Recommended if you really liked Anohana, Nago no Asukara, or if you are new to anime. Don't read this review in that case, you might end up hating the anime before you watch it. If you don't meet that criteria or don't care, then carry on.
I hated this anime. Initially, I liked it, but with certain developments in the anime, I became increasingly frustrated. I had trouble choosing between a 2 and a 3 for the rating. I chose 3 to be a bit generous. Take all the unadulterated cliches and tropes from television dramas (soap operas), convert them to anime form, and you get this anime. Most of the top reviews have given this anime a 9 or 8, and while that is completely fine, I wrote this review to present an opinion from the other side of the spectrum. I found this anime to be horrible. This review will contain some minor spoilers.
Well, lets get the good stuff out of the way. This anime had some very nice art and animation, fair music, and one or two decent characters. That is pretty much it.
Now for the meaty part of the review. While this anime is considered a romance, it also meets the criteria for being a harem. The main issues were with the progression, pacing and the characters. For example, one character's motivations are never properly explained, her behavior just glossed over, and her character does a complete 180 without it being really explained. The main character himself is very bland and obtuse as is expected from harem protagonists, with little real interaction with most of the heroines (well, except one), and is kind of an asshole. The other characters and their motivations aren't fleshed out well either. The anime lost all tension by episode 9. which was not a good sign for a drama. Some people say that the way the anime ended was unpredictable... but it was literally hinted at in the start of the anime. I haven't seen soap operas, but I have read about them, and all the signs were clear about which heroine the MC was going to choose if the anime chose to be your standard predictable drama. I thought it would do something different, and it did; this show managed to be worse than all of those anime with pointless and forced drama that I've watched so far. Over the course of watching this show, I felt it was somehow 'different'. Little did I know that that difference was not positive. Also, the ending sucked. The writers practically tied up everything with a neat little bow and tried to assuage all the viewers. It felt incredibly forced. The anime tried to be 'intellectual' and philosophical using the metaphor of a chicken who tried to fly. Didn't really work that well, in my opinion. It seemed like an attempt to give the impression of depth without there actually being any.
Over the course of watching this show, I would often mute the volume and try to see if the things that were happening made sense without the music (the anime plays some nice music at the really stupid parts to try to fool the viewer into not noticing the stupidity of those parts). They did not. Now, of course, some of us (including me) often watch fictional dramas to be 'fooled'.... but this anime, ugh. It failed in even doing that properly.
While the art was mostly nice, the use of CGI for extras was really unnerving. Also, I couldn't help thinking that such nice art was wasted on such a horrible story and characters.
I'm not one to make use of hyperbole, but I hope I never have to watch an anime like this again. I'm going to avoid the drama and romance genre for a while because of this anime. You've been warned. Happy New Year.
