Just to get it out of the way, I can think of a few reasons why this isn’t as highly rated as I think it should be. One weak point that I saw was the last episode, which felt like it was shoving half of a season into a single episode. I won’t go into too much detail into everything that seemed rushed or left out (although there might be more spoilers later in this review), but honestly, I don’t think this ending broke the show. Rather than taking away from the overall experience, I would argue that it’s only the absence of something that could have been. I didn’t know that the anime cut content from the manga when I watched it, so it didn’t bother me too much when I watched the last episode because nothing was out of place or atrociously bad. In fact, as I neared the end I knew that whatever happened the ending would not make or break the show, but I’ll get into that more later. Besides that, the only other flaw that I could point out are characters that needlessly show up for a single episode or even a single scene, but don’t have much of an impact on the plot. Given that the anime would have to cut out a lot of content towards the end anyways, I would have rather them cut out the two episodes featuring Minato and Yuzuhara and move that extra time to the end, but again I didn’t think this was a fatal flaw. It’s not like a filler episode, and these characters do help characterize the main characters they’re connected to, so again this “mistake” doesn’t take away anything from the show.
But I’m sure that the big thing that turned people off was the characters and their interactions with each other, which I actually saw as one of the strongest parts of this show. As I’m sure many of you watching might have noticed, the main cast are (mostly) adults, yet throughout the show they act like prepubescent middle schoolers with their first crush when it comes to love. They are all to some extent clingy, and don’t know the importance of distance when it comes to relationships. Rikuo follows a self-fulfilling prophecy, where by calling himself a loser he becomes one. Shinako is indecisive and can’t move on from someone who died six years ago. Haru is persistent and obnoxious, and her entire character is pretty much consumed by her attraction to Rikuo. And Rou, as the youngest one out of them, acts more like the ten-year-old in Shinako’s memory, expecting Shinako to stay in his life when she has her own to live. On top of which, Rikuo and Shinako only go halfway in rejecting the people who like them, selfishly wanting to keep them close without realizing that it would only hurt them more. Understandably, these personalities and the way they clash with each other can be grating to the viewer, and the maturity level suggests an environment more akin to high school drama than adults braving the real world. But, surprisingly, none of this comes off as criticism to the show.
We all have a perception of how mature adults act, but what if that’s only how they should act? Not everyone behaves the same way all the time, and this show seeks to capture how people act in real life. That is not to say that everyone can relate to these specific characters, but it’s like how Rikuo is able to capture good wedding photos because he knows the people so well—taking shots that other photographers would pass over. An often heard mantra is that for a good story, the audience should sympathize with the characters. Like I said, the characters hardly do anything to deserve our sympathy. But what if their weaknesses and flaws draw us to them? I found myself connecting to Rikuo the most. Not really sure what I want to do in the future, wanting to stay friends with a crush even though it would only make it worse, making self-deprecating remarks because I want the attention and pity. It’s not like the author is supporting the actions that some of these characters take. To the contrary, I felt like some of the advice given was true to said characters was true and pertinent to people in a similar situation. Maybe those that can’t really relate to any of these characters will find it hard to get invested in the characters, and that’s fair. But even for those who don’t, it’s hard to deny that the characters are based more on real people than stereotypes. Even Haru, who embodies an over-the top personality that is prevalent in a lot of anime, shows her human side more often than not. Another part that I appreciated is that, no character out of the main four was elevated above another in terms of screen time, and everyone was given a chance to be fleshed out. To be fair, having everyone involved in a giant love chain is a bit unrealistic, but I think it was necessary both to give everyone enough attention and to really drive home the theme of unrequited love. As someone who has had a crush but never had one realized, I can acknowledge that I may be a bit more biased towards this story than something like tsuki ga kirei. But even in terms of the characters, you don’t get the feeling that everyone else in the group is being left out except for the main couple, which is quite refreshing.
Another criticism I might see is with the plot, which I also thoroughly enjoyed. Throughout the show, you have a lot of tension between the characters, with silence and awkward conversations abound (especially in any scene with just Rikuo and Shinoka). But rather than being annoying or tedious, I would say that it is another example of being a “snapshot” of real life. And even just for entertainment value, I didn’t find these scenes to be tedious or annoying, as the conversations and monologues are easy enough to follow along and often serve to develop a plot point or a character. On that note, having a bubbly, almost preposterous personality such as Haru was a wise decision to act as a foil to the more reserved, overthinking Rikuo. This is not a depressing show, but even so her antics and dialogue add a splash of color to an otherwise completely serious story. I would also add that rather than being a mundane experience where watching each episode seems like a chore (the bane of many slice-of-life shows), there is definitely enough drama going on to make you want to watch the next episode. The lack of any progress in terms of romance until the very end may be frustrating to some, but I don’t think this experience would have been the same any other way. Because you don’t always get what you get in life, and sometimes the struggle is more interesting than the reward. Although in most shows you tend to start rooting for a certain ship, I think this show is unique in that by the time I got to the last two episodes, I knew that I would enjoy the ending no matter who did or didn’t get together. Because these characters are all flawed, but share a commonality in the desire to be loved and cared for. Maybe one episode romances aren’t your thing (going back to the pacing of the last episode), but even though I had been supporting Rikuo and Shinoka’s relationship in the previous episode, I was pleasantly surprised with how they handled the break-up. More often than not, relationships don’t work out despite the underrepresentation of break-ups in stories, and this is just another facet of reality that the story captures so well. To be fair, the way that Rikuo went back to Haru when he had clearly treated her much worse than Shinoka in the past was selfish and inconsiderate, and Haru should not have accepted him so easily after all that he had done to her. But it’s not like he was proud of it, and Haru can make her own choices.
Besides that, art and music were amazing, and just icing on top of the cake that is a deeply meaningful story. I would disagree that this show tries to be what it isn’t, and recommend that anybody approach it with an open mind without looking at all of the negative reviews.
