Is this show as good as the ratings say?

ClodRaker said:
Overall, I think it's very good, but slightly overrated (second season is currently rated 8.87, which puts it in virtual God-tier category.)

I'll try to avoid major spoilers, but no guarantees.

1) Relationships are a major aspect to the show, but (unlike Honey and Clover, IMO) romance is dealt with in a very pragmatic fashion -- not every sexual relationship ends happily or with a clean break for the individuals involved. All that said, non-romantic friendship/kinship between the main characters is honestly the more prominent subject.

2) Pacing is quite slow, as is typical for josei (and many seinen).

3) The male leads are really good, but I find the females to be a bit cookie-cutter. The strongest point to the series for me is its very good handling of unreliable narration and subjective storytelling. Don't want to risk spoiling anything, so I'll leave it at that.

My suspicion is that there are dozens of series on your PTW list that you would enjoy more than this series. I consider Honey and Clover to be somewhere between shoujo and josei on the spectrum, while this series is on the deep josei end, if that makes any sense.

ClodRaker said:
Yes. The second season has a very definitive ending.

GlowingAura said:
A bit late since you’ve already started watching, but yes this anime really does deserve all the praise it gets! I started watching because of everyone saying it’s amazing, and I was going into it a bit critically. However, I completely agree with them. The second season is rated even higher than the first, and it has a really clear and well-written conclusion.

As for the people who dislike it, most of their reasons are that it’s too boring for them. If you’ve gotten this far without dropping it then you’ll be able to get through the rest.