Grand Blue Dreaming

Episode 6

Even just six episodes into its twelve-week run, Grand Blue Dreaming has fallen into the familiar groove that most silly hangout comedies will eventually hit, whether they last for a dozen episodes or a dozen seasons. The cast and their dynamics have more or less fallen into place, and the series' trademark histrionic banter and grotesque facial expressions has become relatively predictable and familiar. Depending on your perspective, this can be either a good or bad thing. Familiarity can prove fatal for comedy that isn't able to compensate with strong character writing or interesting stories, but there's also something to be said for getting to spend time with characters you like for a half-hour of shenanigans each week. In situations like that, knowing what to expect can be a part of the charm, like watching reruns of a classic sitcom that you've grown up loving.

Grand Blue Dreaming is a bit too janky and new to mine that kind of comfortable nostalgia, but this episode does just barely fall on the right side of the line that divides comfort and staleness. It lacks the mean-spirited tone that dragged down so much of last week's outing, and it doesn't waste time or energy setting up a high-concept plot to hang its jokes around. We open with a mildly funny cold sketch that show's Iori and his classmates trying (and failing) to cheat their way through a difficult German test, and then the rest of the episode is spent with the Peek a Boo Club cracking open a few cold ones and celebrating Aina's official induction into their band of would-be divers and exhibitionists.

What makes this episode more enjoyable than last week's is that its central joke can gently make fun of its characters without just turning them into assholes. As Aina and Chisa talk shop about what it takes to be a diver, most of the gags this week revolve around how the guys have thus far failed to engage in any kind of diving whatsoever. As Aina continually points out, Iori and crew are much more likely to get wasted and play Naked Rock Paper Scissors, or Naked Pocky Game, or Naked Karaoke. It's absurd, and most everyone involved is definitely acting too immature and ridiculous for their own good, but this version of Grand Blue Dreaming doesn't have to play up the cast's worst traits to be entertaining. Azusa's insistence on getting Iori and Kohei to make out is funny because she genuinely thinks Iori is into both men and women, and thankfully the eventual punchline of their Pocky Game contest isn't a lazy gay panic bit; instead we laugh at Iori and Kohei falling victim to a comically oversized Pocky stick before everyone gets naked and drinks some more.

At this point, Grand Blue Dreaming remembers that it is technically a show about a diving club, with Tokita and Kotobuki reminding Iori and Kohei that they do actually need to demonstrate some basic knowledge of diving signs and procedures. The boys' comical inability to remember even the most basic signs is an alright bit, but the funniest joke of the episode comes when a deceptively sweet Nanaka confronts Iori about his rumored romance with Chisa, and Iori has to frantically put his new knowledge of emergency signals to the test to escape her jealous wrath. I still find the incestuous dynamics of both Nanaka and Iori's feelings for Chisa to be a little strange, but I can roll with it when the show isn't taking Nanaka's forbidden love for her younger sister too seriously.

Unfortunately, the sequence that doesn't work well for this week's episode is the ending, where we finally see the club go diving in the ocean for the first time. Outside of Iori making a dumb comment about Chisa's butt at the very end of the scene, this whole scenario is played completely straight, with Iori taking in the beauty of the ocean and Chisa genuinely appreciating his newfound love for her lifelong passion. The problem is that the show is just too poorly animated to communicate any of these emotions particularly well. As a whole, the show has the depth of a kiddie pool that's started to deflate from being out in the sun for too long, so I find it hard to buy into its more serious storytelling. I don't think we need to explore the burgeoning love affair shared by a hard-partying college freshman and his attractive but aloof cousin – I think Grand Blue Dreaming can get by just fine with slapstick and broad sitcom banter.

Frankly, Grand Blue Dreaming's own worst enemy is its commitment to formula; even the club's newest member only needs a few minutes to recognize that almost every single thing the club does invariably ends with people getting naked and yelling a lot. Grand Blue Dreaming lacks Nichijou's top-notch aesthetics, Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun's affable sweetness, or Asobi Asobase's demented commitment to its characters' absurd misadventures; it's a simpler and less ambitious comedy than its top-shelf peers. As a result, some episodes will be fairly entertaining, while others will end up more irritating than anything else. Like most of its predecessors, “First Buddy” is a perfectly fine way to kill some time, nothing more and nothing less. At this point, that's the bar I'm hoping every episode of Grand Blue Dreaming can clear.

Rating: C+

Grand Blue Dreaming is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

James is an English teacher who has loved anime his entire life, and he spends way too much time on Twitter and his blog.