I remember back when Violet Evergarden was so hyped in the community that everyone expected it to be pure perfection. When it came out, people started nitpicking and looked at every single detail just to prove their point that "no this is not as good as the hype says".
This is exactly what is happening to CSM.
Every single anime has flaws objectively, and every single person has very different tastes in almost every aspect in life. Games, anime, movies, food, drinks, etc. It is without a doubt that an anime will be hated by some people and liked by others at the same time. The hypes always ruin the anime reviews because there will always be nitpicking caused by the high expectation, and such nitpicking will inevitably lead to an underachieved performance in user reviews and ratings.
Now back to CSM. I read the manga, but I view manga and anime separately. Anime can stick to manga strictly, or it can be completely different from the original manga. As long as it is good i dont really care. Some people nitpicked the anime for not sticking to manga and making massive modifications, while some people appreciated those modifications. idc.
Is CSM anime good? Yes. The storytelling was very smooth and easily alluring. The graphics were top-tier (as always mappa is God). The fighting scenes were okay. Not for everyone's taste but it was okay. The VAs were amazing. Again, some people were not happy with the VAs because they did not act up to their expectations. There are things that some people do not like in this anime, but certainly not severe issues that will drag the anime score to below 8. It is a very well-presented anime, and it is up to your subjective opinion whether it lived up to the hype. For me it did. I am not happy with some of the fight scenes either, but overall it was excellent.
