The Fruit of Grisaia | Episode 12
General Hentai: Yep, they went there.
Sensuifu: As I feared. I mean, once they ate that dog, it wasn’t hard to imagine that people would be next.
General Hentai: Things get worse and worse. The ill start to die. The worthless sensei comes back and he and the president kill a deer, though Kazuki doesn’t want any and Amane decides to not eat it in solidarity with her friend. And then Kazuki wakes up Amane to make their escape, saying that only demons are left, not humans. She takes Amane to see something, warning her not to make loud noises. And what do they see? Sensei and the school president having sex surrounded by the source of the “deer meat”, their dead friends. The cannibalism prediction was correct. Naturally, Amane makes noise, and the chase is on, with apparently all the other girls knowing what’s going on, and ready to kill for chow time. Amane can’t make it until Kazuki decides to sacrifice herself. Amane makes it out, confesses that she wanted Yuuji to punish her, but has since fallen in love with him. Yuuji orders Amane to stay by his side forever as punishment, deciding that the only way he can help her is to accept her. Yuuji, however, notes that his sister’s head was never found, and that if you tore up the bodies, you could have one missing, and Amane remembers the trick Kazuki did with the carrots. They decide to return to the scene to look for clues. While stopping off on the way, while Amane goes to get flowers and incense, a creepy guy recognizes Yuuji as the boyfriend of Amane. This guy who says his name is Sakashita, says he’s a big fan of Amane. So, how does this stalker (relation of one of the dead girls?) know so much, and what’s going to happen in next week’s finale? Are we setting up for a tragic ending for this eroge adaptation? Cause Amane’s story looks like its hit all the death flags.
Sensuifu: I wonder if believing Kazuki had actually survived is motivation that keeps Yuuji clicking nonchalantly. He’s pretty positive in thinking it could be the case, which would be really interesting if Kazuki really did survive since that could definitely mess with Amane’s psyche. Or if not, at least her feelings, especially toward Yuuji.
Not sure who that creeper was though..the farmer who grew those cabbages now asking for compensation? I don’t know. Can’t be the sensei since all heads were ‘accounted’ for. It may just be someone related to one of the dead girls. Or it’s a red herring and the guy is just some lackey working for another agency that employs the supposedly surviving Kazuki.
I thought that was a decent resolution between Amane and Yuuji. I had a feeling Amane wasn’t sincerely in love with him at first sight; ditto with Yuuji asserting any kind of reciprocation. She just felt so guilt-stricken to make up her sacrifice to Kazuki. Any indebtedness she felt obligated to fulfill wouldn’t have really mattered unless Yuuji himself accepted her plea and set the conditions for her ‘punishment’. At least with Amane acknowledging Yuuji’s forgiveness, she’s now able to live freely again without that huge burden on her conscience.
General Hentai: Lots of things here. Kazuki has a freaking map she made to get off the mountain, including a secret stash of supplies! C’mon, man! She could’ve gotten off the mountain anytime. Again, we see absolutely no barrier to the girls being able to get out, other than a few days walking. Now, what happens when you tell someone not to make noise, and then give them no clue as to what they’re going to see? Yup, noise. Again, I find this show continues on full “Ludicrous Speed” settings. Thing is, it would’ve only taken a little storyline tweaking to make the ginormous plot holes at least of manageable size. Which has been par for the course for this series; at least its been consistent.
Sensuifu: Yeah..I think this episode alone should be considered the epitome of absurdity outdoing itself. Granted the other arcs were hilariously bad at it too, but this one just superseded all my expectations. Got a huge laugh when Kazuki pulled out her emergency rations and secret escape route…having kept it selfishly to herself until the last minute when everything turned grotesque. Still, this is why it’s so camp. Scenes like these are so ludicrous, that it’s hard not to fault it for what it really is. Still, it’s better to be laughing at it then it is pulling hairs over, ’cause we were initially hinted how illogical and warped these girls’ situations can get since they were introduced; we just didn’t know the extent of it. I’ve at least enjoyed the attempts at being serious as compared to other adaptations, you know, Mahouka and the like..
One more episode to conclude the arc, although it looks like it should provide some balance considering half of it was really about Kazuki.
Hitsugi Amachi: There are limits to suspension of disbelief. I think Gen. Hentai and I have gone way past our limiters, while you enjoy the fact that this is utterly ridiculous (which is fine).
But eventually you get numbed to it. That’s why when they pulled out the cannibalism, it was not any kind of shock. It was more like “cannibalism. Yeah, saw that coming. Sex between club president and useless teacher. Yeah, saw that coming. Everything going badly. Yeah, saw that coming. Yawn.”
This has gone beyond bad writing to laughably bad writing.
Sensuifu: It’ll be interesting to see how much of this adaptation remains truly faithful to the source in terms of suspending disbelief. Sure, a lot of it might seem no different, but I think it’s missing enough details to affect our perception of the scenes that were meant to play dark and serious in the game; like Gen.Hentai pointed out, a small tweak here and there would’ve improved the storyline a bit as far as bridging the plot holes and other unexplained events. Kazuki secretly being prepared and not telling Amane until things turned rotten, likely has a better explanation in the game than anything we were shown. Bad scripting and editing could do that, and that’s likely the case here.
Though it’s probably more difficult to edit such a strange source, that an anime adaptation would probably just end up looking laughable, which this evidently turned out to be. Though I won’t be surprised if the overall feeling I have for the show remains the same or close to it while/after playing the game. Speaking of straying from realism/believability, they even have a Michiru special of all things, so perhaps the original can’t be all that bleak and serious either. Unless that’s just a way of balancing out what’s probably really grisly in the first place.
