NieA Under 7

It's...a big mess.

This show has so many fluctuating episodes with different atmospheres, it's as if they're not part of the same story. You first think you're watching a light-hearted comedy, then a seinen, sometimes sci-fi, but wait a second, it's a comedy again. It's like this show doesn't have an identity, and it suffers tremendously.
You'd think that since one of the main characters is a discriminated, "unique" sort of alien, the plot would involve something about that identity. In the earlier episodes, Niea is clearly discriminated against, and I would suppose that her being an "under seven" would have some sort of meaning. Well, ... you're absolutely wrong.
Instead, the first 7 episodes or so is just comedy, not so good, not so bad, whatever. Then, the last 6 episodes is where it takes a huge nosedive. The plot tries to redirect itself to being coming of age, seinen, sort of plot focused, almost no comedy involved. It's pretty slowpaced, and nothing really happens. It mainly focuses on Mayuko's development as a character, and the revolving circumstances that surround her. It's kind of just very mediocre.
Niea makes little to no appearances, and when she does, it actually makes the story seem interesting since its about her hearing things about the mothership. It makes you wonder if the latter half of the show wouldn't be garbage if it just focused on Niea more. Instead, you get this half assed run of the mill coming of age plot about Mayuko. Great.
Characters are also divided in between "serious" characters and comic relief characters. There are characters in the first half of the story that serve as comic relief that never come to show again because the latter half is coming of age, and so they served their purpose. The "serious" characters are the more "mature" characters that help Mayuko come to terms with everything and help her move forward. As if there really are two different plotlines in two different stories.

Typical of a 2000's anime, this show's art, while aged somewhat badly, probably was pretty normal at its time.

Conclusion: If an anime is pretty damn old and isn't really recognizable, it probably faded to obscurity for a reason. This anime is one of them. It tries to experiment with too many things, and because of it, this anime is a jack of all trades and a master of none. It tries to be serious, it tries to be funny, but it just fails at both. The first few episodes were actually pretty decent, but it's too bad that the anime had a lack of focus, and as a result, fell short of every expectation.