Story 6/10
The story itself, albeit nothing particularly ground breaking, appears solid and, on the surface of things, rather interesting. In short, a girl named Nonoka returns to her home town from Tokyo. Upon arriving, she discovers that a huge saucer has been present over the town ever since she left. The story progresses with her regaining lost memories, concerning her old friends, with the help of this shows poster girl, Noel. As things further progress, she soon realises that not all will be as happy compared to her first time in the town and thus she starts to walk down the path of pain and anguish. Now at first, this seems interesting and I must admit, I was thoroughly intrigued by the saucer itself but my intrigue was quickly cut down. Why you ask? Simply because the story wasn't as promising as it was set out to be. Yes, there were certain parts to the anime that weren't terrible and provided a good watch but the overall story itself quickly became predictable and boring. Watching it almost became a challenge. Not only did it become predictable, it also became quite annoying in stages. Without spoiling anything, certain plotlines just seemed out-right pointless and, in the grand scheme of things, not really an issue in the first place. These 'issues' were then solved quite easily which again proves my point. This is the classic case of drama being created for the sake of it. What didn't help the series was its array of uninspiring characters, which segways me into my main issue with the series, the characters.
4/10
Never have I seen a bunch of uninspiring set of characters in my life. What I want to clarify is that they aren't horrendous in any specific way, apart from Shione, they are just boring to watch. None of them make you feel anything. You don't sympathise with them, you don't feel angry for them. There wasn't one part of the anime that made me feel anything towards the characters. Even when the anime hinted at big story lines concerning character relationships, such as the one about Yuzuki and Souta. You got yourself geared up for a big reveal only to be left disappointed. Poor character writing surrounded this anime. As mentioned earlier, there is also a typical 'poster girl' in this anime called noel. She has all the traits that make certain people fall head over heels for her type such as the childish and friendly nature, the 'unique' look and so on but does this make the character memorable and lovable? Not really to be honest. All the ingredients were present to make a memorable character that whenever you think back to the series, you immediately think back to her and smile but like all characters within the series, she was like a hollow shell. I wish I could elaborate further on why, but I simply can't. The whole situation just baffles me as the ingredients were there, but they weren't used properly.
Art & sound 7/10
I give credit where credit is due. Considering this was the studio's first attempt at an anime, the art was pretty darn good. The backdrops looked beautiful and the saucer itself looked stunning. The music though was where they truly hit the right notes. Both opening and ending fit the atmosphere the creators were trying to create. On top of that, they were both memorable and stayed in my head for a number of weeks after the series finished airing. The ost was pretty good aswell, both concerning the sound and timing. I must say, I was rather impressed with these two aspects.
Overall, this anime was a disappointment. It wasn't terrible, like some series out there, but, for me, it is far from being considered a 'good anime'. Maybe it was because of my anticipation for the series that led me to expressing fairly harsh views but one can only speculate. Some may think though that the score 6 isn't actually too bad, but considering the way I personally score anime, this is quite low. Maybe if one goes into this not expecting much and with a very open mind, this might actually be considered a good watch. Who knows.
