Every season of anime always has that one show. You know the one. From the start it receives constant praise and love by the masses, unrelenting in their desire to make their short-lived adoration known to any that will hear. For weeks it leads the figurative hype-train that has every seasonal watcher on board in anticipation to see where it will end up. Its the show you stay up late at night each week just to catch the latest episode on Kis-Crunchyroll.com. While every other show with potential may and probably will squander around the half-way point, this show – THIS SHOW – is the only one to matter, for it holds the embodiment of why weeaboos traded their social life to solely watch Japanese cartoons.

Newsflash: This ain’t it.

To be honest, this season as a whole has been remarkably unremarkable given the obvious trends that take place in the anime community. Although it may not be so surprising given that the season prior was coined by many as ‘The Greatest Season of Anime’, even the most popular shows airing currently have made little more than a murmur throughout their runtime. Attack on Titan, Overlord, the “final” season of Gintama, all well-known series that have all fallen silent amongst the public. But when it comes to new series airing, Grand Blue had to have been a main attraction; based on one of the most popular manga serialized today that features Shinji Takamatsu as director – the same director for successful comedies School Rumble and Daily Lives of High School Boys. Yet… something’s seriously off about this show, and since it seems to have slapped the tactfulness out of me, I’m just gonna go ahead and say it: This show fucking blows.

I was planning to say something along the lines of “Let’s dive into this”, but whilst being the most cliché cringe-inducing pun I could have possibly made, there’s not very much at all to “dive” into here. Grand Blue follows 20-year-old Iori Kitahara who has moved to his uncle’s seaside town for college, where he is almost immediately roped into joining a male-dominated diving club. But if you thought this show was about diving, it’s a trap! Instead the club activities more or less revolve around drinking, stripping and getting hammered. Essentially, it is a comedy anime focused on the college life so a basic plot such as this is harmless so long as the comedy hits its mark. However, that simply is not the case. Instead Grand Blue comes off as an American frat house flick turned into a gag anime, except with nearly all the effort sucked out.

Now I understand that comedy in general is heavily subjective so what personally may not land well with me could very well come off as a massive hit to someone else. Nevertheless, I have so many issues with how the show handles humour. One of the first instances of this come from the running joke where every other character tries tricking Iori into getting drunk. Conceptually, this does not strike me as humorous, but the ridiculous ways this is tried alongside dysmorphic character faces utilized certainly add to the punchline and made me laugh the first few times. But a cardinal problem with Grand Blue is that a joke which becomes par runs the risk of growing dull, and while using different scenarios can keep things fresh, Grand Blue instead drives them into the ground as fast as possible. Sure, the joke earned a few chuckles the first couple times, but then they use it once more, and again, and again… and again. Numerous times the overabundance of these quips was akin to beating a dead horse, and if at that point it does not feel overdone then I just do not know what to say. Clearly Grand Blue is a comedy show that lends itself to multiple running gags throughout the 12 episodes, but the way they are used is what inevitably ceases the series to deliver the same results on viewers like myself.

Another issue with the comedy presented here more often than not is the timing. Timing is obviously a key factor for basically any form of comedy, especially with the kind of jokes Grand Blue exploits that rely heavily on the punchline. Yet here poor timing is so apparent that it comes off almost amateurish by the staff. Maybe this is a limitation when adapting the source material. I have not read the manga, but due to anime being… animated, it limits the way one can interpret a scene compared to a series of still pictures; the anime ends up much more restricting on the imagination. The punchlines themselves are also somewhat confusing at first if you had high expectations of Grand Blue without having read the manga. The series seems to treat comedy at a fairly lowbrow level where majority of the time punchlines were aimed between the more innocent characters being coerced or embarrassed by other club members. Sure, lowbrow humour can be funny and even I find it hilarious sometimes, but considering this is also a light-hearted comedy, makes Grand Blue’s task of making someone like myself laugh incredulously difficult. What also works in their disfavour are the more heartfelt moments mainly centred around Iori gaining appreciation for diving as a whole. These moments COULD have been useful as far as getting better invested in his character, except there is one serious problem: he has no character. You should not expect much in the way of development or characterization presented as there are only a handful of character worth remembering just to remember the plot meanwhile everyone else, despite their own “plot” are flat as a pancake. Again, due to Grand Blue being primarily comedy, there is barely any expectations as far as the narrative or characters go, yet the show continues to spread itself thin that I, as a viewer, am left with barely anything to truly grasp onto. Maybe I'm just an old fa[n] :(

Perhaps the key problem I have with Grand Blue is not with the comedy or even the characters, but the subject matter. There has been an increasing amount of anime set in higher education as of late, each with their own take on a core aspect of college life. But before Grand Blue I had never been exposed to one that focuses primarily on the parts where the main characters get blasted off one’s face, and after watching this, it really does makes sense why. As a student myself I can tell you with assurance that there is not much fun getting shit-faced and even then, it does not last long. To those reading this that have experienced a hangover probably understand this most and, perhaps more importantly, the after-effects. Headaches, drowsiness, poor concentration and nausea are just a mere few of the symptoms that coincidentally are also felt when watching these moments every week. One of the most common appraisals about Grand Blue is how relatable the show is. I’m sorry but the main aspects that are relatable to real life here are not things that I would be celebrating as much and like those who have had poor hangovers, is something I would rather forget about. Although when it comes to alcohol in Grand Blue, there is nothing more depressing than seeing each episode open with a disclaimer about legal alcohol usage. Now, they were probably necessary to even have the series airing in the first place but way to present the exact opposite of comedy at the beginning of each episode. Of course nothing is mentioned about the nudity seemingly ever-present here; I see Japan has their priorities straight here.

Speaking of; yes, I am a straight cis-male with no interest in the male nudity displayed in Grand Blue, but holy hell do they have the least creative way of censoring dicks. As aforementioned I have not read the manga, so I do not know how scenes were drawn but it is such a lazy way of going about it, though it does match the effort that arguably went to the overall visuals of Grand Blue. It looks absolutely lacklustre. Below average animation for practically every scene. Poor designs, even for the male supporting cast (no homo). This is not a series to watch for its technical appeal, because there practically is none. However, I find this fact to somehow work in its favour as far as the entertainment goes. Seeing comedic scenes with laughable animation effects certainly has a charm to it; perhaps a “so bad it’s good” quality, but not enough to warrant slogging through it all. Even fanservice for the male demographic was at a minimum. As far as the sound, both the soundtrack and voice acting are very forgettable. The opening and endings, whilst memorable, I personally found cringeworthy. Never will I not skip either if they ever happen to come up on a playlist. Just listen to these lyrics:

_♫♫ Be passionate my friend
Shine bright with the sun
Dive into the blue sky
And let summer take it all ♫♫_

And that is all there is to say about Grand Blue. It’s clear that not many people will agree with my statements as it appears to be a strong fan-favourite of whatever is left of the community still interested in seasonal anime. If you like it then I’m glad you enjoyed it, but there’s probably better comedies this season. Watch them; I thought this sucked. Grand Blue was the equivalent of a grand disaster in my eyes and stands a reminder that “in every age, in every place, the taste of weeaboos remain the same.” I guess I’m just not a fan of watching something akin to what the Fairy Tail guild would be like when knocked off their rocker. Anyways thank you to everyone who read my review. Be sure to leave a like if you liked-hell even if you disliked I’ll still take a like! Send a message for what I should review next. 99% unlikely to actually do it but who knows. Au revoir.