Because I hate this anime so much, I will be totally lenient with spoilers. So if you care about the plot of this dreadful show, you can go ahead and skip over my review, but I promise you that you aren't missing anything.
I've said this before, but if they stuck with the formulaic structure of the first 5 episodes or so, where Hina and Youta go around solving people's problems, it would be a much better show. But no, where would the emotion be! How would Jun Maeda make you cry for the cute moe anime girl?
This time, Jun Maeda ran out of ideas. After all, there were only so many car accidents and plane crashes that he could come up with. Suddenly, he had an idea! "Wait a minute... That's it! People die from illnesses too!" was surely the revelation he had before sitting down to pen the screenplay for this show. "And they don't even die immediately! I can draw out the sadness for multiple episodes. And, and and they can record video messages to the future, they could do more than write a note before they die in an accident! Oh my god Jun you've done it again. This is going to be your finest work yet. The saddest anime... ever!"
And so he set to work, but he needed time, time to perfect the anime. Unfortunately, production had already started! Oh no! How was he going to deal with this? He gazed out of his window. Down on the street there was a young person collecting money for charity. Hmmm.... what do charities do? They help people! Perfect. He decided he would send the character outlines to the studio and quickly write a few stories about helping people. And so there was the first half of the show sorted. He would realise all too late, however, that he forgot to write in any character development! 'No problem'. He would just rush the character development into a handful of scenes. After all, anime watchers are all pretty much braindead anyway, he thought to himself.
At least, I imagine that's what was going through his head, because all the character development in this show happens in 2 minutes or less in completely ridiculous circumstances, and for rather unclear reasons too! It's like they just cut like half of the show! For example, Yota's best friend (that like, never says anything) suddenly becomes in sync with him for one episode and they have a flashback because they are... jumping from a motorcycle onto a truck? Why are they jumping onto a truck? Well its because the most idiotic writing ever means that Hina has walked into the back of a truck and sat down inside and the doors were locked and the truck drove away. It's so stupid it makes your head hurt. Anyway, you'd think developing this friendship might have a purpose. Like what might be done in a tightly written script. Nope! Their relationship never comes up again??? OK fine, surely that's a one off. Nope. They randomly develop the hacker antagonist of the show like he is going to be part of a big mystery, we get glimpses of him every other episode. Finally he shows up for most of an episode, he shoots laser beams at a whale while monologuing how his parents were evil etc etc cliche sob story etc. So then contrary to this character that was established, he sells out Hina for 0 reward, then rages that they took her supercomputer chip that keeps her brain alive. He hangs out with Yota and pals for MONTHS, then gets mad that Yota didn't chase after Hina. That's all he does in the show. He literally did not have to be in there.
In general, all the character development only lasts for a few minutes in a single episode eg. Tengan Koko was introduced, characterised and promptly forgotten about and now she hangs out with a bunch of teenagers all day. Some of the side characters aren't even characters as much as convenient bodies. In episode 8 the camera pans out and Yota is like 'omg i didnt realise I had so many friends'. 2 of those 'friends' are just a loan shark and Tengan's bodyguard. Then his sister likes films and speaks in a slightly different way. Yota's male friend never says anything (why I don't even know his name). Then there is the ramen shop owner who hasn't spoken since the second episode. Real tight group of friends, a very lovable cast indeed! Why did they even need a cast of characters? I'll tell you why. For a sequence at the end where they make a movie, a movie they only made so Jun Maeda can get Hina to record a video message.
I haven't even started on the worst part of this show. And that's Hina. At first, Hina seems like a likeable enough character. All her characterisation is that she can predict the future to some degree, she speaks in an old timey pompous way and she wears a goofy outfit. Also she likes video games because she is an epic moe girl please make her your waifu and stop paying attention to the quality of the show. But omg, Hina must be hiding something. What's her secret!?! Where did she come from? Is she a god? Well, actually, she is a girl with anime disease. This disease means that she has trouble moving and communicating, and acts much younger than she is. But she was cured by her grandpa who built her a quantum computer that lets her function above and beyond typical human ability. How does that work? Sorry, no time for questions! So when shadowy government organisations that are never mentioned again take her quantum computer, she instantly becomes an object you are meant to cry and feel sad for. It's so manipulative and disgusting. Even more bizarre than this, she is meant to have developed feelings for Yota by the end of the anime. She is like 12 years old! Yota is about to go to college! WTF!?! I remember watching Episode 10 where this 'confession' happens, and literally everyone on the forums was confused and were hoping that this was just familial love between her and Yota. It's not! Their entirely undeveloped, creepy and bizarre romance is dropped on you with all the grace of a falling piano. Yota chases after her to the care home or whatever she is taken to, and basically he just messes up over and over again making her scream and cry. This wasn't sad, or funny. This just made me feel sick. You get the idea. By the end of the anime they are soulmates apparently and Yota is going to dedicate his life to her, she can't even really communicate with him so she's along for the ride regardless. So how will Yota know how she feels? It's okay, she recorded a video message! She says she had a nice summer. That's basically it, Yota is happy. The anime ends. And they all live happily ever after, please forget about the government conspiracy.
This show is so, painfully bad. I cannot recommend anyone watches this, ever. What's about to happen in each scene is so predictable, you would know whats coming if you were watching the show without subtitles through someone's window in a bush a mile away. There isn't anything worth seeing in here. Stay well, well away from this show, and if you didn't, well then slap it with a 1/10 rating so we can stop others time being wasted with this too. When I first wrote my preliminary review for this show, it had a score of 7.43, I am pleased to see it's now at a 6.something but we can do better. Flush this show down the toilet, give it a lower score than ex arm. Bury it deep underground so that noone will ever find or remember it.
