Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete

I honestly don't know why this show has such a low score. Perhaps too many people didn't adhere to the old adage "don't judge a book by its cover".

Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete has a very interesting story indeed. Without spoiling anything for the potential viewers, the story is at its core a mystery. Until a certain episode, we are kept in the dark as to what the purpose is for the numbers on screen, and the relationship of the main story to the first scene in the first episode. Needless to say, when everything is revealed, it all makes sense. With the ending though, ... some viewers may not be satisfied. I, for one, believe that an ending is paramount to the conclusion of a series. I applaud Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete's writers and staff for not pulling an ending out of their ass. The ending fits perfectly with the series, yet it leaves me wanting more.

Now, the artwork. Having looked over quite a few of the screens from the visual novel, I'm surprised at the huge decrease in production quality. Now granted, this is Studio FEEL we're talking about here, not necessarily your highest budget studio like ufotable or Madhouse, but I found the artwork "different" from other shows. While the visual novel is beautifully drawn and painted, giving each still a watercolor effect, complete with excellent and beautifully selected colors, the anime is flat, plain, and for some, an eyesore. I don't know what Studio FEEL was trying to achieve, whether it be just a budget cut or a new style of animation, but it leaves a bad aftertaste in my mouth after watching 12 episodes worth of it.

The sound isn't too memorable. Aside from the OP (which I thought was really catchy), nothing else caught my attention. Frankly, I don't even know if they played many OSTs.

I think we need to stop judging anime so critically.

All it comes down to is this: Was it enjoyable? Definitely.

I loved watching this show. Although, if looked at critically, it is full of flaws, I ignored these flaws and watched a show that I felt was a fresh breath of air from the other harems/fanservice/romcom shows out there and ended up really enjoying this.

I'd recommend this show to anyone who wants a change of pace from your traditional shows. But please, if you decide to watch this, don't follow the "4 episode rule". Trust me, it gets much better in the last few episodes.

(This has been adapted from my reddit thread)

In our lifetime, we have seen manned missions to the moon, robots on Mars, and probes that are able to land on a meteor floating within our solar system. Incredible feats that may have seemed impossible to the people of the past. A hot topic in science fiction that deals with such reality and currently physical impossibilities is the idea of time travel. Can we head back in time to fix the past? Do such actions somehow affect the future? Does there seem to be an unbreakable chain of fate that time travel, no matter how much we ... want to, cannot erode? Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete attempts to explain the answers to these questions, but it's little more than a jumbled mess.

STORY

Ushinawareta stars Sou and Kaori, childhood friends who attend both high school and the Astronomy Club with their fellow close friends Nagisa, Airi, and Kenny. One day, a fatal accident occurs, causing a rather strange series of events.

As my little preview points out, and as becomes somewhat apparent early on, the plot revolves around the notion of time travel. Already this sets a cautionary flag. Time travel stories, more so than any other type of tale, require that any loose ends or connections are properly explained. It's paramount that no loopholes are established and the "rules" in place make sense. And for the most part, Ushinawareta accomplishes these tasks. While the time travel elements are not as intricate as other anime, it at the minimum makes sense within context. Some of the plot devices used are more "higher level" to thwart off potential investigation of the issues involved (that is, to make the process itself sound intelligent) which tends to take away from the ideas it is attempting to establish. The aforementioned rules are also fair, and give a sense of urgency that is unique. Even the final resolution provides a satisfying ending that doesn't attempt to cheat the system, closing off lines that may have broken off from the pact.

A major flaw, however, is getting to this point.

The climax occurs very early on. What follows afterwards is wasted build-up with little payoff, since we already know what is going to happen. A huge chunk of the season is dedicated to showcasing the futility of the actions performed by the characters, despite all their attempts at rectifying the outcome. That is to say, it starts out being a slice-of-life anime with allusions to time travel sprinkled throughout. It is not until the final few episodes that the crux and importance of the anime kicks in, but by this point, there does not exist any attachment to what is happening, since the finale has already occurred. The intended effects of what time travel entails are lost simply because one is forced to wade through unneeded events that ultimately serve zero purpose.

There is nothing more hidden behind this tale of romance and science. It doesn't explore the greater implications behind time travel, it is thematically lacking, and the disjointed storytelling gives it a lack of direction.

ANIMATION

Ushinawareta is plagued in both the art style and animation departments.

Starting off, the art style is entirely boring to look at. The venues provided stick mostly to the school and its grounds, with little in the way of detail. The characters also suffer the same fate, being forced to maintain rather dreary outfits with little in the way of originality. In fact, nearly all of the characters in terms of design are sadly forgettable in the long run. On top of all this, there are many times when the characters themselves look quite sloppy, as if the studio was fine with making small mistakes on a per episode basis.

The actual animation for Ushinawareta is no different. Even if the show contains nearly zero action, the character movements on screen are usually limited to mouths only. Often times, there is only one character moving, even when more than one is appearing within a given scene. It's generally unappealing to look at because it seems as if no attention was given.

CHARACTERS

Ushinawareta contains a weak amalgamation of characters that see absolutely zero depth, let alone characterization, save for one. Even then, it is barely enough to justify how one-dimensional the rest of the cast is.

As the main love interest, Kaori is an extremely caring young woman. And that's the extent of her characterization throughout the anime. This is no joke; beyond just being nice to everyone around her, she constantly employs the same tired tactic of being defensive whenever she is questioned about her true feelings. There do exist attempts at making her more of a well-rounded character, but she only ever responds with kindness for any given conflict.

Sou is the main character of the anime, but follows an even worse route than Kaori. He is known for his affinity for the stars but is otherwise passive in all other matters. He goes along for the ride for the entire season, and his passion only kicks in when he realizes what he's wanted all along. This passion leads to despair, and what should be a sense of character development. But once again, it never comes to fruition. He maintains the same passive behavior that defined him from the beginning, making him one of the worst leads I've had to experience in quite a while.

The only notable character within the anime is Yui, the girl with a mysterious past and unknown future. While her relevance is masked, she becomes the key to solving the crisis that affects Sou and the others over the course of the show. Her experiences define her character: elegant, confused, at times pushy, loyal, and determined beyond belief. She does everything in her power to reach the conclusion wanted by those dear to her, even when she knows what such an outcome means. Her stalwart actions demonstrate her love for the friends and family she holds dear, making her the highlight of the anime.

The rest of the cast, namely Kenny, Airi, and Nagisa, are just as lacking in characterization as Kaori is. The funny man, the losing love interest, and the wise upperclassmen. Nagisa at the least is explored for a certain amount of time, but reiterating myself once more, it means nothing to her character because nothing ever emerges from the situation. There are just too many characters within Ushinawareta that mean nothing from beginning to end.

SOUND

The first OP is okay. The vocals and arrangement make it sound grand in nature, which somewhat opposes the contents of the anime itself. The trumpets and violins attempt to add flair to the piece, giving it an overall orchestral feel.

The ED is not that good. The slow singing, plain piano playing, and generic beat make it boring to hear, both inside and outside of the anime. The best part is not in the sound but in the visuals; they are actually pretty "artsy," especially when compared to what the anime has to offer.

The soundtrack contains nothing amazing. The only tune worth mentioning is the track that contains an interesting fading effect that was usually played when the characters were thinking about something interesting. It isn't meant to be a standalone track, meaning it only has a purpose at certain moments during the show. Other pieces exist that fit fun or dramatic scenes when needed, but these are pretty unmemorable.

Voice acting-wise, Kappei Yamaguchi performed above average in his role as Kenny, but everyone else provided at the most average performances.

ENJOYMENT

Time travel is always an interesting topic. Both philosophy and science usually look at in a serious light, wondering what such a phenomenon could bring to the table should it exist at some point in the future. These specific elements don't exist within this one, with the show instead focusing on how the time travel works in context. So it was disappointing, to say the least, when the time travel portions were pushed to the backseat in favor of the rather boring slice-of-life aspects.

Being a romance buff myself, I went into this one expecting to see anything of the sort. Unfortunately, it mostly consists of Kaori's previously stated defense, Sou's inability to articulate words correctly, and Airi's constantly losing battle. The deviation from this, like the rest of what potentially happens, doesn't pop up until much later into the anime. So the already lame slice-of-life elements, compounded by the lack of any significant romance developments, makes it difficult to watch as the episodes progress.

Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete had the pieces to work with, but instead of laying them down neatly, they are thrown together haphazardly, making it quite clear just how directionless and stale it really is. It's an okay time travel story brought down by an incredibly weak cast of characters. The only thing left to do is to go back in time and prevent this one from being made in the first place.

SUMMARY

Story: Bad, okay time travel story with unnecessary slice-of-life moments and lack of themes

Animation: Terrible, art style is boring and contains minimal detail, character designs are boring and lame, actual animation is missing

Characters: Terrible, Kaori, Sou, Nagisa, Kenny, and Airi are awful, Yui is good but she is not enough

Sound: Fine, okay OP, bad ED, fine soundtrack, okay VA work

Enjoyment: Bad, focus isn't on the important elements, namely time travel and romance

Final Score: 2/10

In late 2014, Studio Feel managed to split the community by releasing In Search of the Lost Future, probably the least mysterious mystery show of all time. In fact, it´s so not mysterious that about fourty percent of all anime related web pages, including MAL, prefer to just list it as a regular school romance.

Undoubtedly, this show gets off to a flying (and indeed somewhat enigmatic) start and culminates in the last three episodes, presenting us with a satisfying solution to it´s “mystery”. This would make WareMete a magnificent anime…if it weren´t for all the episodes that lie in between.

Because for those eps, ... Writer Rie Kawamata for some reason decides to throw his own plot completely out of the window and unexplainably depicts an ordinary school romance drama I couldn´t have cared less for instead, making this show a frustrating watching experience to some extent . Whilst I never got into the middle part of the story nor into the characters, I also never considered to drop the show either. I never entirely forgot about the first episode, and I was just too curious how the makers would conclude it, and when they finally did (which happened just before I started throwing tomatoes at my screen), it was awesome!

So can I or can I not recommend In Search of the Lost Future? Well…yeah, kinda…if you are searching for something you can marathon, you should probably look elsewhere, but if you watch this just one episode per day to avoid getting bored in the middle part of the show, you will eventually get some enjoyment out of this.

Oh, and one last thing: watch this in English if you can, because otherwise a certain character named Kenny will make you angry…this guy with his stupid English catchphrases is annoying as f***.

Therefore, I give this a 5.5…5 for the Japanese version, 6 for the English dub. It´s just way too inconsistent for more, but also not very bad for an adaption of an eroge visual novel.

Ok, so I may be one of those run of the mill pseudo science , run of the mill harem and run of the mill romance. So, it was the possible Sou X Kaori arc that got me into this anime, so........here's my rating for this episode anime:

Story: Fair 6.

The plot where Yui is a girl from the future who was send to the past to prevent an impending accident to Kaori was pretty much a run of the mill, where the one of the concept was taken from a 2002 movie "The Time Machine," but, since it does present a certain mystery as ... to how Yui came to be and how her repeated attempts has affected the past really does make story likable, but not much.


Art: Poor 3.

Now the general illustration of the art was pretty much retro that such hue was not very good, it was just too old, also, there isn't enough fanservice in it, the only fanservice I see was with Airi.


Sound: Fair 6.

I simply don't like both the op and ed, also though Kaori, Airi and Nagisa's voice were alright, the problem was that their voices didn't have a mature tone on the fast forward scene where they were adults. Also, Kenny's voice obviously looks like that it was done by a 5 year old seiyuu, but then again his tone did add to some degree of humor to the character.

Character: Poor 3.

Sou Akiyama, being the usual harem guy who is just too stupid to notice the love around him is one reason why I gave this category a low score. On the lighter note, I like that he realizes how much he actually loves Koari after she got into an accident, FLASH BACK, I really hate the dude when he rejected Koari and went for Yui.

Yui Furukawa, the problem with her character was that there isn't much about detail about her, all we know that she was send to the past and where every-time she fails, she falls into a continuous time loop. Now, I'm no physicist, but when Sou fall in love with her, therefore saving Kaori from an impending accident, that's the part where she succeeded, now since the time line has been altered and she disappeared , wouldn't the time line start from the part when Sou rejects Kaori, I don't know about you guys out there but the part where Sou was almost killed is a violation of Einstein's Theory of relativity , another reason for the low score.

Nagisa Hanamiya, how the fuck can a rich brat like her weld such infulence around school, also, we the audience were left wondering as to how she gain possession of a mysterious cube. In fact she alone is one big mystery.

Sasaki Kaori, I really do love her character, and pretty much I've expected a Sou X Kaori arc, also, here is another thing, with Yui's success in preventing her impending accident at the cause of her love for Sou, she shouldn't be seen in a hospital bed, she should have been seen being married to someone if Sou really is serious about seeing her as a childhood friend.

Airi Hasekura, at first I'm attracted to her fanservice, I guess if this anime has an ecchi element, then she would be it, FAST FORWARD, since she does have some degree of feelings for Sou, but having Yui able to save Koari, then she and Sou should be in a relationship.


Eitarou "Kenny" Osafune, ok ,so he is the class clown in this anime, too bad that he wasn't given his share of the harem pie, he would have been paired off with either Nagisa or Kaori, one more reason for the low score.

Enjoyment: Good 7.

Being able to see a Sou X Kaori arc happening in the FAST FORWARD scene, thought briefly, was the enjoyable part, also the mystery itself was something else, where at one point we thought that Kaori is dead, also the mystery of Yui and how she came to be and understanding how she functions really did bought my curiosity, which is why I gave it its score.

Overall: Decent 4 .


Well, the anime as a whole is ok, but just barely, it's just that I can't forgive studio, Feel and FUNanimtaion Entertainment for violating Einstein's theory of relativity-if I can call it that- I'm not a physicist, you know, but hey, if you like this anime for the eye candy then you like it, and that's that.

Before I started this series just a few days ago, I actually went to check out the rating here on MAL. Upon seeing that it had one below 7, I was going to think twice about watching it, but I steeled myself and went ahead anyway. After the first few minutes, I thought of dropping it, 'cause there did not seem to be anything significant hooking me. However, I am now currently a pretty satisfied viewer of Waremete. I'm sure I would've regretted not watching, and would now be mocking the 'me' in another timeline for not doing it. (Yes, the reference xD)

[STORY: 8/10]

Let's just ... be honest. Any story which includes physics-related stuff and time travelling does confuse things. But confusion is good sometimes and this was one of em, in my opinion.

Waremete features a story about this Astronomy Club which contain members who are barely interested in the subject, apart from one... no, two! Ahh... but who was the second one again...? Anyway, tragedy strikes early on and then suddenly a naked girl falls from nowhere and... wait, are we even talking about the same world? Or same universe? Well, you'll have to watch to find out!

This just isn't your typical school romance. It does give some reminders of Glasslip (which wasn't very welcomed), but it definitely has an edge over that because it has a plot!

[ART: 7/10]

When I first watched it, I felt there was something off with the art. Like something weird, which I just can't put into words correctly. It felt SHAFT-y, yet it wasn't. But apart from that the overall art is rather well done. Not to mention that there are pretty girls in the mix. I mean, which dude doesn't want bishoujo in a romance genre series?

[SOUND: 7/10]

"I'm confident we can change...", but I'm not confident if I can give this section a good score. I've never played the visual novel, but the background music had the VN feel to it. It's good, but ain't the best I've heard. Apart from that the OP and ED were pretty catchy in some sense!

[CHARACTER: 7/10]

From what I've read, this is pretty much the debatable component, and I'd have to agree with some. Side characters, despite what they are called, shouldn't be fit into a series just for decoration. There is a slight tinge of that in this series, though. The dude Kenny just beautifies (okay, maybe not) the series with his American (?) accent. That Airi, whom I thought at first would play an important role, did not do anything significant through the series. I was, however, happy that Hanamiya got a decent feature episode.

Now on to the main ones. Wait, can that even be plural? It's up to you to watch and decide, but in my honest opinion I felt there was only one main character in this series, who expressed her inner feelings well and had great development (*ahem* through many timelines *ahem*). Apart from that, the other two characters seem to just be what I'd like to call 'supporting main characters'.

[ENJOYMENT: 8/10]

There is tragedy, so no way there could be any comedy in this series, and that in itself is a minus point. But the feels towards the end tremendously make up for it. I was intrigued in trying to figure out the explanations, and even went to Google certain terms mentioned. I came out none the wiser but hey, at least it captured my attention for 11.5 episodes, and that's fantastic.

The ending did not go they way I had hoped for it to be. It was an ambiguous ending, but I certainly think that that was the way to end it off. To let people think for themselves what possible timelines and events could occur, and for the visual novel players to rue some possible missed scenes.

[OVERALL: 8/10]

Cut Waremete some slack. It wasn't anticipated that much, but they did give it a commendable effort. And this effort got to me. Whether it will to you, please watch to find out. Because a 'you' in another timeline may have already done so and is currently crying tears of joy.

For the sake of full-disclosure, I watched this anime as part of /r/anime's "Nerves of Steel" contest, where users were assigned various "bad" anime and forced to sit through them.

Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete (from hereon referred to as Waremete), honestly surprised me. My expectations were rock-bottom, since the only reason I had even heard of this anime, let alone watched it, was because it was deemed trash. Looking at the rating, it seemed that was true.

Waremete is a school romantic sci-fi mystery, centered around time travel. What a mouthful. An interesting mystery is set up in episode one. Sadly, the vast majority of the mystery ... in the show is made ridiculously blatant by the second episode. Then, for awhile, the show turns into a mediocre school romance anime. For the first two-thirds of the anime, I was at least happy to learn that the show wasn't bad at all. It was just overwhelmingly mediocre. What kept me going (other than the contest requiring me to finish it) was the potential of the time travel plot that was ignored for the majority of the show.

I can honestly say that Waremete, in all of it's long-winded generic existence, has a thoroughly satisfying payoff. And that's exactly why I bumped the show up to an 8 from a 5 or 6. I really cannot stress the long-windedness of the generic slice-of-life segments enough, but they didn't exactly surprise me. Waremete was adapted from a visual novel and anyone who has played a few knows that many of them are extremely long with little to no actual depth. That perfectly describes the first two-thirds of Waremete. Furthermore, some of the main characters were never fully developed, with their plot-lines being abandoned halfway through. One character, Kenny, was even more of a running gag/plot device than an actual character. My guess would be that the character issues were due to the fact that they only had around 4 hours (12 episodes) to tell a 10-30 hour story (according to VNDB.)

The animation quality wasn't particularly amazing or unique, but if you've seen Oregairu Zoku, then you know that feel's (the studio who made both Waremete and the aforementioned) greatest strength is facial expression. That definitely shows in Waremete. I was impressed by the variety of expressions. They were often extremely subtle, yet packed with character. Anime has been having a lot of trouble with expression as of late, so that was nice to see. I also enjoyed the music a lot. The op in particular set the mood of the (late) show really well.

Now, getting back to the most important point: why should you watch this? Before I trailed off, I mentioned that Waremete has a great payoff. After all of the mediocre slice-of-life ends, we finally get a gripping time travel story full of interesting ideas and concepts. Look, I may be just be a sucker of time travel. Steins;Gate and A Certain Magical Girl Anime are two of my favorites. Regardless, the ideas and emotions portrayed in the final act of Waremete are not ones I will soon forget. If you have any interest in the time travel genre at all, take a look at Waremete if you can stomach the first two-thirds. My love for time travel might be making me overpraise Waremete, but I can at least promise you that this school romantic sci-fi mystery comes to a close in a tight, satisfying way.

This anime... completely baffled me.

I started off with kind of mysterious start, some nerd falling asleep at some lab. It then become a standard high school anime, of the casual caliber. Girl loves guy, guy is dense and girl wants to tell him her feelings. Standard... until strange events started to happen.

Honestly, the anime had NO FREAKING SENSE to me until episode 9. After I watched that episode, I had a feeling of rewinding the movie and going "Oooooooooooooooh so that's why".

I never thought that the anime was going for the reverse storytelling style. Usually animes progress as the story unfolds. But this one had ... me with a jack in a box. The story makes no sense until you watch the one episode where everything is revealed. It feels like the real anime plot started from there, but you cannot say that anymore because you understand all the episodes you watched until then. I feel both confusion and appreciation that they did the story this way.

Okay, now for the anime itself. Its story is good, though it hides it in the casual closet, then it becomes a sci-fi time travel quantum mechanics. They go deep, with multi-string theory, time travel EVEN Schrodinger's cat. Such science.

Art is amazing. I loved the art, everything is well drawn and special effects are awesome.
The sound is standard.

I recommend it. It will take you for a spin!

The past can change the future.

As I have mentioned in my quote. Now, for the anime "In Search of the lost Future" or in Japanese pronunciation Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete.

STORY (6):

The story takes place in Uchihama Academy where Akiyama So is part of the Astronomy Club along with other people. This reminds me of Gokukoku no Brynhildr which I didn't enjoy that much. One day, a girl named Yui Furkuawa transfers into the school where she meets Sou and the gears of fate slowly begin to move.

This concept sounds interesting. I did like the way how they show us how the past and change ... the future. However, they could at least explore more about how the machines that transport a person from the future into the past works.

ART (4):

Now I have to talk about the animation. The animation at parts are very inconsistent. Some parts have extremely bold lines while some don't. The animation quality feels like an animation quality in the 2000s. I won't deduct points for the animation.

SOUND (5):

I liked the opening song. The ending song wasn't memorable. So far, from the resume of the voice actors who sung the ending song, so far they haven't done much roles.

CHARACTER (6):

Ok. Here we go.

Airi is a badass. She is the type of person you shouldn't mess with otherwise she will kick your ass.

Nagisa is an interesting character. I liked how they handle her backstory. The voice actress from Little Busters "Rin", Tomoe Tamiyasu, voiced her. I wished she had more interesting room for her development.

Sou...... Well I have not much to say about him. He is a generic character who cares for the girls. Yeah. Right! Stop making me say that.

Kaori....... She is a nice person, however her voice was annoying, like nails on chalkboard. If you notice the voice actress Hatsumi Takada who also sung on the ending song, she voiced characters in some hentai "KanojoxKanojoxKanojo". I don't understand what happened but her voice was the most annoying out of the bunch. I'm so sorry that I have to say that.

I did like Kenny, however he didn't have much material to work with. I just wish that Kenny would at least try to have some character development with the astronomy club members.

Yui didn't have much material to work with. She never had any emotion or charisma just like the girl from Amnesia. If Yui had more material to work with then she becomes a better character.

I liked their bonding moments with the group. I just wished some characters have enough development.

My favourite character: Nagisa & Airi
My least favourite character: Kaori

I'm so sorry, people. I hope you don't get offended.

CONCLUSION (6):

I did enjoy this anime however, I wish this anime could at least make some characters flesh out or stand out from the crowd. Some voice actors were good while some were not. I think maybe some were trying their best to bring in emotion into characters.

For the animation, if they could at least put in more budget within the animation, it could have been better.

I just feel that the voice actors could at least put more emotion into voicing the characters.

For what it's worth, I give this anime a 6 out of 10.

Short review:

Slice of life that you would have thought it's just another typical harem anime, not it's not. It has tragedy time travel and romance.The first episodes will confuse you what the heck is happening then as you continue watching, the story goes like nothing happened. It all made sense later on and the anime ended with a conclusion which I guess is good.

Pros:
- unexpected genre shift
- characters are likable
- the drama is alright
- no bullshit like fanservice, fillers or other nonsense
- it has a conclusion
...
Cons:
- everything in this anime is nothing new, as you've already saw in other anime's
- visuals looks outdated, like the early 2000's animation
- slice of life element may bore you
- execution of the story is not done well
- you may find the MC's goal trivial

Overall it's a worth to watch. Not the best in the time travel genre as you can find better out there but it's still good.

Final Verdict: 7/10

For the big picture, I enjoyed Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete, yet when it came to the ending, it left me incredibly frustrated. It was nothing but an advertisement of the source material and the ending for the anime did not complete the route it decided to go down, which is the True End, and instead, decides to hang to leave people wondering to explore the source material. Only problem with that is, overseas audiences have no access to the source material. The whole advertisement for source material concept is flawed for overseas audiences considering we have no access to the source material, therefore leaving the ... story for us incomplete for a long time. Now to the anime review:

For an anime about parallel timelines, it setup the narrative really well and leaves details we don't understand in the beginning thats dismissed as something else becomes tomorrows understanding. It paced itself really well and left each episode interesting and excited to watch the next one. Though it loses its pacing due to original content the anime added that tried to feel like the VN, but failed to entice me into believe it was a storyline from the VN considering at how poorly executed it was. The animation was pretty subpar and it was apparent that quality checks weren't done. The ending to the anime left me raging at the fact that for 15 minutes, nothing was accompished whatsoever, and when it came down to the last couple of minutes when he realizes the truth, the anime ends right before the True End route completes, leaving the story unfinished. If it had a 13th episode, I could see that it would wrap the route up, but since its 12, not so much. As much as I hated the ending and the whole anime advertise to the source material crap, I did enjoy the series as a whole, thus the 7/10. Do I recommend it? Yes and No.

this anime is going to be on my top 10 romance anime list i like the story,
the charachters ,the art is pretty decent, i enjoyed the anime its really good
i rate this anime 8/10 i love the ending and i like how there is like a little comedy for it this actually almost made me cry really really good anime
this anime is supossed to be rated 7 but some people has their own opinion
i hope this anime get known by a lot of people in the future and
i personally recomended it for people who enjoys romance anime

so i'm giving this series a 10 even though it probably doesn't deserve it. the series managed to get me emotionally invested in the characters. the pacing is a bit slow, but there's a lot of character development.

honestly, the story and ending are a bit illogical and depressing. but, i think that's part of the beauty of it. if it hadn't played out the way it did, it wouldn't have had as profound of an impact. it's a tragedy that i wished was a comedy.

and the main reason i'm giving it a 10: because it managed to deeply invest me ... in this story which doesn't play out the way you want. in doing so, it has a much larger effect on the viewer than it would otherwise. if it didn't, i wouldn't be writing this review.

but i'm still really mad about the ending. like really pissed.

First of all, let me clear stuff up. This anime is a Romance, School, Drama, Sci Fi anime.
I picked it up since I wanted some good romance and this one looked like it would fit the bill, but by the end of it, I was left disappointed.

Story 7/10:
You can't understand what's happening in this anime until the 8th episode. Before that, just play along as the dense protagonist fails to take a hint and pass their daily school lives. After the 8th episode, it gets a little interesting but still it's nothing new. It's a total copy of Steins; Gate. And the romance, there ... is very little. Yes, there is the whole love thing but it's unrequited and the whole thing you might have for the pair is killed in the end. I'd say this was a poor romance.

Art 6/10:
The animation isn't all that pleasing. If it had a good story, then it would be ok to have some bad graphics and animation. But this has so-so animation and graphics. Nothing special.

Character 6/10:
The characters aren't all that pleasing either. The protagonist is dense and can't seem to understand the girl's feeling while the others keep on making situations for them to be together and he messes them up. Some characters bear a striking resemblance to those in other anime. *Hint: Ano Natsu de Matteru (MIB girl)*

Enjoyment 7/10:
I watched the first episode and left it. I started it again after a week and managed to go through all the episodes. It was boring until the 8th episode when I understood what was really happening. After that, it's the same repetitive routine till the 11th episode. After that, things get settled. I guess the last 20% of the series is what is enjoyable.

Overall, I can't say this was a good watch. I wanted a romance anime, instead I got an average school anime with sci fi and bad romance. Can't say I'm happy about it. I don't know why you should watch this anime, but if you've got a lot of free time and no other anime to watch, try your luck with this one. Maybe you might like it, who knows.

It's a slow anime with a plot that is very predictible, but enjoyable though. It starts with a huge event that may make u think its a thriller/mistery anime, but as the story develops, the plot loses it and the story is just about friends that gather together and spend some time at the school club. Its not until EP 9 that things start again the same way we were introduced in the 1st episode. I would recommend it for someone that doesn't kwow what to watch since it only has 12 episodes, so they would finish it in a week and it wouldn't take ... much of their time. But i was into it enough to finish it and i wouldnt say it is a bad anime at all. The characters are funny, cute and i think this is the strongest point of the anime. Overall, i think its a nice anime with some good moments. 7/10

This show is really underrated, like REALLY underrated. I've got to agree that it is not close to being the best mystery/romance series but it deserves concideration.

Story: 7
The story is really unique, it's rare to see time traveling anime because thet need to be done correctly or they will fall flat and be forgotten fast. Sadly, "In Search Of A Lost Future" kinda fall in this category. The story is paced really weirdly and some useless Slice of Life elements really did slow the anime pace. But at least, near the end everything makes sense and everything is explained.

Art: ... 6
I did not hate the art of this show but I did not like it at the same time. Because there were a lot of derps in the facial art and mostly in the first episodes. The animation style looked great and fluid. The colors were beautiful when they needed to.

Sound: 7
This opening is great, I never skipped it because it really follows the mood of the anime. It was a cute song but at the same time it could be sad. The original soundtracks was very good, but there was not much memorable soundtracks. The endings were great too. For the sound effect, I did not find anything incorrect so I would say it was impeccable.

Characters: 6
The main cast is really interesting and intriguing but somehow the directing for the charaters wasn't done correctly. Yui, Kaori and Sou did get good characterisation because they were important fir the story to progress. Airi and Nagisa were somehow useful im the last few episodes but never really shined before. Except for Nagisa who got a date arc of maybe 3 episodes but was forgotten after since it was just to see a bit of her personnality. Finall, Eitarou is the last member of the club, he is almost invisible, he got no personnality, no developement and almost no screen time, he's only there to be another male character.

Enjoyement: 7
I did enjoy this series. However, it could have been a better ride. They tried to pack so much in 12 and somehow failed to, it went on a mess where useless arc that we couldn't care less stopped us from seing what's happening next. I would have prefered it to be faster paste and show a better personalisation of the characters instead of doing arcs for them that are easily forgotten.

Overall: 7
In the end, I did not expect it to be any good. I started this show thinking that I would drop it after 3 episodes but no. If you like harem series with a touch of mystery you will like it. Also, it has some similarities with steins gate so if you are a fan of time traveling you have to watch this show.

Contains spoilers, but it's necessary to discuss some aspects of it.

Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete deserves a 6 - no more or less. The anime was not bad at all, but there are a lot of flaws that may steer viewers away from this anime easily. I watched it through and I'd say it's not as bad as what people say.

If you look at the recommendations to this anime, Steins;Gate is among that list. I believe that this anime shares very similar themes, but this anime doesn't execute those themes anywhere as effectively as Steins;Gate.

STORY: 5. One thing about this anime is that time travel is ... a huge theme in this anime. There are many questions about time travel. For example, if I do something in one time frame when doing time travel, what happens to people in another time frame? This anime is very iffy about addressing this.

Also, the numbers that appear on the screen confused me. I didn't know what they meant until around ep. 3/4. This is likely to confuse many viewers for sure.

My last issue is that I believe there are some pointless episodes as well that pertain to nothing to the plot. You will see some background stories of the main characters, but they serve no purpose to steering the plot.

Otherwise, there is a story, and there is a direction. I can tell you that much. Because time travel is a big thing, you will see a bunch of scenes over and over in different ways, which is executed pretty well.

ART/SOUND: 7, 8, respectively. I feel that some of the art was a bit iffy at times when it came to the animation. Otherwise, no complaints here, but nothing that stands out.

Character: 8. The characters are very likable. They are different, and they aren't heavy stereotypes. Not much else to say other than characters are done well.

Enjoyment: 6. Time travel is a huge mystery. We're not sure what the effects will be physically and mentally. I believe that the anime really missed on the psychological effect of time travel for the person that does the traveling. Otherwise, I felt that the episodes were okay and enjoyable.

Overall: 6. The anime is not bad. 6 to me is not bad at all. I enjoyed it, but at the same time, I found many flaws that bothered me with this anime. Most, if not all of the flaws, are really directed at the story. At times, the story is very confusing until later. I'd give this anime a shot, but you need to commit more than a few episodes to get the grasp of the story.

TL;DR at the bottom. If you're lazy to read this, go rock bottom.
--
Sooo, here we are, Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete. Just in case, THIS IS a VN adaptation so, yeah, don't expect much.
Let's just begin:

-------
Pros:

+Plot
Seriously, this is one damn of underrated anime, you know why? Because people who 'underated' this is 12yo kid who like to watch some whinylilpussy low-end anime that has no story depth.
...
Dun' worry, tho, cause, really, it's only the plot that give me enough point to watch this thing.

The story is there, it is, you may get confused at beginning about the timeline due to bad headstart but the late episode will explain to you what is the shit, so sit down.
Uhmmm, maybe, I should skip explaining like what the story truly is? Well, go read some synopsis if you haven't know the story.
IT IS good, it has a depth, a depth of what is what, why is why, and well not so really "how is how"-ish how is how (I mean, sure it doesn't explain it's 'intended' creation of 'newfound' technology as depth as Steins;Gate, but, well, e/e except that is at least explained). Every person has a reason, a 'development', a story, and, something to analyze, and well, yeah, the plot barely consist of anything else beside the character trolling so, yeah.

The plot itself is, as I've said, not intended for "whiny shonen enjoyer", instead, it's intended to people who take it deep, and analysis the story fully, until they understand what is what. Even though you don't, you will, certainly, "at the very least" understand what's going on if you finish it cause it will all be explained anyway in the late episodes. That's why, a lot of people drop it off before they finish or barely just watching it, because, well, they did sent you flyin on mysterious 'not connected at all' headstart, so people tend to mark it as "An Anime that doesn't make sense" before they even see the end, with open eyes, that is. That's why, be patient.

AND, after you finish and understand what the heck is the connection of every episode, you even WOULD, and, STILL, brush it off as 'bad', due to odd, and certainly bad enjoyment in the episodes before. Don't worry, me too, I hate the way they do things. The start and the late episodes was good, but in the middle where they scramble it all up, it isn't (Yeah, for god sake it's like the writer is out of idea). So, why don't you 'try' to re-watch by flipping the episodes? The first beginning world (The Future one and first ep), and then lop it all off after that? Trust me, it feels, well, at least, a little different, and certainly, going to give off the feeling of generic anime. That way, you will feel more at 'ease'. And also marathon-ing this one is kind of bad, cause it will leave you with a feeling that it could be wrapped in 4/5 episode or so, due to middle fillers, so, well, take it slow for this one. I guess.

Its a 'monogatari' that tells about (after time-leap/ep 2) a boy who suddenly found naked girls that doesn't seem to have memory. Yeah, 'Mainstream' I'd say. Unless, this one did 'Have' a 'natural' connected dots to each and everyshit that's happening, unlike most of the same concept that only have some, kinda, 'Forced' connection to each and everybull. The writer successfully pull his ass out of the safe zone, gives off a kind of a dick story, and choose the 'ending' of the route that suit the plot as a whole, also left people craving for better end (duh, y'know nakige?). And I'd say the fillers in the middle are some kind of relationship-exploration-wannabe, but, well, it doesn't end up as good, I guess. So I'd say it's a kind of success on the Plot side. (Don't worry me, I'm currently affected by the VN)

---
+Character
Not so good, but not bad. For me, I'd say, everyone else except MC, is great, they are generic normal char, but, they do have, like I've said, a reason. And it's not your ridiculous "I want to protect you because I love you/You are my friend, blablabla" and "I love you at first sight, cause you are blablabla". They do, tho, have similar reasoning, with a slight difference. Sadly tho, that slight difference already make their reasoning seems 'valid' and 'logic' and certainly realistic and (kinda) complex. Look at Airi, why is she doing what? You'll understand if you try. AND certainly not just there to fall in dokidoki with MC (although they do), they are (almost) all plot critical and not just there to color MC up with harem. I'll leave the rest to yourself.

MC is, well, your normal whiny kid (except he did, became a smart scientist), only with a slight difference. Not much to say here, I'm sure you know better yourself.

---
+Art
Dunno what to say. It's smooth, alright, it sure is not clunky. And, uhh, it's my style? More like personal opinion here. But, well, w/e.

---
+Sound
Personally, the OST is nice. But really, people tend to have different taste ain't they? (Fuccggaa..I dunno what to say)

-------
Cons:

-Presenting
Really, really, bad, and that should also affect the plot in overall, but, well, w/e. And I've already explained most point of this part up there, so yeah, w/e, really.

-Ehh, what should I call this? The middle of the show.
I guess, is that right? Well, in short (like, real short), some (not all) of the thing in between is some kind of "fillers", that makes it, well, looks like it could be wrapped in just 4/5 episode. Although, some (1/2?) really add a great depth to the character (watching star, etc.) the others are well, as I've said, fillers.

-I dunno, that's all there is?
Oh, right, IMO, it should've picked Airi~ route instead :p Let the girl die.. like, all of them...

-------
Bottom line, (TL;DR, dude)

It's good, as long as you take it slow. Here is the way it do things: Serious->Mysterious->Romcom-ious->Back-to-Mysterious->Not-so-forced-Tear-Forced-End-ious
So, yeah, you'll left hollow with conflicting feelings if you hobble it all up in one/two go.
The character is, well, a decent generic chara, but, oh well, not bad.
Music isn't really rich, but enough at least. Don't expect Aimer-EGOIST class here.
Art is, well, mediocre good.
In short, if you hunger for some plot-heavy anime, the one that doesn't really have a big shot on other point then, well, you might try this one up.
The End.
Maybe?




--All in all, this is my personal opinion, agree or not, it's your freedom.
--Thanks for 'at least' reading this
--Sorry if I mishit any point, typos, or whatever wrong I just did.


Note
*Reviewed by the viewpoint of mediocre(mid) VN adaptation
*And yeah, I love the VN, and definitely recommend the VN. You need to be able to read Jap tho :P, as of currently, there isn't (yet) any en patch.

Hey guys , it's been a long time since I've wrote a review , so I hope that you will enjoy it .
Well, shall we begin ?
First of all some of you guys know that this anime is based on the game with the same name and if I'm not mistaken it's an eroge , not that I've played it , yet . The synopsis is written above so I will skip it .
What I liked about the about this anime that it had and still has the Steins;Gate vibe in it, I won't go in detail about this but you should ... watch that one to . Time travel is the main word if you want to describe this show, but the bad part about it that this isn't to well explained and because of that some holes in the story were born , of course you can let them slide and enjoy the anime as it is .
About the characters, here is the main problem, they weren't fleshed out and because of that the drama in this show plummeted toward earth at lighting speed and the result was a 3rd rate melodrama. If this had 24, 25, 26 episodes the end result could've been a lot better.
The soundtrack, what can I say here, nothing I guess, didn't find it really good or bad, generic is the right word for it, my bad is that I rarely care about the OST in a series that doesn't take itself to seriosly as in this case.
The art/animation, another weak point, I don't demand something like Unlimited Blade Works for every anime out there, I know it's impossible, but it looked kinda outdated, something from 2008/2009 in 2016 is not a good selling point. As a side note, the first episode was the worst of the batch, it felt and looked really awkward, still frames, poor drawing and such .
I have this thing, if I don't enjoy an anime even a little I won't finish it, so yeah I enjoyed it for the story and for the ending, that he made the right choice about the girl.
For the closing words, or the conclusion, however you want to call it, the story was good, could've been better, the characters felt like they had no life in them, the soundtrack was nothing special, the art was a little ' plain ' for.my taste, and outdated, overall it had potential, but it didn't go as planed I guess.

This feels like a show with a bit of an identity crisis.

When you start watching the first episode, you settle into what it seems like this is going to be. A high school club show, with a solid enough set up; the Astronomy Club is actually a really fun group, with a strong dynamic, distinct characters, and a good pre-existing rapport; their position in the school is great fun, with the idea of them being known for getting into trouble, and the Student Council even relying on them as informal problem-solvers, being really cool. The first episode pitches this as something along the lines ... of Hyouka or Kokoro Connect (admittedly with much poorer visuals), a fun high-school mystery series, perhaps with a bit more of a supernatural, or at least faux-supernatural, side to it.

Then, as a twist at the end of episode 1, we realise that there's a lot more going on; a horrible accident, a time-loop, a mysterious girl. Think a high-school, lower-effort version of that middle section of Steins;Gate. Again, I don't think this is a bad idea. We get bits of explanation trickled through, so by the time we officially learn everything, it feels like the show has given us enough of that information to get most of the way there without feeling like it's been overly predictable. There's a decent enough sense of urgency about it, each loop feels like enough changes that it never feels repetitive, and it also doesn't force itself to show us more loops than necessary, so from that point of view it never falls into that trap so many time-loop stories stumble into.

Either one of these shows could have worked well. The problem is that they tend to get in the way of each other. Because it has to keep focused on the time-loop story, which is clearly intended as the main plot, the Astronomy Club hijinks tend to fall by the wayside, with those mystery aspects that drew me into the first episode so much never really getting a chance to happen. We see the club getting ready for the school festival, and one specific incident we see a few variations of, but not much else. Given the club felt so unique at the start, and the dynamic between the characters felt so fun, it's a shame that it falls so much by the wayside.

But, conversely, because it still has those characteristics of a club show, the time-loop plot also feels a little underbaked. While the sense of urgency is still there, there actually isn't that much that happens. There's not a whole lot of proactive character decisions made, just a lot of knee-jerk reactions to specific situations; it's a very reactive story. This also adds a secondary issue, being that, because the time-loop story feels so underwhelming, it makes the feeling that the show has wasted the Astronomy Club dynamic even stronger; I really feel like this would have been better cutting the time-loop entirely, and just having it be that high school mystery show the first episode hinted at.

It comes together to make a show that doesn't quite know what it wants to be. This isn't the only aspect that feels like this, either. There's a bit of an odd romance dynamic; the obvious pairing the show is clearly hinting at for most of the time never comes into fruition, and where the protagonist's eye ends up shifting to is weird at first, and, once you learn the bigger picture of the story, a little bit creepy. The show's a visual novel adaptation, so that definitely explains this a lot; there's obviously different paths the player can take the romance. Still, it's another way that the show ends up feeling like it doesn't quite know what it wants to do, and in this case it makes that shift in the romance feel a little out of nowhere.

Ultimately, this is just a bit unremarkable. The animation follows suit, not awful but fairly stilted and uninteresting (the OP included, although I actually found the ED quite charming), the sound design is fine, nothing awful but nothing to comment on. Overall, it feels like an adaptation of a half-successful visual novel that made enough money to be financially viable, but didn't inspire any real creativity or passion in the people making it, leading to an anime that just feels sort of there.
There's definitely something better in here, a more refined version of this story that balanced its two identities well and created something with some real weight to it. It's a good premise, just with lacklustre execution. And sometimes, even though I did mostly enjoy this, that feels even worse than outright disliking something.

This show, in my opinion, took way too long to kick into gear. Throughout the first half of the show, I spent more time wondering where this show was going than actually focusing on the show. The story takes too long to progress for you to even enjoy the show in the first place. In all honesty, I was somewhat hooked when shit hit the fan. This anime wasn't entirely all that bad.

Story - 4
I had no sense of what the story even was until things started getting explained. The problem with this show was that hardly anything was explained EVER. The only thing I ... got from the first few episodes is that there's this dude who really likes stars and CHIKUSHOOOOO his childhood friend is dead and NANIIIII???? we're suddenly back at the start with a new white-haired girl. Even after the appearance of Yui, I still wasn't understanding what was happening.

Art - 4
Meh. Nothing special. Pretty boring to look at honestly. It did have a few moments. 10/10 for the freaky black box though.

Sound - 2
The sound in this show had no effect on me whatsoever. OST wasn't anything special either. I felt nothing from the music. OP was decent.

Character - 3
I LOVE YUI. She's was great, but she still can't make up for all of what the other character's lack. I HATE KAORI. Her voice actor, imo, was too high-pitched. Also, I just felt that Kaori was nothing but selfish the entire duration of the series. Kenny, funny guy, nothing cool about him though. Nagisa was going SOMEWHERE with the whole arranged marriage thing but then it was totally DROPPED. Airi, poor girl never even had a chance with Sou. Sou-kun, I don't think he was a strong enough lead.

Enjoyment - 5
First half of the series was bleh, but again, once it got going, I was intrigued. Still, this show was pretty hard to get through.

Overall - 4
I believe this show COULD HAVE BEEN SOMETHING GREAT. But sadly, it isn't.