Yeah a short After for all routes but the main route in Meikyuu is Yuuji’s “past” which is quite interesting.
I don’t think there’s any reason to go in any particular order when it comes to Grisaia routes tbh. Just do whatever you feel like at the moment.
My pet theory at the moment to rationalise all this is that ( spoilered in case it happens to be correct though I’m just throwing this out silly idea out there!)
Yuuji is a serial fantasist with Histrionic Personality Disorder, and these stories are naught but imaginary products of his delusions of grandeur ) 
I mean the best answer to this girl’s problems is to BLOW SHIT UP!
OK, I finished all the routes now with the good and bad endings. Took about 100 - 110 hours to complete (Steam says 126 hours but it was running a lot while I was otherwise engaged). Considering I got this half price that’s decent value for money and, overall, I’m glad I played the VN.
I have little experience of VNs but I would put this in quality and enjoyment some way below Clannad and the Steins;Gate games, not too sure how it has such a high rating on VNDB but clearly it found its market I guess. I would rate it about the same as Everlasting Summer/Бесконечное лето in fact. It’s the first VN I have played without a single “True Ending” so it kind of feels a bit odd to be left to pick out whichever I like best, especially as none of them truly stood out and grabbed me by the fruits.
Art sometimes very good but sometimes weird, music not very memorable although I like “Want to Smile” and the oddly named “Scab”, none of the ending themes did anything for me…
So, on the last two routes I went through:
Makina - well I really like Makina as the comic relief, the daft speech patterns plus the inappropriate lewdness and crudeness from an apparently ADHD pre-teen (despite being 15) did have me laughing out loud quite often. The route was so-so and the endings fairly mediocre. I wasn’t really upset or disturbed by it, just left me a bit indifferent.
Amane - Yes well the less said about the first half of the route the better, what I imagine to be “pure” eroge. Angelic Howl didn’t inspire me much either probably as I cared little about the characters - unlike others I found Kazuki just annoying. Again I thought the endings were rather bland.
I don’t feel it’s worth my while to try and rate “Best Girl” or best route/ending since they were much of a muchness and honestly I’ve already forgotten the first ones I completed!
So, not a VN I would replay but if I can get Labyrinth and Eden (when it comes out) on a sale I would probably get them and keep for a time when I’m lacking anything else.
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Not even Sachi’s? That song is phenomenal.
I can’t believe there’s someone who I agree with almost 100% on their opinion on Amane’s route. All except the endings being bland. I think the Bad End is great (definitely due to me hating Amane), and think her good end is absolute shit.
Just say Sachi. We all know she’s best girl anyway.
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http://i.imgur.com/fUgxZ8V.png
Well I agree Sachi’s theme is the best, and Sachi is most likely my favourite.
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Since “Eden” is still slated for an April release on Steam, I bought “Labyrinth” in the last sale and have just finished it - I see what is meant by the cliffhanger ending!
Most of “Labyrinth”, about 60% or so of the game time being the girls’ scenarios and short stories I just felt was filler and not all that interesting. Of course if you really like the girls and the setting of Grisaia then it will be still enjoyable. I played through the main story last so it feels to me like the main story being a completely neutral route kind of renders the rest of it a bit redundant, unlike Clannad where the alternative endings actually are intrinsically part of the main characters’ development and needed to complete the story.
Best part of the main story for me was actually the shortish section where Yuuji is on his road trip in Hokkaido…
I am interested though to see where the story goes in “Eden” and how it concludes.
I’ve only watched the anime to its completion. (The first season only)
I’ve watched a tiny bit of the visual novel as well, but not enough to have a valid opinion on it.
The anime of Grisaia is a guilty pleasure of mine, although I like tearing into its flaws quite a bit.
Character arcs can be a problem in some cases, but Grisaia’s way of handling them just makes everything worse due to it only being 13 episodes.
Similar anime, like Kanon, that also focuses on character arcs, had way more time to flesh out its characters do to its 24 episodes. Obviously, Grisaia didn’t really have that much of an opportunity.
Because of its short length, character arcs were almost always very short, only one character having 3 episodes, while the rest got 2 or even 1. The two character arcs that were shoved into 1 episode felt rushed beyond belief, and I haven’t even played the visual novel, so I can’t even believe how rushed it must feel to the people who have.
But even with the arcs that were 2 episodes long, they still suffered a lot, and could’ve needed more time.
The only arc that actually succeeded in not being a rushed mess was the 3 episode arc, which was Amane’s.
I can imagine the characters being well executed and more lovable in the VN, but in the anime they certainly were not. Or… At least not well executed, a few of them were still likable to me, especially Michiru.
Sachi, Yumiko, and Makina suffer greatly. Sachi’s and Yumiko’s suffer from the 1 episode treatment, while Makina’s is just… Odd, and even kind of concerning. I found her arc to be incredibly boring, along with her character. Easily the weakest character in my opinion.
Michiru’s arc actually started out okay at first, but the last half of her arc just completely ruined it. The ending just completely defies logic, and it honestly made Yuuji unlikable as a character for me until later on.
Basically, to teach Michiru that she should continue to live on… Yuuji decides that it’s a perfect idea to BURY HER ALIVE.
She was in there for THREE DAYS. She should have died from lack of oxygen, and if not that, than dehydration, as well as other things that I won’t go into details about because it’s not pleasant.
And she not only survived for three days, but she was able to get out of the box she was buried in, which doesn’t make sense at all considering that there was a lot of dirt on top of her that should have prevented her from opening it.
And guess who was waiting for her when she somehow managed to escape? Yuuji.
He explained her plan to her, saying that he knew she didn’t truly want to die, and wanted to test her. He even admitted that he didn’t have a plan B if she didn’t actually come out of the box though, meaning that he was planning on just leaving her in there to die after those three days. (Which she would have, if this anime were more realistic)
But seriously though, you would think after THREE DAYS, Yuuji would be concerned enough to just drag her out himself, as by then, she would have been very close to death, if not already dead.
And the most baffling part is that Michiru was perfectly okay about being BURIED ALIVE right after she got out. In fact, she was instead GRATEFUL to him, and still has feelings for him anyway.
I am aware that this did help her develop and change her mind about life, but I’d still be upset about being forced into a life-or-death situation if I was her.
There are other ways to convince her that she should continue living instead of BURYING HER ALIVE, but I guess I should just get over this.
Like previously stated, only Amane’s arc wasn’t completely rushed, and was really the only decent arc except for the first half of Michiru’s. Amane’s arc pretty much saved the anime from being COMPLETE garbage, and proved that the anime could do a FEW things right, but then just mess up everything else. If only the rest of the arcs were treated in a similar fashion.
I must say that, despite the fact that the whole anime deals with disturbing topics, Amane’s was easily the most disturbing and horrifying out of all of them, and it honestly took me a bit to recover after I watched it, as I was asking myself: “What just happened?”
It pretty much covers almost any controversial topic you can think of. In fact, the whole anime does. Of course, I don’t mind dark content in anime. In fact, it’s a bonus for me, haha.
Another problem that some people may face is the constant panty shots at the beginning of the series.
I usually don’t mind panty shots or any other kind of fanservice as long as it doesn’t occur during serious scenes and ruin the mood, but, unfortunately, this anime does just that.
Several panty shots will occur during very tense situations, kind of breaking the immersion that I had before.
However, the good thing is that the anime slows down on the panty shots the further the anime goes on, showing them less and less, but it’s still a problem that it faces at the beginning of the series.
Before I watched the anime I noticed that many people disliked its rushed pace, and I can totally understand where they’re coming from.
The anime is not ALL bad, as there are some redeeming qualities, it’s just that the flaws outnumber them.
But despite the many flaws it had, I still found myself being entertained by the series in one way or another, especially during the first few episodes before the arcs officially started, and during Amane’s arc.
Long reply, haha.
Yuuji’s fix for Michiru (via the VN) confused the hell out of me too TBH, so much so I wondered if it we were seeing Michiru being hynotized or drugged because it made so little logical sense for the reasons you state. Much of Grisaia does require a massive suspension of disbelief though…
If there’s one thing the anime did right, it would be grasping the true nature of Grisaia. While other VNs are usually a big story with a bit of porn on the side, Grisaia is porn with a lot of story on the side. Therefore, fanservice was prioritized over the story.
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Grisaia no Rakuen / “Eden of Grisaia” now available on Steam.
Wow, ok. So I had recently finished Kajitsu and planned to post my thoughts about it here, then promptly forgot about it until I saw this topic again. Without further ado: my thoughts from my vague recollections of a VN that at this point I had finished a few months ago.
Grisaia is more or less the VN manifestation of trying too hard. Completely absurd situations are presented and played straight not for the purpose of comedy, but are instead actually meant to be taken seriously. The entirety of Sachi’s route is bordering dangerously close on some of the most ridiculous material I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading, and it did not especially help that the first quarter or half of the route was marginally decent by virtue of nearly 1:1ing Kotomi’s route setup from Clannad.
Sachi’s route is probably the most extreme example, but almost every route requires such an insanely high suspension of disbelief at some point or another that I could only contain my laughter because it was mixed with the horror that it wasn’t meant to be comedic.
Mixing with all that is the fact that I struggled with finding reasons to like any of the characters. Yuuji is laughably overpowered and the fact that a good half of his narration was him figuratively sucking himself off only added to how frustrating it was reading through his shitty Gary Stu moments. Michiru was far too dumb and annoying for me to care about her fake behavior, and this was not aided by the incredibly long common route that somehow managed to precisely avoid ever diving even somewhat in depth to any of the characters surface personalities to make them more interesting. Yumiko somehow managed to become a useless vulnerable girl in the matter of a few hours of reading despite opening the VN as a crazy bitch that attacks people with a box cutter. Sachi was tolerable in the common route, but unfortunately her route completely blows any positive feelings I had about her character to smithereens. Amane was actually the most tolerable for me and her route doesn’t do anything in particular to shatter her character despite diving into much of the same absurdities as the other routes, so I guess she’s my favorite by those virtues alone. Makina was largely there for potty humor in the common and not much else, and eventually her mannerisms became so grating that I would just wish she would stop talking.
So the story was completely ridiculous and I didn’t explicitly like any of the characters. What good there is simply gets drowned out in things like blowing up a school to solve your emotional problems (lol) and then fucking your boyfriend outside the school you just blew up immediately after (lmao) , and then there’s the worst part:
Most of this shit gets retconned in the sequels anyway. There was almost no point to reading any of it.
KMS.
@ThePlasticSpork - well there is at least a small attempt to explain Yuuji’s superpowers in the 2nd and what little I have so far seen of the 3rd game, but I have to agree that there is little indication that the reader isn’t meant to take the story completely seriously (despite some clear nonsense with the girls’ routes). If the game was in some way ironic or satirical in intent then this would be easier to rationalise. I have to wait until I’ve finished it for final judgement though.
And so I finished the VN trilogy…
The ever growing crescendo of unbelievable JamesBonderie doesn’t do much to dispel my feeling that this is all very forced and as ThePlastic Spork says above it tries too hard. Along with all the eroge harem High School Porno Fantasy (and I was playing Steam’s toned down version) and erratic pacing I can’t say I would put this anywhere remotely near CLANNAD or Steins;Gate for my personal enjoyment - I would even rate Everlasting Summer/Beskonechnoe leto as more wholly satisfying. However going by the ratings on VNDB it clearly has its niche.
Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy many parts the VN, and after all having finished ‘Fruit’ I still forked out the money and spent time on ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘Eden’ so there must be something about it. Provided that you are prepared to accept the VN on its own terms there is enjoyment to be had, it’s just a shame that many parts of the Trilogy and side stories depend on a protagonist that is unbelievably superpowered (notwithstanding the Marvel/X-Filesy (plot spoiler) genetically engineered super soldier explanation and supporting characters that need to be “fixed” by him in a far less subtle and satisfying way then CLANNAD succeeds (with Jun Maeda et al in not simply making its issues service the plot).
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I’ve recently (not really, though, it was like in January, I believe) read a couple routes from Meikyuu. Let’s see: Michuru’s route was terribly annoying (I really liked her route in Kajitsu, but this one was just ichaicha), Amane’s was nice (the best, I think), Yumiko’s was also pretty boring, and Makina’s was decent, I think. The only one I’ve yet to play is Sachi’s.
I feel like most of these after routes have been made with the sole intention of having the player spend more time with the girl he likes. But still, this is no excuse for poor quality. The girls and Yuuji could have had meaningful conversation, and really have got to know each other (not just what flavor of ice cream they liked or whatever). There were some nice moments, but they were, unfortunately, outnumbered by the boring ones.
Saved this image to post here but forgot, suppose I never got the chcance.
So… I’ve been trying to finish that VN for around a month. Can’t get myself to finish it all.
I really like the utter lack of filter (the dialogues and situations are awesome thanks to that), and I really like the characters, but… “FUCKING JEEZ”! It’s way too long!!! Way too many pointless scenes!!! I skipped HALF of the common route (stopped at scene 20, read the last 4 chapters, and then got to my first route), and I could still end my first playthrough while still understanding everything! It’s so stupid!
The problem comes from the fact that the very first meaningful choice comes only after 50 scenes. FIFTY SCENES. Before that, there are a few choices but they don’t branch into any route, so they’re literally pointless.
And I thought Rewrite had boring parts… Let’s be honest: more than 70% of Grisaia is completely useless to its story. The VNs from Key do have some Slice Of Life, but they still manage to make it meaningful in some way or another. This is not the case in Grisaia, where you can literally skip half of the common route.
its more like the first 10hours being the common are a bunch of short stories and stuff used to show how characters react in different situations. Yeah not really any story here just dumb slice of life moments
As for the other routes, Based on how you said 70% of it is useless to the story, you obviously have been doing Makina’s route. Yeah skip her route its so useless to the story and such a boring route, so if you want to finish the VN just skip that route. Sachi’s route is also full of useless story stuff being about 30% maybe 40% usless as for the other routes though its mostly good especially Amane’s (although I think there was some useless stuff at the begging you have pure story and no fluff for the next 8ish hours.
Completely understand your issues with the common but
isnt actually true. what is true is more than 90% of Makinas route is useless to the story (and is a trash route) and pretty much the entire common is useless if you ignore how some of those slice of life bits are important later on. The other routes are have acutal story
The sequel, labyrinth of Grisaia, completely gets rid of the slice of life common and just gives you the option to choose, the backstory, the after stories for each respective character and a bunch of slice of life scenes that they added that is completely skip able.
If you really want actual story NOW, just do Amane’s route as from what I remember had the least fluff by far but the beginning might have been slightly longer than remembered. So to have definite story you will likely have to skip until (you’ll know when) The flashback with the bus crash.
Sad how your experience is bad but I felt the same way through the common and luckly didnt do Makinas route first.
(I am pretty sure that the route you started is makina) But yeah skip Makina and also Sachi (only for the meantime do read her route later)
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You just earned my everlasting respect. Can I call you Master? As you said, I did do Makina’s route, you were spot on xD!
I’ll believe you, then, and I’ll try another Route (probably Amane, although Michiru also got my interest after her final common route scene). I really feel, from what people say online, that I did the worst indeed.
Despite my previous comment though, I did like the story (I mean, the very few bits of it xD), so I really want to give it a chance.
Tell me, what do you think of the sequels? Are they worth it? Please share your wisdom xD.
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Mitchiru’s is my favorite.
As for the sequals, I havent read the third (eden of grisaia) yet but have read the side stories and the second (labyrinth if Grisaia).
The side stories arnt bad but are overpriced even on sale. Melody of Grisia and Afterglow of Grisaia are still worth the pickup on sale if you like the series but completely skip the leisure of Grisaia its like 20minutes and kind just not worth your time.
As for Labrinth of Grisaia, its kinda split into 3 parts. Which you can choose from the very beginning of the game.
- After stories, Just 5 short 2-3hour after stories for each character, not amazing but a good read.
- Dumb scenes, more or less just some more comedy scenes that would fit right in to the common of fruits of Grisaia except you dont have to read them like in the first game.
- The grand Opus, Yuuji’s backstory, its worth buying for this, NO FLUFF too. Lucky there is less than 5% fluff the excapt opposite of Makina’s route from fruits of Grisaia.
Overall I don’t like it as much as Fruit’s of Grisia as it doesnt have some insanely good routes (except Yuuji’s backstory but it does remove the 2 biggest issues from the original being Makina’s route and the mandatory common which is mostly irrelevant to the story (even though its fun, it can be annoying when you want to read a route).
P.S I would hands down advise people to watch the Rewrite anime instead of reading Makinas route.
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