Grand Blue
Grand Blue Dreaming

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It's not often that a Manga makes me literally laughing out loud.
Most comedy Manga were either totally unfunny and boring or just managed to make me blow the air slightly more forceful through my nostrils.
Grand Blue isn't one of those Manga.

The story isn't very special. The art is good but nothing outstanding. Except when one of the characters goes bonkers. Most of the time you'll probably laugh because of the ridiculous over the top depiction of certain emotions.
If you just want to lean back, have a good laugh and not worry about your (shitty) life, then this is the Manga for you.
If ... you look for anything deeper than just stupid, but very funny, comedy, then don't even bother.
We don't like you anyway.

EDIT: I initially rated this manga an 8 because i only read 6 chapters or so and thought that it would get stale over the time. Turns out, i still laugh my ass of and look forward to every new chapter. Shit's a solid 9, bois.

So Grand Blue...
I didn't quite know what to expect. Comedy, after all, is one of the most subjective genres.

However, I didn't expected for this to be a Japanese version of American Pie. Yes, you read correctly. This is at the same level of that shitty comedy that you loved when you were 12 or 13.

I can't be totally negative with this manga, because it has some really funny moments. Specially in the art department - I like how the author uses gag and physical comedy - gestures, faces, etc.

But the characters are flat, the dialogue is bad, and the plot is cliché.

I can only ... say that read this ONLY if you want to turn off your brain and have mindless fun. But don't expect to find anything else. It's as shallow as it looks.

Pretty ironic for a diving manga, right?

tldr; story is about how crimes are actually hilarious, with some diving thrown in.

I tried to read as much as I could, I really did, but this manga is just too strange for me and I have to take a break after every joke. I'm in disbelief that this is a Seinen and not a Shonen.

I don't tolerate second hand embarrassment well and that's this story's bread and butter. We have characters repeatedly forcing/tricking other characters into intoxication, and it's played off as a joke and they're not villainized at all. The MC wants to get a girl drunk so she can't say no to ... his proposal, and it's played off as a joke and not incredibly sinister. We have characters naked half the time and it's played off as a joke. We have a character being portrayed as a creepy stalker, and you guessed it, it's just played off as a joke without kicking his ass to the curb.

This story doesn't want to be taken seriously, and in that way it's just too "anime" for me. I can't get past the cringe from the jokes nor get invested in this kind of story. I think it would've been a lot more bearable if the author eased me into their humor, instead of immediately hitting me with the naked men harem and forced intoxication - as if that was meant to be charming. Either the jokes land for you or you can't get past the fact that the jokes are just crimes, and I'm in the latter category.