The Development of this anime is pretty slow so don't expect getting exposition thrown at your face every other episode.
The Story is pretty generic if you have watched almost 900 other drama or mystery kind of anime, but it isn't your usual "1 episode of development, then the next episode the character dies" kind of anime.
It slowly throws you some hints of the world they live in and what they don't know yet, they could be faster with the development though, but it would ruin the drama and mystery part of the anime, in which in my opinion would be the main reason to watch this.
Characters are generic, nothing new everyone! almost 2 decades of anime and now people are complaining about this common issue, look around you, everyone is generic and there are some people that are more interesting than others, either because they are really smart or maybe they are just energetic and everybody likes them, and this kind of character design in my opinion should be the basis of most anime, you don't need to have an impressive cast of 90 characters with their own background and special abilities or some other different thing (looking at you Naruto+), and this is portrayed very well in the development of this story.
The people of the mud whale have no idea of what is going on in the world and neither does the main characters, the main characters are interesting because they are the ones looking at the major picture of the situation and trying to do something about it (or maybe write about it, in Chakuro's case), the side characters follow the chieftain's orders because they believe in him, and so do the main characters, they grew peacefully and depending on the guidance of the chieftain and the elders, so you shouldn't be asking "why aren't they questioning the elders, blah blah", they are but, they spent almost a decade without conflict and reaching to the elders and the chieftain would be common sense if you lived there, do you get my point? Good.
The world FOR NOW is plain, like REAAAAALY plain! Seriously though, it's a giant sand ocean, there's nothing much to talk about it, you can wonder about the beauties of the continents but i haven't read the manga so i can't expect much for now.
The OST is amazing, if you haven't already watched the anime , just listen to the OST when they release it, it's absolutely outstanding, Made in Abyss levels of outstanding.
Sound effects are really well blend with the environment and the Thymia sound effects are well portrayed with it's highlighted sound being easily recognized when someone is activating their thymia (also something noticeable in the anime).
The Art Designs are..... Well i don't know how to describe it very well. It's "Unique", some may look at it and call it "classic" like designs made almost 4 to 5 years ago, but when you see it in action you can really see why the directors liked the style, with a colorful palette and smooth animation sequences, the art style of this anime makes it a real masterpiece when it is combined with it's amazing OST.
Overall, i think everybody should at least give this anime a try, i'm really enjoying the plot, and like some of the haters of SAO 2, i can become a critic of everything, but in this case, it's kind of hard to see the bad parts of this anime, it's just really well made in general.
I just think it's kind of a shame it has only gained a 12 episode season (but shokugeki no souma san no sara got 24 episodes this year, I SEE YOU J.C STUDIOS), i feel like 12 episodes aren't enough to see the full picture yet and maybe i'll read the manga like i'm doing with made in abyss.
