The dialogue is so dead and barren that I can barely believe that these people love each other. Or that they think about anything beyond their immediate surroundings. Or that they have well-defined personalities to begin with. For a romantic drama, you need some kind of chemistry between the characters. Well, apparently not here because here we have the characters stand around saying nothing of relevance. That simply doesn't work. No matter how slice-of-life your story is, no matter how artistic the visuals or sound, you need to actually weave some words into it. In Yesterday, sometimes the events in the plot advance, sure, but the characters barely ever contemplate the motives behind their actions with any real precision, so the events simply happen.
First, take our protagonist, Rikuo. He likes Shinako, but why? They went to the same university and hanged out a lot and... that's it. He can't even put it to words why on a basic level. What is it about Shinako's personality that he likes? I don't know, and I bet he doesn't know either. Even after he is rejected by her, he still clings to her indefinitely. And this problem goes beyond the romance itself. Rikuo is really averse to explicitly thinking about things. He goes with the flow and doesn't do or say much. No matter the topic, this guy has nothing to say. For instance, he is stuck in an unrewarding, monotonous job at a grocery store despite having a university degree. What does he think about it? Nothing much. He just does it out of apathy and neither praises nor criticizes the situation all that much. If it is society's fault, eviscerate it. If it is your own fault, berate yourself. Take some stance on something, please. Anything else? Seen anything interesting on the news lately? Apparently not. Any semi-witty jokes to deliver? Nah, none.
Why does Haru like Rikuo? For reasons that are also poorly established. What is it about Rikuo's personality that she likes? I have no clue. They had barely even met before. Now he even purposely neglects and ignores her, and she still doesn't give up for whatever reason.
Shinako can't get over her previous love interest, who died many years earlier. (They never actually dated either, mind you.) This is the main defining trait of her character, and almost all of her dialogue revolves around it. She has friendzoned Rikuo in a half-hearted manner while still giving him just enough hope to cling to. She has even less to say than Rikuo.
Rou is the brother of Shinako's dead love interest and believes that he is the best option for Shinako simply because they knew each other as kids. In fact, he is upset at the very notion that she might date someone else. How dare she! His entire character revolves around Shinako. Of course, I don't know what exactly he likes about Shinako's personality either. She has friendzoned him too (or family-zoned him, I guess), but he clings to her anyway.
Some of the ending songs are nice, but that is obviously not enough to save this. The visual design for the endings is also pretty good. For most of the anime, the technical side of visuals is solid, and it can be artistic at times, but many of the designs still look unimaginative. I know it is meant to look realistic, but even so.
You may have noticed a theme in this review, and it is that I was bored out of my mind and quite frankly should have dropped it earlier. But here we are. My main motivation for watching the last few episodes: morbid curiosity about how they would screw up the ending. And without going into spoilers, disastrous it was, as it was a rushed ending that was missing build-up and justification. With all the changes, it is fair to call it an anime-only ending as well. I really need to emphasize how terrible the adaptation is. They cut out much of the content, entire plotlines, and even many side characters who were important for the plot and were able to at least shake up the status quo a bit. With all this cut, the ending feels all the more rushed and jarring. That said, the manga was already flawed. The dialogue was still often stale, and many of the feelings of love still seemed poorly justified. However, the adaptation efforts do matter because instead of a “meh” or slightly bad show we have an unmitigated trainwreck.
Actually, no. Trainwrecks may actually be interesting in the sense that you can't turn your eyes away from them. This is more like boredom incarnate.
