The concept of 18if is interesting. People are stuck in their dreams and the main character, Haruto Tsukishiro, has to find a way to help them. In a way, the dreams are sort of like delusions. The "witches" - who are the people stuck in those dreams - only want to see what they want to see and it prevents them from seeing the way things are. (Up until the main character shows up anyway) But the show also makes you wonder, "What's the difference between right and wrong? Who decides what choice you make is the right one?" It's hard to say how often this happens in the show but it's a bit self-aware. The way each episode comes to a conclusion feels weird at times. Some where you'd expect a bit more defiance instead of acceptance and others are just regular responses. I'd also like to point out that it goes by the villain of the week format which, personally, feels mundane.
At times, the story doesn't feel concise making you wonder if the story made any progress or if it was some dream that didn't have an effect on the overall story because it's a dream - anything could've happened and dreams aren't supposed to make sense sometimes right?
Furthermore, the show has presentation issues. As I said before, it's hard to tell what matters and what doesn't. It has some type of conceptual, philosophical idealism, and social commentary included with this which is awesome but it's hard to resonate when it tries to include so much topics that the show loses a sense of direction throwing you off course on what the hell you're watching. Point is, it tries to be everything. Not that it's a bad thing but it's hard to tell on how I should feel about an anime when there's already enough going on.
With a show like this, it's hard not to talk about the way it looks. Take it in a positive or negative way, but almost every episode looks different. It turned weird, it turned funky, it turned ugly, and it became gory at times. Personally, it became a bit of a turn off but you can't judge a book by its cover all the time.
Overall, to reiterate what I said, the show's concept was interesting but there was something about it that was not drawing me in. That being the one dimensional way of storyline and characters - how things were written off - and a lack of emotional investment. If I can't tell how I should feel, I wouldn't say the show did a good job in making me feel invested due to too much happening and not being concise enough. It's a very unconventional anime and an okay story. I enjoyed the show for what it is.
