The characters were barely just strong enough to carry an episode and its momentum on a moment to moment basis. The ghosts and horror elements were cool, and the concept was interesting. But that's about all the positives I can give it.
Some smaller issues first.
I love the animation style and backgrounds but this is barely animated and seems to move more in still frames like an episode of Saiki K. It harbors the action a bit and makes it way easier for me to point out issues when there's no pretty colors to distract me.
I was very disappointed when the story turned out to be 1/3 love triangle nonsense where the main part of the angle (Yashiro) acts painfully clueless about it. It's pretty inconclusive and goes absolutely nowhere.
Sometimes Hanako seemed aware of the location of Kou and/or Yashiro despite his Hakujou (I think that's what it's called) not actually being present next to them.
How do you summon Hanako? The first episode makes it seem like you have to preform the whole ritual but it seems just saying his name (or in the case of the previous issue, plot convenience) summons him. Is it every time you say his name? Do the magical ghost powers know when you intend to summon him?
Why can Kou and Yoshiro see ghosts and no one else? At one point the show makes it seem like you need special circumstances to see them while the first episode makes it just seem like getting lucky. Kou is like, "maybe I can see ghosts because it's my destiny to change the future" in reference to the pink haired guy, but he doesn't do anything to change the future for the pink haired guy, so it doesn't seem like a plausible reason.
Why did the pink hair guy have to make the hands play with the main cast if all he wanted was to drag someone with him for some reason? They go to the bathroom everyday, just pull her in when they get there. Seems more like a way to pad the episode out to me.
Now for the more significant issues.
A lot of plot threads get introduced and then forgotten. What happened to the Third Wonder? Did he just die? If he can still take back his place as the Third Wonder that would mean he's probably not dead but the story just pushes it aside as if he was. Why is there such a conflict between being a Wonder or just disappearing? It's not like there's any downsides to being a Wonder. You aren't required to do much more than spread a couple rumors and you can do whatever the heck you want. You don't even have to kill anyone. Hanako acts as if something bad will happen if the pink haired guy doesn't step down from the position, but nothing really happens? What was he so concerned about? That entire conflict could've seemingly been resolved if they just talked it out and stopped trying to kill each other.
Hanako's brother also seems pretty unconcerned about his death and only uses it against Hanako, but why? What is he getting from teasing him about his backstory? It's not like it's that effective at stopping Hanako from getting in the way from whatever he's trying to achieve. He seems interested in Hanako to use him for something, but he never does anything to him.
(Also if he was trying to fulfill the wish of the pink haired guy, why did he turn him into a monster? The plot twist is that he wanted friends, not attention, and Hanako's brother knows that. Turning into a monster is a pretty bad way to get friends. Apparently it's for Hanako's own amusement but that's not really granting his wish, aren't there consequences for that, because that's his job? The initial explanation they gave of "you wanted attention so I took away your reason" made way more sense.)
What happened to Kou's brother? "I'm just going to stand back and watch for now" isn't really a resolution, more of a cliffhanger. He must know that Kou is still not eliminating ghosts like he wants him to and could step in at any time as a more skilled exorcist. Why is Kou even a main character if he doesn't do anything the majority of the time? He's set up as a rival that tries to eliminate Hanako but quickly becomes friends with the main cast in a way that negates his role as a character. Why is Nene so prevalent if she doesn't do much except stand around and happen to be the main perspective? Hanako and the other ghosts do almost all of the legwork in terms of moving the plot along.
There was that whole thing with the mermaid monster and it was made out to be a threat that would come back and do something really bad, but then it comes back as some regular fishies and are like, "hey u wanna be a princess? it's really cool." and everyones like, "you should do it." but then Yashiro's like, "nah I don't actually want to." and then Hanako comes and they get chased away in seconds. It's such a non-resolution to this thing they've set up since the first episode. What happens if she doesn't drink the blood? Do they make her do it regardless? Why propose an option? Do the fish just die? Do they have to just wait for other people to eat the scales and let their fish kingdom fall into anarchy in the meantime? They don't have time and never explain it.
Hanako is supposed to have his character explored and they kept building up to it but it never actually happens. At the end of the show he's all "hey Yashiro if you wanna learn more about me I'll tell you any time" and he does a pinky promise with her. But we don't actually end up knowing anymore about him since that conflict came up. We know he was bullied and killed his brother for some reason, and it's very vaguely implied he also killed himself (although I don't know for sure), but that's about it, none of that even came from him. When Hanako tells Yashiro that he killed his brother, she reacts somewhat shocked as if that isn't one of the first things Hanako's brother says when he shows up.
The bad guy club tries the whole series to make the rumors more extreme but it's never really explained why. They need rumors to survive but why do they have to be all murdery? The legends already exist, why do they need to invent new ones? Hanako's brother is like "haha I'm crazy I like seeing people when they let go" but when he's making the pink haired guy into a better monster later on he's like "c'mon if you're gonna have murdery hands at least learn how to control it" like he DOESN'T want him to kill anyone and there's no explanation for it.
Why does he want to go after Yashiro? He just kind of stops by the end and even seems nice letting the pink haired guy do whatever he wants. By the end of the show it's unclear if the bad guy club are even bad guys. It's implied it's all a game to mess with Hanako but it's literally one of the last lines in the show so there's no time to explain it.
Very little actually changes or happens after a while. The series ends on almost the same exact note it did on episode 7. Knowing a slither of Hanako's backstory has very little effect on anything, the love triangle is still up in the air (although it's obvious that Hanako likes Yashiro and she returns those feelings. Yashiro is just scarily dense about it), and the bad guy club has only now in the last episode decided to scrap their plan and try something different.
I'm sure most of these questions were solved in the manga or the season 2 it was clearly supposed to have. I think the series would've been much better if it had stayed simple or had a longer episode count to tie loose plot threads, because it's clearly biting off much more than it can chew.
