by JB she admits that they sleep with each other a lot. Multiple times a day sometimes. Why is she a rapist when it is consensual? As I said: She is his teacher and mentor. As such she is in a position of authority and he is a minor. When you Google for student/teacher relationships (PUT THE ADULT FILTER ON FIRST!!!) what you get is teachers arrested and fired for sleeping with their students. It is against the law to sleep with those in authority (teachers) to sleep with their students. Things are a bit more hazy where the students are adults but it is still very much frowned upon. Professors sleeping with students is always a popular subject in movies but even there they never flaunt what is going on to the faculty staff. Asako turns Yuki into a rapist. Didn't see that one coming did ya? As mentioned, JB, was not happy with Yuki sleeping with Asako but Asako blew her off. She then proceeded to get JB drunk and ordered Yuki to show off his skill in the bedroom. You then see Yuki dragging JB away as she protests loudly and she continues to protest. In other words: SHE SAID NO! This entire scene was played for laughs and I admit that I laughed. It was a funny scene but then I started thinking and realised the problem: Yuki just raped JB. She was OK(?) with it afterwards and they became friends/lovers  (?) later but it doesn't really change the fact that she said no multiple times and that Yuki ignored her wishes. Other women are whores or act like them. Chiara is a small recurring character who is JB's secretary and she gets wet just thinking about Yuki. Every time they both appear on screen she almost strips down and fucks him then and there. Every other sentence she utters is a proposition and this all played for laughs. Did I mention that she looks like an underdevoled 14 year old? Millie is someone Yuki meets in the army and she was the best sniper untill Yuki came. She is a former prostitute who decided to go into the army. You don't see her ply her trade but it is very clearly stated that she was a whore. The end. Oh, how this anime pissed me off in the final minutes. You know some shows or movies screw up so bad at the end that they ruin eveything? This anime does it. The ending should have been Yuki killing Oslo but they decided to go on after this. Two years have passed and everyone is living in peace on some island in the tropics. You then learn that building the new Mihama Academy has finally been completed and the first thing you think is why? It has been 2 years right? Why go to school as most of you are now old enough to not have to go anymore? Wait, why does everyone still look the same? Are you telling me that in 2 years Irisu hasn't grown or filled out a millimeter? WHAT IS THIS SHIT? How do you do this? How do you fuck up this badly? None of the main characters shown have changed in these 2 years. Even worse is that none of the relationships going on have changed either. Actually it isn't brought up so for all I know Yuki is fucking everyone there but this adds a whole new kind of creepy to Irisu calling him father. My brain! It hurts!