It's obvious this is a passion project, that this was an idea that was held dearly by those who worked on it, unfortunately passion and good ideas are not enough. Execution is the lion's share of why anything is good, and the execution of this anime is... honestly laughably bad.
Because it is an anime let's start by talking about the animation. I'm of the (perhaps controversial) belief that good animation can save an otherwise mediocre story. The reason's why are for another time, but suffice it to say that when I saw a preview for this anime I had high hopes because I already saw really interesting character designs and a unique art esthetic that pleased me. The character designs are still unique, I'll give this anime that, but the art is washed over by a haze that makes everything ten times less brilliant and takes the art from unique to drab in an instant. Don't believe me? Compare the art in the episodes to the outro visuals that are pulled from the episode itself (this started in later episodes) and you'll wish you had seen the anime that's been shown in the outro.
Ok, let's talk story. I needed to brace myself because this is just a mess. And it saddens me because I always try to root for anime originals. I wanted this to be indie, and grungy and tell a interesting story. I do feel it was trying to do all those things. It didn't succeed. The storytelling is so garbled that the viewer is left honestly confused for most of the runtime and this confusion is not the good "oooh I wonder if I'm going to get my questions answered" type of confusion, it's the "I honestly have no questions because I don't know what the f**k is going on!" type of confusion. One of many problems with this type of confusion (and the most prevalent in this anime) is that if the viewer is not really understanding what is happening and what is the stakes... then climaxes fail to impact, emotional moments have no payoff, and the story as a whole suffers.
The last episode is especially egregious. Without spoiling for anyone that still wants to see this dumpster fire, it manages to simultaneously have too little time and too much time! Yes that's right, the conflict gets resolved so fast and so easily you might blink and miss it, but you get like three different ending none of which feel like you needed or wanted. Also, anything that might have had a lasting impact gets rolled back so nothing mattered in the first place.
I'm not going to touch on music because it's honestly a shtick. It's not worth talking about.
