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Do not be fooled by its appearance, this Original Net Animation is not a work of art that carries any sort of intrinsic value or conveys a sincere human message in a tasteful way; it is in fact corporate propaganda co-opting a popular aesthetic to deliver a carefully crafted insidious PR statement with a particular Japanese twist, which is done in a blatantly obvious way that may or may not induce nausea with how shameless it is, depending on your sensibilities.

The entire point of this ONA's script seems to be to run damage control for the corporate public image after the 2017 scandal involving falsified ... quality specifications, which brought attention to over five decades of compliance failures, data fraud, bid-rigging for large infrastructure projects, falsified emission data, failures to report tax income on multiple occasions and illegal political funding in local elections. That is done by portraying the struggles and tribulations of people in sales, PR and middle management who are, as is always the case, forced to deal with the fallout, as well as peddling the thesis that in its 120 years of existence the biggest steel manufacturer in Japan has only ever cared about improving well-being of the people and creating a brighter future for the nation all the while being a large, loving and devoted family who will go out of its way to take care of its own. Coincidentally, there's not a single meaningful attempt to recognize responsibility for decades of gross misconduct or issue an apology in the script itself, just like it is always the case with corporate PR statements.

It is genuinely sickening.

On a side note, I find it irresistibly hilarious that the studio which made this is literally called "Trash".

「Venus Senki」 proudly describes itself as a war movie with a strongly pronounced anti-war sentiment.
Unfortunately, it doesn't quite understand what that phrase means.

The story is set in the near future on a partially terraformed Venus, a fact that matters for the opening text blurb and never again: the planetary environment, which might as well be vaguely post-apocalyptic Tokyo metropolitan ruins for all the difference it makes, never plays into the story in any meaningful way, and looks just like every other drab exoplanetary landscape of its contemporary sci-fi anime.

The sci-fi elements of this movie are of the hard and grounded variety, to the point ... of being outright primitive; most of what you see is intimately familiar from the mundane reality, with the exception of some vehicles designs, which are for the most part comically impractical and antiquated even by the 1989 standards.

The 1989 standards for production quality of anime movies are outside my area of expertise, but going in without expectations, I was satisfied with the detailed artwork, vivid special effects and animation that is capable of fluidity and a certain old-school grace when it wants to; unfortunately, even though this movie is capable of delivering both impressive vistas and intense action sequences, most of its screen time looks good in an unremarkable way.
The same can be said about the sound, which is used competently and does a good job accompanying the visuals, but is unremarkable otherwise. The soundtrack also contains a couple cheesy 80s pop songs which are used to bolster some of the character-focused scenes and, as I've been told, can be enjoyed on their own merit if you're into those kind of things.
What I didn't particularly enjoy about the sound of this movie is the voice acting: it is satisfactory in a dry, professional way yet largely lacks nuance and therefore prevents the characters from expanding beyond their respective personality cliche, with a couple of notable exceptions.

Unfortunately, neither of the standout characters belong to the main cast, and for the vast majority of this movie you are going to be stuck with a band of 80s action movie tropes and side characters who are largely irrelevant to the plot(compared to the amount of time they occupy) and are written in a realistic enough manner to be outright dull, which would have been fine if those characters were used for something like a coherent commentary on the effect war has on a regular civilian's psyche, but the script stops one step short of even that, which makes for a rather frustrating experience.

But not nearly as frustrating as the script of this movie, which sets up a complex geopolitical plot in the opening minutes only to tear it down immediately with an extremely dumb scene that lacks any authenticity regarding military strategy and the realities of urban warfare; which bluntly narrates how tragically meaningless armed conflicts are, then proceeds to exult in a protracted colorful combat scene straight from some action comedy, which sacrifices basic physics, damaging properties of large-caliber artillery weapons and common sense at large for the sake of spectacle; and which by the end of the movie pretends it was an anti-war human drama all along, and demands an emotional response which is completely unearned.

「Venus Senki」 is an exasperating muddled mess, which I can only recommend watching in good faith if you crave seeing a tank getting taken out by a excavator crane.

I believe the issue of this show's production quality must be addressed straight away, because, depending on your predispositions, its visuals are capable of ruining any and all of your enjoyment of this story, which is really quite good, but more on that later.

This anime starts off looking somewhat above average both in terms of its artwork and animation, but rather quickly its visuals start to deteriorate in a rather conspicuous manner, culminating in a crescendo of absolute shit, which is awful to the point of inducing second-hand embarrassment, that is episode nine, and afterwards never quite manage to reach the dizzying heights of mediocrity ... until the very end.

Speaking of mediocre, the soundtrack doesn't offer much worth mentioning with a single exception of "Hitorijanaiyo" by Myuk, the show's ED theme, but what's there is used well to create a competent accompaniment which supplements the scenes without either muddling or overpowering them, and is capable of producing some excellent and memorable moments.

The other memorable thing about this show's audio is Matsuoka Yoshitsugu's excellent performance as Mister Dirty Scrawny Four-eyed Virgin, the male lead of this story, and I consider his voice acting one of the high point of the anime. Now that I think about it, the voice acting for all major characters is pretty good and at its best is capable of turning seemingly innocuous scenes into disturbing and almost harrowing experiences. The notable exception to that is Notos, or Naut, voiced by Itou Kento, who's been dealt an unfortunate role of being both an angry traumatized teenager and a mouthpiece for the show's several exposition dumps, but even then he's done a good job with what he had. One other thing worth mentioning is that Kusunoki Tomori's performance as Jess is second only to Pig's, but you might not necessarily think that way until you look back at it much, much later in the story.

The story of ButaReba is, quite simply, good. It is refreshingly outstanding in the midst of dull generic iterative amorphous isekai sludge.
It describes itself as a mystery, "the kind filled with trivial clues that lead you to one unexpected reveal", and that's exactly what you're getting, along with some mild but sincere exploration of loyalty, hope, self-esteem and, of course, romantic love, because it's still an isekai light novel adaptation at the end of the day.
It is set in a distinct world, created with passion and attention to details, which in turn demands much higher commitment from the viewer in order to appreciate it, but makes it all the more enjoyable to unravel the mystery at the core of its plot.
It does take its time to familiarize the viewer with the lead characters and basic facts about the setting, but afterwards the narrative becomes focused and streamlined, and rarely does it really waste your time on unnecessary flab, until the dreaded episode nine anyway, because almost every scene and cut, no matter how seemingly innocuous, is there for a reason in retrospect, and the reason's usually a good one.
It deals with severe and gruesome topics without devolving into either ethical extreme of obnoxious overbearing edgelord shit, except in the goddamn episode nine.

So.

A must-watch for everyone who appreciates a good story, then?

Not quite.

ButaReba is in no way flawless. Its plot contains two (three?) major contrivances, and a few inconsequential ones. I myself wish that the last four or so minutes of the final episode never existed. Some of you may find the ironic self-deprecating meta commentary and jokes of Mister Dirty Scrawny Four-eyed Virgin annoying. Some will level the fact that this story doesn't try to conform to contemporary sociopolitical sensibilities as argument against its integrity. And to some, subpar visuals will be an instant turn-off.

With that in mind, 「Buta no Liver wa Kanetsu Shiro」 is still a well thought-out, internally and tonally consistent, intellectually satisfying and emotionally resonant isekai adventure mystery story which relates a clear human message in a tasteful way.