Grand Blue is a 1 cour 12 episode slice-of-life comedy show based on college life and diving. We start off with our main protagonist Iori Kitahara moving to his uncle’s house for college. The series starts off with Iori walking into his uncle’s shop and seeing some very questionable men. He immediately runs away because he doesn’t want any type of relationship with those people. But he is convinced by those same people to stay here or more so he is forced by those people. We later to get to know these questionable men as Shinji Tokita and Ryujirou Kotobuki. As the first episode finishes, we get to know our main cast: Chisa Kotegawa, Iori’s cousin and a tsundere, Kouhei Imamura, an otaku, and our second male protagonist. We also get to know side characters like Nanaka, Chisa’s elder sister, and Azusa, a college student who thinks being naked in front of other people is a normal thing. The show is based around these characters alongside some of Iori’s “friends” in college. ( you will understand why I use quotation marks when you watch the show.) Grand Blue mainly focuses on slapstick comedy and dirty jokes and college humor.
While Grand Blue’s main audience is people who are in or have graduated from college, the show can be enjoyed by anyone who is okay with mature jokes and can understand the dirty jokes in the show. So, you shouldn’t watch this show thinking it will be a really lighthearted and wholesome show. The series’ another aspect is that the slapstick comedy is mainly executed through the absurd and hilarious reactions of the characters in those situations.

Even though the show is based around scuba diving, it’s never the main focus of the show. It’s just an element to make you feel like the story is progressing while it focuses on the slapstick comedy. This is actually a really good aspect of the show as it never feels boring and a lot of series that try to do this type of thing always come off as really boring or the audience never really cares about this aspect of the show. Take a show like Prison School for example. That show is another really hilarious anime but it also focuses on the main plot and setting of the show. And to be honest, I didn’t like that aspect of Prison School because sometimes the characters were really detestable and most of the time I wasn’t really invested. That is one of the main good points of Grand Blue. It always sticks to what the audience likes about the show and can also manage to never be too repetitive or boring. Another bonus point of Grand Blue is that if you are like me and can only get invested if there are really good ships, then Grand Blue's got you covered. I won't say anything here because that would give you major spoilers.
One of the negative aspects of Grand Blue is that it takes time to be invested in some of the characters. I have loved this show from episode one, but as a person who doesn’t like tsundere, it took me a while to like Chisa, who is a tsundere. While I do get why she acts the way she does, being around all of these weird and questionable people, I sometimes thought she was a bit too rude at times.

But by the end of the series, she definitely had a lot of character development. This can also be said about the jokes they introduce later on in the series. I am of course talking about the side characters and Iori’s classmates. Sometimes it felt like the show is giving them too much priority. But, I came to like all the characters by the end. So, I would say if you give a lot of emphasis on the characters and that is what you think is the deciding factor of the show, then you might have to wait a bit before you get properly invested in the show. Or, if you cannot stand tsunderes, then you probably won’t like this show that much. Another thing I personally did not like about the show, is that even though there are some beautiful women in this show, I could not find any doujins of it. I think I found 4 doujins on nhentai and none of them met my expectations. So, if you can find some good doujins of Grand Blue, send me the links on my Twitter. (Links in my bio). I think Grand Blue is one of the best slapstick comedy series in recent times and I think it is a must-watch if you like anime based on college or slapstick comedy. The manga is also really good although I prefer the anime because I really love the voice acting and dialogue in this show. I hope you liked my review and thank you for reading till the end.