Iori Kitahara moves to the coastal town of Izu for his freshman year at its university, taking residence above Grand Blue, his uncle's scuba diving shop. Iori has high hopes and dreams about having the ideal college experience, but when he enters the shop he is sucked into the alcoholic activities of the carefree members of the Diving Club who frequent the place. Persuaded by upperclassmen Shinji Tokita and Ryuujirou Kotobuki, Iori reluctantly joins their bizarre party. His cousin Chisa Kotegawa later walks in and catches him in the act, earning Iori her utter disdain.
Based on Kenji Inoue and Kimitake Yoshioka's popular comedy manga, Grand Blue follows Iori's misadventures with his eccentric new friends as he strives to realize his ideal college dream, while also learning how to scuba dive.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Stark700
College life is a bit different from high school. For those who don’t know, it’s like venturing into a society where some people live by the rules and others makes them. To me, Grand Blue came as a show that explored a carefree life while mixing in adult humor, diving elements, and drinking shenanigans. It’s one of those shows that is hard to not laugh your ass off once you realized what you’re in for. Based on the manga written by Kenji Inoue, Grand Blue stands out more as a modern slice of life that adheres to a young adult cultural society. Here, we meet aguy named Iori Kithara who starts his new life as a college student on the Izu Peninsula. His place of residence happens to be a diving shop known as “Grand Blue” and thus where daily life adventure begins. Now, I should say right off the bat that a show like this relies on stereotypical humor with plenty of jokes in between. If you’re not ready for that, just turn back now.
Grand Blue’s storytelling mainly chronicles the daily life adventures of Iori although plenty of other characters are featured aside him. The main cast consists of diving club, also known as the “Peek-a-Boo”. He meets others including his cousin Chisa, Nanaka, Kouhei, Azusa, Toshio, and Kotobuki. Among this group, the male cast seems more like they are in love with drinking more than diving. The first episode immediately sets off the humor with the nakedness and adult jokes from the very start as we meet the core members. That is to say, Iori himself also lacks common sense when he attends his first day at college while being half naked. Judging from just this impression, it should be easy to recognize that the show love to make fun of its characters. It uses stereotypes that makes fun of college life such as young adults drinking and partying. Then, there’s meta-humor that plays on jokes with the nudity. It’s also self-aware being that it never attempts to disguise its humor. Certain characters are very aware of their actions regardless of consequences and this often sets off the wrath of others such as Chisa.
For the main female cast, it consists of a colorful group with a diverse range of personalities. The most level-headed person in the show is Chisa who takes many things in life seriously. She also loves diving and geniuely enjoys the feelings of being in the azure ocean. She’s like the anti-Peek-a-boo member in the show as she can’t tolerate being embarrassed. Because of this, there’s often a clash between her and Iori as the two gets into compromising positions. The end result is often Iori taking the blow and Chisa face palming herself. However, it’s also noticeable that she does care about Iori especially during brief flashbacks before them. Often times, I guess you could say that she misses her childhood with him and reliving those moments brings a peace in her mind. Then, we have Nanaka who seems to play the role of an older sister type for the main cast although at the same time, she also has an unhealthy infatuation towards Chisa. It’s the type of humor that makes fun of siblings but in a sarcastic way. Azusa is the senior student who behaves much more like the guys in the show. Her bisexuality is hinted at many times and often makes sexual jokes at others, especially Iori. Last but not least is Aina, a freshman who is much shyer compared to the others. She does go by another persona early in the series so watching her sometimes may remind you just how different her two personalities are.
Between the guys, a main selling point in the show is the character chemistry. Regardless whether you like it or not, there’s an abundance amount of humor when the guys interact with each other and it often comes off as absurd humor. The most prominent is between Iori and Kouhei. They are often observant but says things that may be interpreted in the wrong way. They often get into trouble with the women in the show too given their actions that disregards common sense. The two also gets into many bickering moments. Early in the series, the series also makes fun of the guys with porn jokes. And let’s not forget about the drinking. Pretty every male character in the series loves to drink whether it’s alcohol, beer, vodka, wine, or whiskey. As you may expect from action that results in consequences, the guys behave like drunks while stripping naked and causing questionable scenes. The series pokes fun at this type of adult humor by covering their private body parts with black censored circles. It’s the type of self-aware humor that you’ll witness quite often.
So now what? Is this series just a giant ball of meaningless humor? Or is it something more deceptive that people misunderstands? To me, Grand Blue stands out as a show that deals with adult gimmicks and stereotypes but makes it into a humorous flick. It seems like a popcorn entertainment and you’re not wrong if it feels like the story went nowhere in the end. However, the shows knows how it operates and inserts every joke with a clear intention. The guys in the series acts bold and behaves in ways that wild college students do. The girls are slightly mild but it doesn’t detract them from getting into the party on occasions. There’s a lot of running gags with the drinking jokes, nakedness, and misunderstandings. It’s what the series uses to sell its humor. If you’re in it for actual diving, there are some moments too with info dumps. Don’t expect this like a relaxing slice of life as it’s far too hyperactive to be considered as such though. Watch this for the pure entertainment and forget common logic. That way, you’ll grow to love Grand Blue.
Zero-G has honestly been an unimpressive studio. Their lineup consists of shows that I hardly see anyone talks about these days (Battery, Dorei-kun the Animation, Dive!!). Their production quality is hardly stellar either. Thankfully, they managed to step up to the plate and capture the magic for this show. It deserved a glorious quality and got treated such way with the beach setting, aquatic ocean, and sunny atmosphere. Character designs also feels real with the cast looking like they are college students (although Aina sometimes makes me question this) Fan service is literally in every episode but they take the extreme during party scenes and drinking segments. Finally, I love the way characters reacts that pushes the envelope to the extreme. Iori and Kouhei are prime examples of this while others such as Chisa and Nanaka also have their own moments. Expressions of shock, anger, and confusion is shown right to your face in ridiculous ways. Thanks to the talented voice cast, it brings the best out of those moments. The OP song also adapts a playful feel to showcase the themes of the show. The ED theme song makes fun of pop culture such as karaoke that’s so fun to sing along with.
As a fan of the manga, I think Grand Blue established itself as a self-aware humorous showstopper. Taking the risk of glorifying its humor made this show look like a joke at first glance. However, once you get sucked into Grand Blue’s themes, you’ll find love with this show. From the adult humor to the numerous character gags, it’s an anime that plays with itself. It’s a Summer sensation.
ta07
"In Japan, the color blue signifies youth, a time of excitement and infinite possibilities" Hello everyone , this is my review of funniest show of this season and one of the best gag comedy i had ever seen in anime .. so Lets begin Intro: Imagine what you expect when you going to college, we develop a lot of preconceptions about what it would be like i mean New places, new friends, maybe a new girlfriend. Go to some parties, maybe find somewhere I felt like I could really fit in and all that wonderful dreamy thought. Well our main protagonist Imagination is no different than an average studentwho just entering the college.
After graduating high school, Iori moves to Izu, on the coast, to go to college for mechanical engineering. “I’ll put all my effort into having the best college life possible!” he vows. “I’m going to meet cute girls, fall in love, and enjoy the pinnacle of youth with good friends!”
He moves in with his uncle and, more importantly, his two beautiful cousins: motherly, long-haired Nanaka and tomboyish, short-haired Chisa. All of them work at the uncle’s dive shop, the Grand Blue; unfortunately, so do Tokita and Kotobuki, macho dive bums who pressure Iori into joining the diving club even though he can’t swim. Alas, Iori soon finds himself roped into their social circle, partying with a bunch of goofy jocks who just want to get naked and play all-male drinking games. Will Iori get to enjoy a cool campus life? Will he find love? Will the diving club ever actually get in the water?
Well thats for the introduction part which sounds like an average college based anime
or IS IT!, so let examine in our further review.
Story: (7/10)
Most of the time we see gag anime fail to deliver a proper story line and mostly involved in delivering some random funny events and scenes.
Well Grand Blue is kind of done a decent job in constructing a story line. Sure we can say that its not a story based anime .However, Grand Blue does deserve credit in the sense that it doesn't completely devolve into comedy, as most events take place in a ocean setting, staying true to the foundation that it lay down. The Episodes are also loosely tied together, meaning that there is some degree of continuation. But in all we can say that its main purpose is to make audience laugh.
Art, Animation and sound:(9/10)
Art is beautiful considering how they have utilize the beauty of locations including underwater and seasore and present it in a beautiful and artistic way. Animation is great, studio done a decent job in adapting manga considering manga artstyle is already top class we sure expect in the hands of a decent studio anime is pleasant to watch.
There are some part i like to focus on which Grand Blue done a tremendous job that is adapting face expression with the scenes. Grand Blue Dreaming is a stunning treasure trove of reaction faces. With influences from hot-blooded fighting anime, horror movie framing, and direct references to other franchises, like this Great Teacher Onizuka and that Evil sarcastic Face which taken from Attack on Titans.
OP and ending is pleasant and beautiful as well as some underwater scenes are eyecatching.
It also done a great job in sound department including beautiful opening and ending sound. There are no characters who unnecessarily shouting everywhere and trying to make audience laugh .Voice actors done excellent job in providing tone which goes exceptionally well with the scene
Characters:(9/10)
Characters are unique and excellent and each have there own funnier side perfectly well fitted for such gags Anime.
We can see from absolute scumbags to a hot and weird otaku , from a shy tomboyish waifu material girl who has its own sadist side to a lewd Onee san including Airheads and some trouble some senpais.
Grand Blue has all to offer what is necessary for a gag anime, characters range from lovable bastards like club senpai Tokki and Bukki to absolute scumbags, with Iori somewhere in the middle. He has a veneer of respectability that gets shattered the moment he takes a sip of beer. Also our fellow dorks like good-looking but skeevy anime fan Kohei (“Why isn’t there a club full of beautiful high school girls to be my harem?”)
The female character are more kind of average than you might expect from this particular strain of comedy, with the exception of Nanaka, who is pretty one note with the unpredictable and Lewd Azusa. Chisa and Aina for me is kind of okay serving as a balance in between all these crazy characters.
So Whats Lacking:
Well if you see the Manga, its clearly one of the best comedy manga ever made. For anime i feel it kind of fail to adapt the proper pacing of the Anime and how to give Focus on some particular scene. We can see same kind of thing with some famous anime like Food Wars (after 1st season) and Tokyo Ghoul. On some scenes and some part of the story it feel bit rushed which makes viewers who already familiar with manga kind of disappointed. Other than that i dont find anything which are lacklustre in the Anime.
The Bad:
The other element that might not work for everyone is all the nudity and fanservice. The most explicit nudity actually comes from the boys in the club, who tend to strip when they get drunk.
The women, however, in their skintight wetsuits, bikinis, or the occasional glimpse of underwear, are clearly supposed to be titillating.
Well i can say that its not for everyone who dont feel comfortable in such thing like nudity and drinkin
Conclusion:
Grand Blue is fundamentally a frat house farce in the vein of something like American Pie or The Hangover in anime version. Its comedy definitely has lot of consistency when it comes to make people laugh. If you want a show who you can watch with your friends with enjoyment and laugh this show deliver all the things you needed.
Funny events timing is impeccable, making great use of situations, and even manages to make repeating the same punchline funnier the second time.
Overall its pretty good and satisfying show and definitely one of the best gag anime ever made also the funniest one but again you’ll have to really love booze jokes, funny faces, and gags about guys being caught naked with little censorship marks obscuring their junk.
Dream95
Entertaining Comedy?✓ Men who can't help but get drunk and strip?✓ Awkward Virgin friends?✓ Misunderstandings?✓ Grand Blue is one of the funniest anime I have seen in a while. In a full on comedy anime, a plot is probably one of the least important aspects. To me, a comedy anime is all about the enjoyable characters and overall entertainment. And Grand Blue has all of those. Like most comedy anime, it operates with a very basic story- a college freshman being all excited to have a great college life. However, it doesn't go as planned when he's forced to join a "diving club", in which the members drinkand strip more than dive (there still is diving I assure you). Yes, it's pretty ridiculous already, but it gets even better as the show progresses and more characters get introduced.
The characters are the life of any comedy anime. Without fun, fitting characters, a comedy anime just won't be the same. It doesn't matter to me if they seem slightly generic, as long as they show some personality and entertain.
Grand Blue has a good variety of different personalities which compliment each other perfectly to create hilarious exchanges. Whether it is a dumb, over the top MC, or an otaku "ikemen", or awkward virgin friends, or men (and women) who couldn't care less about getting drunk and stripping in public, Grand Blue has a good variety to keep the entertainment going.
The voice acting is also top notch, and paired with some incredible facial expressions, all the characters are funny in their own right. Honestly, the facial expressions are some of the most hilarious ones I've seen since Prison School.
There are many comedy anime out there which can have some funny episodes while the rest are a hit-and-miss. Grand Blue, however is very consistent in that regard. Honestly, comedy will always be a subjective genre. Grand Blue might not be for some, but those who enjoy a rather over-the-top comedy anime should definitely give this a shot.
ktulu007
Grand Blue is a Zero-G comedic anime from last year. I can't speak to the quality of their work in general since I only found thirteen titles listed for them and haven't seen any of them. It's based off of a manga by Inoue Kenji. Well, I like a lot of slice of life comedies so this may be relevant to my interests. Let's take a look. Story: Our protagonist is Kitahara Iori. A young man who moves into his Uncle's place while attending college. Once there, he's immediately marked by the diving club, which is made up largely of drunken morons who can't keep their clothes on.They coerce him into joining, sensing a kindred spirit. The series basically covers Iori's exploits and club activities.
Let's start with the massive, gaping issue with the series. It isn't funny. For the vast majority of it, we just watch these drunken idiots act like drunken idiots. It's like watching that group you always avoided at University very closely and that's just annoying. There's a reason you avoid the intellectual shrimps who just want to party in a loud, obnoxious fashion. Another thing the series seems to find absolutely hilarious is giving the characters stupid looking, exaggerated features. Which kind of contributes to the generally annoying atmosphere. Then we have the humour that centers around Nanaka wanting to sex up her sister. It's like the worst part of Yuru Yuri, except the rest of the humour is on par with it.
Actually, any time this series touches on the idea of romance it's horrible in some way. Whether it's Iori getting caught being pervy towards one of his cousins, the aforementioned sister complex, the group of incels or the bisexual fan-service girl.
Characters:
Another big problem with the series as a whole is that the characters are all horrible. You pretty much hate 95% of them within minutes of them showing up and they don't even have the defence of being well written characters. They're very shallow. Unfortunately, they're shallow in a way that makes them incredibly unbearable.
Now, I'm not saying you need characters who are amicable for a comedy to work. The BBC's Black Adder serves as proof positive that you can have characters who are terrible people in a comedy and make it work really well. But that series has the benefit of clever writing and the writers made the titular character a charming rogue in every series save one. That factor, coupled with the cunning behind his actions does make him both interesting and funny. This series doesn't have any cleverness or charm to speak of. Which just makes the awful characters a slog to deal with.
Art:
This is the one element where I can give the series some credit. The underwater scenes where we don't have insipid dialogue, shite facial expressions or any garbage character interactions to deal with can look very nice. If this series were just the seven or eight minutes of underwater scenery, I could enjoy it somewhat.
Of course, it does have issues with really stupid looking facial expressions popping up constantly and the characters randomly taking off their clothes because Inoue apparently finds nudity to be the funniest thing of all time.
Sound:
While Grand Blue does have some talented voice actors, it's also one of those series where they aren't allowed to have good performances. The dialogue is so over-exaggerated and the characters are so devoid of anything resembling complexity that it becomes nearly as annoying to listen to as it is to watch. The music is, at least, only sub-par.
Ho-yay:
We have Nanaka with her romantic feelings towards her own sister. We also have Azusa, who is openly bisexual. The series also loves to make jokes in poor taste about people mistaking Iori for having romantic feelings towards his otaku friend.
Areas of Improvement:
Having clever jokes instead of loud, obnoxious unfunny ones.
There is literally no benefit to the nudity, just have your characters keep their clothes on.
Just say no to the incest. At best, it's cringey and mildly unpleasant. At worst, it's fecking terrible.
Final Thoughts:
This is easily among the worst comedies I've ever seen. It tries to force humour out of being loud and obnoxious but, ultimately, all that does is make it loud and obnoxious. You hate the characters pretty much within minutes of them showing up. The actors are wasted since you could just replace their lines with a crying baby and it would only be mildly more annoying. Ultimately, it's just an unpleasant, horribly written and devoid of humour work. I'm giving it a 2/10 and it only gets that high of a score because of the nice underwater scenery. If you really find drunken idiots charming, it may be the series for you. Otherwise, I'd suggest staying away from it.
GauravKG
Funniest, hilarious, rolling on the floor laughing.... It is the funniest anime I've ever watched. And no one even came close to the laughter this series gave me. Now the other comedy series like saitama, konosuba, haganai, arakawa under the bridge, bungou stray dogs... Doesn't even compare to it. Female charecter are normal (except one , but that gives a spice to the females) and no one in the boys is normal... The face they make can make you die laughing, the ideas of boys.... Everything about boys is depicted in a hilarious way. I can say by no doubts, it is the funniest anime ever
Nurguburu
This is one of the most boring and unfunny shows that I've ever seen in my life. Our main character moves into his uncle's diving shop, Grand Blue where he met almost all of the cast. I expected to find creative jokes and interesting characters but I was very disappointed. The show barely try doing something new and becomes repetitive easily. The predominant jokes are: naked guys drinking, Kouhei and Iori fighting, forced misunderstanding and, to a lesser extent, Iori's friends harassing fellow virgin friends. I don't have any problems with this type of jokes (except the last one) but they are introduced somany times in a short time. Honestly, it's a little annoying. The worst part is that the show almost never try to have a cohesive pacing with the jokes.
The characters didn't help either. Along with the 95% of the jokes, they are generic and one-dimensional. Most of the girls (Azusa and Nanaka) are just fanservice figures while that the guys only exist for the sake of the naked joke (Shinji and Ryuujirou). The rest of them are more independent of the generic jokes but they're eclipsed by them. Chisa is a generic angry girl/cousin, Kouhei is the self-insert character, Iori changes his personality depending of the joke, and Aina, despite that falls in the category of shy girl, have some personality and she's the only decent character in the entire show.
The story is quite simple and linear. Is easy to follow.
Surprisingly, Grand Blue has good moments about diving that were well handled by the studio but they barely appear and with the unfunny jokes in the middle is hardly enjoyable.
The animation is mostly good and the opening is amazing. On the other hand, OST is forgettable.
Some people are saying that the manga is better but, here, I'm just talking about the anime version. I never understood why Grand Blue receives so much admiration. Basically, I was bored to death. If you are looking for a very good comedy, I recommend you to watch Asobi Asobase.
_asi
A series that doesn't have a single boring episode. You like drinking? Naked men? Good jokes? I did enjoy watching the show so much. This has to be one of the funniest shows that I've watched so far. Even though the jokes were good the face impressions and animations made it the best. The storyline was okay but still maybe pointless sometimes. But it did not really bother that much. Also once in a while Main characters and supporting characters were really good. I mean Tokita, Kotobuki and other were as good as all of four MC's. I am hoping for s2 as there wouldeasily be enough source material for it.
akynox
I was in a phase where i was watching a lot of trash 12 eps anime. I had lost almost all my enjoyment, but i couldn't stop from watching more trash anime. Then, one day, somebody told me to watch Grand Blue. I tought it was one more trash anime, but it was like an illumination... I actually laughed. I actually enjoyed my time. It actually changed my life. I gave Grand Blue such a high note because it was one of the most funny things i ever watched. Even if they repeated the joke, it was still very funny.
AnimeExplorer21
I went into this show with a lot of expectations, thanks to all the hype. People kept saying, "Oh, it's one of the funniest anime out there," and honestly, I feel like I missed the joke. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate over-the-top humor and ridiculous situations, but this? It just felt like it was trying too hard most of the time. Like that one friend at a party who keeps telling the same joke, hoping someone will laugh, but you’re just sitting there sipping your drink, waiting for it to end. Let’s talk about Iori, the main guy. The dude has zero backbone. Iget it, he’s supposed to be this everyman thrown into absurd situations, but come on, bro, stand up for yourself! Watching him constantly get dragged into drinking contests or stripped down to his underwear while he just awkwardly smiles or panics… it wasn’t funny after the third time. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion, except you don’t even care about the train.
And then there’s the comedy. Look, I’m not some stoic guy who doesn’t laugh—I wanted to laugh. I really did. But half the jokes were just loud yelling, dudes getting naked (again), and overused gags that felt stale after two episodes. Like, I get that naked guys are funny in certain contexts, but when it’s 80% of your humor? Eh, it gets old fast. My face was so blank most of the time, I could’ve been mistaken for a statue.
The diving part? Oh yeah, remember how this anime is supposedly about diving? Because the show sure doesn’t. Every now and then, they throw in these beautiful underwater scenes that made me think, “Okay, maybe now it’s going to get serious and meaningful,” but nah. It’s like the anime itself forgot it had a plot and decided to double down on its frat-boy antics instead.
And can we please talk about the lack of romance? I’m not saying every anime needs to have some grand love story, but they teased something between Iori and Chisa just enough to keep you hoping for something—a confession, a real connection, maybe even just a moment where they’re not awkwardly arguing. But nope. Nothing. It was like ordering a pizza and getting an empty box. A little disappointing, you know?
All that said, I won’t lie—there were a few moments where I cracked a smile. Like when Kohei gets into his otaku rants or when the older guys act like total lunatics. But those were rare, and they weren’t enough to carry the whole show.
So yeah, I’d give Grand Blue a solid 5/10. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever watched, but it’s definitely not something I’d recommend unless you’re really into slapstick humor and drunken chaos. Maybe the manga is better? I dunno. Either way, it’s one of those shows I’ll probably forget about in a few months.
Zaber_san
"This is a diving anime... Yes.. Grand Blue is indeed a diving anime only." - Typical Grand Blue audience. When you look at the comedy industry of anime, it is always topping-off the reviews, charts and everything. Why? Because either it has a good story with ton of great jokes, or the show is just very riduculous and have great humour. If you notice it, comedic anime are mostly in the school genre (specifically High School) which make sense because teenagers often goof up on school unlike adults who focuses on their life more. Then here we have Grand Blue, that is not a high schoolanime but college instead. Grand Blue is one of many comedy anime out there this Summer 2018 that offers us laughter that can relate to college students out there. And for some reason this anime offers diving (I guess) which I don't see pretty much often on anime (except swimming anime).
Story:
Grand Blue's story is not really chronological and like I said on my other reviews on other comedy anime, it doesn't matter whether it is chronological or not as long as it stays on point to the humor and characters. We have here Kitahara, Iori who will move to his uncle's diving shop as his home in college. Seems normal isn't it? Thats where you are wrong. The diving shop have tons of ridiculous, weird and extreme practices including naked Rock-Paper-Scissors and drinking alcohol while your naked is COMPLETELY normal on this shop (Heck, even the owner which is Iori's uncle likes to get naked and used to it.).Then there's the university where he attends to which have variety of characters ranging from an otaku, crazy upperclassmen, charismatic boys from the tennis club and those typical friends you get who are all virgins. Grand Blue is a show where the MC is not really treated as an MC. Each character have unique comedic traits that can contribute to the story in whole. Whether the character is an otaku or not, they can make the story humorous alot.
Characters:
The characters of Grand Blue is what makes Grand Blue one of the best comedy shows this season. If not maybe the best comedy this year as well. We have the main protagonists Kotegawa Chisa, who is a bit of a tsundere-type of girl and have so much love on diving. There's Kitahara Iori, who is the main attraction of all and probably a failure of a kind of college student. He is those characters that can adapt into any environment whether it is an environment full of titan-like men drinking alcohol or the under the sea environment. There's Imamura Kouhei who is the otaku of the diving club and the "rival" of Iori (There rivalry is actually very funny. Not those types of rivalry like Naruto and Sasuke.) and Yoshiwara Aina, who for some reason has the same attitude of Iori when he first entered the shop and she is probably the most normal one out of all the characters. This four for some reason are considered the main characters on MAL but in the anime, the other characters are almost treated as main ones as well. I say this because on every humour, its not only this four characters are contributing to it. The supporting ones holds the joke as well and thats what makes Grand Blue an anime that treats all the characters equally for the comedy and story.
For example, the two naked titans Kotobuki Ryuujirou and Tokita Shinji are the two characters that have weird but funny sense of ways of drinking alcohol with friends. Hamaoka Azusa, who is the only girl character in the anime that likes getting along with the guys (and Mr. Alcohol) and sometimes she even gets to the enthusiasm of being naked (not completely). Also she loves both yaoi and yuri and this trait makes Iori and Azusa's relation to one another funny as well as Iori have to bear with it since he is not a fan of any of those two. Then, the sister of Chisa which is Kotegawa Nanaka, who have a big secret towards Chisa and possessiveness towards her. Not to mention the other characters like the friends of Iori and Kouhei at the university each gave way for more comedic scenes to the anime. That is why Grand Blue was funny as hell because their traits as well as some misunderstanding towards one another make it even more funny. They are all perfectly synchronize even though they are different characters.
Art:
I can't stress out how the art and visuals of Grand Blue is stunning, funny and amazing at the same time. From the looks of their faces due to some scenes either shockness or anger, to the normal visual scenes and the underwater sea, Grand Blue tells you that this is not just a comedy show full of great humourous scenes but it also have eye-appealing scenes as well visuals of the characters and environment.
Sound:
If you take a look of the openings of the anime that aired this Summer season, Grand Blue is the only comedy show plus not a sports anime that has such a good opening that reflects on summer (correct me if Im wrong here.) this season and seeing the opening with all the diving and the hidden wonders of the sea is just so pleasant and beautiful. Plus it is actually a click bait of an opening as the opening just reflected the diving parts of the anime but not the humors and drinking of it. The ending of the anime however reflects how absurd, weird and funny the anime is (opposite to the ending) where we saw Iori seeing into some Karaoke and after he finished the song the other 3 males and him gets naked. Pretty absurd right? I have no problems of the background music or anything that is related to the sound system throughout the episodes as well.
Overall thoughts and Enjoyment:
As you can see with my rating of this show, I totally enjoyed it. It is one of those anime this season that when you have a bad day or in a bad mood, just watch this show and you will be dying of laughter and releases your stress of anything. That's what makes comedy shows great in the anime industry and Grand Blue is one of it.
KyleRiley
This is a short review. So a lot of people said this was one of the, if not the, most hilarious anime out there. I will sadly have to disagree, but that's mostly a personal thing as I don't find a lot of the humour in Grand Blue particularly hilarious. Some of it is funny, and after episode 5 or so I actually started to like the show more but regrettably I cannot say it tops my list of comedies. My issues with Grand Blue are the repetitiveness of the jokes and the general tone of the show. I'm not a young man (I'm over 30) wholikes to drink or lust after women so I don't connect to the humour a lot of the time, and constant miscommunication is a big pet peeve of mine. I did not hate the show (well, I hated the first episode but it got better) but I wouldn't say I found it overly hilarious either. I did laugh a few times, mostly when the jokes were more akin to the style of humour found in Asobi Asobase, but overall I was more interested in the more serious, slower moments of the show. The diving was very interesting. I felt like the characters were pretty well written, the underwater scenes were gorgeous, and the voice acting was pretty great overall.
I had a habit of constantly comparing Grand Blue to Asobi Asobase, which may have been a mistake. I found Asobi Asobase utterly hilarious so when I saw Grand Blue shared similar characteristics (an anime that doesn't advertise how wacky it is, the ridiculous faces, the absurd humour, etc.) I instantly expecting something somewhat similar. Grand Blue is obviously targeted toward a different audience, and that is clear since 99% of the jokes in Grand Blue are either sex, alcohol, or dick related. I found Asobi Asobase more varied in its humour, and far more snappy. Grand Blue was fine and all but just not to my taste.
The abundance of male nudity was nice though.
6/10
Ultad
WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!!! Grand what the fuck am I doing with my life? A review. Episode 1: Grand Blue starts off like any iconic slice of life anime main character is in a vehicle traveling to a new area where he doesn't know anyone or anything about, so you can explore this land together. He lives with his uncle who may seem normal but judging from his personality and hairstyle you can quickly catch on that he is a raging homosexual completely out of the lords reach. After a brief look at the ocean and some fan service the main character opens the doors of the barhis uncle owns and immediately gets hazed by a bunch of drunk college boys. In this bar we meet two main characters (at least I think they are as there shown in the opening and throughout the episode). I don’t bother learning anime names if they’re longer than four letters so I will refer to them as The Blonde Bear and The Black Bear (based on their hair color and homosexuality). After this you find out all the girls in this anime/episode are the main characters cousins and so I decided to label our main character Mr. Habsburg. Mr. Hapsburg makes bad decisions and ends up playing strip pok-er...I mean rock-paper-scissors and drinking non stop with the Bearenstein Bears after this he ends up at school orientation the next day in his underwear. At school he meets his arch rival of indecency lolilover516 soon after demanding girls give him their clothes as he’s still pretty naked and a short 5min run in with the police both he and the pedophile join the LGBTQ pride club #LoveTrumpsHate or the Diving club for short. They than set liquor on fire and drink till they pass out spending another day at school in nothing but their underwear.
Episode 2:
Was going to make a review for each episode of this anime but I was so done after this episode (Yes I kept watching for the review)
Summary:
Grand Blue is an average gay pride show that combines the three pillars of college life Drinking, Stripping and fucking your cousin. Our main character is your average idiot who doesn’t get social ques and has very little decency however people like him anyway because plot. I’d like to say that the show focuses on the main characters club it’s about Diving but they only actually dive in 2 or 3 episodes for a few minutes the rest of the time our characters are drinking, stripping, partying with a bunch of naked men, or failing at getting a girlfriend. The show tries to make itself funny however you can quickly get bored of these jokes as one of the reasons I didn’t do a review of each episode was because they all amount to the same thing, main girl is angry at main character for something he did last episode after drinking and stripping they make up immediately after that he says something stupid and she hates him again role credits. The ending was as unsatisfying as the rest of the anime main character doesn’t get his diving license because he was sick after stripping so he can’t dive with the group you think he might hate diving but at this point you know he isn’t like that because the clubs not about diving anyway so they try to make a sad scene yet you know he’s just Sea sick. After this they spend the other half of the final episode drinking and stripping so it ends like it begins.
How to improve: This show was so bad I’ve decided to give some tips to improve it
In my opinion Grand Blue would be better as a Shonen action series about spear fisherman. The setting can be the state of Alabama as then they wouldn’t have to explain why the main character wants to fuck his cousin and the sis-con would have a better place. We can make the anime man our main characters arch rival as they compete to find the best fish among the Reefs' of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico the two bears can be high level spear fisherman who teach our characters the way to spear fish while fighting off the tiger shark. After this instead of having the school tennis club as an enemy we can make it the Mexicans as they try to scare off the main characters. Boom 12 episodes of that would be perfect season, the final episode could be that the Mexicans have captured the main characters cousin he goes alone to save her after anime man and the Bear Bros take on some Mexican guards after quickly escaping the Mexican government with his cousin their boat blows up and their stuck on a terrible, dilapidated old island with no food; Communist Cuba. As the credits role the viewers would be waiting for season two to never come to see if the characters are able to survive.
JeanneDeLaMotte
I don't understand why this anime has such a rating, nor why it belongs to the seinen category. If this anime is for anyone, that is for teenagers, for killing time. I was expecting an interesting story of students at the university, interesting events related to the diving club, interesting characters, but there is nothing of that. The characters are boring and one dimensional, actually they are all the same, there is not a single interesting character worth mentioning here. The whole anime boils down to casual conversations that should be funny but aren't, they're also pointless and cringe. There is no plot, no characterdevelopment, it is not even humorous. I didn't laugh once while watching this. All I see here are bad attempts at comedy scenes. The only thing that is good is art.
ajw215799
I’ve never once thought of an anime as vile filth before, and I have watched some bad anime but none were as repulsive to watch as this. This series is just a high schoolers juvenile imagination about what University life is like. This is just a bunch of frat guys getting drunk and naked and there is rarely a laughable gag in sight. This was outdated in 2018 before the world went all PC and it’s even more outdated now. Multiple counts of the same two felonies are committed repeatedly throughout the series and is treated for laughs. Well I’m not laughing. In fact, anyattempt at actual serious development is instantly ruined by the fact that it wants to do a gag in the middle of a serious scene. This is supposedly very popular but I have no idea why, it’s just trash.
babsssz
- It's a very light and fun anime, the episodes end and you don't even notice. The jokes and situations are great and at many times you laugh a lot. - The characters are college students, drink a lot and go to parties, which I thought was very similar to the real life of a college student, which is not much discussed in anime. - Anime has little romance, but it is interesting and makes funny situations happen. - In short, it is an anime that perfectly fulfills its role, which is to be a comedy. It is very funny and fun, worth seeing.
ggol
TLDR: MUST-WATCH It is a Masterpiece of comedy about college life. VODKA! That line is a masterpiece line from Iori Kitahara. Story 10/10 A simple story about college life, friends, and clubs that makes up for it because of the comedy. The story of Grandblue is one of the greatest stories of all time. The comedy of Grand Blue doesn't just purely focus on the character's personality but showcases the characters attending those day-to-day events around it by implementing an explosive comedy to compensate for the entertainment. They balanced out the comedy with a slice of the life and sometimes educational content to the series which many other animemostly focus on the slice of life side and fails to entertain the audience and this doesn't.
Characters 10/10
This anime is so good because of the characters. If you don't pay enough attention to the characters in Grand Blue you will hear one of the best voice acting in anime history. They put a massive amount of effort into the voice and the reason why it's so funny is because the characters have a very unique and funny voice that matches the atmosphere they're in. The characters are very likable at first Iori seems like just an ordinary guy, but the more he stays within the club the more he matches the silly culture within the club. All the characters in here are silly, but not stupidly silly. They all have a very funny personalities which adds a lot of depth to the story.
Animation 10/10
What's impressive about the animation is that it uses the generic-looking animation to its advantage. They fill a lot of the explosive background in the most intensive comedy moments and sometimes if you look at it. The characters like Kohei at the moment when he was doing the female voice he will slowly look more and more feminine. The animation serves its purpose because If you put too much quality animation within the comedy anime the animation would look way too serious and the tone would feel different. Another impressive thing about the animation is that it is heavily inspired by attack on titan. They took seriousness of Attack on Titan and transfer it to a comedic artistic style which is very appreciated.
Conclusion
This is one of the rarest and best anime where the voice acting is god-tier and the slice of life is coveted well into the comedy genre. All the characters are great with explosive personality and the animation suits well within the anime. The story is great that mostly focus on the college life with so many comedy that has added in to make it fun to watch.
Sesshomaru
Grand Blue - I was really looking forward to this anime, which deals with diving and introduces this beautiful hobby. As I hadn't read the manga yet, I didn't know what a big disappointment I was in for. Story: A tool, no depth, just an excuse to string together flat comedy elements (3/10). After a decade away, Iori Kitahara returns to a coastal town in Shizuoka Prefecture to study mechanical engineering at university. He wants to live with his uncle, who runs a diving equipment shop and diving school. This would be a good template for a serious story. With the main character overcoming his phobia, therewould even be potential for development. Well, if you are expecting a serious show about these themes and diving in general, you will be disappointed, as I was. The show drowns everything in bad comedy, destroying the few good aspects it might have had.
Characters: Clichéd, couldn't be worse (4/10).
In fact, it's hard to spoil anything by describing the characters, because they are so one-dimensional and stereotypical. And to add insult to injury, you know the characters from countless other anime, only they were portrayed there better.
Kitahara Iori:
The protagonist and newcomer, who cannot swim and is afraid of water. Against his will, he is accepted into the diving club "Peak a Boo" (PAB). The other members of the club try to help him overcome his fear of the sea. This could have been a great opener, but unfortunately it ends up being a pointless comedy of boozy parties and nudity for the most part. A weak MC who remains rather unlikable until the end of the series. However, the daring character development comes too late to mitigate the overall negative impression.
Kotegawa, Chisa:
She is the same age as Iori and has known him since childhood. Chisa is down-to-earth and conscientious, and the hobby suits her very well. A lot of the comedy in the series is done at her expense. She is always portrayed as a party pooper, with a disdainful look on her face when Iori or the others show up for the dive, completely drunk or not sober. And she is absolutely right! Diving is a wonderful but very dangerous hobby that you can only enjoy if you can rely on your dive buddy during the dive! This is indispensable in dangerous situations. Admirable that she told him what she thought. In a real dive and a difficult underwater situation, she would be the most reliable buddy of the whole group.
Nanaka Kotegawa:
She is the older sister of Chisa and a very good diver as well as chief instructor during the dives. She is a pretty woman with a very friendly nature, a real dream woman. It is a pity that she only has eyes for her little sister. This siscon trope is also used for comedy, but so exaggerated that it is rather unpleasant.
Kouhei Imamura:
He acts as a rival character to Iori. Handsome but with unrealistic ideas of a hardcore otaku, he fails to find a girlfriend among his classmates. When he meets Chisa, his obsession with a famous voice actress changes slightly. His fetish is also used several times for comedy, but the only notable scene is when the girls buy diving equipment and try on special diving suits that look like they're from Neon Genesis Evangelion (the white one = Rei Ayanami; the red one = Asuka Langley Soryu).
Ryuujirou Kotobuki & Shinji Tokita
They are students in their final year and, as senior members of the PAB, they are the senpai of the newcomers Iori and Kouhei. As different as Tokita and Kotobuki look, they are two birds of the same feather. They are seldom serious and tempt the newbies to binge drinking. In their defence, what little they teach about diving is at least correct.
Azusa Hamaoka:
She is also a member of the PAB and a senior student, but at a women's university. She is as attractive as she is lascivious, and tends to use her feminine charms in a beguilingly playful way. Unfortunately, she drinks just as much as Shinji and Ryuujirou, and to make matters worse, she is also ruthlessly honest and direct, often throwing her interlocutors off their game. On top of that, she is bisexual and finds both Shinji and Nanaka attractive.
Visuals: Sub-optimal quality standard, inspiring moments not presented well enough (4/10)
The quality standard of the art and animation is below the average that can be expected from a production of the year 2018. It's particularly sad that the key underwater scenes, despite being the best the anime has to offer, don't get a little more effort when it comes to presentation. On the other hand, the comic art style, even though it is presented in such a way in the manga, is so exaggerated and repetitive in the anime that it ends up looking awkward. Overall, the presentation and animation are not enough to convey the emotions of the scenes, as they cannot compensate for the exuberant comedy.
Sounds: BGM generic, OP nice (5/10)
The background music is not spectacular, but at least it shows an effort to do something right, as it is neither distracting nor inappropriate.
The first OP, "Grand Blue" by Shōnan no Kaze, is upbeat and sounds good.
The first ED, "Konpeki no al Fine" by Izu no Kaze, is not my cup of tea. But the singing and animation make it clear what to expect in the next episode. If you find the ED funny, you can safely move on to the next episode.
Exclusively in episode 11, the ED "Konpeki no Al Fine" was sung by Mizuki Nana. The OP "Grand Blue" by Shōnan no Kaze is used again as the last ED.
The dubbing actors can't save the overall picture of the anime, but the following voices stood out to me: Tokita, Shinji, spoken by Yasumoto, Hiroki; Kotegawa, Chisa, spoken by Anzai, Chika, and Hamaoka, Azusa, spoken by Yukinari, Toa. Yukinari-san took on a soft, feminine touch in the voice role, which suited the sassy, sexy Azusa very well.
The sound effects were generally appropriate, and the dialogue direction even had some very clever ideas, but unfortunately they got lost in the nonsense comedy.
I've read a few chapters now and the manga is more bearable, but not really better. Even if you're not interested in the sport itself and love comedy, I can't recommend this show because it's predictable, rough, loud and aggressively stupid. The comedy is a guilty pleasure that ruins even the show's few inspired moments. In the end, it was a waste of time for me, which is why I won't be following the manga either.
Thank you for reading.
Alphyx
They say first impressions are everything, and Grand Blue makes one hell of a first impression. Starting the first episode till the last there is non-stop humour that is able to lift anyone up even from the most depressing moods. It is just too stupidly good! Now onto the real thing, To start off Grand Blue isn't your typical slice of life/comedy Anime. Instead, it is the rare faithfully adapted Piece of Art that stays loyal to the source material of "Grand Blue Dreaming." Now, why would I say that Grand Blue isn't your typical type of anime? Mainly because it focuses solely on Comedy andnothing else, something like the Gintama approach but with only 12 episodes how can the writers hope to make it interesting? That's right, to prove their abilities the writers showcase the effectiveness of Slice of Life when done right. Which is why the main ingredient for any Slice of Life is comedy. People often forget that Anime is another excuse to escape from reality which is why people tend to go for fantasy themes, dark realities or simply fairy-like romances.
The creators of Grand Blue understand this and created this comedic masterpiece which had me laughing almost every minute. The story isn't the main factor of why the narrative was so good but rather the way it was paced and the way it is presented to the audience. It is direct, to the face and simply irresistible. For an anime like this, you wouldn't expect much from the music and its art but you'd be surprised by the quality that this title possesses. Well-fitting music, alongside eye-candies for the audience to both admire and appreciate as they sink into the characters growing on them.
Needless to say, I enjoyed this anime very much, to be honest, I used to think that Konosuba was the best comedy title out there but perhaps Grand Blue could rival that very special spot in my heart as the top comedy anime. I can't wait for Season 2 and have really high hopes that it will continue riding on its success.
This show doesn't shed much depth but if there is anything that I can take away from it would be to live without fear and to take life as is. Do not fear going forward but look forward to the potential excitement when you venture into new boundaries. It is quite an interesting take on not taking things for granted and to do the things you love while you still can.
The pacing is absolutely amazing, every episode the characters progress and make new friends without discarding the original members. They almost all share the same air time. The ones that you care for anyways. The show doesn't feel slow nor fast. It is just right and this is the kind of pacing worthy of a masterpiece.
Needless to say, Grand Blue's Success stems from its comedic routes. Without it the show would be atrociously bad due to the fact that comedy is the sole driving force that pushes everything else forward. But, we should not discount that the characters in the show is absolutely likeable. Not a single one of them feels annoying or an eyesore. They're all lovable and grows on you as you continue episode by episode. A definite good introduction anime for people starting and a gem for people who love anime.
Grand Blue is worthy of getting a 10. A True Masterpiece.
yadnusbrekker
Is the peak of comedy in praise of a masculinity that is years behind the times? Ignoring the tendentiousness of my introductory question, I had some expectations with this series, seeing that it is no less than number ELEVEN in the manga charts here (to give you an idea, it is above series like Kingdom, Punpun, Houseki No Kuni, 20th Century Boys and Nana) and also that a couple of acquaintances had recommended it to me. So I said, well, I'm not in the mood for dense and dramatic stuff, and it's 12 chapters long, so if I like it, I'll pick up the manga. Whynot give it a chance?
You can see that the people I know aren't immune to adoring things that outside the weeb spectrum wouldn't get half as much praise as they do. And mind you, not every seinen has to be a drama about the human existence and suffering, we need stuff that's easy to digest in the art we consume. The point is that my relationship with this series expresses something very obvious: comedy is subjective, and making it is very difficult.
Although I don't think it's fair to detract from that aspect of the series, because in some moments it's the only thing that saves it from being nothingness itself. It generated this strange thing that only Japanese comedy can generate in me: at times there were well-executed jokes that made me laugh out loud and at other times the degrading sex jokes employed made me think that it's not that hard to realize why Japan has had a declining birth rate for years.
I guess if I can sum up the comedy of this show in two words, it would be: bro humor. I don't know if that term exists but I'm going to coin it. In and of itself the fact that they go for hyper masculine rhetoric behind several of the gags presented in this series is not a problem (shit, JoJo knew how to do it very well). But the fact that a large percentage of the ridiculous and excessive debacle that this series handles is entirely between groups of men, excluding a lot of the female characters from the comedy, doesn't do it for me. And if that wasn't enough, let's sexualize the girls without their consent, because that's hilarious without a doubt! It also doesn't help the constant screaming that is this series, and although that's not something that usually bothers me in anime, here there is an excess of testosterone being expelled so intensely that I'm sure my estrogens formed new antibodies to the point that my ovaries were about to pop out of my body, pierce the screen and hit some of the male protagonists.
This gives me the perfect excuse to talk about the characters, because with the null plot that this has, I don't even think it's worth to talk about it. They're not the worst characters I've ever seen, but they lack... something, I don't know, I feel that none of them have a strong enough personality to impose themselves in a strong way in front of the whole sequence of intense situations that happen to them. Neither of them have much depth and in general their way of being is reduced to a specific gag, and if there is conflict, it only matters on a micro level in a certain situation. There are a couple of funny interactions (Azusa believing that Iori is bi for example, or the two muscular boys which in general I found to be nice enough, although except for the hair color they are the same character twice) but not much more than that. The reduction of characters to a specific gag gets particularly awful with Nanaka (because this isn't going to be the peak of Japanese comedy without gratuitous incest!), Iori and Kohei's classmates (I suffered through their segments a lot) and especially between Chisa and Iori's interactions.
Chisa especially is a character that frustrates me, because she's another eminence of female characters being victims of reductionist male writing. Usually she would be the character that stupid girls like me would have to identify with, and I suppose if it were another type of series she would work for me. But the only thing I can conclude about her is that there's no reason for her to surround herself with those people, being that she's constantly exasperated, and that she's was concieved as a character to have a shy girl that even though she CLEARLY doesn't want to be in compromising situations, the story puts her in them anyway because it's hilarious to see girls in sexual scenes, especially if they don't want to do it! Not to mention the fact that she and Iori are cousins and for half of this season there are jokes about them being a couple, sorry people but nothing in the way they interact says “cousins” (how are you going to make comments about your cousin's ass?) even if this is an attempt to appeal to that fetish, they are failing miserably in the process. Something that even struck me about Chisa, is that more than once they use other characters to tell us how she feels. Weird af if you ask me. At least Asuza is cool and Aina has a bit more range in terms of her personality and for some reason the fact that they called her “Hekabo” always made me laugh, I don't know if it's because I imagined her with that bizarre makeup or what the hell.
Considering what I just said, this series made me conclude something interesting about comedy anime set in our world. Even though it takes place in a realistic setting, with characters that you could run into in real life, doing things that the average Japanese person would do, the situations portrayed at times are so absurd that they border on the far-fetched. And as much as you can tell me “it's a comedy, you can not take it so seriously” yes, that's true, but there are limits to how far I can let humor go to modify the ways of human interaction in such an extreme way. Especially if I feel that the characters don't do enough to make the lack of realism employed at least enjoyable to watch (I mean, GOD, WHAT PERSON WITH A MINIMUM OF RESPECT FOR THEMSELVES LETS HIS FRIENDS INTERRUPT A SEXUAL ENCOUNTER AND STILL BE FRIENDS WITH THOSE PEOPLE? not to mention that they claim not to have a partner and then live crying, anyway, I insist, then they wonder why their birth rates are declining).
You can see that the escapist and ludic theme reigns supreme in this anime, even if there's a lot of humiliation and extreme interactions involved, since at the end of the day it's an “ode to youth” and living a dream. In any case what I see here is a fourth-rate wet dream that would probably come from the mind of someone whose only contact with the world and with art is comedy anime, because (although maybe I'm giving people too much credit) I find it hard to think that someone who is not used to anime could conceive of this as “peak comedy”. Maybe I didn't turn my brain off enough and I overestimate too much what I consume, but clearly my brain isn't going to turn off if I watch humor that degrades women!
Maybe I'm asking too much of anime, who knows. Maybe a little more diving would have made this more digestible for me, at least I expected that when it started. Maybe less sexualization would make me a little nicer to what I see, but then again maybe my western brain likes to talk and complain about the things weebs like. If the manga is anything like this, I don't think I'll read it, and its position on the charts will continue to baffle me, though if I decide to leave my dignity behind for a while maybe I'll watch season 2.
Anyway, I think I got a crueler review than I thought, despite my complaints it's not the most offensive or degrading comedy I've seen and if you're better at turning off your brain than I am, there's a chance you'll enjoy it. The animation delivers and despite everything, it's funny at times even for pretentious sourpusses like me. But I think I'm better off watching Nozaki-kun, at least there the gender roles are not so strongly delimited.
