Art: 9. Very grungy and fluid. A distinct early 2000 style that is commonly seen as aesthetic nowadays. It does its job, while there is a scene or 2 which just looks funky, a majority of the time it helps enunciate it's more indie and outsider type of feel. It's by no means ugly, but the lack of detail at times and the wide motion blurs when the characters move wildly are complimentary to the entire tone of it all.
Sound: 9. The soundtrack is melancholy whenever the characters are revealing their problems and how it caused them to become what they are (otaku, shut ins, schemers, lonely) and it really helps drive the point home that none of them are perfect, but their melancholy is beautifully human and we should be sympathetic. Otherwise, during the more up beat times within the show, the music follows suit. It's bouncy, sometimes in the area of rock. The opening is fantastic as well, the visuals and music both moving at a similar pace and really getting the overall feeling across to the viewer. The ending songs, while less memorable, do their job.
Character: 10. Here is where the show really shines. The show is labeled as comedy drama, but it's obvious that the pull is in its character drama. I can't say I laughed too much, I don't know what that says about me, but I definitely felt some old aches come to surface while watching this. Satou, the protagonist, is massively unstable. The very thought of going outside stresses him, people around him always seem to be laughing at him, looking down on him... sound familiar? Satou is the embodiment of that little voice in your head telling you "hey, they're watching you." That anxiety that comes with growing into society with no real path taken to the extreme. He's a character everyone who has ever felt doubt in their path can relate to. Beyond Satou, you have his neighbor Yamazaki. The embodiment of rebelling against a set path. He moves to Tokyo to follow a dream of making it as a game creator. He's bitter and has secluded himself with otaku culture in order to compensate for all the pain he suffers when he goes outside. Though more socially competent than Satou, he still suffers from poor social skills in the form of his hot headed nature and distrust of women. Then you have his high school friend, Hitomi, who is paranoid and depressed. Every time something is going right, that's because something is about to go wrong right? Because someone wants it to hurt all the worse right? Finally, we have Misaki, but I won't talk about her all that much because it's very important to the climax in her arc. Just remember, we all like feeling useful right?
Enjoyment: 9. Don't quite know what to right here, I enjoy it quite a lot thanks to the reasons above. Although enjoying reveling in sadness is a quirk isn't it? lol
Overall: 10
