Art/Sound:
Let's get the subjective criteria out of the way first. Art is good, character designs are pleasant to look at, and backgrounds are of high quality aswell. As for the soundtrack, the piano compositions that play at certain scenes are very nice, however I can't say the same about neither OP nor ED, I disliked them both, I'm not going to say that they are bad or anything such, it's just not the kind of music I enjoy.
Characters/Plot:
The juicy part. What unfolds in this show is a dysfunctional relationship between a person that's mentally disturbed (Touko) and a person that's flawed on the fundamental level, because she is incapable of feeling love and empathy (Yuu). People claim they see a very mellow and realistic relationship between two girls, but I personally fail to see that.
There's a lot of opinions that Touko has a genuine affection towards Yuu, but I think that people are mistaking an indulgence for affection. How can you feel genuine affection and love for someone, if you are incapable of loving yourself? She even states outright that she doesn't want Yuu to love or hate her back, and only wants to indulge herself in Yuu's kindness, as that puts her distressed self at ease, a dubious concept at best, since how can a person to whom love and empathy are alien, unknown emotions, can be kind, is beyond me.
Touko also quite frequently acts in a mentally disturbed and creepy manner, looking at her family photo and reassuring herself that she'll be exactly as her sister was in her eyes. Because, apparently, if you're a shy and meek child, instead of self-betterment, a much superior choice would be to become a literal copy of your older sister, and then grapple with mental and stress repercussions of your decisions. Not to mention that she low-key contemplates suicide a couple times, once at the crosswalk at the train tracks, and another in the final episode, where she's standing at the train station paltform and takes a step forward, while the train is about to pass the afformentioned station.
As I stated earlier, Yuu is flawed on a fundamental level, since she cannot feel love and empathy, yet somehow renowned for her kindness, sure, whatever. In the relationship with Touko, to me personally, she comes off as a Stockholm Syndrom victim, because I cannot sum up a person that puts up with someone who indulges themselves in her, forces her to kiss them, even though she's clearly not in a mood for it, explicitly tells her to not have an affection of any kind towards them, in any other way. The only solace, is that at the end of final episode she's finally had enough of it, as she says: "It's time for us to change trains, senpai".
The rest of cast is inconsequential, as they usually have about 5 minutes of screen time, over 12 episodes, total, or are there to fulfill a single role. The only one I will mention, is Maki-kun, a creepy self-admitted voyer, who doesn't want to be in any relationship himself, but rather be a spectator to the relationships of others, that he finds interesting/intriguing.
Overall:
Personally, I'm revolted by relationship of this kind, I won't elaborate on it here further, as if you're reading this, it's clear as to why I'm displeased. There's nothing else I can add to this. When autumn chart was just released, I dismissed this anime, as I assumed that it will be like just about anything with similiar tags, only to be asked by my friend to join him, cause he saw potential. Now that it ended, he's dissapointed in it, though not as much as I am.
