Let's be honest, we need an opinion of someone who has seen HoneyWorks ever since they started making this saga or, at least, started watching it and comprehended it.
First of all, story:
I'm really pleased at all of this, Haruki is a guy who loves making movies as his passion and thanks to the influence of his brother, Chiaki. Miou is a girl who's not only shy, but brave when the moment catch her, she loves painting as a passion even though she categorizes it as a "hobby". Both of them had already appeard in a lot of HoneyWorks PVs (including Hatsukoi no Ehon, their story's PV) as well as in the past 2 movies: "Zutto mae Kara suki Deshita" and "Suki ni naru sono Shunkan wo", so people may already had a hint they both liked each other, however, it is not necessary to lean on the movies to know their stories, but otherwise, compliment. Haruki and Miou have a really good relationship but never get to cross their own 10cm distance, that's where the title comes in action "Our love has always been 10cm apart" (clever, since the lyrics of Hatsukoi no Ehon touch the same words and topics)
This series, not only cover and adapts cleverly the songs and manga we've already seen, but also develops the story in its own with some thing we hadn't seen in anyways (like when Haruki got his own self-problem), however, a lot of songs were not covered and were a vital part of the story like Inokori Sensei and Hatsukoi no Ehon -another story- (which takes the song's same name into the point of view of Haruki) but aside of that, everything went nice and smoothly.
STORY: 9/10
Art
Sincerely enough, Lay-duce made a better job than Aniplex with the art of the characters, making their characters less "shiny" and more plain (in a Lovely Complex style or Kimi ni Todoke), however, most of the scenes were made out poorly. comparated to Yamako's (Mogelatte and Rokuro as well) great work as an artist for Honeyworks' PVs and Mangas. But, it went smoothly and felt really soft and shoujo-like, so, I'm not really mad nor sad about it.
ART: 8/10
Sound:
Perfect enough, I loved how they inteded in making songs with famous utaites like Amatsuki, and some character songs like Kiokemasuka, I'm amased by the content of the albums the group already released (surprisingly enough, all songs appear in the anime except for Romeo which appeared in the latest Honeyworks movie). Another fact we can add is that they didn't use the Chico w/Honeyworks formula for the opening, instead, they used the in-universe idol group "LIPxLIP" with the song "Nonfantasy" sung by Kouki and Nobunaga. And, you may not know it, but I love when the seiyuus sing in-tone, and the ending felt perfect, it fitted enough for the anime (and the last episode's ending was amasing, a reconstruction of Hatsukoi no Ehon, in the point of view of Aida in the present [this is not counted in as a spoiler since it was announced way before and the song released the same day the anime went airing]). Simply, delightful.
SOUND: 10/10
Character:
*EXPECT SPOILERS IN THIS PART, READ WITH CAUTION*
Unlike the last 2 movies and the mangas, here we see a develop in character atmosphere, like Haruki after he realized he was only carrying out his brother's dream instead of his own, driving him crazy. Or Aida when she discovered about her savior, trying to escape from Haruki's wrong reaction. This is not the "sugar sweet sweet" couple people were expecting, no, this time, the characters had a deep connection with the background story, giving influence in their decisions. 6 episodes were enough to make my heart race and develop with Aida and Haruki, the best couple HoneyWorks could have (FUN FACT: They were planned to be the only couple in the Kokuhaku no Oto saga, but thanks to their PVs success, they expanded the whole saga universe)
After everything that happened, they both changed in their adult ages, both of them grew up and knew how to get afront the "10 cm" that were keeping them away.
CHARACTER: 10/10
Enjoyment:
I TOTALLY ENJOYED THIS ANIME, I was waiting for it ever since they announced it, and totally fell in love with various soundtracs (even though some of the tracks are re-used from past movies). HoneyWorks' fixed the errors they made with the movies, and made them look better, one thing for sure that I liked the most was the abscense of some characters like Hina, Kotaro and Sena. ¿The reason? Obviously enough, because of the focus this couple was getting (I'm still proud of Gero because of his TV-anime debut as a seiyuu). I can't wait for HoneyWorks' next proyect.
ENJOYMENT: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
