Now let me go into my thoughts on the show.
This show is comprised of 3 stories in 1 and we start off with Kyons (from the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) voice actor talking about how china (of which all 3 of these stories take place in) is not looking to great in his eyes now that he's older and decides to attempt to reminisce about the good times of his youth while traveling back home to see his dying relative before she goes. Throughout his story we see him as he grows being happy than melancholy over aspects of his life that he found great fading away or disappearing from his life util there was nothing but grey skies and dreary china left for him, until the end of the story course.
Story 1: I thought this story wasn't bad but i feel focused too much on its food aspects (yes i grasp the show is called FLAVORS of Youth but that made no difference for the other 2 stories so i feel it wasn't necessary), however i wouldn't say it didn't have a purpose and came full circle at the end when he eat noodles after his beloved Grandmother passed away so i'd say this story was a 5.5/10 by itself.
Our next story follows a girl who grew up to tall but was thankful for her height because it along with her interest in wearing cute clothing helped her to become a fashion model while also taking in her sister a while after their parents died (dead parents in anime? Shocker...).
Story 2: If you've seen other concepts like this involving a relatively older fashion model in different media it’s not hard to see where most of the story is going from the very beginning so it’s weak point for me at least is its predictability. But i have to give credit to how the show flows and makes you care at least a bit about our main 3 characters (let's call them oblivious, inspiration, and nice guy) and their interactions with one another albeit Nice Guy being a bit to idealistic for what he actually is. The points this story tries to get across are clearly conveyed to the watcher; be aware of what you have and treasure it, nothing lasts forever, don't sacrifice your health for your career and of course girls are cutthroat and jealous as hell (that last one is real important). Overall this story i felt was more impactful, albeit predictable, than our first story so i give it a 6/10.
Our last story is when we get real anime-like and get closer to what Netflix (via this shows preview) wants you to compare it too, Your Name. Our new lead (let's call him Idiot), is just moving into a new apparent with the help of his childhood friend that he doesn't act like a friend towards when in the process of unpacking he finds a tape (that has a series of messages on it that he and his childhood crush listened to and recorded when they were young) that he didn't know he had received a new message on or even had in his possession (despite being reminded 3 times) and now wants to hear it because everything has done up until this point was to make it so her, his childhood friend and him could live together of which he told her in one of the messages he recorded to her way back when (that was a mouth full).
Story 3: This story made me cringe a bit from how Idiot was acting. One moment he’s carrying his crush home and spouting cheesy lines like "if it will make you smile i'll do it", the next he's mad at her for choices she felt were beyond her control, than he doesn't tell her he’s trying for the same school as her to be with her and this ends up in a miscommunication after receiving the tape but not listening to it that had her fail her entrance exam so she could be with him and get beaten by her father for it.
Oh but it doesn't stop there! Than when they meet again after being in different schools he almost completely ignores her and lies AGAIN about his reasons for going to the school on top of being told about the tape AGAIN to once again not know about it... At this point if i wasn't aware of his desperation to find the tape and only aware he accomplished his goals and became an architect while just reminiscing of what could have been i would have like the character more but sense i'm aware of the situation ahead of time he just seems like an idiot to me and his life goal came at the cost of the people he wanted it to involve. When he builds the place he wants all of them to live in (a motel apparently?), WHAT DO YOU KNOW she comes walking in out of frame and he smiles ending the last of the 3 stories.
Yeah... I wasn't a fan of this one. They story could have been better, the characters i didn't care about the characters (Idiot also admits he was acting childish which i think is an understatement), and the real lesson is if you love somebody DON'T IGNORE THEM! This one gets a 4/10 for me cause it annoyed me.
That adds up to a grand total of 5.5/10 for overall story which i'll put as a 6 sense the first 2 weren't as bad and MAL doesn't do .5 ratings...
The Art: In current year there's a LOT of bland art in the series that come out but sense this is considered a movie i intend to judge it by movie standards. As a movie this animation isn't the best i've seen and sense the trailer wants to shove the fabled legend "Your Name" in YOUR face to let you know it was made by the same group i would have to say it was fine, just fine. 6/10.
Sound: This one is relatively hard for me despite enjoying music quite a bit sense i don't usually hear the songs in these anime unless they really stand out like in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star, Carol and Tuesday or Made in Abyss. I can't say i had an issue with what i was hearing but nothing stood out to me so take this with a grain of salt but 5/10.
Characters: I'm gonna be honest, none of these guys left a lasting impression on me (i hope you could tell when i couldn't be bothered to get their actual names to use in the review). I can't say as though i had an issue with them but we get maybe 30 minutes with each set and though we learn more than we really learn about characters like the two in Garden of Words IMO, we still don't have a lot to go on. If i had to give an MVP award to better group of characters i'd say Story 2 wins sense i didn't care whatsoever about story 3s group and story 1 we focus on one guys being melancholy (he should have stuck with Haruhi for that). Overall they weren't remarkable but not terrible so 5.5/10 which will be 5.
Despite my griping about certain parts of this show i did enjoy the experience of all 3 stories combine more than i expected i would so i'll give it a 6.5/10 or a 6 in MAL terms cause it wasn't THAT good.
Considering i've already said the rating it may be confusing as to why looking back on my other scorings but let me explain: This show despite my gripes once again did make me think about my life and my youth in some way and i had more connections with the second story than i was expecting to have sense i'm sure as hell no model and not a girl. That experience is part of what reviewing a show is all about (despite being illogical), how one feels about a show after watching needs to take into consideration but NOT sway your thoughts of the show so much that your rating end up like the new Lions Kings audience ratings. So though i did give a bit higher of a rating than my scoring suggests, i did so with another factor involved that many people of today seems to think solely with but i will not, After-feeling: 6.5/10.
