Ultimately, I liked this, but I can see for sure why most people really didn't. As far as a show with entertainment goes, it had very very little, everything that I got from this anime I had to struggle and think very hard about, I did a lot of reading around to cement my own opinions about the endings and come to a marginally satisfying conclusion, but therein lies the biggest problem. To truly like this you have to put far too much effort in and not have any real payoff beyond what you imagine.
For me, this worked because I could relate to the fears of both Kakeru and Touko, so in that sense I had a vested interest in seeing their characters grow (although again, it could be argued that they didn't particularly grow at all). The supernatural element was not explained at all and did not really have any benefit to the show, especially for a show that was basically one long metaphor. It just muddied up the waters and made it harder to understand, made the characters less believable and ultimately was a nuisance.
All that being said, I can't shake how this is staying with me, I keep thinking about it, studying the characters, their motivations, their feelings, and for me this is OK, I just wish we had a bit (OK, a lot) more explanation on the devices used in the plot.
