Unnamed Memory

Unnamed Memory - Kadokawa, you fumbled the anime so hard that your intentionally planned speed-running does not give incentive to entice viewers further, WORD.

What's up with the Spring 2024 season bringing back classics from all walks of life, from IPs like Spice and Wolf's remake and Bartender's reboot, to the pre-Mushoku Tensei era Syosetu titles of Re:Monster, The New Gate, and most specifically, novelist Kuji Furumiya's work that is Unnamed Memory (all of which preceded Rifujin na Maganote's masterpiece work)? All I can say that we live in a rather fascinating time watching old classics that took a decade plus (12 years to be exact, ... if counting Narou releases to anime) to get their anime adaptations, though for the same reason (as I've mentioned in Re:Monster's review) that these works were stories of their time, and by comparison, Unnamed Memory would be the best out of the 3.

That is...if not for the anime's literate "walk in the park" expression, that's almost just as insulting as being part of the 3 classic, but really bad adaptations to betray source material readers of the works that deserved much better than what was presented for the past 3 months.

To quote @Pekorn's words:
A witch who lives in an azure tower, and a cursed prince.
If they could rewrite time, what would they do with such power?
This is the story of what happens when everything is overwritten: encounters, love, and human conviction to do anything for the one they love that will change their fate and destiny. No matter how cruel it may be, love triumphs over them all.

A curse of devastating infertility that struck not just a random person, but someone of noble status — that's who Oscar is: the crown prince of his country, Farsas. The said curse that deprives Oscar of having potential descendants should he try to do the deed against any woman who will bear his child, which instead of trying to find the witch that imprisoned him, leads him to another well-known witch: Tinasha, the Witch of the Azure Moon. After completing her trial to climb up the azure tower to meet her and request a resolution to this long-standing curse, her answer is only one: overcome the curse by marrying somebody whose magical powers outweigh the witch who cursed him. And Oscar's thought process is plain and simple: "Said woman is in front of me, I will choose you to be my wife, even if you reject me firsthand." Of course, this is nothing but balderdash to Tinasha, who flusters in a shell-shocked manner, because having a witch be the future queen of Farsas is next to impossible, with Oscar potentially being ridiculed for his rather unkempt decision and quite possibly losing his credibility as a talented crown prince. Still, every person who succeeded in climbing the witch's tower gets a wish, and Oscar's wish is for both him and Tinasha to have a trial relationship for a year, to which the latter responds in kind and agrees to his request, descending down her tower and being his acting fiancée for the time allowable.

First things first, let's not beat around the bush, yeah? Unnamed Memory is a fantasy work that may not seem original as it comes, but at least it's an enjoyable work to read through the paces of both the original LN and its manga counterpart. And with Oscar and Tinasha's romance being set dead centre of the series, going through their past, present, and future, as well as what makes them tick and yearn for one another, this is a relationship that's not just a political one (like so many other Isekai/fantasy works are). But also, one that thrives on mutual agreement, maturity, and, most important of all, admiring one another's quirks well enough to make the year-long trial relationship a success on not just Oscar's part, but Tinasha as well, being accepted by the people of Farsas enough to stand alongside said crown prince as a suitable queen who can protect them in the long run. Whether it is their moments of independence or co-dependence working together to outrun enemies ranging from the usual baddies to old friends and the like, the hunky and handsome crown prince who wields his Akashia sword as a sign of his strength as a capable swordsman, along with the witch who is just as beautiful compared to witches similar to her calibre, and also just as strong as Oscar, their attachments towards each other may be fraught with fights and lovey-dovey moments, but what they have is an equally supportive relationship, which in my eyes, is rare to see in a fantasy/romance series. And that's what makes their interactions work, which makes the series great to begin with.

Sadly, this is the end of my praises, because, by the infinite wisdom and courtesy of Kadokawa and one of their subsidiary studios of ENGI, they proceed to butcher the anime horrendously and give everyone a not-so-good impression. Yes, even to Oscar, Tinasha, and the rest of the characters in the ever-growing love story, which made the source material so good to digest. But you, as the viewer, have to understand that for works like Unnamed Memory, the usual story arcs that we're so used to in series like Re:Zero and the like, did not exist back in 2012, of which authors will go by "Acts" (think of literature works and such) to define not just journeys made, but the "starting and ending" progression of the stories within the series as a whole. And the premiere season here covering the first half of the LN (the first 3 volumes of 6 of the LN, encapsulating Act One), it's definitely jarring to see pacing so out of whack and content needlessly removed, that anything and everything didn't amount to much when all is said and done. I find myself questioning why Oscar and Tinasha's relationship was going at a breakneck speed from the flirtations to partner stages that, over time, I just didn't bother to give a heck care for, only to realize that the producers had a choice to adapt less to cover more content that would help the anime pace the LN a lot better (as opposed to going by the story's Acts approach), but that someone, somewhere within Kadokawa, just ditched that idea and asked ENGI to go ham at it.

Speaking of ENGI, they're not the most consistent studio out there, and their being affiliated with Kadokawa doesn't make things any better. By the production standards of the show, it was supposed to look good, but after a considerable production delay that set them back from its intended original release last year, I have to say that it looks...alright. Though nothing truly stood out, I'm just relieved that in-house director Kazuya Miura and his production staff team at ENGI managed to get the product out considerably, even if it doesn't look the best.

The only positive thing that came from the anime was the music. I especially love Tei's OP "Yobigoe" (i.e. Call), it's the right amount of fit for a fantasy show like this, exasperated by her high-octane musicality and clear, majestic vocals that give the show the fantasy feel. It's the same story for Arika's ED "blan_", of which the music unit is composed of VA Yuko Natsuyoshi (Maou Gakuin's Sasha Necron) and composer-cum-guitarist Yamato, that the latter's vocals also contribute to the melodramatic cues of the song being bright, but also blighted in a way to tell of Oscar and Tinasha's rocky relationship in the story. It's a musical masterclass here, folks.

Since this show has gotten a Season 2 to finish off Act Two a.k.a the 2nd half of the LN (which is confirmed for Winter next year), I'm literally praying that the story resolves well, against all odds. That said, you could do worse by following the anime, and by the same complaints of the begrudging reader telling you to go and read the original source material, I truly think that at least you have to read the LN in manga form (even though the anime has already surpassed it) to get more context for the between-the-gaps missing content and how things spiralled from then to now.

There's no doubt in my mind that the anime is a far inferior version of the source material, and there's no hope for a decent adaptation like this one.

Amidst the bustling landscape of this season's anime offerings, Unnamed Memory stands out as a beacon of promise, particularly for those seeking a romantic escape into the world of fantasy.

The tale begins with a cursed prince, burdened by an evil enchantment that threatens to shroud his life in perpetual darkness. He embarks on a perilous journey to ascend a foreboding tower to seek reprieve, where the key to lifting his curse supposedly lies. But as fate would have it, his path converges with that of a mysterious witch whose enigmatic presence promises both salvation and uncertainty.

As the prince navigates the trials within the tower, each ... challenge brings him closer to the witch, culminating in a pivotal moment where he extends a proposal unlike any other: to share his life with her for a year. It's a proposition steeped in desperation and hope, setting the stage for a captivating romance transcending fate's boundaries.

While Unnamed Memory leans more towards a serious and romantic tone, it doesn't hesitate to inject moments of fun and humor into the narrative. Amidst the earnest exchanges and heartfelt confessions, there are glimpses of lightheartedness that balance the weight of the character's emotional journey.

Moreover, the anime tantalizes viewers with the promise of intriguing backstories and potential antagonists, hinting at a deeper layer of conflict and action that awaits. The story unfolds deliberately with each episode, allowing for meticulous character development and world-building that lay the foundation for future revelations.

Though Unnamed Memory may not yet claim the title of masterpiece, its measured approach to storytelling and commitment to gradual progression instills a sense of anticipation and curiosity in its audience. As the season unfolds, one can't help but wonder where this enchanting journey will ultimately lead and whether it will emerge as a standout gem among this season's anime lineup.


Update: 6 episodes in, and the allure of a fantastic romance no longer appeals to me. The pacing is terrible. I wish I were exaggerating, but this anime plays like a bunch of fragmented episodes with critical events transpiring between them that we miss.

That this anime is tagged with romance is insulting to all the other great romance anime out there. The first episode began with a lot of promise, but after that promising start, the romance withered and died on the vine. If the two main characters had any chemistry to start with it quickly dried up, a casualty of this rushed adaption.
Speaking of rushed adaption the main story has been given no room to breathe and characters no chance to be developed. I honestly wonder why the studio even bothered to adapt this story if they were only going to botch it this badly.
Furthermore, the ... animation is just barely passable as average and the fight choreography is all but absent which, for me, is the final nail in the coffin.

Unnamed memory is a very popular and esteemed title when it comes to light novels. Being adapted from such a good source you can't expect it to be that bad. But ENGI spitting on our dreams and expectations releases this adaptation which is worse than a pile of bullshit.

Let me get into it straight:
So the story atleast in the first ep looked very promising with the above average art and animation provided to it. But then in the second episode and then all the other further episodes you are greeted with stuff which you dont realise how or why is happening. In short, ... ENGI skipped full arcs between episodes and also some important interactions of both the main characters. Every episode is like its own story because its not started from where its left off in the previous episode. I haven't read the light novel but I have indeed read the manga to some extent and I can vouch for the quality of the original source material which is miles ahead comparing to this piece of abomination of an adaptation.
I'd recommend just watching the first ep and then reading on the LN or the manga for the best experience.

In a story like this, romance is the main focus point and with the amount of interactions that have been skipped between the main ship is like unfuckingbelievable. Their relationship feels weird to say the least because of how non sensical it becomes result of the full arcs and material skips by ENGI of the source material to fulfill their adaptation I suppose? If we were given a full story paced with the LN or even the manga I think this could have easily been one of the best romance animes out there if not the best. Probably could have easily gotten an 8 rating on MAL.

Anyways you guys should stay away from this.

Another Disaster from Studio ENGI & Kadokawa.
The anime is extremely rushed, they skipped whole chapters from the LN. The first few chapters are very important for world building and setting up character dynamics, but they are just skipping these parts for no reason. This is exactly the main problem with this anime.
The animation is also not that good, this is just Kadokawa's usual LN Advertisement, which probably will not get a Season 2. Seriously, the LN of this has actual story, good plot and character development.
They also did the same with Trapped in a Dating Sim, they skipped so many elements ... from the LN, although still the anime was better than this one.
If anyone is interested in this story please read the LN It's much better.

Either they ran out of budget, never cared about the source material at all, or both simultaneously. Episode 1 is the best episode of this series. If I were rating exclusively that single episode, it would be at least an 8.5/10. Unfortunately, every episode after that is an empty husk. Please just read the light novel. It's a very good story with a massively terrible adaptation.

So, you're making an anime. First episode goes great. What do you do? Skip the next two entire story arcs, obviously! Who needs character development anyways! We're speedrunning the plot for no apparent reason other than to get to some ... arbitrary point in the source material that might serve as a good ending to the anime. Hopefully. I still have some copium left over.

The first few arcs are arguably the most important for worldbuilding and setting up character dynamics. They introduce the world and the characters present in the world. Skip those and the characters just feel like they're doing arbitrary things for no reason. That is exactly the case with this anime. It absolutely doesn't help that they then continue to skip random bits of character interaction throughout the rest of the series.

Romance, you say? Gone, reduced to ashes. It is practically completely absent except for the parts of it that are needed to advance the plot. There is almost no chemistry between the lead characters past the first episode.

The animation is fine, I guess, when it actually exists. The characters barely have expressions. The voice acting is probably the best part of the anime.

TL;DR: Stiff and boring. Please just read either the light novel or the manga. The original series is, in my opinion, very well written. This adaptation is quite frankly insulting to the original work.

EDIT (2024-05-08): Further research revealed that they will almost certainly be adapting to the end of volume 3. That makes a whopping 4 episodes per volume on average. (Episode 5 has already concluded Volume 1.) The entire production committee deserves to be fired.

A young man climbs a witch's tower for the opportunity to be granted any wish that he desires if he should succeed. He does and meets this witch to ask her to break a curse upon him, and she informs him that she cannot immediately fulfill this wish and that it would take time. The two compromise and come to a solution: the witch will accompany the man for the next year, placing him under her protection until the curse is broken; the man himself will spend that time attempting to court her into marriage.

Unnamed Memory is an adventure-romance-fantasy, thematically speaking. It makes several major ... narrative promises, such as the aforementioned aspects of wish-fulfillment (to break a curse) and the prospect of marriage, as well as the prospect of meeting the other wicked witch who was responsible for the curse in the first place, and juggles some background elements of mystery and intrigue, showing characters outside of the main cast who skulk about in the wake of their events discussing their plots and schemes, or doing something evil to inform the viewer that the roses in the garden also have some thorns accompanying them.

The first episodes are mostly promising, showing fluidity in the action scenes, a high attention to detail in character designs, and playful dialogues. The writing is simply fine, if not good. But then something terrible happens, and it is somewhat subtle at first, but the anime begins to show quiet signs of erratic pacing - of important details being glossed over and of character development being rushed through, if not outright skipped. By episode 6 the narrative has spiraled out of control and in full decline as character relationships change without any reasoning or rationale provided to the viewer, and by episode 7 it becomes clear that neither the source material for this series nor the audience are going to be treated with any semblance of respect.

What began as a very promising anime this season has rapidly devolved into something reminiscent of an expedited shipment, handled without care, and arriving broken and lame to its destination post-transit. I do not recommend this series to anyone - it is abundantly clear even as a preliminary viewing that the series is unable to adequately fulfill any of its themes.

THIS ADAPTATION IS UNBEARABLE. What happens if you take out the worldbuilding and literally everything from LOTR? You get something similar to the ring of powers. Bad example, but this was how I felt when I was literally binging the next episode and I thought I had amnesia because every ep literally starts out like a new season. IT DOESN'T PICK UP WHERE IT LEFT OFF!!!! Man go read the manga or the LN because THIS. IS. SHITE. I am so pissed like many others because they butchered what was a supposedly great material to adapt. Man how can you mess this up when you ... even have Frieren voicing for you??

*SPOILER FREE REVIEW*
Who would've thought that trying to cram 3 books into 12 episodes wouldn't go well?
When it was revealed that ENGI would be taking on the adaptation for a wonderful, exciting, well-written light novel series in Unnamed Memory, I braced myself for dissapointment, just so I wouldn't get my hopes up. I did not expect it to be THIS bad.

1 Sentance Review:
The anime adaptation of Unnamed Memory is an incoherent mess with no respect for source material.

Recommendation: If the synopsis peaked your interest, just read the light novel or manga. Please. Don't even think about touching this.

Here's a quick overview:
Plot - ... Chopped up and half-heartedly put together with horrible pacing.
Art - Completely disparate from the Manga and the LN.
Animation - Low effort and poor.
Music - Uninspired and bland.
Voice Acting - The only beacon of hope, which extends only to our pair of leads and nobody more.

The Characters:
Tinasha, the beautiful and powerful witch, who was once intimidating yet an enchanting enigma, is now a typical anime tsundere with hardly any flavor.
Oscar, the cursed prince, who was once a respectable, charismatic man of a main character, just comes off as a creep now.
The side characters? Not even worth talking about. Hard to beleive the characters, whose only depth is their names, are the same members of the book's lovable cast.


Review:
As mentioned earlier, the anime is an insult to the source material, trying to cram way too much plot into a 12 episode season. Great animes take their time with one LN volume in a season. Some are able to get away with two. None, in good faith, have tried three.

Keep in mind, this isn't a comedy where just select great scenes can be included without regard to continuity. This is a story driven drama/romance in a fantasy world, where every plot point serves a purpose and requires careful crafting to formulate a quality world and story. It's something the author of the LN did incredibly, and it's something ENGI chose not to follow.
Put it this way, you are a fan of a novel series, and you have a list of 10 favorite scenes, a mix of vital plot points, entertaining relationship/character development, and relaxing moments. You're excited to see all those scenes get animated.

Instead, they all got skipped.

This isn't just a couple scenes getting skipped, ENGI took all the meat off the bones and left nothing but a skeleton that could hardly be considered to be in one piece. If there was anything that was consistent, it was the constant skipping of content. For reference, out of the first 10 chapters of the Manga, about 7 of them were cut from the anime. A good beginning is the foundation to great anime. This didn't even have a foundation to begin with.

The most obvious victim of this is the main characters' relationship. This is a romance, and to cut out the majority of their interactions is criminal for the genre. What was once a moderately paced burn in LN became a speeding mess that'll leave watchers bewildered with the question "when did they get so close?"
Another victim is the side characters. A great deal of the cast feel as if they were thrown in with no background or personality, which wouldn't be so terrible if they weren't meant to be adored companions of the main characters. What's missing is the introductory scenes that made readers care for these side characters, leaving them wanting to learn more and see them again. The side adventures that built not only them but their relationship with the main characters too. All that was cut from the anime, and instead those characters are tossed into the story without a care.

Enough complaining about cut content, what about the content that's actually there? Well, it's not much better. Even if a scene does get adapted, a majority of the time it is structured and portrayed in such a way that completely ruins the tone seen in the Manga or LN. Serious moments of self reflection and realization is ruined by music that doesn't fit, subtle actions are portrayed with exaggerated animation, and the soul of what was written by Kuji Furumiya, the author of Unnamed Memory, is completely misrepresented with shoehorned tropes. Hardly any scene matches the original, which begs the question, did ENGI even try?

What's unfortunate is, this had immense potential. Unnamed Memory is unique in how it's a non-isekai fantasy that strays from the typical anime storytelling tropes of adventurers guilds, video-game-like magic systems, and a world filled with creatures such as goblins, slimes, elves, etc. It's a romance that--rather than having a single MC with a harem or a power imbalance with the love interest--follows a pair who make for an absolute power couple, while still being interesting individuals themselves. The story was written with carefully crafted scenes and progressions. The world was built to have magnificent kingdoms and societies, filled with politics and history.
It was all already there, fit to become an incredible anime. Instead, ENGI decided to turn it into a generic, bland, low-effort adaptation that'll leave the audience dissapointed and disoriented.

My fear? They've turned people off from picking up the Manga or Light Novel. And that, amongst everything else, is a tragedy.

The anime isn't bad exactly, but it has no vitality to it. It's like tepid room-temperature water.

And I can confidently say the main problem is the protagonist. Tinasha is a Mary Sue character that is out of place in the world she lives in. She is simply an isolationist. She has no dreams (apart from 1, which isn't explained well and is concluded too quickly). She has no desires. She has no interesting history. She is basically a hikkikomori wish-fulfilment character for people to project onto. Tinasha lacking meaningful friendships and connections is just so terrible to me.

The male MC isn't much better. ... He is a Gary-Stu blessed with an OP sword. As expected of a story that leans heavily on using deus-ex machina and introducing new powers and characters to resolve conflicts, the MC is weakened or strengthened as required to deal with each plot element. None of it seems believable or consistent.

The worldbuilding is not good. We never get to learn much about the other kingdoms or powerhouses across the world. We don't even learn anything about the kingdom the story takes place in. This would not be much of a problem if the main cast were charismatic and the main plot elements were interesting and had consequences we cared about. But we're impoverished on all fronts here.

I can say that even the 'plot twist' in episode 9 didn't catch my interest. The music is mid. The character designs are mid. The magic system is terrible. None of this is bad enough that I can give up hope forevermore of it ever getting better. But it is bad enough that I can advise anyone reading this to avoid it. If, for some reason, you are in the mood for some garbage TV (I don't judge you -- I've watched Kitchen Nightmares many times over), go for it. Otherwise, watch anything else.

NB: Btw, the ending and opening themes are quite good considering the quality of everything else. Quite moody. In a better series they could even be emotional. Maybe I do recommend those. Nothing else.

Studio ENGI and Kadokawa bring yet another adaptation (read: LN marketing) that takes them further off course.

Omission is fine so long as the narrative doesn't break down, adaptation is fine so long as the spirit of the story and characters is preserved, and budgetary sacrifices are fine so long as the staff make use of their limitations.

None of that happened. To call it perfunctory would be an insult. The worst part is even those who haven't seen the source material can tell something is amiss. Don't waste your time with the anime. It won't scratch a fantasy itch due to the disorganized presentation ... of the world; it won't scratch the romance itch, because without hyperbole it amounts to: "let me impregnate you." Not really fitting for a more serious fantasy series, unless you want to be in line with Terry Goodkind or other like-minded writers.

I guess if you're into that, it's great.

If you are a fan of the novel, I apologize. Firstly because of the atrocity that Estudio ENGI did with the anime and secondly because of what I'm about to say.

This anime is the perfect definition of clickbait. The first two chapters are great, it even seems that the studio is going to take the adaptation seriously. Everything changes when you play chapter 3, a feeling of discomfort begins to arise within you, the discomfort turns into disappointment, the disappointment into frustration and in the end the frustration into indifference. They had a great foundation to give us one of the best anime of the ... season, only instead they preferred to give us the shit of the season.

First I must say that Tinasha and Oscar's relationship starts off as something interesting who could have an interesting dynamic. As the story progresses, Oscar becomes completely gray, boring and flat, leaving everything on Tinasha's shoulders. No matter how good a character Tinasha is, she can't carry all the weight of this world alone. And yes, she is alone, since the secondary cast is practically non-existent. The secondary characters are basically the children who acted as the tree, grass and rock in the school play. They have the same relevance as the white color of your crayon box.

This is only the beginning, because halfway through the anime it begins to make leaps in the plot. It's not that it's rushed, but you can directly notice the scissors in the parts where they cut. The cutting is so noticeable that many times you can think that you skipped an entire chapter. You return to the previous chapter only to realize that you are doing well, only the anime decided to omit, not fragments but entire pages of the story. There is supposedly a war, but the villain is so poorly constructed that he feels pathetic instead of threatening, it is a war that begins, develops and concludes in a single chapter. You don't understand how the war is resolved, because absolutely nothing is never explained to you, so everything feels like it is fixed by magic. And if this weren't enough, the ending... is so disappointing that the announcement of the 2nd season feels more like a punishment than a reward. The ending ends up making a reboot, so that the other 11 chapters practically don't matter. If you want to see the 2nd season, you can watch the last episode of this season and move on, because the other 11 have no weight with what they did in the finale.

Watching this weekly felt like you went to sleep in your bed and woke up in the center of the city. You feel like you don't know how you got to that place, that you have a blackout, that you are missing information and when you decide to investigate you see that what they skipped were too many pages of the novel with important details. The more the story progresses, the more you disconnect from the characters, the story and the world. The world feels empty and the characters plastic. Oscar goes from being flirtatious to being quite suffocating. The main relationship evolves only because the plot needs it, not because they really try to do so. To give an example, there is a chapter where Tinasha realizes what she feels for Oscar, and at the beginning of the next chapter they are already dating in bed. There's too much development missing between "I like you" and "Make me yours."

Many people who read the novel recommended it, saying that it was very award-winning, that it had a world that was amazing, and that the story was going to make you shit inside. And definitely a lot of people shit, it's just that it wasn't the viewers, but rather the studio shitting on the entire novel. The people at ENGI don't give a damn about this anime, normal since their repertoire is not known for doing things well. But there's a huge difference between a bad adaptation and the shit they did with Unnamed Memory. If you are a fan of the novel for your mental health, don't watch this. If you haven't read the novel and are interested in the story, for your mental health don't watch this.

Visually this show is alright and the setting was promising, however it seems that a lot of the source material was dropped. Watching this show feels very much like someone got the order of episodes wrong because of missing elements that would connect situations and characters behaviour.
While there were only a few confusing situations at first, where one could still make sense of the things missing, Episode 9 objectively made no sense at all anymore and there is a strong reason to doubt it can be saved in the last 3 Epsiodes at this point.

I suggest to rather read the source material for this. Since ... it was animated, it has to be a decent enough read. This show however doesn't deserve your time, which is a shame to be honest as this could have been a pretty decent.

What started off as a story with an interesting premise, quickly fell like a shooting star, becoming snuffed out with nothing left to offer.

That is how Unnamed Memory can be summed up.

The story begins with a prince afflicted with a curse that kills any woman he'd marry, on a journey to find a powerful witch that could hold the power to break his devastating curse. Upon finding the witch and gazing upon her beauty, the prince decides that he should take the witch as his bride. Surely such a powerful woman would have no trouble being with him albeit his curse.

Not a bad premise, ... if you ask me.

Unfortunately, that's where the story loses its spark. The rest of the anime is just a downward spiral of vagueness and lack of depth.

The story completely lacks any world building, even this far into the anime, I know barely anything about the setting. Of course, there are many anime that don't give you much information about the setting but are still good, right? Well yes, but those anime have something else this anime completely lacks, character development.

What few backstories this anime has are extremely vague and add very little if anything to the plot. We learn nothing about the main characters family, friends, childhood, even about his curse. We are just stuck watching this surface-level characters in a world with absolutely no depth and no exploration of any plot points that pique your interest.

The anime goes like this:
- introduce main characters, proceeds to not explain anything about them
- main characters live together
- introduce random baddie, which gets defeated and is never brought up again
- random love quarrel, also never gets brought up again (but they say they aren't in love)
- introduce more random characters that get a full episode to themselves and are barely seen again
- more love quarreling (but they still say they aren't in love)
- another random baddie appears with no further explanation
- repeat

This anime plays out like one of those school romance anime where the two people in love don't realise that they love each other. They bicker and go through little problems until ultimately falling in love. You never really learn about anything about their families or the setting, it's just focused on their day-to-day interactions.

The problem with that is, it just doesn't mix with the ultimate story the anime is trying to convey. When you're mixing a cursed prince and a witch, you can't just use the same formula as your average teen romance manga, and Unname Memory furthers that fact.

I dont write reviews at all and dont like large reviews so I'm gonna keep it short and simple

At first I liked the concept and animation of the anime and after watching the first episode I also loved the witty and mature dialogues of our main duo. I haven't read the source material but after 4 episodes I noticed that character progression was not shown at all, things were going so fast that I started to worry if I was missing some episodes.

I would recommend you should read the manga instead of the anime as that will give you a more in-depth experience and many ... things will make alot of sense the source is much better, the adaptation is worst.

Hard to describe it, but feelings I had was boring and interesting.
So every episode changes your mood, feels like whole anime was rushed. I never read LN or manga, but at first it seems interesting to watch, then it seems boring, then interesting again, then boring again.

I got really tired watching it and dropped after 6 episodes. Basically I was forcing myself to watch it. It has tory to be told, but tells nothing, everything seems fast forwarded. Sure there are many animes like that, but at least they don't make it soo boring in the end.

Any way wouldn't recommend.

BAD ADAPTATION
BAD PACING
UNBELIEVABLE CHARACTERS/ THEIR RELATIONSHIPS.
CONFUSSING
Started off suuuuper well for me personaly, really liked the albeit cheesy but cute romance idea in a fantasy setting. But it quickly wet from a 8/10 to a 3/10 :D the idea is good, the execution is bad. Super sad about it ;(
----
In more detail : I was grasped by the idea of oh this cheeky prince with plenty of charisma hits on this mysterious introverted witch who could snap him out of existance :D very funny power dynamic. But the way the anime was directed with their reactions to one another from episode 3 was just weird, ... uncanny. At some point I tought maybe she's a clone or maybe he's dreaming lol. But nah. I've heard that the OG material source actually gave depth and explanations to characters acting, but in the anime all that explanation was just brushed off. Actions were taken untimely, out of place and just akward, didn't feel right.

As an adaptation they are rushing too much, to the level that the relationship barely feels believable, and there are many events that barely have consequences.
For the construction of characters, unfortunately I can only say that they are one-dimensional, there is no redeemable characteristic of Oscar beyond the fact that he is "good and strong" and the same could be said of Tinasha, who is "beautiful and powerful, and even stubborn."
Likewise, the events in the novel are predictable, but in the adaptation they seem to have no importance beyond supposedly justifying the relationship of the characters, who expect us to believe that they end up ... as a happy couple.
Worst adaptation for great novel.

Edit: I FIGURED IT OUT! This anime feels like it was written by an incel writing what he THINKS women, or as he undoubtedly fails to call girls and women by the correct human words, “females” want. That’s why literally everything seemed so off.

Original review:
If you want to repeatedly get hit in the face with grape culture, while simultaneously drowning in sexism, this is the show for you. Otherwise, look elsewhere. And to some of the other reviewers: there's nothing mature about refusing to accept "no". Also, referring to this as "female fantasies" is (1) super gross - who refer to girls that way, ... I hope I never meet you IRL, and (2) super wrong - the almost grape scene was the most uncomfortable I've ever felt watching any anime ever, and anime is arguably the most irradiated with sexism of any media form.

Anyways, in addition to all that, it was just kind of boring. I kept zoning out and when I tuned back in, I didn't even care enough to rewind and see what I missed. The characters weren't compelling, the romance was weird and seemed to come out of left field, the villains were boring power hungry lunatics with no depth, the art was mid, i don't even remember the music, and the plot still hadn't hooked me 8 episodes in.

All in all, this was very disappointing, there's really nothing going for this series. What a waste of time.

There are many things that can make this anime dramatic or leave an impression of regret, but this anime adaptation feels bland and does not leave an impression of willingness. The character designs are all good, the story and plot are acceptable, and the music selection is also appropriate.

The worst thing given in this anime is the expression of the characters. It's fine that Tinasha is like that, but look at other characters like Oscar, his words are very ambitious but look at the way the anime adapted it, it's bad! Besides that, the side characters, just as a complement even though it's Oscar's father, ... Lucrezia, even the Lanak they are all unimportant. It's as if the story only focuses on Oscar and Tinasha.

You can imagine for those who want to start watching this anime, don't be disappointed! Because there may be many of them who voice "it's useless to watch from the beginning if the last episode is like that!". It's okay to have a plot like that, but it must be emphasized again that this anime is not made dramatic and is very straightforward in its character expression.