Let's start with the biggest problem this anime has: the characters. Namely that it doesn't have any characters. Instead it has numerous cardboard cutouts walking around that occasionally behave as though they were mindless, arrogant, manipulative and/or abusive human beings. If someone had claimed these 'characters' were taken from the work of a first time fan-fiction author, I wouldn't disbelieve them for a second.
The second biggest problem this anime has is the plot. Again, it doesn't have one. A plot is a *meaningful* series of events in which the characters act (or react) in such a way to build toward the climax of the story. In this story, that lacks any real characters, there was no possible way the handful of (almost random) events could ever build toward a climax that's supposed to be about the 'characters'. There are numerous attempts by the anime to sell the viewer that love triangles abound in the boarding school that functions as its setting; but all of the attempts are doomed from the start as (once again) there are no actual characters to take part in a love triangle. There are some story elements about being "The Etoile" and the climax of the story focuses on who is going to be elected the next Etoile; but at no point in the anime is a reason given as to why anyone (let alone these particular cardboard puppets) would want the title. The few described aspects of this position seem to include watering some plants in a greenhouse and a lot of unexplained paperwork.
The third (and least bothersome) problem is with the animation and art style. The art style was fairly typical for a 90s anime; which is too bad, as this anime came out in 2008 (a contemporary of shows like Haruhi and Index). The animation was more disappointing - many (perhaps even most) of the shots involved little to no movement of the character models, outside of the lip flaps that are necessary to convey who is speaking. When the story required more than just standing around, repeated walk cycles (or similar types of movement) were very much the norm.
I've glanced over the dozens of positive reviews this anime has generated - they are either written by aliens (unfamiliar with what a human being is and how one speaks/acts) or people who mistakenly watched some other anime then left a review here. There is no way that a thinking/feeling person could watch this show and evaluate it as anything but the lowest of trash.
