Story: The story is about 29 year old Satoru who seemingly by chance travels back in time to when he was in the fifth grade to prevent the murders of his fellow classmates. The story isn't a completely new concept, but it's quite enjoyable and is given enough time within 12 episodes to start and finish it. Most of the story takes place in 1988, which is when Satoru was 10, although some if it does take place in modern day (2006). The method in which Satoru is able to time travel is called Revival and this occurs seemingly at random, as it almost vacillates between him being able to invoke the ability with enough willpower or him being a slave to its random appearance. I don't really have a problem with that because ultimately I only care about a series being enjoyable and not too much on logistics, unless they conflict with being able to invest in the storyline. The story remains pretty consistent for the first 3 quarters and then completely changes feeling, which is where I felt it dropped off in quality. In the fourth quarter of the story, I thought things got too farfetched such as Satoru's elementary school friends becoming a doctor and a lawyer respectively in order to help him in case he woke up from a coma - that is completely unbelievable. Overall the story was enjoyable though, especially because it was mainly about kids yet that didn't detract from the tone of the show.
Art: The character design is pretty solid, though in the case of a show like this, appearances don't really matter so much as the time spent establishing their character itself. The art style is very dark and gritty and does a good job conveying the mood that each scene is trying to express. Satoru's Mom has lips drawn on and it looks really stupid; that was about the only major flaw for me.
Sound: The opening and ending themes are very good and I did not skip them, which is something I do pretty often. If there was background music at all during this show, I never noticed it, which is a neutral point, since background music to me isn't needed if the art and dialogue convey the emotion that they're trying to get across. The voice actors are all very good, especially since for 10 year old characters, the usual immature and whiny voices aren't included.
Character: Some people argue that the characters shouldn't have been made kids because they don't act like kids, which I agree that they don't act their age, but making them that age helps the plot because they have to sneak around and are generally subject to adult authority, which makes them more cunning in what they do. Kenya being suspect of Satoru's behavior is a nice touch because it is a standard in TV shows that none of the characters ever believe the main character in regards to time travel or anything of the sort. The teacher (Yashiro) does a complete 180 in behavior in the last 3 episodes, which to me feels more like lazy writing instead of the shock that they were likely going for. It would be more of a shock if you could look back and connect the dots instead of adding motives that were not hinted at whatsoever. Satoru's friends still living in the same town and wanting to be good friends with someone from 15 years prior isn't very reflective of real life. I was quite interested in all of the characters from the beginning, but the flaws of them are the 180 degree turn they did in the last episodes and I wish they spent more time on Satoru's co-worker from the pizza shop (her name escapes me right now).
Enjoyment: The show is very enjoyable as it wastes no time getting right into the story from the beginning. Too many anime waste time on frivolous nonsense, which requires you to give them the 2 or 3 episode try before committing, but I was interested in this show within the first 5 minutes.
Overall: The show has its flaws of course, but none of them really take away from the overall enjoyment of it. I would recommend you watch it, though I am not entirely sure if it will become as popular as Attack on Titan, Death Note, and One Punch Man in terms of entry level viewership. Then again, if you're reading my review, I assume you've already watched it.
