Sep 14, 2017
A story of a near emotionless boy who tries to make everyone happy but knows it isn't possible, yet still tries
In my search for relaxing anime to watch, I came across one of the series that hadn’t really appealed as much to me when the spring series began airing. What I thought would have been the average school, slice-of-life anime turned out to be one of the most thought-provoking series I’ve watched all season.
The show is more so reflective and philosophical than action packed. It may seem slow but may also feel like there is a lot to digest and it can be thought
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provoking but also pointlessly confusing. It lacks in all other areas so it’ll either be a hit or miss for most people. Whether it’s an intelligent series or just messing with us, that’s for you to decide. To be honest, I was unsure whether it was worth watching on at a couple of points. A lot of figurative talk.
The show has a fractured storyline, it jumps between almost unrelated stories & then comes back, and eventually everything makes sense. It’s quite nice because it gives time to think about each story & where they might lead off to. There are a lot of clues in the visuals, dialogue and actions of the characters which aren’t particularly clear. We’re left hanging for a long time & while I do like the mystery, I feel it doesn’t contribute much to the story. The characters often talk about their motives here and there just in case you couldn’t figure out what they were doing
Things match up, characters maintain their integrity throughout the story, and they change very slowly if not at all. We find out/can presume a bit about them but being critical, you could say they’re somewhat flat. There’s a lot of repetition within conversations & it almost feels weird to see the same facial expression all the time. After 20 eps, they still act the same. The main character having a reset ability doesn’t help much either (more repetition, yay!). Perhaps the point of having static characters without much personality is to point out the importance of emotions, they’re still humans with feelings after all.
The art isn’t anything special without any particular detail. The series is mostly dialogue so you can expect some frozen frames where nothing moves other than the characters’ mouths. Lots of pokerfaces to look at.
Sound
The OP/ED are a nice break from the dialogue & offers what I assume is the general message of the series since all 4 OP & EDs focus on the same points.
The only thing I remember about the bgm is that suspenseful tune that pops up generally nearing the end of a conversation which continues until the end of the scene. It’s almost like thinking music reminding you to question the ideas being presented & it sets up the mood nicely.
Summary
+ Thought provoking, philosophical
+ Fun & somewhat relaxing watch
- Almost intentionally confusing
- Slow & repetitive, mostly dialogue
- Uninteresting visuals
Final thoughts
It seems the first 20 episodes were just a setup for the last 5 episodes where everything comes together. I was a bit touched by the ending, there are a lot of different messages you could draw from the series.
It had a lot of potential & it could have done a lot better, I'd give it an 8 but it felt a bit too shallow. Watch a couple episodes, if it doesn't get better, drop it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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