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Oh boy where to start...

Normally I don't write reviews for the public, but I felt a strong urge to make an exception for this particular adaptation. Before I go any further, I will say that I have played the visual novel for this show and will be comparing this to its source material. If that's not something you're interested in then I suggest stopping now.

Anyway, 8bit was the studio behind this and when I heard this news I was immediately wary of this adaptation. 8bit doesn't have the most appealing track record when it comes to adaptations and this is no different. The first ... major mistake that they made was making the show a 1-cour series. With 8bit being a smaller, lesser known studio this was most likely due to budget constraints. However, that doesn't excuse the the lack of effort. In some cases the story was completely changed from the source which was something that particularly annoyed me. In other cases they would cram whole character routes into one episode leaving you without a chance to actually get a feel for the situation or connect to the characters in question. The only thing I can say they really did right was Amane's route, even if it was changed slightly, as this was spanned over 4 episodes.

If the other routes had gotten that kind of attention this adaptation could have been so much more enjoyable. Instead what we got was a half-assed attempt at capitalizing off of a successful series to rake in money for possible sequels. 8bit should honestly be ashamed of this adaptation, not only was it piss poor, but they also made some weird design choices. Not really with the characters in particular but the episodes themselves. I mean who thought it was a good idea to animate the show in that weird resolution which caused letter boxing on the top and bottom of the episode. Some people may not be bothered by that, but its always been something that got on my nerves.

Speaking of design, the art of the show was nothing to write home about either. There were many moments where I was kind of taken out of the story for a moment due to the terrible animations. If it was close up on characters it was usually fine for the most part, but if they were showing someone from a distance it was very low detail and choppy. It seems like what little budget they did have went to the close ups and those new opening and ending animations.

In conclusion, do I think this was a good adaptation? No. Should you watch it if you've never seen the Grisaia series before? No, even as a stand alone this show was just bad. Should you watch it if you're a fan of the Grisaia series? Maybe. I did enjoy seeing the characters come to life, especially Yuuji. However, so much was changed and rushed that it just ended up leaving me feeling frustrated in the end. If you're just interested in seeing how they did then I guess go for it, but my personal recommendation would be to stay away from this.