As a big visual novel fan, I’ve had The Fruit of Grisaia on my radar for a while now. In the summer of last year I ended up buying the series collection for Switch and over the past year or so, I’ve been playing it on and off. Recently I finally finished it and I ended up really enjoying it (despite its slow start). Once I finished it, I decided to check out this anime adaptation to see what it has to offer compared to the original and what I found was in many ways not what I was expecting. Now that may sound somewhat negative, and while there were certainly points to this adaptation that I didn't like, there were quite a few that I found very interesting and it led to me having an overall positive opinion. While I dont think this adaptation holds up to the original visual novel in some ways, The Fruit of Grisaia anime still has quite a lot to offer to those who are not only already fans of the series, but also to fans of harem romance anime in general.
The Fruit of Grisaia visual novel as it is is a very long visual novel, with the average player completing the game in about 75 hours. Because of this and the fact that this anime is only 13 episodes, I was very skeptical about how well this adaptation would be able to fully flesh-out all of these characters' routes as all 5 are quite intricate in detail.
Overall, I think this anime does a “pretty decent” job of preserving the stories of all its protagonists. In terms of visual novel content, the first 30 hours of the game is mostly a slice of life and comedy that allows you to thoroughly get used to the character cast. Personally, I thought that this portion of the game stretched out too long. This adaptation on the other hand, unsurprisingly due to its length, jumps right into the actual character route content almost straight away. Despite them choosing to go right into character route content, The Fruit of Grisaia anime does a surprisingly good job of preserving this slice of life and comedy vibe despite the actual character routes tending to be far more serious. This made me really happy to see as I’ve found that this careful mix of serious and comedic content is a somewhat rare combination to get right and it's one of the main aspects of The Fruit of Grisaia visual novel that made it really stand out to me.
Moving onto the actual serious stuff in the character routes, the visual novel presents the player in the second half of the game with the ability to focus in on each of the girls, devoting themselves to their stories, across 5 routes. Because these routes focus very heavily on each girl, particularly into the romance aspects, this anime adaptation takes a far more neutral path, straying away from the heavy romance aspects and focusing in more of the girls' backstories and working through their struggles. In adapting all 5 routes into this anime, they make changes to each route, ranging from mostly insignificant changes to almost complete rewrites. With the drastic changes to some of these routes, while watching, there were numerous moments where it became very obvious to me where they were adding in new portions, some of which felt very off-putting and even out of character for the characters involved. It was a little disappointing to see as in a few cases, it almost completely removes the aftereffects of these character’s stories and drastically changes the circumstances around the closure these characters experience once their struggles are over.
With that being said though, not all routes were like that. In particular, the first and last routes, while making some small changes to their stories, I thought did a very good job in preserving the finer details in the story. It also happens that these two arcs were the two that were by far my favorite arcs from the visual novel which made me very happy. There were many moments in these routes that really stood out to me in the visual novel and it was really cool to be able to see them play out as they did in this anime. Additionally, because of the structure of this anime, the necessary changes made to these routes tended to be very rational and fair in comparison to some of the more heavily modified routes.
Looking at it in its entirety, overall, The Fruit of Grisaia does a pretty good job of preserving the core story of the visual novel. While there are moments in some routes that take away from the actual meaning behind their struggles, there are many times where this anime succeeds in constructing a very satisfying recreation of the visual novel's routes with the benefits that come from a more neutral anime adaptation.
There are really only 6 characters in this show that play any significant role. While each had moments that proved to be plenty enjoyable, some are definitely more lackluster, especially in this comparably time-crunched anime adaptation. As it is, I think The Fruit of Grisaia at its core is very much so a drama that thrives off its characters, and because of this adaptation’s episode count, its clear to see where some of the characters really benefited from getting to know them over a long period of time in a more mundane slice of life setting that's characteristic of the visual novel. It led to numerous moments where hints of their pasts would become apparent to the player in a very subtle and natural way as you watch their daily lives unfolding at the school. In this anime though, due to time constraints, these usually carefully integrated moments became a lot more pronounced and focused. You would see these moments and think “Oh ok, this girl is going to be the main focus now and here's a very obvious tell at what they’re struggling with.”
While it's kinda a shame that this is how it is in this adaptation, with a 13 episode run, there was really only so much they could do. On that aspect though, I can tell that although it was a compromise, they tried to use this compromise to their advantage, making these specific character moments much more to the point while focusing in on and preserving the big moments that lead the viewer into these routes. Alright, enough yapping, here's a bit of background for each of the main characters.
Kazami Yuji - Our protagonist. Yuji in general is the cool, collected, realist type like many popular protagonists. Despite that, he is able to remain quite unique as he strays away from being pervy or edgy like a lot of other protagonists in many harem series. While there arnt any episodes that explicitly focus in on him, you get to see a lot of very intriguing moments that hint at his mysterious backstory throughout the story.
Sakaki Yumiko - A second year at the academy and the first to be enrolled at the school which is owned by her father. Very standoffish and confrontational but proves to be very reliable and level headed once you get to know her. Besides just looking like her, she reminded me quite a bit of Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari, so if you like her, you’ll like Yumiko.
Suou Amane - A third year who is the “big sister” of the group. Very kind and sometimes a bit overly caring, she frequently looks after the others in the dorm. She also tends to be the pervy character of the group.
Matsushima Michiru - A second year student who is very silly and highly energetic. She has a very intense interest in tsunderes and tries her best to act like one. Despite this, she tends to be very understanding of others, letting this softer side of hers shine though her tsundere facade from time to time.
Irisu Makina - A first year who is typically very carefree and toggles her innocence on and off at a whim, leading to quite a few funny moments. Despite how childish she acts, she is actually very smart and is capable of a lot more than she appears to be.
Komine Sachi - A first year student who acts as the class president and is the self proclaimed maid of Mihama Academy. She is very polite and kind but takes everything said to her very seriously. Her strong sense of responsibility makes it so she completes any task asked of her no matter how unreasonable and infeasible.
Now, I feel like a lot of these characters seem pretty generic but there is definitely a certain degree of appreciation I hold for these characters and how they’re written. While some are certainly oddballs amongst the rest, the remaining seem relatively normal (by anime standards) and this allows the story to create moments, the focused moments I mentioned earlier, where the way certain characters act and smaller aspects of their behavior are tied to direct moments from their past that cause them to be the way they are. It honestly sounds pretty basic putting it that way, but there were quite a few moments that lead to extremely interesting reveals where characters' behaviors suddenly all make sense regardless of how bizarre they had been up to that point. The ability to do this is pretty basic story writing stuff but amongst all the visual novels I've played, The Fruit of Grisaia is one of the best in being able to illuminate these “trigger” moments that form these characters. By extension, this anime adaptation also is able to pull this off with very similar levels of effect for multiple of its characters. Unfortunately, the differing levels of quality with certain character routes as I mentioned in the story portion also kind of effect this for some characters, removing some of these moments in favor of building up some characters in the now, but for the most part, The Fruit of Grisaia anime is able to pull it off quite well.
The first big thing that really wowed me when I watched this anime was the production. The first big thing that immediately sticks out is that the entire show is in 16:9 aspect ratio (i think) which gives the entire show a very strong cinematic vibe. This adaptation was done by studio 8-bit and they do a lot of good work especially with crisp and flashy animation, a style that really works to this series's strengths.
In terms of music, like a lot of visual novel adaptations, this anime borrows a large portion of its original sound track from the visual novel. Overall, I really like the OST. There are quite a few very memorable tracks that are used in moments that really fit the vibe and what more can you ask for besides that? The OP for this anime is pretty good, sounding very derivative of the visual novel’s opening theme. The ED’s for the anime are pretty great too. The basic ending has a very attractive style of transitioning between shots which was pretty cool. Additionally, they even gave some of the characters their own specialized ending themes during their routes which was a pretty cool touch. I especially liked the ending theme used for the last arc.
The last topic I'd like to touch on, one I've already alluded to multiple times, is the pacing. This anime is only 13 episodes, which I feel for a visual novels, especially one of this length, is definitely on the short side. With that being said, unlike a lot of visual novels I really like, this particular one is not that information dense especially in its first half. With that, they definitely had quite a bit of room where they could cut scenes without losing much. I hope that is blasphemy to say Grisaia fans, sorry… Anyways, they definitely take advantage of that and they really work it so that all the main important parts of each character's stories are exemplified in full, some better than others, but I digress. I think a 24 episode run would have been a lot more appropriate so every character would have had their stories fully illustrated without modification, but for only 13 episodes, this adaptation does a much better job of getting it right than a lot of other big name visual novel adaptations of this length, so that's very good to see.
TL;DR - The Fruit of Grisaia had quite a lot it needed to get right to fully exemplify the strengths of what made the visual novel as good as it was, and while it struggles at some moments, they do quite a good job of doing so most of the time. In most of its routes, the story moves at a very comfortable pace, highlighting all the big important moments that gave the visual novel its “wow factor” and removing some moments that were inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. As a whole, The Fruit of Grisaia is a series that is built around its characters, and they do a pretty job of making them just as enjoyable as they were in the visual novel. While there are a few routes that were altered in a somewhat negative way to make the show more neutral for all the girls, most routes proved to be very powerful and just as heavy-hitting as I was hoping they would. Overall, the Fruit of Grisaia is a perfectly competent adaptation that fans of the series will be very into and it's a show that will prove to be a very compelling, unique watch to fans of harem romance shows in general.