Tag: exhibitionists
Grand Blue – 07 – Just Ask Her Out Directly and Get Rejected, Losers!
Unlike Chio-chan, which mixes its scenarios up pretty well and always keeps you guessing what will befall its characters from week to week, Grand Blue often follows a familiar formula.
In this formula, Iori and Kouhei yell at each other a lot with increasingly contorted faces, while Iori's college classmates express their disapproval of the very idea of Chisa dating/living with Iori. They're his friends…until evidence he's close to Chisa emerges, and then they want to literally kill him.
This act is wearing a bit thin, to be honest, and the reason is in the title of this post: these assholes need to stop blaming Iori for their romantic troubles! If they like Chisa (which is dubious, as none of them actually even know her; they just think she's cute, which she is), they should ask her out.
If they all get rejected (which they most certainly will be, which lets face it is why they won't ask), well then, tough noogies! But they'd get closure on the Chisa matter. Instead, they take all their frustrations out on Iori, and we have to watch it. It's not pleasant, nor is it that funny! Meanwhile, Chisa is pushed off to the side, barely involved aside from the odd glare or blush.
The show flips the script by giving us a doubles tennis competition with the Tinkerbell tennis club, whose blue-haired captain wants revenge for the pageant fiasco. He's also not interested in playing fair, as he spikes all the booze of Peekaboo's spectators, as well as the hard-hitting Ryuu and Shinji, with what seems to be Everclear.
In the midst of the matches, we learn that both Chisa and Iori are extremely competent at tennis and would even make fine members of Tinkerbell, if only its captain and other members weren't such arrogant pricks. I also lked how Chisa punished Iori for his ill-conceived cheers by taking his sweats and wearing them herself.
In any case, Peekaboo manages to pull an upset, netting them enough funds to take a diving trip to Okinawa. Less pathetic, jealous college buddies, more fun diving trips, please! Fulfill the promise of that painfully upbeat opening!
Author sesameacrylicPosted on Sat, 25 Aug 2018 Sat, 25 Aug 2018 Categories Anime Reviews, Grand Blue, Summer 2018Tags agency, asking out, ぐらんぶる, college, diving, drunk, exam, exhibitionists, funds, hamaoka azusa, imamura kohei, jealous, kitahara iori, kotegawa chisa, naked, slice of life, tennis, yelling, yoshiwara aina
Grand Blue – 06 – Diving Cures All Ills
Iori remains on bad terms with Chisa, which ends up hurting all the other lads in his German class who were depending on him getting to see her notes. As a result the lads must cheat in other ways, all of which are either discovered by the teacher or ineffective.
While I'm not opposed to episodes made up of isolated segments (see Tsuugakuro, Chio-chan no) I'd prefer if Grand Blue didn't stray so far from its core themes. This bit felt more like high school than college. Thankfully, we get back on track when Aina is officially initiated into Peek-a-Boo.
Between the binge drinking, the gratuitous nudity, Chisa's perceived sadism towards Iori, and Nanaka's perceived fixation on Chisa, Aina quickly learns that no one in the club is remotely normal (including herself; one doesn't have the nickname "Cakey" bestowed upon her otherwise).
In this regard, the cast is a lot like that of Working!!; everyone has their quirks that make them unique and hopefully, compelling to watch as those quirks bounce off of each other.
Still, the women, particularly Chisa, are pleased and excited that Aina joined because she found diving interesting. It's here where Iori and Kohei act as a kind of audience surrogate by stating it's not like they never go diving, but it sure doesn't seem like they've done it in a while…which is very true! It's been less Grand Blue and more Gorge Booze…
Speaking of, when the party runs out of alcohol, Aina and Chisa volunteer to go out to buy more, and as the saying goes, when the cat's away, the mice will play.
Despite Aina's insistence everyone remains clothed and civil for her welcome party, old habits die hard and the lads can't help themselves from devolving into debauchery in Chisa and Aina's brief absence.
As for substituting a big log for Pocky in a game between Iori and Kohei, it's a shade too credulity-stretchingly absurd, even for this show.
While it doesn't really matter whether Iori and Kohei learn perfect German, it is imperative they memorize all the underwater hand signals, as it could end up saving their life or that of their comrades. So it's disconcerting to see they don't know the hand signals any more than they know "rheumatoid arthritis" in German (btw it's the same, except for an "e" added to make "rheumatoide").
They end up learning them when a different kind of threat emerges during the party: Nanaka learns her beloved Chisa is dating Iori. This makes Iori fear for his life, and he uses hand signals to alert Kohei and the others. However, Nanaka isn't certain whether they're actually dating or whether it simply looks like they are.
So the next day, when the club finally, finally has an actual diving session, she pairs up Iori and Chisa. At first Iori thinks Chisa is angry at him as usual, but she's really only serious about diving, and not just the safety side, but the fun and wonder of it as well.
Before he knows it Iori is swept up in Chisa's enthusiasm for the world under the sea, and when he tells her how much fun he had down there, she can't help but smile. I will always prefer this joyful Chisa to the scornful one dishing out verbal or physical punishment on Iori for acting the goat (however in the right she may be).
Sadly Grand Blue will apparently never let these two remain in a state of detente for long, preferring to built them up and then tear them down for a cheap laugh. As such, Iori ruins it by commenting on the fineness of Chisa's ass, leading her to blow her top at him. Why can't we have nice things?
Author sesameacrylicPosted on Sat, 18 Aug 2018 Sat, 18 Aug 2018 Categories Anime Reviews, Grand Blue, Summer 2018Tags alcohol, ぐらんぶる, cheating, college, diving, drunk, enthusiasm, exam, exhibitionists, german, hamaoka azusa, hand signals, happiness, imamura kohei, kitahara iori, kotegawa chisa, love triangle, makeup, meandering, scuba, slice of life, welcome, yelling, yoshiwara aina