Reviews

Insomnia is something that plagues many people, and this sleep depriving condition arises from many reasons, for example, fearing what tomorrow will bring, negative thoughts, stress, and general anxiety. While insomnia isn’t something that affects me personally, for many people, seeing the two main characters who deal with insomnia, and tackle it together by pouring their restless, sleepless time into something positive like astrophotography, must have been relatable, and to me, a very solid concept. Along the way, there was some romance in the air, but it wasn’t a huge focus until near the end of the season, which I actually liked, as the characters didn’t just spend time with each other, but made some fond memories with their other friends as well.

The story material was generally a strong part of the show, and it was very character driven. While the focus is obviously on the two leads in Ganta and Isaki, I really liked how it highlighted the life struggles of a lot of the cast members outside of the main characters. It allowed me to get invested in most of the characters, and their interactions together. The two leads though, are very endearing, with some relatable moments regarding their insomnia and their struggles. Their dynamic together felt pretty fresh, among the large amount of romcoms we have nowadays.

The thing about the storytelling that unfortunately holds this adaptation back is that even as an anime-only for this show, it was pretty clear to me that some key moments from the manga that would serve to flesh out the characters were skipped, and thus, made some of the more dramatic scenes a bit awkward as we lacked some context to make those scenes hit harder. Even so, I did find quite a few of the scenes emotional and hard hitting, though it could have been better.

The production behind this show was a mixed bag in my opinion, as while some of the nighttime backgrounds were very beautiful, the overall animation quality was very average, with some errors here and there in character expressions. Studio LIDENFILMS has not ever really been known for stellar animation, other than in Call of the Night, but that was largely due to Monogatari director Tomoyuki Itamura making that show shine. While this show was not directed poorly at all in my opinion, it didn’t live up to some of my expectations.

Overall, this was a very fine show, with moments of brilliance and relatability, but I just wish it could have looked even better visually for more impact. The characters are endearing, the story material is well done, but as an adaptation, I’m not sure what manga readers think, but I feel it could have been adapted a bit better. That said, I found a decent amount of enjoyment nonetheless from this, as the good parts still outweighed the mediocre ones, and I’m hoping for bigger and better things to happen in the future, if it gets a sequel.