Story (8): The plot was unique alright, the whole premise was pretty zany after all. Overall all it was pretty good but I couldn't bring myself to give it more than an 8 because the plot was inconsistent and didn't really flow all that well in some places. Sometimes it seemed as if NHK couldn't decide if it wanted to be a comedy or a drama but in the end it managed to do a decent job of both.
Art (7): The art was acceptable, well above average but hardly noteworthy. There were no flaws in animation or art that come to mind but neither were there any scenes that just dazzled me with their artistic design.
Sound (7): I noticed a lot of repetitive sounds and even some public domain sound effects thrown in from time to time and the music was about average but the voice actors did their jobs well enough. Not the best by any means but they made their characters convincing enough.
Character (8): Having only four main characters means that there is a lot of time for background and character development. There are lots of animes that seem to forget about this and toss it in at the last moment but NHK does a good job of giving us back story in nice manageable bits and pieces and intermingles it well with the current plot line. The characters themselves were fairly deep and believable MOST of the time but there were a few instances where their actions didn't seem to jive or make sense so they were also inconsistent sometimes. Most of the time however the characters were very well done and could easily be identified with.
Enjoyment (7): All and all this Anime was worth it. I have seen better comedies and better dramas but NHK did an acceptable job of making a comedic anime with some dramatic elements in a way that balanced to two genres fairly well. Some parts of the story arcs like the offline meeting and the MMORPG arcs were very enjoyable while others seemed to flounder around until they moved on to the next arc but all and all I would recommend this anime. It wont blow you out of the water but it is worth a look.
