The story's problems start with the setting, which is bland as all hell. The anime fails to make No. 6 interesting or threatening. Because of this, it is hard to get invested in the story. If you want world-building, I point you towards the novels.
The story's problems continue with the story itself, which is poorly executed. It isn't until very late in the anime that you learn anything about the city, making the pacing extremely poor. On top of that, the climax is sloppy and the plot twist is complete bullsh*t. I can't fault the anime for the last one, since it was in the origional source material, but still, it's really stupid. It's out of place and should've never been there. If you still want to know the plot, the manga is for you.
The characters are the best part of this entire anime, but still underused. The anime spends a great deal of time trying to flash the characters out, which it succeeds in. None of the characters are stereotypes (except maybe Shion and Nezumi, being the Naive Nice Guy and Repressed Asshole with a Tragic Past respectively, but they never shove that in your face, so I didn't even notice it until I started thinking about it), which is rare in anime nowadays. It introduces multiple characters that are incredibly interesting (Shout out to Inukashi).
Sadly, the show falls flat on its nose when it comes to actually developing them. This is mainly because it doesn't spend enough time on the second half of the story, which is where all the development happens. The only thing I applaud this anime for is that it does manage to give Safu an interesting personality that doesn't boil down to 'I love Shion', something both the manga and novels failed in.
The relationship between Nezumi and Shion is practically the only thing that the anime actually nails, but it should not have been the focus. Shounen-ai fans will be thoroughly pleased, though. And I can't pretend as if I didn't fangirl over it myself. So major kudos to that, as I normally hate romance. (Seriously, someone should give these guys a medal. I HATE HATE HATE romance, and the fact that I loved these two really says something.)
The art is nothing particularly special, but it's not bad in the slightest. The backgrounds (especially West Block) are actually really really good. The animation on the characters themselves isn't top notch, but it's not bad per se and not distracting unless you focus hard on it.
In the sound department, I personally found the soundtrack to be rather plain, though maybe that's because I'm spoiled too much by Yoko Kanno, Yuki Kajura and Hiroyuki Sawano. I really LOVE the ending theme, though. I was actually listening to it before I even knew that it was from an anime. But I absolutely HATE the opening, so I guess that that balances it out.
All in all, despite the amount of smack I've given this anime, I really did enjoy it. Which is really all that counts in the end. It just bugs me that it's very mediocre on almost all fronts, when it could have been fantastic. The source material really lends itself to great world building, and I'm convinced that if they had given the second half of the anime more time, it would have done exactly that. What we are left with now, however, is a nice supplement to the manga/novels, but not really something that can properly stand on its own.
If you are going to watch this, please do it as either a gateway into the manga/novels, or simply as a shounen-ai series (though it pains me to say that, since romance should never have been the focus). If you see it as such, you will enjoy this just fine, or even be like me and enjoy the hell out of it. Otherwise, give it a pass.
