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What can make you watch an anime series? Sometimes hearing a song is just enough to fall for it. Carole and Tuesday is a perfect example of a lot of effort thrown into making a good and modern (in 2019) anime series about music. And it is close to being successful...

Music: 10 / 10
The first requirements for making a good anime in the music genre is to have good music. On this task, studio Bones received collaboration with Netflix to invite not a small amount of famous (supposedly capable) singers in order to perform all the music for the anime. As the story progress you ... need different genres, not only (my favorite) pop music, but also rap, techno, etc. And in terms of music all the efforts really pays off. Not only the music is good, but it is clearly it targets wider audience, as it is in English even in the Japanese version of the show.

With that being said, in the whole repertoire there is only one song that I would call masterpiece, that is memorable and that made me watch this series. Considering all the effort, I expected more. Yes, the music is good, but soundtracks of the Noir, El Cazador de la Bruja and Madlax left way more memorable songs and those anime are not even for music and even the music is in Japanese (a language I do not understand).

However, if you are looking for a good music anime in 2019, this is it.

Story: 4 / 10
While there is a clear effort about making great music, the story is something with a complete contrast to the music attempt. There are some quite questionable decision made by the author.

Firstly, the story is setup to be on Mars, after humans successfully colonized Mars and life normally in a cities. Unfortunately, this does not contribute to the story at all. And I do not refer to the AI (you could have AI on Earth), I mean as a location. You could replace Alaba City with New York during the time where singers moved to the "big city" in order to look for fame and glory. Setting up the story on Mars introduced some questions that were left unanswered: what happened to Earth? Why there are refugees? If you can be deported and live on Earth, why not rebuild it, but move to Mars. It is clearly shown that Mars was still undergoing colonization (they had weather factory, that once broken led to low temperatures, so it seems without human technology everything we see would disappear). But none of that matters, because this series the music show business. It is not about colonization of Mars.

Secondly, the story is completely disorganized. If you ask me what this anime is about, I cannot actually say. There are two main themes, neither of which is actually resolved. The first one is the conflict between the AI (artificial intelligence) created music and the real singers. The second is something to do with the politics and refugees from Earth which mimics the current political situation of refugees from war-torn countries of the North Africa and the Middle East today. But those are just themes, they are not the story, they are something that just happens around our main characters, so you can be entertained. This themes are developing until they are abandoned. You can see clearly how they abandoned the story by the last captions: "We will continue... In your mind".

Coincidentally, I am studying AI right now and I have a lot to say about the "real" singers vs. AI created music (which with today technology is far from good), but none would matter, because that conflict was completely abandoned in the first half of the series in order to make the political conflict. So the anime does not make any point for discussion.

Characters: 9 / 10
The only thing that can compensate for the story and make this series not only watchable, but actually good are the characters. This is the plus of making original story, you have real actors that determine the story so the characters feel alive, instead of being a template. Each character has personality and the clash or friendship between the characters really makes you feel. Even when the story is disjointed, you can still find an enjoyment of watching how relationship between the characters unfolds.

Art: 8 / 10
The art is what you can expect from the 2019 technology. There are no still frames and a lot of computer animation. Both the human animators and the CG team did a great job separately. But integrating it into series, well this is where the thing went wrong. There are a lot of scenes with smoothly moving CG and stuttering hand-drawings. I like 3D and I like 2D, but when they are combined this should never happen. It is a management problem that they allowed for lower quality 2D animation over high quality CG. If the animators did not have time to make enough frames, they should think of a way to integrate it better.

Enjoyment: 8 / 10
Overall, watching this was not a bad experience. This had the potential to be another music masterpiece, if the story did made any sense. It had a great characters I liked to follow and a great music with acceptable visuals. But I watched it leisurely, without the enthusiasm to watch all 24 episodes as one, like "Your lie in April", "Skip Beat!" and "Nana".

Did you ever consider what your life would be, if you are prepared to be next heir of huge mafia organization? If no, after watching this you may consider the pros and the cons.

For me, every good anime must have deep story providing you with some topic to discuss to, while enjoying it at the same time. The clash of the mafia world (Ash) and the normal world (Eiji) and how they could be appealing to the other is what make the psychological side of this anime great. And the amazing and realistic action scenes makes this anime really enjoyable.

The story centers around Ash and ... Eiji - two guys becoming really good friends (I know this is anime, but no, they become just friends, nothing sexual, this is serious anime). Unfortunately for them, they come from different worlds. Ash looks like typical gang member, but he is just 17 years old, with 180 IQ (of course, this is exaggerated, just like any other anime) and really skilled with gun (after all he was trained for head of an mafia organization). What he lacks is the normal life of 17 years old boy, he wasn't even aware such life exists. And that's where Eiji plays major role.

However, the ending of the show (namely the last 6-8 episodes) is what makes this show falls short. This I hate more than watching a bad show. A good show makes it flaws far more susceptible, than a bad shows that is made by flaws.

The first problem is the bad guy plot protection. In all 24 episodes of Banana Fish we know who the bad guy is - Dino. As the show progresses all sad and tense moments are created due to someone being killed, hurt, kidnapped, etc. by Dino. Eiji is a normal guy having normal morale, but he had so many traumatic experiences due to being with Ash fighting against the mafia. After all his misfortunes he did not kill anyone. But even then, when you face an unarmed mafia leader with a gun in your hand and you know he is a guy that will never forgive you, holding your moral norms is either pathetic or stupid.

If Eiji do not kill a dangerous enemy that surely will come after him, because he is upholding some morale ideals, then he is pathetic. It is a form of egoism, because he do it for himself, not for the people he care about.

If Eiji do not kill a dangerous enemy that surely will come after him, because he does not realize that enemy will try to kill him and the people around him, he is stupid. You are no hero, if you avoid killing a person, who will be responsible for huge number of intentional deaths later. Every person that is killed after that lays on your hands.

So while I was rooting for Ash and Eiji in the beginning and I was interesting to see how can you defeat a mafia boss, at the end I actually rooted for Ash and Eiji to die. Because people they are fighting against had no scruples and if they had opportunity they will not hesitate to kill you. It is morally justifiable to kill someone like that. But no, the ending used up extreme moral "do not kill anyone" in the world of mafia, which as you expect results in a lot of drama, but I cannot feel sad about it.

The second problem is with the action scenes. This actually happens a lot in american action movies - gunfights.

Firstly, people that never held a gun are always shown as trembling, indecisive and causing incidents. I went to a shooting range once, never holding a gun before. It is quite simple device - it has front and back sight you align with the target and press the trigger. You do not need IQ 180 to use it, in fact IQ 60 would be sufficient. I hit the target almost perfectly from 15 meters. Yes, it was not a moving target and probably shooting at a human would be different, but it would not be physically difficult (just mentally).

Secondly, military training does not makes you better at killing, it makes you better at surviving. Technically killing a person with a gun is rather simple, align the gun, press the trigger, one bullet is almost always enough. That's the frightening part about guns, you might have training and experience and still be killed randomly by an amateur. Having an experience does not make the bullets avoid you, it makes you control the situation in a way that prevents the shooter to target you. However in anime and action movies, this seems not to be the case. If you have an experience you can completely expose yourself to the bullets and kill all the guys without a scratch. This anime is no exception.

Finally, the accuracy rate of Ash is almost 100% without even knowing where his targets are. It almost feel supernatural. At the same time bad guys has like 1% accuracy (at least it was not 0%). Moreover, the amount of bullets shot in some scenes is ridiculous. In reality bullets are both expensive and heavy to carry a lot of them. Cover fire should not be 5-6 guys shooting as many bullets as they can on the wall, it should be a few bullets by one guy taking turns. The idea is to not have any span of time, to show yourself and return the fire. Considering that those guys were trained military, it was no excuse to make them shoot like crazy.

The art and the sound are nothing but exceptional, or normal for 2019. The art has a lot of details to make it feel realistic, so you can forget that it is a hand-drawn anime. The OST fits perfectly with the theme of the show and I have no complaints about the voice acting (yet I usually do not notice anything if it is good enough, and also I watch it subbed).

Banana Fish was fun experience and because of such series I remembered why I like and enjoy watching anime. However, the message that I got from all this, was if I ever join a mafia circle and decide I won't kill anyone, it would be the most stupid thing I would have ever done and there would be consequences.

This anime is like painting of Salvador Dali but painted by some amateur. On the surface nothing is clear, but perhaps there is some deep meaning to everything. After close up look, you will see it actually it does not, it just pretend to be smart.

Story: 3/10
What does a terrorist organization/act, incurable decease, trains, penguins, stalkers, a hat, and idol girls have in common? Nothing, there is nothing in this anime that join these elements. It is like a disjointed story jumping from element to element. Each of those elements are good by themselves, but unfinished. It is like a pieces for clearly beautiful puzzle, ... that does not match together.

There is touching drama even from the first episode out of 26. You know it cannot end that way, and it does not. Just as you start to feel you are thrown into the "crystal world" and you feel awesome.

There is a comedy, part of it based on silliness, part based on stalker's romance.

There is serious topics like terrorism, family, etc.

There is existential/religious topics like fate.

And while each of those are awesomely implemented, when put together nothing makes sense. If you just continue watching episode after episode waiting for something to be resolved, you will soon end up at episode 26 which provides ending, but still no answer to the question "WHAT THE **** DID I WATCH"?!

Now, a story being abstract might be no so bad. You can associate certain aspects to the real world - the trains being the timelines of our world (thus destruction of the train system is "destroying the world". The child broiler could be a child orphanage, which would make sense if your parents end up disappear as terrorist act. But even if you do that the story does not make sense.

Then you can go to the fan-made wiki and read about everything and discover that there is no deeper meaning and interpretation. Just a characters doing stuff and deus-ex-machina called fate. That's it, the story sucks. Not only that, but as the story progress every build-up is destroyed. A character dies/fails, but not really. Finally family is together, but they are not actually a family. Finally, the truth is revealed, but it does not matter, because fate has changed, etc. The ending is practically the beginning, but with the two main characters and the whole 26 episodes practically erased.

Art & Sound: 9 / 10
Being dementia genre, the art is awesome. The OP and ED are catchy and nice, although not so perfect. The "survival strategy" intro song to the crystal world is amazing (although it does not make sense in any context).

Characters: 3 / 10
After wasting my time with such an abstract anime like "Serial Experiments Lain", watching this felt the same, but I was glad about one thing. The characters do actual conversations. Not a meaningful or realistic one, but at least there is a dialogue - someone says something and the other persons responds. I know it is not much, but considering the story, I am glad that some characters made me laugh. Most of the other characters act almighty and like understanding what is actually happening (but I as a viewer do not).

Enjoyment: 2 / 10
Basically it is a wasted time. And it is so long. The whole time I was just waiting for explanation or something to bind all events together. But in the end there is nothing. Nevertheless Ringo stalker story was quite fun to watch.

P.S. Maybe because I am atheist and I have quite pragmatic view of the concepts like "fate" and "god". Both "serial experiments lain" and this anime use such religious concepts to build up a feeling I do not have. If we consider this to be bullsh*t, then there is nothing else for the anime to compensate. There are no character's chemistry, no logical events, etc.

Anime is corrupt!

I will start with the visual art this anime is. So let's talk about newborn babies. Yes, babies are those defenseless creatures that everyone begin their life with. And since they are defenseless, if they fall pray to other humans away from their genetic pool they are in danger. But they have a hidden weapon - being cute. Yes, you humans evolved in a such way to find the youngest of their kind cute, so they do not harm them. But since brain needs a reason and since eyes develop faster than the whole head, babies have greater eyes-to-face ratio. And so, we ... have implied program in our brain to find any human face with large eyes-to-face ratio cute. Woman know this secret from centuries and since eyes cannot become bigger, they enhance their eyelashes creating an illusion for big. But is there a limit. Osamu Tezuka answered that as "no". The bigger the eyes, the cutter the characters. And so anime/manga trend was born. And masses of people drowned by the big eyes we pulled. No wonder there are so many people that prefer 2D waifu, instead of 3D girlfriend - you can stop watching your waifu at anytime and you know - the eyes.

Aku no Hana took different approach, for the first time it actually created an animation with realistic eyes-to-face ratio. And what I read in most reviews, people find characters "ugly". Well, Hello, here is the real world and most woman without mascara looks exactly like this. And we are talking about middle-school Japanese girls. Japanese eyes-to-face ratio is smaller than the western. As a result, all those people hyped by waifus and anime, could not comprehend how a real character must look like. Therefore, this anime ends up as a commercial failure, even when it has all quantities to succeed.

Now what about the story? Let's talk about middle school, this is the start of puberty. At this time the innocent look of the child world is mixed with the ego of the (very) young adolescence. Yes, ego - children are incapable to use theory of the mind and adolescence worry about their image. Given that, we have typical middle school romance, a boy likes a girl, but in his child view he does not see her as a human being, but as an angel, a muse, something unreachable. And then the dilemma happens - he returns to school because he forgot something and surprise, he sees her used gym clothes forgotten in the room. And he steals them, but the lone girl of the class sees him and decide to use what she saw against him.

Now, this would be pretty generic anime story, if it was not for the fact that the way relations form between the characters and the way the characters can escape from their mundane norms in order to do something crazy. The freedom they experience going against the rules and being in a hot situation build their unusual relation. Yet, our MC is too dense to see, but it is not density like other anime, it is density about his ego. How he react according to how the world he imagine, not to the world he is actually in. How living in a small town, building an image (as a reader of convoluted literature), and presenting his own view onto the people does not actually matter. It is a way the character discover himself while being pushed by Nakamura. It makes all situation funny and I had genuine laugh, while this was not a comedy.

The characters are quite likable and experiences they have are amazing. While it is quite difficult to break up from the anime/manga norm of the big eyes, eventually getting use to it, allows you to comprehend the dialogues between characters the same as any other anime. The tension of hiding unconformable secret from you crush while date her is really amazing. The freedom when the MCs destroyed their classroom. It was unique. However, it might be somehow difficult to relate to. While all the vandalism they did is small in my view, it was approached in such a way by the teachers, that it was like a huge crime. I suppose part of it, "Aku no Hana" relates something about Japanese middle school culture, I cannot feel (I understand it, I cannot relate to it).

As sound "Aku no Hana" is mostly silent in terms of background. There is background music when necessary, but in most cases, the anime represents the boring small town, where nothing happens. Playing music in the background would destroy that feeling. Voice actors did a great job, though. The openings are quite strange, and I think the first one is intentionally sang in a really bad voice. The ending is strange, it is not a song, I listened to it once, it fits well with the anime, but it is skippable (you will hear a large part of it in the near end of some episodes).

As this is the first part, everything that anime build up was unfinished. There is no second season, because you know, the eyes proportions of real actors is not appealing to the anime community. This is the first time, I will actually engaged enough to read the manga. I want to know how the things end up. I feel sorry that a great anime is buried in such a tragic way, because... money and eyes.

"Serial Experiments Lain is deeply philosophical anime, if you do not like it, you do not understand it". Since it is so old, I will avoid talking about its strange art form, character dialogues and visual clues that will make any other anime completely pathetic. For some reason, everyone talk about how deep this anime is.

So what this anime really is about? What's the main theme? It is difficult to understand, but one of the major points of the anime is "The Wired" - this network of devices that connects people around, which we call "The Internet". The second main theme is the concept of ... "Religion" and "God". And this is anime coming from 1998, so I would include benefit of the doubt, because in 2019, the internet is nothing like what imagination of 1998 Lain presented. So let's rewrite back to 1998, so no Windows XP yet, no smartphones, etc. You can see this theme in a lot of more "historical" anime, where students either just meet and go out, or used fixed line phones. Thinking about such time it seems Lain is something that went way ahead of its time.

However, there were computers in 1998 and we were connected (though IRC) and being 8 years old, I started learning assembly language back there. And I have always been atheist. Sorry, philosophers, but I will throw the two main themes of this anime into the trash.

Okay, let's get philosophical, so spoilers ahead. Who is Lain? Lain is the representation of the internet individual and internet god at the same time. Back in 1998 IRC was mainly textual communication (no pictures, no videos). As a result, a lot of people expressed their emotions in a way that they never do in real life. In that sense, you limit yourself in real life, because it adhere to your only life, but in anonymous internet, you can become different person. You can have multiple personalities, one real, one over the Internet and this is what is Lain. The second view of Lain is her special abilities. Being computer geek in 1998 felt completely different from now. The internet was wild place and those with the knowledge had power over those without. Nowadays, the governments finally realized its power, took control to make everything on the Internet ordinary. Lane represents that kind of power, being able to manipulate (hack, crack) internet, she can affect the real world. And as it becomes more and more popular, boundaries between real world and internet blends. You start to affect people and it could lead to such things as suicide.

Now, given the thoughts above, it is clearly that Lain as an anime raises a lot of philosophical question about religion and internet. If you can have full personality over the internet, do you actually need a body. If we are all connected, doesn't our body stops us from evolving? While it sounds profound and deep, actually the answer is NO. We did not stop evolving and we need a body. One such reason is [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embodied_cognition]Embodied Cognition[/url]. Our soul or our "software" of the brain is built upon our body. In fact, you are communicating the best when use your body language. Internet cannot replace that and there is no collective consciousness of humans over the internet. You play a role over the internet, because you are anonymous and in case you fail, you can always create a new account. But that's not possible in 2019 where people stopped using it as something mysterious and started using it as a normal tool. Imagine a youtuber do something stupid and just create a new account. That won't work well.

The second bad thing about Lain is how it involves religion in its plot. What if there is a this great entity, called God that rules the world of Internet. As today Internet is used to change opinions of individuals, companies and governments, lack of boundary would basically mean that such a creature will rule over the collective consciousness of people. However, there is no God (and IMHO, anyone normal that study physics, biological sciences, AI and programming should believe in God, you cannot comprehend both the concept of nature and God at the same time) and even if we invent an AI that manipulates people, physical manifestation of it, would be limited to the same physical norms. Internet is not magic, it is a tool and it is what it is today, by the people that made it that way. The whole logic of Lain being a Godly creature of The Weird could only fit some Sci-Fi genre and it is not deeply philosophical.

So, if this anime concept of the Internet and the God is wrong, what we are left it. Let's start with the setup. How Lain came into existence. Episode 9 attempts to do that by building on a lot of conspiracy theories and randomly thrown physical terms like [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schumann_resonances]Schumann resonances[/url]. Now it is easy to translate science into pseudo-science. Schumann resonances waves do exists and they affect the timing of the lighting strikes across the Earth. What they do not do is affecting the human mind in any way, nor they affect the internet.

The second setup is about "death" and how one can continue to exists as memories of other people in the internet, instead of being absolutely dead. This gives me an idea to setup scripts to post to Facebook after I die. However, this idea is nothing new. Immortalizing yourself has always been idea for a lot of poets, writers, singers and few of them did it successfully before the internet. Wait, does this mean the human beings are being connected to one another before the internet? If that was the case what's the point of this anime? One could argue that before internet, communication between nations were almost non-existent. I wonder how the concept of Christmas reached nations of Japan and China before the existence of internet. Perhaps, something as mysterious as travelling and conversations?

And finally, I want to get away from this deeply philosophical debates I debunk and talk about the anime itself. As I mentioned before, even in the craziest stories, even in 1998 IRC, even before Internet, people tend to have conversations. One of the most important aspects of the conversations is response. When a person A says something to person B, the person B must respond with at least acknowledgement to person A (even a sound is enough or head movement is enough). This is the most basic form of conversation you can have. And for the characters in Lain, this is rare. Most of the time character A says something to character B to be followed by silence, empty starring, etc. This never happened over the internet, never happened in real life and no person can withstand this.

So, what about art? Lain have very interesting and "tripping" art form. The most noticeable part are the faces. In most anime the faces are flat, single color and only shapes are used to convey emotion. In Lain faces are incredibly detailed with shadows. Unfortunately, the convey no emotion most of the time. The backgrounds are "trippy", which means they are well done, but it is not clear what animators are trying to do. The main character of the story are the power lanes, they have most screen time. Now, as you know, power lanes are not a good transport of information and most of the time they have nothing to do with how people are wired together, they just transport electricity. Electricity is not what connects people, people used electricity for light bulbs and washing machines before they had the means to transport information over cables. I do not get why power lanes are so important in that anime, but if they represents how people connects, it is another stupid mistake the authors made.

Sound? Remember those power lanes of the last paragraph. Yes, those power lanes, have the sound of 50/60Hz alternating current. That's the most common background sound + the another trippy sound for no purpose. There is barely background music, because this anime does not need to convey emotions. In fact, the best 90 seconds of this anime is the opening. If you watch only those 90 seconds of all 13 episodes you can have more brain cells survived than watching all episodes.

CONCLUSION. If you are a person with solid knowledge into computer tech, internet, and neurology (notice the AND, not OR), this anime would be pretty stupid. It's entire base is false, its view of internet society outdated and definitely not true even for 1998. It's message is stupid (but hey, most embodied cognition scientific articles are 2000+ so maybe it was not stupid back then). If you are not into such sciences, do not know how internet works, or you have been just a normal user, that feel threatened by the underlying powers that lies beneath the internet (although all knowledge is accessible for free thanks to Wikipedia and whoever uploads science books onto the pirate sites), yes, you can enjoy this anime. It can make you thing about a lot of stuff, you will probably not find stupid, until you start PhD in natural science related subject.

What is the cost of love and happiness?

Before you start watching this masterpiece, you should be warned, you would be seriously disturbed. Like this anime will touch your soul and put a lot of dark stuff inside. I have no idea why all previous reviews gave so low scores. It is like people watching "Chernobyl" (a series for the largest tragedy in atomic energy known to man) and expect it to be fun? It is not fun, neither is this anime, but gosh it is so GOOD!

Art & Music: 9
Story & Characters: 10

The first thing I must point is the professionalism this anime is implemented. ... The topics it focuses on are not only domestic violence, murder, but also pedophilia, sexual harassment, kidnapping, etc. Using my experience in anime, I would say there is plenty of points where unnecessary sexualism (i.e. fanservice) could be inserted, completely destroying the seriousness of the topics, but luckily the staff members did not do that. (I did not read the manga, though so no idea if it is told with the same seriousness as anime).

The second thing to point is that while it is SERIOUSLY DISTURBING, the scenes of violence and sexual harassment are conveniently moved as a side point. This disturbing events in this anime are told in a way that the viewer should understand what's happening without everything being explicitly graphic.

And now to the story and characters. No character in this anime is normal. And by not being normal, do not expect someone that just stands out. For example, the main protagonist Satou (female) is in love with a little girl, and ready to (and actually do it) kill in order to protect their love. Her craziness is in counter-position of her love for Shio. But where does craziness comes from. From the first episode we can see how one of the main characters develops fear of older woman which causes his pedophilia, due to being victim of rape by his female manager. And here is where this anime present this as disturbing and not enjoyable. Even for a male, a rape by older woman can really break your mind and soul. The craziness is not something your are born with (not always at least), but something that you can get from other crazy people.

And so we have a story which involves a series of victims domestic abuse, violence, sexual harassment, child abandoning, etc. Each of this twists the mind of the characters pushing them to do stuff, we (the normal people) find SERIOUSLY DISTURBING. But this is where the story becomes beautiful. All this crazy people search for is LOVE - the innocent love they were denied from their parents who beat them or the innocent love that is torn away by a slutty woman. And the desire for love can have CONSEQUENCES, a dark and disturbing consequences. While you watch how the events unfolds, if you have any heart, you cannot help but vouch for Satou and Shio to discover happiness away from all other victims.

As you go through this 12 episodes introduction of the dark world of people with unhappy families and how they individually discover happiness, one of the best and most beautiful thing you can see is the ending. You know this story would not have happy ending, but at least it would be beautiful, and yet you feel this bitter taste in your mouth. It shows what happy sugar life Satou and Shio would have if the events did not end tragically. At this point, for the first time I shed tears for serial killer female pedophile.

So how can you enjoy such an anime? Well, it depends whether you are a normal person, or you are under the influence of some seriously disturbing event in your past. In case you are a normal person experience some love issues, this anime could be a wake up call telling you "you know nothing about love issues". If you are not normal... (sorry)... I hope this anime gives you a glimpse of hope and happiness.

In conclusion, watching this reminds you that bad things can happen in the world. And for some, the bad things happen in their own homes. This anime reminds us for all those taboo subjects we are aware of, but we do not speak about.

P.S. The OP really cuts it for this anime. While it is nothing special, it completely resonate with the anime. The song is super cute, until suddenly become just a mumble-jumble of world in a voice that reflects the craziness perfectly. Then it returns being a cute song again.

Have ever tried mushrooms or LSD? Want to have the same experience, but without negative effect on your health? Boy, There is an anime for you!!!

Story: Flip Flap out of 10
The last sentence. Do you remember what it ...? Of course, not! You are high, now! Let's go to an adventure!

Art: Tripping out of 10
Whaaaaa!!! So many colors! Outlines! Shapes! Everything is liquid! Unless "it's really hard" (literally what Cocona said, if fansubs are correct).

Sound: INTO THE SKY!!! out of 10
No tripping experience is complete without appropriate music. And "tripping" is literally part of the lyrics of ED (in English, not translated).
...
Characters: Dripping tears out of 10
Papika, Cocona, love, 'shrooms! You still remember anything else about the characters? Let me give you another pill... uhm, I mean episode. What characters, it is just Pure Illusion!

Enjoyment: Socchi mo Kocchi out of 10
Do you watch drama to laugh at the characters misery? Do you watch comedy to cry about characters troubles? Do you watch action to follow the normal people's life? Do you watch slice of life for the action? If you are one of those kind of people, you might enjoy this anime. If you are not, well, you better judge this anime by its genre. But what is it?
Is it comedy? Is it magic? Is it sci-fi? Is it adventure? No. Do not believe MAL tags. This is entirely new genre, with the only appropriate name would be "tripping" or "mushrooms". Being one of kind, it achieve its one of a kind goal - getting high.

If you are serious person, who wants enjoyment in a limited time you have, perhaps you should skip this anime. If you are tired of anime and have nothing else to watch, this might bring you back to the dark side (or in this case to colorful land of Pure Illusion).

A high school girl with a big dreams is going to be cute... BANG, dead, death metal, house of horrors, zombies, Saga, stage, "Music, COME ON!!!!".

Episode 1:
Story - 10
Art - 10
Sound - 10
Character - 10
Enjoyment - 10

The rest:
... Story - 4
Art - 8
Sound - 8
Character - 7
Enjoyment - 6

This anime has the most hilarious first episode ever. If you think you will not like the anime, go watch the first episode only. It is hilarious, ridiculous and the best parody there is. First 2 minutes and I was already amazed and laughing out over the black humor development. It is WTF?! all the way in. The pace is amazing and keeps you amazed, so I will not spoil anything about the first episode in this review.

Well, if all episode were like the first, we would have the best parody, the most ridiculous and funny idol anime out there. The change of environment, the self-irony of how small the Saga prefecture is (I do not know if that's true, it is what the anime makes fun of) are superb. But then someone from the staff decided that this won't be a parody, but rather comedic idol anime... When the anime take the more serious tone of how the life (or in this case the zombie life) of an idol can be, it lost its appeal and become fairly average anime. There is a glimpse of zombie jokes here and there, but now it gets a little bit boring from time to time. Instead of addressing problems of the small prefecture, the idol life and the difficulties in ironic way, it addresses them literally in the story as a slice of life (or slice of zombie life) in this case.

What kills the anime though, is the fact that it seriously include in the story the result of the ridiculous events in the first episode. If those idols weren't zombies the story will go in different direction. This means, that the story the anime tells, when serious, is supposed to imagine how difficult is to be an idol, but only if you are zombie. Sorry, it seems the living audience might not have a chance to properly relate to that...

Art: The art is what you can expect from 2018. It is not outstanding, though. Anime like "Sound! Euphonium" easily beat the art within the same year.

Music: Well, the music is definitely not bad. Some songs are even amazing, and it is rarely to hear death metal genre in anime. While I am not a fan of death metal, it was hilarious choice for the first episode OP. The situation combined with the music clearly stated, that you cannot take what you see seriously. The other songs are catchy, but not so amazing, except maybe "Mezame returner", which kind of have proper rhythm and rhyme to enjoy, even when you do not understand the text at all (although some parts are strange). If you watch this for the music, episode 3, 7, and 12 near the end are worth it.

Characters: In the first episode Tatsumi is pretty funny, and during all episodes the quirks of each characters will make some funny situations, which will cause occasional laugh of otherwise the boring story. The police officer (apparently the only one in the whole Saga prefecture) scenes are the craziest one, he is my favorite side character. Otherwise, the stories of each individual past is kind of BORING, except maybe Saki, which is super cool.

Enjoyment: I do not feel I have wasted my time watching this. It is fairly enjoyable and forgettable lighthearted show. The only thing I am regretting is that it take so much time to realize only the first episode was worth it. I feel like I clicked a click-bait. Something can be ridiculously funny and good at the same time (see KonoSuba). This anime had this potential, but I have no idea what happened. At least it has happy semi-ending, suggesting possibility of second season.

"Bloom into you" is great example that romance could be different from what you expected. It is a beautiful story about the difficulties of understanding love, not only between a girl and a boy, or a girl and a girl, but a girl and nothing. What win me over is the fact, that sometimes, even with all the beautiful context of love, a person can still be unable to feel it. However, the only thing I feel from this anime is "incompleteness". Did the producer actually tried to convey the feeling the main female protagonist feels, not by the anime, but using its quality...

Story: 6 ... (Premise: 1)
I will start with the premise. Yuu Koito (a girl) is assigned to help with student council re-elections of the current student council president Nanami Touko (a girl). Accidentally, she sees a love confession and rejection of a boy from Touko. As you can clearly see from the trailer (but not so clearly from the first episode), it turns out that Koito and Touko might have felt the same way about the confession. When they kind of share that later, Touko falls in love with Koito...
And that's the problem with the premise. I have experienced love and know not small amount of people experienced love and no-one experienced as deep as Touko first few minutes after they share their experiences. Love is something that must be built up - initially you notice a person more. But, that might require more episodes and more difficult premise, than what the producers are willing to do. So for the time being, just suck it up and accept that a few sentences can make someone falls so deeply in love that will think for nothing else, but you (after all there is way worse anime).

The story, however, was very good, or it would have been, if it led to a culmination. But to appreciate the story, you should first move over some huge plot holes. The most amazing part of the story in this anime is how the relationship between the student council members are revealed through two major experiences - the student council elections and the drama play the student council will perform. There is a love triangle, self-realization, family relationship and very tiny amount (but almost negligible) tragedy, all of this intertwined into the drama play which could reveal and make Touko and Koito finally realize themselves. This was the perfect built up to a culmination that could answer so many question for the human soul of the characters and made them alive... aaaaaaand it is missing!!!

Then I have so many questions about the story. Why the student council (with all their other obligations) do a play. Why there is no drama club where the actors should be. What's the purpose of the fifth student council member? If we start looking at the plot seriously, more questions arise. I have to neglect so many major dialogues and phrases like Koito saying she will never fall in love with Touko, or the desire of Touko to have unrequited love. Apparently, we must assume it is the tragedy that made her into what she is, but that is not clearly shown, and the scenes often contradicts this feeling. Would it be too dark, if the main character was a little bit more messed up? It would feel so superficial.

Every good story must have culmination. For "Bloom into you" the play would have been an ideal one. It would take 5 minutes scene to show the surprised face of Touko realizing that what really matters is what you yourself is right now and the past should be left behind. There is a clear build up to that outcome in the way the script is surreptitiously changed. The feelings of self-realization on the stage would have been the thing that would make me tear and the conclusion could be that Koito can finally fall in love with Touko for real, not for the person she tries to become. Nothing in this paragraph happens...

Instead we have an episode where Koito and Touko have something like high-school type date and Koito reveals the change of the script in very dull manner that does not answer any questions. The story of Sayaka is left behind and we end up with some smiles and we do not know what happens next with the characters. All the build up - unnecessary. Such an open ending, could only mean that the producers wants to have a sequel. While this is not bad on its own, the small wrap-up in the 13th episode practically kills any emotion that could have become on self-realization on stage. The play no longer matters for the main characters, and eventual sequel (or OVA) could never be so deep as the potential this arc had. I do not know how the manga handle this though.

Animation: 9
It is what you can expect from 2018 animation. Hand drawing is perfectly combined with computer 2D processing filters, that gives so much detail (like tree leaves, glass refraction, realistic shadows). There is no visible 3D effects (only 2D layering), but the complexity is beyond what can be achieved with drawing only by hand. I really like the convergence of anime toward realism (although they are different styles, none of the CGI, Animation and Movie cameras provide realism - photos and camera clips look different from what you can experience live).

Sound: 6
Silence, when used appropriately, can provide a lot. And this anime certainly have scenes where silence do the trick. However, there are far more scenes where lack of background actually made me feel kind of dull. The voice actors were sufficiently good, no complaints there. The OP and the ED are not bad, but they could be skipped and certainly not a thing I will buy/download.

Characters: 4-8
Excluding everything negative I said about the story, both Koito and Touko a likable characters. There are few beautiful heart-warming scenes with them. The story of Sayaka is interesting and introduces a real unrequited love into the scene. Maki is interesting character, but his story and reasons are never revealed. He is unique from perspective of romance genre. Unfortunately, there are quite a few scenes with him, and while they are worth it, there is no payoff to them. The fifth member of the student council is redundant, he is just there, but you can ignore him completely, as he is not important to the story.

Miyako and Riko tend to have their moment in the anime, but the reason is unclear, as they are not explored further. It feels that the producers, since they describe love between high-school girls, need to go completely into that direction and shows us that there are adult woman with such a relationship, but without exploration it feels like just crammed there. Maybe, they try to show that it is safe to be lesbian in Japan, I do not know.

Enjoyment: 6
As I said in the story, this anime have its pros and cons. Initially I was turned off, due to the superficial way the love of Touko towards Koito appears. Later I really enjoyed as their relationship becomes more complex when they learn more about each other and themselves. Then I finally could not stop watching, due to the build up of the student council play, which as I stated, was expected to give this anime the outcome a masterpiece would deserve. It would have fixed a bad start and shows us, that growing up could be hard, but successful process. I could see this ending with every dialogue within 10-12 episode, but it was not delivered. It felt like the producers really pushed toward open ending for a sequel, or maybe the manga was written that way. It felt that I wasted my time with this anime. Even if there is a sequel, now it would not worth watching.

In conclusion (if you still read this review), if you watch this for heart-warming scenes, you can watch this anime. But if you expect an anime that you will contemplate about for days after you finish it, this is not the anime you are looking for.

If you look for anime, that you can suggest to non-anime fan, family member, etc. to make them understand why anime can be good without being embarrassed, "Nana" is what you want.

Since this 2019, I will write short summary of pros and cons (as there are too many reviews already).

Pros:
+ "Nana" is a romance you can easily relate to (especially if you are 20 years or older).
+ "Nana" has very realistic view of the romance and slice of life.
+ Unlike most romances where "love" is explored only in terms of couples, "Nana" tells a great story not only about love, but about friendship.
+ The anime ... centers around the complexity of adult human relationship (focus on "relationship"). It can show what can lead to situations like cheating or the sacrifice you need to do for love or for your dreams.
+ It also explores the fact, that dreams and work, although involving the same activities, could have different goals.
+ Relationships in "Nana" are adult - which means they involve both sex and feelings. Of course, the anime focus on relationships (so it is not lewd). For example, there are scenes where couples wake up together. You are adult, you know what happened.
+ The music is awesome!

Cons:
- Although there is kind of semi-ending, this anime does not feel complete. In fact the manga on which it is based goes beyond the ending (but it is not complete). The author had (unspecified) serious illness in 2009 and temporarily stopped the project. In 2013 there was a clue that the story is intended to continue. However, it is 2019 now and this starts to look like half-life 3 project.
- I did not like how the things developed. For me, it is not happy ending (but not bad after all). But that's the beauty of "Nana", it shows you that the life might not be what you expected.
- As it ended suddenly, a lot of characters are undeveloped in the anime, especially the ones introduced in the last 7 episodes. I did not read the mange, but I read synopsis about the characters and it seems there are more story behind them in the manga.
- Although the music is awesome, there are only a few tracks.
- Almost every character was smoking...

Characters:
The cast of "Nana" is large, but you will easily remember most important characters. Although only Nana and Nana are considered main, I will consider all of the Trapnest and Black Stones members main characters.
The only characters I will mention is Komatsu Nana, as my personal least favorite in this show. Although, she is likable character with positive charisma, that wins over Osaki Nana, she is also the most innocent well developed character I have seen. Her view of "falling in love" is so childish. Yet, the thing I find irritating is her lack of resolve in anything outside of love - her dream as a child is to become a bride, a housewife to care for the kids, while her husband sustain the family. Her dream becomes true (although not in the way preserving her light-weighted view of love), but seriously... All other characters work hard to excel at something, alongside with their relationships. Both Trapnest and Black Stones members have love problems, but they want to excel in music. Even Takumi (which I did not like for his pragmatism), is someone that attempts to climb the stairs of the music as a business. Everyone has their hobbies and interests, while Hachiko (Nana) is just a positive character, that can warm your soul, but she cannot do anything else properly. No wonder, she ended up kind of sad, even when she achieved her dream. She deserved that.

Music:
As expected from a music anime, it contains great music. But not all of it is great. I have in my collection music from 10+ languages (although I speak only Bulgarian and English), and I consider a song great, if it can transcend the language barrier with its rhythm and rhyme. Songs like "Rose" and "Starless Night" achieve that (the latter - barely). However, the other songs in this anime, although good, lack of sufficient rhythm and rhyme (so you need the lyrics to compensate). I am surprised about the rhyme, since the Japanese has only 75 syllables, whereas English and my native language has more than 10000 and still have songs with more rhymes. Anyway, the song "Rose" is the masterpiece of this anime and one of the major reasons to watch it (although not the only major reason).

Enjoyment:
The emotions and feelings I had during the events that unfold in this anime were truly enjoyable - both the positive and the negative feelings. And I had some laughs here and there, not due any comedy, but due to the amazement and the enjoyment of the situations the characters went into.