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.

krofire Jul 15, 2022

7

Season two of the Grisaia franchise arrived from Eight Bit Studio in 2015 as a continuation of the previous year’s season with an OVA (The Labyrinth of Grisaia) joining the two. Picking right up from the point that the “The Cocoon of Caprice” story-arc OVA finished it continues the story of Yuuji’s origins. This yields the first four episodes with the remainder picking up the new “The Seed of Blanc Aile” story arc. This re-introduces the five girls from Mihama Academy; Yumiko, Amane, Michiru, Sachi and Makina. We have learnt that the principal male protagonist Yuuji believed that he didn’t have the right to die until he had saved five lives. Having “saved” the five girls it is their turn to save him when he runs into trouble. His former guardian, abuser and international super terrorist Heath Oslo is back in Japan and threatening nuclear annihilation unless he gets his hands on a partially-biological super-computer. Yuuji finds himself a captive of his own government and being used as a bargaining chip. “The Eden of Grisaia” is an action-packed and quite violent thriller in the mould of Fleming’s James Bond meets Ludlum’s Jason Bourne. It all becomes wildly implausible so very quickly. We welcome the return of the five High School girls and their presence in the story provides appropriate balance and humour to what, at times, can be quite a dark story. This lifts the “The Seed of Blanc Aile” story arc above the slightly grim backstory revelations in “The Cocoon of Caprice”. There is no doubting that some elements of this can be a little disturbing regarding its sexual and child abuse elements (oh, and let’s not forget the whole incest thing!). It certainly is a story presenting some stark contrast. The whole show builds up an ultimate-battle climax and ends with highly-unlikely happy-ending material. None of it really makes much sense. You just have to go with the flow. Season two is no real improvement upon season one. Yuuji’s initial story arc of “saving” the five girls just works so well in its initial take that nothing else really comes close to that little nugget of genius. It quickly descends into a messy mish-mash of ideas plumbed from Hollywood action movies. It does boast a few cute ideas like the whole “heist” scenario: the five girls are guided by the super-computer through a straw-millionaire sub-story. That was immensely enjoyable hokum. Unfortunately, moments like this are all too easily swamped by a plot which features an evil super-criminal floating around in a tri-hulled-aircraft-carrier complete with fleet of private stealth bombers. Not the best that this franchise has offered.