Grand Blue


Grand Blue, also known as Grand Blue Dreaming, is a Japanese manga series written by Kenji Inoue and illustrated by Kimitake Yoshioka. It has been serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine good! Afternoon since April 2014 and has been collected in fifteen tankōbon volumes. The manga is published digitally in English by Kodansha USA under the Kodansha Comics imprint. An anime television series adaptation by Zero-G aired from July 14 to September 29, 2018, in the Animeism programming block on MBS. A live-action film adaptation was originally scheduled to release on May 29, 2020, but has been postponed to August 7, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plot

Iori Kitahara looks forward to his new life on the Izu Peninsula as he prepares to start his college life there, staying in a room above his uncle's diving shop "Grand Blue." However, he is quickly shocked as he meets the local Diving Club, a group full of buff men who spend more time drinking, partying, and stripping naked than actually diving. Despite his attempts to distance himself from the group, Iori gets quickly swept up in their antics, while his cousins try to show him the wonders of diving into the ocean and sea.

Characters

;Iori Kitahara
;Chisa Kotegawa
;Toshio Kotegawa
;Nanaka Kotegawa
;Kōhei Imamura
;Shinji Tokita
;Ryūjirō Kotobuki
;Azusa Hamaoka
;Aina Yoshiwara
;Captain Kudō
;Kaya Mizuki
;Hajime Nojima
;Shinichirō Yamamoto
;Kenta Fujiwara
;Yū Mitarai
;Shiori Kitahara

Media

Manga

As of May 29, 2020, the manga has been published by Kodansha in fifteen tankōbon volumes. Kodansha USA is publishing the series digitally in English under the name of Grand Blue Dreaming with ten volumes published as of May 29, 2019.

Anime

An anime television series adaptation was announced in the Good! Afternoon magazine's fourth issue of 2018 on March 7. The anime series is written and directed by Shinji Takamatsu, with Takamatsu also handled the sound direction, Zero-G produced the animation and Hideoki Kusama designed the characters. It aired from July 14 to September 29, 2018, and broadcast on the Animeism programming block on MBS, TBS, BS-TBS, and AT-X. The series is also streamed exclusively on Amazon Video worldwide. The opening theme song titled "Grand Blue" is performed by Shōnan no Kaze, while the ending theme song titled "Konpeki no al Fine" is performed by Izu no Kaze. The series ran for 12 episodes.

Film

A live-action film adaptation was announced, and is directed by Tsutomu Hanabusa. It was originally scheduled to release on May 29, 2020, but has been postponed to August 7, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reception

The manga series has over 3.5 million volumes in print.