The Grisaia series consisting of two anime series and a movie in between is somewhat different when it comes to harem romance anime. While most harem series tend to follow a rather comedic path Grisaia approached it in another way and kinda broke that romcom trend. Now Im not saying this in a negative sense or something like that. If anything this fact made this anime worth watching. After watching those stereotypical animes where the girl blushes while fantasizing about in how many ways she can hold her crushs hand or the tsundere girl just keeps being well tsundere it was a nice change of pace to watch yet another harem anime like Grisaia. Now Im not saying that Grisaia doesnt have shy or tsundere girls. Its a harem anime so of course it does. But Ill get to that later. STORY: 8.5/10 The story is about a boy Yuuji Kazami who just transferred into a new big school and gets surrounded by a bunch of all categories of girls. Sounds cliche? It does. But what changes that cliche here is that those girls and Yuuji himself are the only students there in that school. For various reasons that school can be attended by only students who have some .. issues. Those issues of the girls are what drive that first season forward. To me the first season is still cliche. Its just a generous young man helping out his fellow classmates by doing some rather dangerous and unexpected things. Those rather unexpected materials are what sets this series apart from the rest of its genre. The first season is mostly designed like a visual novel you know like those arcs we see. In Grisaia each arc features one of the heroines of the plot. Well Grisaia is based on a popular visual novel of the same name so the arc concept is not surprising. Its just the transition here is clearer than the rest. Things get unique starting from the movie. This is where it breaks its tradition. The movie and the first 4 episodes of the 2nd season deal with the backstory a tragic and brutal one at that of Yuuji. Honestly I feel like the backstory or backstories are the most interesting feature of the plot. The rest of the season returns to the current timeline again and this time it presents us with some nice actions. Actions arent something one would normally expect in an anime tagged as harem romance. So it came quite as a surprise to me too. And the actions werent bad at all. Although it is supposed to be a harem romance anime to me one thing it clearly lacked was the romance itself. Yuuji looks like the kind of guy whose heart is made of stone which makes perfect sense given his cruel upbringing. Romance isnt something I would expect from a character like him. So yeah there werent many romance materials in the equation much less harem elements. Now that doesnt mean there arent any at all. There are a few later in the second season. ART: 8.5/10 The art of this anime was okay considering the plot. Nothing too flashy like NiseKoi. It was all right for my taste. MUSIC: 8/10 The music was decent as well. Some of the emotional ones were the best. As I would expect from Aketagawa Jin. The way they were positioned and timed was perfect and seemed to hit right where it should. CHARACTERS: 6/10 Characters. Characters in this series are what I have the most complains about. Aside from Yuuji all the characters are more or less bland which was very disappointing. Male lead as the most famous character isnt something Im used to watching. And the girls. Females are what makes a harem anime interesting. A heated waifu war is what I would expect. Nothing of that sort was present. But but ... since this is not a formulaic harem I would overlook that . Still they are bland. There are tsunderes shy girls and whatever other types you call it here but none of them had features that stand out. So yeah the character department failed some points are deducted and it is yet another reason this anime doesnt feel like a harem anime. ENJOYMENT: 8/10 About enjoyment it certainly wasnt a masterpiece level work and has its fair share of shortcomings but it was worth watching. The backstories of the main characters are interesting and the delivery of some sensitive subjects via those main characters is commendable as well. And theres action too. So if you are looking for a break from all those cute captivating female eyes and still wishing to watch something not shounen with a good plot and a few fights why not give Grisaia a try? It may not be all that bad for all you know.