On the one hand, you have a generally thoughtful and depth-seeking piece that tries to provide meaning to one's adolescent life through alien and superpower metaphors.
On the other, you have a not particularly interesting, if weird, harem anime comprised of 1 guy, 3 girls + 1 annoying perverse aunt.
The thing with Denpa Onna is that it managed to keep my interest, but provided nearly no fun. It had a lot of attitude and style to its characters, but I didn't really like any of them much. It is, overall, an interesting experience, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
It's a complex thing.
Well there are some aspects of it that are plainly good or bad:
-The general art style, voice acting, and execution effort are all very satisfactory.
-The pacing is a bit slow, but it is necessary for all the inner monologues of the hero, which are the meat of the show, and do make it stand out very much.
-The storytelling that constantly colludes an allegated "aliens and superpowers are among us" with conversations that make it sound like the hero is really looking for aliens and superpowers, is a very serious effort and keeps you posted
-The characters reaaaaally aren't that fantastic, none of them, or even good, they're just a step above decent, a twinge above average if you're being generous
-The story is interesting but is all over the place, never giving you a clear vibe for whether we're supposed to ship someone or not, if this is a show that tries to be deep, or if it's a harem with some weirdness
-There is no real value to any story thread because of the aforementioned point, you always wonder if we're getting somewhere, and no, we never are
The gist of Denpa Onna is this: I don't know what they're really going for. What kind of story, what sort of message? There is a lot of value in the soul-searching about adolescent life and the relationships, even if it's a little too wordy for what it is. But is there something they're really going for? I don't know, even after having finished the anime, I simply don't.
Erio is supposed to come back to society. Does she really? Not really, but a bit. She also has an affection for "Itoko" aka Cousin, aka Makoto Niwa, aka protagonist, but is it supposed to evolve into love, or evolve into him becoming her bridge to a successful social reinsertion? I still don't know at the end.
Ryuushi is supposed to be the love interest chuniibyou, and I guess she does become the "main girl", but not entirely.
Maekawa is the possible love interest that will almost certainly remain in the friendzone. But at the end, is she firmly established as a friend or as a love interest? More than the others, but still not entirely.
There are loads of plots that are started but unfinished, thoughts that are expressed but unclear, and questions are raised by the dozens each episode but seldom get answered, by the anime or by us.
And that is the conundrum here: I was interested, but don't know what I was supposed to be interested about. There were creative ideas, but I have no idea what they were trying to express.
Denpa Onna was a mess, an interesting, original mess, but a mess nonetheless. I enjoyed it far more than less deep or less creative animes. But at the end of the day, I don't know what I was supposed to get out of it. For most animes, enjoyment is enough, but there was little enjoyment in this one, as it is burdened by long monologues that don't amount to much, and plot points that end nowhere. I see it as a project that didn't really know what it was going for, or was setting up for a very long run but only had 12 episodes and wanted to show off what it had coming in whatever light novel or manga it was showcasing.
It wasn't a disapointment, but I feel as confused about it now as I did 2/3rds into the season, except my interest started dying out somewhere around that time. I finished it hoping for a conclusion, I didn't get one, and I'll be left confused. I still don't regret watching it.
