Grand Blue
Short Synopsis: A guy who just entered college is pushed to join a diving club.
Aidan’s review:
You know an anime is going to be good when the first thing you see is a giant warning saying “For the love of god don’t imitate anything in this show!” Anyway I will say that the beginning of Grand Blue is the weakest part and things really get rolling once the cast is introduced and hijinks ensue. There were some odd changed to this adaption and jokes removed but otherwise I would deem it passable. Comedy is subjective though and I found this not quite as funny as the manga which I cannot determine if it was because I already knew the jokes or if the comedic timing was off. The production certainly isn’t quite up to the standard I would like. Grand Blue is getting put to animation and unlike Backstreet Girls, it’s at least being animated. But this is very much a cheap production with a fair amount of still frames. For the most part the manga’s comedy is getting transferred without considering how it should be presented in a new medium. What’s here is still fun and for first time watchers I think it will still work. But again you mileage may vary.
Potential: 65%
Lenlo’s Review:
You know, Grand Blue had me concerned when one of the opening gags was the classic undressing girl shot. But the moment after, of hyper manly men, and our lead just noping on out of there? That got me. I’m still expecting the fan-service, its a show on a beach, but atleast its equal opportunity fan-service with a healthy dash of ridiculous comedy thrown in. Unlike Aidan, I have not read the manga, so going in completely blind I had no expectations for Grand Blue’s comedy. The extended comedy segments didn’t work to well sadly, but the facial expressions and sudden comedic jumps from 0 to 10 worked the best for me. I also quite enjoyed pretty much our entire main cast, especially the two diving club dude-bro’s. Their care-free shenanigans were easily my favorite part of the episode and I see most of the comedy coming from them. So long as Grand Blue continues to not take itself to seriously and revel in its absurdist comedy, I see no problem recommending it.
Potential: 75%
Happy Sugar Life
Short Synopsis: A girl finds love for the first time and goes to any means to protect it.
Aidan’s review:
What cute fluffy fun. This is a story about nice loving yuri relationship which is filled to the brim with happiness. Something to help warm people’s hearts after a hard days work. The age gap is a little worrisome but hey nothing gets in the way of true love….that’s right…nothing…nOtHing..nothingnothingnothingnothingnothingnothingnothingnothingnothingnothingnothing…WOAH! Um sorry lost my trail of thought there. Anyway the direction is spot on despite concerns over the staff and this first episode certainly builds intrigue for what is to come next. I am rather concerned about the start of the episode which appears to be a flashforward hinting at an anime original ending. But otherwise this is damn strong first episode which highlights Happy Sugar Lifes appeal. Watch if you are also a person looking for a happy sugar life.
Potential: I give it a 80% so please don’t stab me Satou-san.
Wooper’s review:
You know what I love? Anime tropes. I love it when I can recognize a character’s personality as belonging to a narrow, otaku-baiting category, because that makes it easier to remember them. The bigger and more obvious the trope, the better. Take “tsundere,” for instance. If I really like girls whose attraction to some potato-faced moron runs hot and cold, I can just seek out anime with “tsundere” characters, and I’ll be good to go. In Happy Sugar Life, there’s another one of those personality types that I really love, since it’s totally hilarious and easy to remember. It’s the one where they seem to be normal on the outside, but in reality they’re so obsessed with somebody else that they’ll even kill people to be with their beloved! Isn’t that crazy? Okay, so I’m trying to remember the term for this kind of character. It’s on the tip of my tongue, I swear! Oh man, the pink haired girl in this episode was such a good example of one, too! She was totally cute and fun with her friend from work, but toootally insane when protecting the primary school-aged child on whom she’s hilariously fixated. I know she’s insane because her eyes turned red and the still frame on screen jiggled around a little bit at a couple points. Almost like the camera was shaking! It was sooo good – wait, I remember it now! This is gonna blow your mind, guys and gals. As soon as I name the hysterical trope featured in this “““horror””” anime, you won’t be able to stop yourselves from subscribing to Amazon Prime so you can watch it every week, no, every day! Are you sure you’re prepared for this bombshell? Okay, here goes… The main character in this anime is… a YANDERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Potential: There is a yandere in this anime
Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san
Short Synopsis: A boy who can see ghosts moves into a boarding house with a hot spring and a bunch of supernatural cute girls.
Aidan’s review:
This episode is the most amount of plot this story is going to have. Well of course later there will be plenty of “PLOT” but yeah it’s amusing to see how this show started out with some semblance of telling a story. So the main draw here is that is your traditional harem with all the bells and whistles. I would say watch this if you are looking for boobies but well this is the censored edition and an uncensored edition ain’t coming till the blu-rays are out. Taking that into account I wonder what is even the point of watching this censored edition at all unless you actually happen to be invested in the story which will no doubt disappear really fast. I feel like those looking for this kind of show will most likely wait for the uncensored version while for the rest of us it doesn’t have much to offer.
Potential: 0%
Mario’s review:
This show feels like an anime that be made 20 years ago, which its old-fashioned concept and its harem plus ecchi edge. Nothing wrong with that though, given for what it’s worth it’s a decent watch from start to finish. Even at the end, there’s hint for some emotional conflicts of putting that ghost girl to the afterlife once she learns about her roots of unhappiness. It reminds me of the old charm of watching these similar shows when I was a kid (to Love-Ru, Love Hina), where guy “accidentally” grabs big boobs and all girls are fawned over him. In fact, it follows that harem’s formula to the T that I embrace all the cliche that genre has (girls who live under the same house with different personality and boobs size), the main leads sleep together, so on and so forth. Hence, watch this show only if you miss that old flavor because it offers relatively little beyond that.
Potential: 20%
