To begin, this anime is NOT for beginning anime fans. Go watch some romance, tragedy, and lots of other anime first. The reason is because you have to know that pain and negative emotions exists in anime, it is not all fun and games. And you have to appreciate having these sort of feelings.
If you have not seen this anime, go see it right now, and here is going to be massive spoilers from here on out so go watch it now! Go watch this unforgettable anime NOW.
The story is tragedy, a fall of the main character due to his flaws. In the entire course of the anime, we see how he ends up hurting others because of his flaws. We have a main character who is lustful and indecisive. The ending is that of a Shakespearean tragedy, everyone ends up broken. To those who say it has a "bad ending", just because sad things happen at the end does not mean it is not good. The ending wraps things up nicely and is not left open ended. That means it has a FITTING ending.
The art is great. The reason is that they accomplish their means. Nothing stands out though, but that is not the highlight of this anime.
The voice actors were well chosen. The music was alright. The ending songs were ok.
Now the characters are what to watch this anime for. To those who say "The main character is despicable", I completely agree. Who did not cheer when Makoto was stabbed to death. To those who say "The main character is very unrelatable", I ask, why? Many anime fans enjoy harems yet VERY FEW have harems in real life. How are they any more relatable than a guy who does not have the courage to ask a girl who he likes, and takes a girl out on the first date to an arcade? Who WOULDN'T get too much ego when there are girls fighting for him. Who WOULDN'T forget to pay attention to the feeling of girls when hes getting as much as he wants. Makoto is probably more relatable than any other popular/cute/strong main characters in any other harems. And the reason why so many people hate him might be because he reminds us all how stupid and lustful real guys can be.
Analysis of characters-
Makoto- Immature boy at beginning, who is shy and somewhat considerate and is not straight forward. We see this when he helps Setsuna gain her courage. He is not smart nor very perceptive, as seen by not realizing his middle school classmate had a crush on him. He is at first grateful for having Katonoha as a girlfriend, but soon wants to go further in their relationship. When a girl wants him, he has no motive to say no. Because of his premature mind, he does not realize how much he is hurting the girls. How could he? Whenever he was with a girl, that girl was happy to be with him at that moment. In his eyes everything was okay and all the girls were happy. Exactly what immature boys/men would do, but haters won’t admit it.
Sekai- A clinically depressed girl (Setsuna revealed this) who acts quickly and has a different code of morals. Due to this, she is of the so called destructive type. This is seen when she steals a kiss at the first episode, yells at Makoto at the pool, and first degree murder. Even though she set up Makoto and Katonoha. I am no psychiatrist but I do know that sufferers love company, and that she really does want to be happy. She breaks free of the tropes that often define and make a cliché heroine, especially in anime.
Katonoha- A faithful beautiful girl without any self-esteem. She sees Makoto as her beacon of light for liking her. Quite an original character as a yandere and a silient sufferer. It was shown that she was constantly bullied before and during the anime, and when she does get bullied, she cries and runs away. Or take the scene from my memory when Katonoha visits Makoto because he had ignored her for a long time. Upon opening the door, she asks if he is with anyone. He blatantly lies no, and makes an excuse that he was sick. Katonoha looks down and sees a pair of women's shoes inside the house, and a look of grief spreads to her face realizing his lie, yet does not accuse of lying and walks away. She is the most well thought out “silient sufferer” I have ever seen in anime.
The girls in this anime are complex and it is HEART BREAKING to see them mentally break down. Yes, some of them didn't make the best decision. We are all human and I bet we all had those stupid teenage moments the characters are too. If you sympathize and try to understand them, you will have an emotionally painful experience.
This also has one of the most famous scenes of anime, and I am not talking of Nice Boat, but when Katonoha cuts Sekai open. Most people just say, wow, that is disgusting and disturbing, but they missed out the most BRILLIANT line of anime of all time. Upon looking inside her, she says “Just as I thought it was a lie after all. There’s nobody inside”. Oh Katonoha, you master of figurative language…
I think the story was magnificent and the characters took me on the biggest emotional rollercoaster anime has ever had. 10/10
If you find beauty in all sorts of emotions, I think you will appreciate it as well.
I will now argue against the most common arguments that unfairly criticize this anime for the rest of the review.
.1 The girls are sluts.
If you mean that having a sex drive, which was Hikaru and the girls Makoto had a 4 way with then yes. That also means that all guys are sluts. People who use this defense don’t understand that it is normal for a teenage girl who has been past puberty and has sex hormones desire sex as much as males do. Those who still insist to criticize this as the shows downfall don’t realize how much society has warped the idea of gender roles. They think all anime girls are pure, laugh at sex crazed MALE characters of other anime, and then freak out when there are girls who express their natural feelings. This is by far the most immature excuse.
I am no way implying all teenagers are sex crazed, and this anime is in no way trying to depict teens with urges as having no virtues. This is shown when all the girls stop having sex with Makoto when they hear that he got Sekai pregnant, which means they know when the absolute line should not be crossed. Another time is when Katou visits Makoto, tells him that he changed, and promptly leaving without doing anything, being done with him. Her crush on him was never about his physique but the type of person he was, and she cuddled with him to be with that person who was now gone.
.2 Sekai is an idiot who completely messed up everything.
First of all, she is a first year at high school so her line of reasoning may not be that well (She even says she has no experience in episode 4). It probably started when Makoto repeatedly messed up his relationship with Katonoha. She most likely thought – Makoto is sex hungry and Kotonoha wants to be more reserved. The solution would be to take off the sexual pressure off from Kotonoha by taking her place ONCE. Unfortunately this does not work out as she does develops feelings for him and thus events spiral out of control and she herself admits, there is a point she couldn’t go back during the final moments of the final. With this in mind it is possible to acknowledge her as a plausible, realistic and pitiful character.
.3 This a bad show because it made me feel depressed/ it was not like 99 percent of other harems
I think this argument only justifies that is worth a watch.
If there are any other complaints, I would gladly update this review.
