This series is great and the studio did their best for the adaptation, it's not soulless for sure, but too bad there's few major problem because of the direction they had taken, mainly the plot, where is it?
There is a main plot for sure , but they switched it out and we got ep10 instead, bringing a character back too early when it wasn't supposed to, if it ain't broken why fix it? This result in phasing issues and disjointed storyline that has no goal in mind with subplots sprinkle around everywhere but no idea which one is the main focus, because they didn't establish it at all in this season. For now I will just review the anime itself for what it currently is.
The art is perfect, even with lack of animation there were still necessary movement to make the characters more alive. Speaking of characters, there's not much to talk about so far as they are still at surface level, except for Hanako as a mysterious being with lots of depth, that is harder to understand along with his twin, we never know what he is thinking and what are his motives as we don't get to read his thought at all unlike Nene and Kou that does read their own thoughts to us, making him the biggest mystery of the show and thus interesting. Nene being the main girl is fine being weak as a normal human, that still plays a critical role of changing rumor and destroy yorishiro. Kou is one that is optimistic and naive in a way, that still has alot to learn. These 2 are just normal human that most could relate to
The comedy is fine, that is mainly towards making fun of Nene being the joke herself along with Hanako teasing Nene all the time. She basically carry the series's cuteness and fun atmosphere, when she's absent it's depression time, which was literally EP 8 and 11. There is alot of episode recap storytelling at the beginning of many episodes that felt awkward, it worked in manga being monthly updates but for a weekly anime it's totally unnecessary. The music is memorable especially the simple music box that can be easily memorized, the OP and ED fit well for what the show is, too bad the anime doesn't explain much about the ED itself, it only ends up as a foreshadowing.
Still enjoyed watching the show just for Hanako and Nene moments with beautiful art and top voice actors. A second season will definitely redeem the anime for what the series truly is and fix most of the issues and the lackings in first season, but for now it is just an above average show that at least stand out in an odd way that some will love and some will ignore
