The episode 10 of Grand Blue Dreaming Season 3 starts with Iori Kitahara receiving a package from home containing one of his favorite foods: chestnut rice. What should have been a simple reminder of home quickly turns into a ridiculous obsession. Iori is thrilled when he hears that his family has sent chestnut rice, but the portion is nowhere near enough to satisfy him. Instead of simply enjoying what he received, he becomes fixated on wanting more, eventually pushing his friends into helping him find fresh chestnuts.
The group heads into the mountains for a chestnut-hunting trip, with Chisa Kotegawa playing an important role in organizing the outing. She has clearly done her homework, and her knowledge of edible mountain plants quickly becomes useful. The group discovers akamizu, also known as the Bottom's Up plant, along with maitake mushrooms and wild chives. What begins as a mission to find chestnuts gradually turns into a full-scale foraging expedition, with everyone imagining what kind of meal they can make from their discoveries.
The peaceful atmosphere does not last long. The group encounters a hot spring, and the usual Grand Blue chaos immediately takes over. Their clothes are stolen by monkeys, leaving the men with no choice but to deal with the situation while trying to maintain some dignity. Since this is a group that has never been particularly good at behaving normally, the incident becomes another excuse for ridiculous behavior.
At the same time, the episode introduces Kohei Imamura in an unusual situation. Kohei is struggling with his image and his perceived lack of personality. He has apparently been hired for an entertainment appearance because of his looks and previous reputation, but the people around him believe he lacks the personality needed to stand out. Even his attempt to change his appearance by dyeing his hair has failed to solve the problem.
Kohei eventually discovers that the people around him are willing to push him into increasingly outrageous situations for entertainment. Rather than remaining passive, he starts embracing the insanity. His transformation reaches another level when he launches into an obscure song connected to his favorite anime character, proving that his otaku knowledge is genuine rather than manufactured. His unexpected performance impresses the people watching, and Kohei finally begins to understand that his strange interests might actually be the personality they were looking for.
However, the situation takes another turn when a rumor about a possible marriage involving voice actress Yurika Muranaka catches Kohei's attention. The rumor is enough to trigger a completely different side of him. His obsession with voice actresses and his anger over the possibility of someone else marrying one of them becomes the spark for the next major confrontation.
Back with the chestnut-picking group, Kohei continues helping them find chestnuts. His ability to locate them proves surprisingly useful, and even though he is still dressed while the others are dealing with their clothing problem, he becomes an important part of the day's success. Chisa and the others cannot help noticing that Kohei seems more productive than usual.
Then the person Kohei has been worried about finally appears. The situation immediately becomes threatening because of the earlier impersonation. Kohei realizes that he has made a serious mistake by posing as someone else, and the confrontation looks as if it could turn violent. Instead, the group invokes one of their strangest traditions: arguments should be settled through games rather than ordinary fighting.
The supposed peaceful solution is anything but peaceful. PAB decides to settle the dispute with a bizarre two-on-two version of volleyball, replacing the normal ball with burrs. The teams are formed, putting Kohei and Kotobuki-senpai on one side against their opponents. The rules sound simple, but the painful ammunition turns the game into something closer to an execution than a friendly competition.
Kohei's opponent attacks with frightening intensity, treating every serve as an opportunity to settle the score. The burrs cause obvious pain, but the anger driving the match is so strong that Kohei's opponent refuses to slow down. The others quickly realize that their strategy has to change. Instead of trying to overpower him, they plan to survive long enough for his rage to burn itself out.
The match becomes increasingly brutal as the score approaches its conclusion. With only one point separating the players from victory, Kohei's opponent prepares for another devastating attack. At that critical moment, Ikegoshi experiences an almost supernatural burst of survival instinct. His mind races through countless possibilities, searching for any argument that could stop the attack.
He finally finds one. Because he and Kohei look remarkably similar, Ikegoshi argues that if he can somehow marry Yurika, it would prove that Kohei also has a chance of marrying a voice actress. The absurd logic manages to hit exactly where it needs to, interrupting the rage-fueled attack. The confrontation finally ends, but the physical toll is severe, leaving Kohei unconscious and Ikegoshi battered.
After the insanity of the mountain trip, the episode shifts to a much quieter setting. A young diver returns home after picking up trash from the water. The effort earns him praise and a small reward: a promotional lottery ticket called Dream Scratcher. The ticket offers a massive top prize of 100 million yen, with several smaller prizes underneath.
During lunch, Iori receives the ticket and decides to scratch it. Against all reasonable expectations, he wins. The prize is not the gigantic 100 million yen jackpot, but it is still a substantial 300,000 yen. For someone who is constantly surrounded by people looking for money, that creates a serious problem. Iori immediately realizes that if his friends discover his winnings, there is almost no chance they will leave him alone.
Iori secretly keeps the winning ticket with him as he prepares to return to his diving activities. His biggest challenge is no longer winning the lottery; it is keeping the prize hidden. During the buddy check, even a simple comment about a twisted strap makes Iori panic because he is terrified that someone might discover what he is carrying.
Once the group gets out of the water, Iori becomes even more suspicious of everyone around him. He knows his friends well enough to understand exactly how they will react if they learn he has money. He decides that there are two things he absolutely has to avoid: acting suspiciously and accidentally revealing the secret while drinking.
Iori attempts to maintain a perfect poker face, but his friends immediately sense that something is wrong. They pressure him to confess, claiming they already know that he is hiding something. At first, Iori refuses to say anything. The problem is that PAB's idea of getting the truth out of someone is far removed from anything resembling a normal conversation.
The group first threatens him with their usual brand of outrageous punishment, then proposes a game as a supposedly fair alternative. Their answer is a Thrilling Lie Detector Game, which quickly becomes little more than torture disguised as entertainment. Iori is asked whether he won more than 100,000 yen. The machine initially appears unreliable, giving him a brief moment of hope, but the others refuse to stop.
The situation becomes even worse when one of them uses engineering skills to improve the machine. The device is modified so that it will cut the current before Iori loses consciousness, meaning the pain can continue without actually knocking him out. Iori refuses to reveal the truth despite the escalating pressure.
For a moment, Iori hopes Chisa will understand what he is going through. Instead, she unknowingly gives the others exactly the information they need. Her responses make it clear that Iori really is hiding something. He feels betrayed, especially because he believes Chisa should have been the person who protected his secret.
Eventually, Iori is pushed to the edge. He manages to survive the interrogation without giving up the ticket's location, but the experience leaves him exhausted and frustrated. More importantly, it forces him to confront the fact that his friends are not people he can easily fool when money is involved.
That leads to a more emotional exchange between Iori and Chisa. Iori accuses her of betraying their partnership because she could have helped protect his lottery ticket. Chisa is confused by the accusation because she never considered herself his partner in the way Iori means. When she asks why he thinks they are partners, Iori reminds her of an earlier promise: if he ever won the lottery, he would take her along on a trip.
Chisa slowly realizes that Iori actually meant it. The promise was connected to how much he appreciated something she had done for him in the past, and her idea for the chestnut-picking trip becomes part of that connection. When Iori reveals that he won 300,000 yen, the conversation takes an unexpected turn. He admits that the prize is not enough to take everyone on the kind of trip he imagined, but it is enough for something smaller.
Iori then makes his decision. Instead of keeping the entire prize for himself, he invites Chisa to go to Okinawa with him. Just the two of them. Chisa is caught completely off guard. Her reaction makes it clear that the invitation carries much more weight than a simple vacation plan. She eventually accepts, but the episode immediately undercuts the romantic tension with Iori's own confused reaction. The two are left facing the possibility of traveling together, while Iori's friends remain completely unaware of the lottery money that started the entire chain of events.
Grand Blue Dreaming Season 3 Episode 10 delivers exactly the kind of outrageous comedy fans expect while giving Iori and Chisa a surprisingly meaningful moment at the end. The chestnut hunt quickly spirals into monkey-induced nudity, Kohei's bizarre idol-related chaos, and a burr volleyball match that turns a simple dispute into a ridiculous survival battle. The lottery storyline then gives the episode a strong second half, as Iori's desperate attempt to hide his 300,000-yen prize from PAB creates some of the funniest tension in the episode. What makes the installment especially satisfying, however, is that the money ultimately becomes a way for Iori to keep his promise to Chisa. His decision to use the winnings for an Okinawa trip with her gives the comedy a warmer emotional payoff without abandoning the show's trademark absurdity. Chisa's surprised reaction also adds genuine romantic tension, making the final scene feel important rather than just another gag. With the next episode returning to Okinawa, Episode 10 closes on an effective mix of comedy, friendship, and relationship development.
0 Comments