The real problem with Orange is that it expects you to care about it's characters, but never really makes any effort to make them likeable or well developed. All of them can essentially be broken down to their single defining characteristics, there is even one amusingly unaware scene towards the end of episode three, in which one of the characters starts describing all the others essentially using these singular traits. Naho is kind and helpful, though a much simpler summary of her character can be put into one word 'doormat'. Kakeru is your typical love interest, dark and brooding, his total lack of personality makes it impossible to see what Naho sees in him beyond his appearance, and the same can be said of his attraction to Naho. All the other characters have almost no bearing on the plot making them completely forgettable and not even worth noting. Times in which one would think the show would try and develop its character is instead spent upon lazy montages or creating repetitive drama merely for the sake of it. Because of this the show fails to engage its audience in its plot as it is almost entirely character driven. Why should one care that Kakeru commits suicide or has mommy issues, if the show tells us almost nothing about him as a character, he also goes from unlikable to downright hateable as the show goes own, which I wont go into for the sake of spoilers, though I'll standby that he acts irredeemably selfish.
Another glaring issue is the casts and especially Naho's utter and constant stupidity which is the cause of the vast majority of the drama throughout the show, making it unbearably frustrating to sit through. Naho rarely tries to solve her issues in the most straight forward and logical manner, it feels as if she isn't making her choices based on her past experiences or her personality, but more that she is acting in such a way because the show needs the plot to move from point A to point B. Despite the characters actions causing an unnecessary amount of melodrama, for the most part it usually resolved within a few episodes, as if the show is dancing around what little plot it actually has, so it ends up feeling like a complete waste of time.
Other than that the show is unimpressive in both its animation and audio quality which also gradually decline in quality as the show progresses, so it really has nothing going for it. There are also many smaller issues such as Naho never reading ahead in the letter and the shows baffling attempt to explain away the time travel, I'd go on, how ether I don't have the time nor the patience to go through them all. Overall the show is at its best boring, and at worst teeth grindingly frustrating, I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.
