In the space of four episodes, this story manages to deliver one major epiphany, but every episode manages to crank the tension up a notch. The story-telling style relies heavily on flashbacks to memories, slowly mounting tension, and uncomfortable stretches of emotion-laden silence in the middle of conversations.
By the end of the story, I was left wondering whether the creators hoped to do further episodes, because they certainly left a lot of potential story arcs untouched. The themes of sickness and desire received a very interesting treatment. But this treatment might fail to satisfy hard-core fiction critics who have a broad basis for comparison.
Art:
Except for the ever-present tears trembling in eyes, this anime is almost a slideshow. Very often mouths are not animated when characters speak. It's impressive that they managed to produce this story in the first place, since apparently they had no animation budget at all.
Sound:
The voice actors certainly worked hard. The ending song is moody.
Character:
The characters were quite well-written. The introverted, forboding personalities were like something out of Faulkner or Walker Percy.
Enjoyment:
I was initially intrigued by the first episode, but after I watched the others, I felt that the series opened up too many questions and only answered one of them. Also, the slow pace was essential for the story -- if one tried to do the same story with normal pacing it wouldn't work -- but I was bored. This show will appeal to viewers who like slow-paced stories.
Overall: I don't recommend this as a first choice, but if you're a compulsive anime viewer, you should spend the two hours necessary to complete this OVA. If you hate it, you can skip past the ending song to make it move faster.
