Reviews

Well, for being a romance story between a 45 year old man (Kondo) and a 17 year old girl (Akira), it didn't come off as creepy as I had thought it'd be. I suppose I don't have much moral qualms with it though since 17 is legal in a lot of places... barely. Anyways, I absolutely adored the art style. It's just so pretty, and well executed. I adore all the facial expressions the some of the characters make. I did think some of the pacing is kind of rushed. I did read the first volume of the manga series before this, and it's a lot more slow burn than this. Though given this anime only has 12 episodes, maybe this issue is to be expected. I love how the anime slowly unravels details about the characters. We don't learn that Kondo is a writer until way later in the series, though we can see glimpses of that earlier with his novel collection, and poetic way of speaking. I do like how Kondo and Akira help each other grow. Akira is nervous about her drifting friendship with her friend from track since she quit the team. Kondo has a novelist friend from college that he kind of drifted from. Using his experience with his friend, he consoles her about her friendship, and it's just so nice. One thing about Kondo's character is his insecurities with his age. He wants to write and feel young again, but doesn't feel confident about it. Akira does see his good points and encourages him to write again, which is also heartwarming. The scene where he hugs Akira for the first time made me cry. Like the buildup was perfect. There is also some symbolism with things like birds, umbrellas, keychains, etc. Which I dig. I like subtle things like that. What's interesting is that there is romantic buildup between Kondo and Akira in the first half of the series, then the second half deals with the personal problems of each character. Though as I mentioned earlier, the two help each other through these problems so it's not like their relationship development is totally abandoned. On one hand, I was craving more romance, but on the other, I sort of like this too because it's very sweet.

I don't think I was able to verbalize why I liked this anime so much very well, but I was really invested in it, and loved every minute of it.