Story: 8/10
Upon first glance, this story seems like a stereotypical school harem with all the accompanying tropes of a dense mc and many ____-deres, but it's actually quite a dark and suspenseful plot. The structure is a bit similar to Clannad's, where the mc learns about each girl's past and does his best to resolve their issues so that they can find peace in the present day. The difference is that instead of having issues like "my parents didn't buy me a gift for my birthday," it's a lot darker and involves murder, suicide, and all the other bad stuff you can think of. This means each girl has her own arc, and that each one doesn't really have an effect on other girls' arcs. There's no problem with designing a story this way, but the problem was that each arc was not properly balanced in terms of pacing. One of the girls literally only receives one episode for her entire route, while another girl's takes up 4 episodes. This means the show is a combination of well-developed stories and poorly developed ones, but even the characters that did have lengthy arcs felt rushed. The saving grace is the originality of the story with all its previously mentioned, non-traditional dark elements in a harem show.
Art & Sound: 8/10
A great OP and decent ED, but these are heavily subjective opinions. The art is pretty great too.
Characters: 8/10
What is refreshing about this show is the mc is not a dunce, and instead actually has skills and awareness about what's going on around him. Since all the female characters have such dark and disturbing pasts, he's not going to be able to help them heal with just some therapeutic talk; he'll sometimes need to use force to drive away their past demons. It was very refreshing to see such a harem mc.
As I mentioned in the story part, the characters do not get an equal treatment of screen time, so some of them are well-developed and have a comprehensive past along with complex personalities, while others are bland and forgettable. Nonetheless, each character is intriguing as their pasts dictate who they are, making for some more original heroines than are usually found in harems.
Enjoyment: 9/10
Despite knowing that the show was rushed, it was suspenseful watching each of the heroines' messed up pasts and seeing how the mc resolved them. In essence, you'll never think "wow I've seen this plot device before."
Overall: 8/10
The show was rushed for sure, but I think the originality of the show made up for a lot of it. Each arc was intense, unsettling, and even though the conclusion of each arc was predictable, the climaxes were not. If the pacing had just been drawn out more, this show would have been a masterpiece. If you prioritize the content of the plot over the pacing, definitely give this a watch.
