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If you were ever interested in what "Retro Horror" looks like, this is an interesting place to start. Nothing is particularly groundbreaking but it's a really interesting peak into what horror looked like in the 70's and 80's in Japan.

I personally find it super fascinating. It's a quick read but I'd recommend if that kind of curiosity comes naturally to you then I'd say go ahead and read.

Story

A bit predictable but was likely revolutionary for the time.

Art style

... Unique, we don't see many art styles like this anymore, some would even say childish.

Characters

A bit silly, one-off usually and discarded after the next chapter. Each chapter is its own self contained story.

It's fine. It's repetitive, and most of the beats you can guess what happens. This isn't a revolutionary anime and definitely was born out of some weird fetish for big-chested soft-spoken shorties. It's an office "will they/won't they" anime.

But overall it's not inherently annoying or problematic in any way.

Characters - 5
They're mid. Shinozaki is super mid and more of the interesting characters are those around him than anything else. Their chief boss Akina is actually my favorite in the office.
There's actually a different pairing, Hayakawa x Akina, that comes up a few times -- and I actually prefer that pairing to the main one ... (Shiori/Shinozaki) because at least Hayakawa and Akina are interesting.

Story - 4
There isn't really one. It's a slice-of-life style. Like if Uzaki-Chan was less loud and in an office.

VA - 5
The voice acting isn't bad but the amount of times they all say "Sou desu ne" is starting to make me lose hairs out of anger. I live in Japan, dude, and I've heard it more in this show than anywhere else.

Art - 6
It's fine. It looks like anything else nowadays.

Pacing - 4
A bit slow, even for a slice-of-life series.

See what I mean? It's fine, it's mid overall.

When Karl Marx said "Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains" -- the chains in question were surely each episode of Girlfriend, Girlfriend.

This show is absolutely horrible and I loathe every episode.

Saki is the Original Childhood Friend, and Naoya finally dates her in high school. Saki makes an offhanded remark about "Don't go Cheating on me~!" and Naoya won't. But you know what he WILL do?

Manipulate Saki into a "polyamorous relationship" she

a. Doesn't want to be in
b. Didn't ask for when she agreed to date you
c. Doesn't know/trust the other girl (and you don't either, mind you, ... you JUST met her)
d. Will eventually consent to if you ask enough times (which is not True Consent, by the way).

I feel like this show comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what a polyamorous relationship is. Polyamory is not an "Open Relationship". Both parties get equal say in sleeping with/engaging with other partners, and often times must equally agree on who you bring into their relationship. This isn't a "anybody can join" type of deal, which is what Naoya seems to think it is, considering he's just met Nagisa on the roof and decided she was somehow equal to Saki, who he's known since childhood.

So why is Naoya, the most Mid-tier man ever, getting to go around with whoever he wants when these girls don't have that same luxury? "Oh, but they COULD if they wanted to, they just don't want to --" Okay, let's run with that theory. In that case, you're telling me that Nagisa and Saki love Naoya soooo much, he's good enough for them. The only person for them. He's "The One" -- but THEY aren't good enough for HIM? They'll NEVER be "The One"!

You see the double standard? Why do Saki and Nagisa have to be "pure" and abide by the rules of a monogamous relationship or else their love isn't "pure" enough, but Naoya doesn't have those same standards?

Oh, and let's not forget these girls completely are the most tragic love interests I've ever seen:
a. Nagisa is willing to forego her own education and work herself to the bone to make Naoya happy
b. Saki is willing to put up with all of this self-doubt and feeling inadequate just because she's scared of Naoya choosing the other girl

NEITHER ONE of these girls have anything in their lives other than Naoya and making him happy. That isn't a relationship. that's a cult.

This isn't comedy and this isn't romance. The ONLY good things about this show are the artstyle and Saki's VA. Everything else is just awful, through and through, and poor excuses of an "interesting relationship" -- no, it's not interesting, it doesn't even qualify as a relationship becuase there's NOT CONSENT.

Look, I quite enjoyed it, but if you're somebody who can't watch something with obvious production problems, don't watch it.

My opinion here is that this anime film would be awesome either as a short series or a longer movie -- 30 minutes isn't enough to really flesh it out and hit those sad beats in time. And that's a good thing -- that means your story is very well-written, and it is.

The story seems like it could've been based on a short story somewhere, it's almost Edgar-Allen Poe meets aliens. It's a tragedy, through and through. I wouldn't be surprised if the director was the ... main person who carefully constructed this narrative, but they obviously have talent. The pacing wasn't horrible, but like I said, if it was longer, I feel it would've been better.

On the other hand, making the film longer would require more production, and it feels as though they were hurting for money. Valid issue.

Yeah, there's not much to say other than that. The story's great, but if you can't watch something unless it's super high-quality, don't waste your time.

The Main Character is exactly what Sigma Grindset dudes think looks cool. Well, spoiler alert: He's not cool whatsoever.

Episode 2 especially hammered that in for me. We've got a character who is deeply afraid of men to the point where she's extremely rude and lashes out. Now, that's INTERESTING -- we can probably do something cool with that, right? Make her realize slowly that not all men are like that, or something along those lines? Have her overcome some past traumatic experience, or at least set her on the right path to do that?

NOPE.

MC gets APOLOGIZED to by this traumatized girl -- which likely took ... a lot of strength for her to do, considering y'know, apologizing involves talking to a man, the very thing she's afraid of -- and how does MC respond? He proceeds to talk sh*t about her to the student council president because the apology apparently wasn't good enough for him. He tells the student council president he was DISAPPOINTED because somebody else was in the room when the traumatized girl apologized to him, so therefore the apology isn't good enough. WHAT?

And the president PRAISES HIM for being "observant", and he shrugs and basically says "just who i am after stopping being a simp."

Like, not only is that horrible and not recognizing progress where progress is made, but you're NOT COOL, DUDE. You're being a rude a*shole right now. Why are we praising this? What part of this is cool?

The main romantic interest is tsundere to a fault. Now that the horrible MC isn't pursuing her anymore, she's grumpy and all pouty about it. We could've seen a slow realization about appreciating the MC for who he is (if he was a good person, that is) but no, instead all she wants is his attention.

Horrible representation of women, horribly annoying sigma grindset protag, borderline abusive sibling relationship. Only watch this anime if you want to be annoyed at every possible interaction. People will likely use this anime as an example of how "emotional" and "ridiculous" modern women are, so be prepared for that.

I really like the story. I come from extreme poverty (USA standards), a single parent, and Kai Ichinose's story really resonates with me. The ending had me crying for sure.

We'll start with the positives:

- Kai's story is amazing and his "rivalry" with Amamiya is really well done. The line blur between best friends and archenemies is really well done.

- In season 2, everybody is extremely well fleshed out. If you like characters, season 2 is filled with them. Nearly everybody competing in the competition has their motivations to win.

- The "corruption" is also a really nice touch and well-needed aspect to the story.

- The Ending ... is very true to Kai's character.

- The comedy aspect is very refreshing and well done!

Now, for the cons...

- I can't NOT mention the fact that the 3D animation during the performances is abysmal. It looks like the performer becomes a Fortnite character.

- The performances take an extremely long time. I was a band geek, but I can understand why others wouldn't enjoy them. I would recommend they just fast-forward through them, in that case. You don't lose much in the story if you do that.

If you have 1-3 days to kill, this is a great one to see through to the end, with a great message as well! Very cute.