Reviews

The show ends before it even begins. The messy-haired guy with glasses already leaves college before we have a chance to get to know him, Hagu’s cigarette-smoking guardian goes off on some trip to Africa, and Morita is hardly ever around – and yet immediately, the story thrusts itself into these sad feelings without even having laid the necessary groundwork for the viewer to become attached to these characters.

Silver-haired guy’s bicycle trip, and his eventual return capping off the first season, where he finally gets the better of Morita, is a satisfying moment. The scene at the very, very end where Takemoto opens up the good-luck charm Hagu gave him is inspired. In general I appreciate the maturity of the writing and its attempts at realism. All the characters are very likeable so long as they aren’t whining, but its subject matter is joyless, and watching it was an exercise in tedium.