Grisaia no Kajitsu – 02

The grisaia visual novel was by no means perfect. In fact if I was to summarize it as concisely as possible I would deem it a mixed bag. Some great moments but quite a number of bad storytelling decisions. Still there was hope for this anime adaption. After all the Steins Gate adaption managed to cut out the weaker elements of the source material and managed to make it shine through highlighting its strengths. I hoped that with the right hands the same could be done with this.

At least…that’s what I hoped. The result has so far been not up to my lowest expectations. The art is decent, the animation fairly bare and the treatment of the story abysmal. Notable examples being the use of chibi character models for two scenes in this particular episode. This was a cheap money saving tactic for the visual novel and it is disappointing to see it used once again in the anime adaption. I spotted a large amount of still frames and face close ups. When there is movement it’s good, in particular Yumiyo’s attack at the beginning of the episode looked like it had some weight in it. Despite the minimal amount of time the protagonist has spent at the school the anime makes it seem like he has been there a lot longer. In the words of a friend who watched this with me “It feels like I just skipped a huge chunk of the story.” Which was exactly my sentiment. To us the viewer Yuuji has been there for only a day. Yet all the girls are acting overly familiar. To top it off this episode ended with a montage of how these girls entered this school. Such an event would normally be placed at the middle or end if a series. Many of these girls have barely had ten minutes screentime. One hasn’t even had five. Is the viewer supposed to be sentimental about characters we barely know? Transitions between scenes are jarring, often switching randomly without warning. One scene switched to a flashback and it took me a full five seconds to figure out it was a flashback. Even then I wasn’t certain I was correct. But most importantly the pacing is far too fast. Dialogue felt like the characters were on fast forward, trying to get the scene over with.

The saving graces are the moments which turn harem tropes on there head and a rather unusual protagonist for this kind of genre. You have no idea how refreshing it is to have a harem lead who does not light up red at the slightest hint of female intimacy. He may not be the most expressive or interesting character but I take this any day over the standard wooden plank we get. If harems had more protagonists like this then at least we could have some fun with this old tired genre.

To top it off I have heard unconfirmed information about this being a one cour(12/13 episodes) anime. This would certainly explain the rushed editing. Let me say this, with one cour this will not end well. A shame as recently a kickstarter was made to bring the Grisaia visual novels to the west. Something which I do approve of. But if this anime is supposed to show us why we should check out the visual novel then it better get its act together. Fast.