Grand Blue Dreaming Volumes 1-23 Manga Review

Grand Blue Dreaming has all the emotional depth and resonance of that friend of a friend who, well into your 30s, always says things like “Dude! Remember that time you got blasted and puked on the shoes of the girl you liked? That was awesome!” Iori, an average young man, is embarking upon a new life at a technical college. While living at his uncle's diving shop, the diving club that meets there drags him into their orbit, with a combination of very cool activity and drinking so much he can't resist. Immediately, a reader is made aware that there will be no deep storyline here. It's challenging to review a series like this. Both diving and emotional development will get swept away in the tide of “comedy.”

Despite the comedic elements, there is some emotional development. By the end of 23 volumes, the main characters have matured somewhat and, despite the alcoholic blur, important conversations have actually occurred. But that is very much an aside. The point of the story is the drunkenness, nudity, cheerful insults, and threats of death between good friends.

Iori is presented as the average “below average” protagonist of many manga. He's a “good guy,” and, when he's not drunk, he is pretty average, whether that means he's learning to cook for the people he cares about or he's being a cringe-inducing horndog, obsessing about porn, but unable to have a normal conversation with the women around him, which is why it's pretty exhausting when all those women – from his equally horny buxom bisexual sempai, to every girl in the club and a few hangers-on, all are in love with him. Sure, the other guy is a creepy otaku who has no interest in 3D women, but come on.

There are some positives here. While the men are all horny virgins who are incoherent near women, the club itself is not sexist, per se. The women in the club are just as stupid and annoying as the men, and sex is on everyone's mind—which is probably the most age-accurate thing about the series. Women and men travel together, insult each other on equal terms, and generally are just awful at each other equally in a friendly fashion. There is very little genuine mean-spiritedness, just a broad, friendly kind of mean-spiritedness that is more likely to have the men attempting to crush one of the guys' balls in a science experiment than to make one of the women cry.

The love and care with which diving is represented is a double-edged sword. We are shown beautiful places to dive and share fantastic experiences with the diving club, including going to Okinawa and Palau and swimming with sharks. Moments of teamwork, leadership, and friendship are all really nice, but just not substantive. We feel Iori's pain when he can't dive because he failed the test. Then we remember it was because his seniors forced him to binge drink until he passed out, and it's just…depressing. Still, when he finally gets to go diving with them, we are happy for him. Cautiously, though, as our joy is probably going to be drowned in a celebratory drunk. I'm not sure if I ran a diving club, but I'd appreciate it if it looked quite this sophomoric. What do I know, maybe it is like that.

The art here is not quite gag comic, and only occasionally dramatic romance manga. Intentionally ugly, overdrawn expressions often accompany jokes. It's an effect that gets tired over time. But that is very likely because I did not read this chapter by chapter in a magazine, but binged 23 volumes in three days. I do not recommend this method. I have never been so glad that a manga was available in a digital format in my entire life. I was able to page through scene after scene of hilarious binge drinking, ludicrous games, comedic nudity, dangerous alcohol combinations, and other utter stupidity, without having to—or being able to—find any place to emotionally connect with any single moment of the 23 volumes of this series, until the final pages. As always, I find myself imagining the reading audience for this story of a diving club, and its fraternity-like atmosphere. I imagine a salaryman in his early 30s, still relatively able to remember his college years with fondness…and a little disappointed in himself that he didn't do more stupid shit like getting blind drunk and waking up naked in a stranger's room. Ah, well, he might say, I had some fun, at least, then go back wistfully reading about the PAB Diving Club drinking grain alcohol as “water.” If you feel that I have oversold the drinking and nudity jokes, please be assured I haven't mentioned them nearly as often as the manga itself does.

Any specific moment of emotional depth is very likely to be ruined by a drunken nudity gag or an insult, making the end of Volume 23 a shock for its quiet kindness. I'll just have to assume Volume 24 begins with vomiting or something.