=== STORY: 7 =
While it's not anything out of the ordinary for a slice of life anime - especially with such a narrow focus - the pacing was perfect. The amount of side dishes we had on top of the main dish - school band practice - was just right. It was obvious what was the story about and what was a "bonus". No sidesteps - pure focus on the main story.
In short - an ok story that you'd expect from Slice of Life told in an ok way.
=== ART: 7 ===
The animation, the characters, the hair physics, the backgrounds, the shading, the play on light... It was all executed perfectly. The amount of details from first few episodes began to diminish over time until we hit the rock bottom at the finale; don't get me wrong it was still well and above 90% of stuff I've watched so far - the first 6 episodes just spoiled me a little too much. The amount of effects felt a little over the top at some moments - 2 scenes to be exact - but other than that it was all well done.
It's beautiful, it's well done, it felt crisp and alive. It was nowhere close to Makoto Shinkai's photorealism, though. It would be an 8 if the amount of details was the same throughout all 13 episodes.
=== SOUND: 8 ===
It was really good. Instrumental flukes were captured perfectly, voice acting was pretty much perfect, the ambient in most scenes was ok, but the music... Music felt flat for some reason - I've even rewatched the musical parts on studio-grade equipment and it still felt flat. I'd give 7 for sound but the flukes in the practice scenes(sound acting?) and voice acting raised the grade to 8.
=== CHARACTER: 8 ===
Characters were good. They were not flat, their struggles and emotions were shown. Their designs made it easy to distinguish them from each other - every single one of the ~70 members of the band had some features unique to them - despite the fact that most did not even matter when it came to the story of the main heroine(And that bunch was not the only group portrayed!). Their behavior felt so natural and each had so little screen time that it's hard to even talk about archetypes and such - 13 episodes we were given felt like a glimpse on a small part of the cast's lives.
8 for the huge quantity of differing characters, talking about quality of such small samples feels like a waste of time. The only character we got to see fully was the Main Heroine. BUT this is not psychological drama and we don't need to know the full story of every single band member so it's all good.
=== ENJOYMENT: 10 ===
There's not much I can say about this one - I really enjoyed this series and I don't regret even a single minute spent(rarely happens!). I did not even yawn once! Watched with my eyes glued to the screen, and my heart was pounding by the finale. 10/10!
===== OVERALL: 9 =====
It does what it had to do great - despite the story being simple, despite the small mishaps, despite this and that - I really enjoyed the anime and that's all that really matters. It's eyecandy and a balm for the soul - especially after that monstrosity that is Owari no Seraph ;_; WATCH THIS IF YOU DO NOT LIKE OVERLY COMPLICATED STORIES AND LIKE YOUR THINGS HAPPY!
