The story focuses on this prestigious drama school and our main cast who are admitted to it. From the opening episode the viewer is shown how elite Kouka academy is and you really believe this the whole way through. I cannot stress enough how much this show made me really think about the drama and issues it brought up, pretty much every episode introduces an issue or thinking point about the prestigious world these girls live in and it's handled in such a scarily realistic way consistently. The characters are portrayed so well in these situations and it's all so believable that I was just genuinely impressed throughout.
Speaking more about the characters, most of our main cast have a pretty expansive backstory that is explored throughout the episodes, and they all have their fair share of issues that so many young girls in similar situations in the real world absolutely experience - but it never feels like a trope. They are absolutely written in a way that makes it all seem grounded and you can tell how much they are affected - this isn't limited to just them either, things the other girls do reflect so much on the others and there is a lot of growth because of this.
I absolutely love our main two characters Ai and Sarasa - the development between them from start to finish is so heart-warming and is handled so well, especially Ai. Her character is so damn well written, at the start she is struggling with so much and internalises all of it, but she slowly opens up and Sarasa is absolutely the catalyst - without going into spoilers Ai's backstory is so horrid and unfortunate, but you see how much she grows from it by the end and it's just so great.
The art and animation definitely aren't anything too special but are still really good, everything is very soft and colourful which really sells the idea of Kouka being very pristine and perfect. The soundtrack as well is great throughout, I really love the ED.
Overall this is an absolute must-watch show, it might not sound interesting from the premise alone but I hope this review was able to hook people into checking it out because you will absolutely not regret it!
