Hotaru is cheery, basically all the time. That is, until she questions anything regarding being romantic. Due to inexperience, she often questions herself about whether doing something is right or wrong, and whether the action of her partner is equally right or wrong. For her, this is entirely a journey of self-discovery. What makes her feel warm and fuzzy inside, and to what extent. Outside of this, she's actually very close to her family, something that I feel could have been shown more. There is clear evidence that she holds her family extremely close to her heart, and the fact that it almost counters how Saki feels about his family probably should have been made a bigger deal than it was.
As for Saki, though he often went by Hananoi in the English dub, he's a completely veil of mystery. Like with how Haruto is getting to know Saki, so are we. We don't know who he is, how he is, and what makes him click. We get to learn with Hotaru, and that's a perspective that I really welcomed here. The series does a very good job at making us learn who this guy is, and by the end, we've learned so much. That being said, Saki is a very difficult person to like at first glance. His weird personality traits really don't lend themselves well to a pure, good-willed person in the first half and it makes it really hard for us to care about his troubled past. While the point of this is probably to emphasize the idea of learning about him and working past imperfections in your partner, I feel like they were never directly addressed between our main couple at times, which would have made for some better storytelling points.
Side characters aren't really the main focus and most of them don't have a lot of screen time to speak of. Tsukiha and Hibiki are two of Hotaru's classmates, but other than being typical teenagers, I don't feel like they added much to the overall story. And that's one of the series' shortcomings for sure. Keigo, another classmates, is often involved in weird drama bits and he's probably the only character of any significance. It's not a bad thing because what he brings mixes well with the story, but he can't be the only one.
The obvious appeals are both finding out who Saki really is, and seeing how Hotaru experiences dating for the first time. The journey of this discover has its ups and downs for sure, especially in the beginning. Being "this" forward with Saki's character could scare some audiences away, because it's so far and away from the norm. Maybe this serves as a hook to some other viewers, but I could have easily given up on this series a few episodes in.
Something that school-romance anime have issues with sometimes is keeping the plot fresh and unpredictable, but A Condition Called Love really didn't have that issue. Despite lacking significant side characters, Hotaru and Saki always had brand new adventures on their hands. It never got old because of the setting, something that another series like A Sign of Affection did very well. While some of the execution to our couple's problems were somewhat repetitive (ex: putting off a discussion for another day), the process to get there was done well.
The last episode was by far the best one, despite me feeling like a passive audience at certain parts. It's the best at revealing the most to us, in a really great way, and I feel like the payoff was ultimately worth it. I'm curious how this series would go if it continued, but I could make a guess that it would play off of some of the points related to Saki. How do you work past them, and how does he start supporting Hotaru more? They are great questions for another day. (Story: 7/10, Characters: 6/10)
Art: I couldn't say I was bothered by the animation in one way or the other. It was never ugly, but a series like this really doesn't need the highest end animation for it. The art style does look a little similar to Fragtime, another romance series that the studio, East Fish Studio, worked on, but it looked solid throughout. (7/10)
Sound: Like with the animation, sound wasn't too much of a factor in an amazing or terrible way. It was simply fine. I wasn't really hooked onto the OP or ED, but the rest of the tracks seemed fine. Dani Chambers (Hotaru) has put in such good work the last half-decade that always manages to blow be away. She's excellent in romantic roles and this is yet another A+ effort. Most of the rest of the cast are names I'm not familiar with, but they were all solid. (7/10)
Overall: Despite a rocky start, A Condition Called Love still manages to hold my attention because of some strong story parts and an exceptional ending. I can't see this being a big hit with every romance-lover though, as I feel like Saki can rub some people the wrong way. It makes you go "what did he just say" a few too many times, even if there is reason behind it at the end. This series doesn't necessarily go for lovey-dovey, but still manages to pull off a couple cute moments here or there. Anyone interested in this genre might need some patience before they piece parts of the story together, but can still be enjoyed regardless. (7/10)
