Grand blue dreaming vol 1 by kenji inoue

Illustrated by Kimitake Yoshioke
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​Iori has just moved to a seaside town to attend university. Luckily, he has an uncle with a dive shop in the town, which means he has a place to stay. What no one warned Iori about was the dive club, a super intense group of (mostly) guys who host lots of drinking competitions and play lots of drinking and other games that rely on losing clothing. Iori gets sucked in to their competitiveness, even though he desperately wants to avoid this type of college experience. He’d rather go to class, meet cute girls, and be low-key. But, two straight nights of drunkenness and arriving to class mostly naked already has Iori starting down the path to a bad reputation.

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This volume is a never-ending cycle of drinking and nakedness, with some peppering of diving and awkward situations between Iori and his cousins. While lots of ecchi titles focus on the sexualization and fan-servicing of women characters, this title has a lot of naked men (with censor bubbles across their crotch but not butts). One of Iori's cousins is overly sexualized while her sister is probably the most normal person there is in this over-the-top comedy.

The best part of this story, for me, is the overly exaggerated facial expressions when someone gets really excited or embarrassed. Here's Iori at one of his most embarrassing moments with his cousin. These illustrations are so detailed and sometimes so horrifying that one can't help but laugh.

Other than these illustrations, it's clear that ecchi is not a category for me. I really didn't appreciate the humor behind all of the nakedness, and Iori getting sucked in to these games because he's competitive seems like a fairly lazy explanation for the rest of the plot. There were a few funny gags in all of Iori's awkward situations with his cousins, but not enough to make me continue reading.

Sara's Rating: 4/10
Suitability Level: Adult

Publisher: Kodansha
Publication Date: July 10th, 2018
ISBN: 9781632366665 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 4/10, Suitability: Adult, Manga, Humor, Ecchi, Friendship, ​Kodansha

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