Almost there, going nowhere.
I don't mind a realistic, slow-burning slice-of-life anime, nor do I have a problem with melodramatic teens experiencing love for the first time. My taste nowadays will probably gravitate towards the former, but sometimes you just gotta have some of that seasonal high school angst in your life. A young girl who just had her heart broken and is running home screaming while some classical music is blaring in the background? In small doses, but more importantly, when done RIGHT, it pleases me a lot.
The (main) problem with Yesterday wo Utatte is that it wants to be both... and doesn't succeeds
...
in any. It looks like a mature show at first, but upon closer inspection, something is just... off.
It wants to showcase the struggles of real people with real, believable problems while also soaking the whole thing with soap opera nonsense. In experienced hands, I could see that working, as the contrast between two extremes can add to the experience, but Yesterday's serious approach is nowhere near as strong or present as its daily drama vein. Its realistic approach is "well done" to a fault: the experience very akin to watching paint dry.
First, we're introduced to Rikuo, the main character, an empty slate of a person at odds with what to do after graduating from college. He runs away from allumi meetings, stopped searching for a real job, and is satisfied with working part-time at a convenience store. He's a bit socially awkward, but considerate, even going out of his way to feed crows with expired food from the store. Ever been on your smoke break, feeding 'em birds, having thoughts on how life went out? Of course you did.
That's when he runs into another big member of the cast, Haru. Haru is... not as empty as Rikuo, and that's about the most I can praise the character. Her initial appearance just screams of Manic Pixie Dream Girl. And oh boy, if only that was her sole problem... She missed her train, now she and her crippled pet crow (perhaps the show best character when all is said and done) are hungry. Rikuo handles her a lunch box on a whim and she leaves. And then a friendship is formed... except Rikuo doesn't feel like reciprocating, which is completely understandable. In fact, he's pretty bummed out once he founds out it wasn't a random encounter between them and she's hanging out at this workplace almost every day now. Because that's how love starts, right?
(As It turns out, Haru was actually stalking him from the get go, being in love with him FOR YEARS after a five-second interaction between them that happened a long time ago. I'm not making this shit up. It's contrived as hell.)
Rikuo has a lot more on his mind, still having a crush on a friend from college. They meet each other again, but it turns out that person, Shinako, has someone she likes. And she, now a teacher, knows about Haru and her nebulous past (a past so nebulous we don't even get to see it for more than two minutes). It's a sticky situation, a boring one at that, because: a) Rikuo doesn't mind waiting for Shinako, b) Shinako doesn't mind Rikuo waiting for her and c) Haru is there to annoy both because that's the sole reason her character exists.
Pretty early on, Haru declares war on her former teacher, a scene as bombastic as cheap fireworks in the rain. Such declaration came out after gems like "I don't even know who I am", "can women and men be friends?" and (my favorite) "what is love?", so the viewer is already used to all the telenovela dialogue, but it still sticks out like a sore thumb, because the anime just showed us Shinako's backstory, by far the most emotionally powerful thing in this series. To follow that with some brat spewing bullshit is pretty jarring. But being jarring is Yesterday's bread and butter.
There's also Rou, the youngest of the main quartet, who is basically the male Haru, although he is more cocky than creepy. He's more tolerable mainly because sometimes he just disappears for a while and his motivations are linked with Shinako's, so the quality of his character is elevated a little by mere association. Still, at the end of the day, his main characteristic is that his earring is a safety pin.
"Well, now the main quartet is finally established, time to watch it all bloom into something significant!" was my train of thought, but... it doesn't go anywhere. Shinako moves on from a tragic past with a lasting impact on her life to... a hair cut. Rikuo gets a new job, but not the spine to tell Haru off. Rou is, huh... less entitled now... sometimes. Haru still can't get a clue and doubles down on her stalking. Nothing ever changes, no matter the angle you look at. Shinako's actions can be forgivable because of how much she has on her mind, how hard is for her to let go of her past, but it keeps playing that same beat until the end to the point of staleness. It's a character-driven show that fails on the romantic side and doesn't fare better when focusing on other relationships.
There are a few side characters, but they basically come and go without adding much. I found it hard to tolerate our main cast, so there's no reason why I would care for Haru's hipster-ex-classmate or blonde-guy-who-worked-with-Rikuo. Dude goes touring with his band, apparently. Good to know someone in this show had any fun.
This "coming and going" is a thing the show does right, but literally on accident: sometimes in life people stop being constant, and in Yesterday this is showcased well... like, two times. The first would be a spoiler, and the second is on episode 6, when it (re-)introduces someone from Rikuo's high school past (in well-tread fashion - it's basically the same way Haru enters his life sans a crow), and their interactions feel genuine for once. She looks and acts her age, a far-cry from the dumb teens and emotionally-stunted adults. For once I thought the story was headed somewhere, and then... she's gone in a flash like all good things in this anime.
And here's the main question: Are we supposed to care for Haru? Am I just not part of demography anymore so her clinginess and over-the-top devotion doesn't reach me? Her love isn't an obsession - it's nonsensical. She's a stalker, attention-seeking moody young adult whose most realistic trait is having a pet crow. Erase her from the plot and the whole thing is a lot more bearable, down-to-earth. Still mind-numbly boring, but still! Maybe the anime adaptation just butchered a confusing, mysterious character, I don't know. Maybe her best is yet to come, as the show just spun its wheels in place for torturous 12 episodes. I knew things looked bleak when she declared war on Shinako, but when she screamed in frustration while waiting for the lights to turn green (the closest I got to relating to this show, ironically), I had to check if Mari Okada didn't write the script. Maybe she ghost-written it while high on sleeping pills.
Perhaps the better question would be: are we supposed to care about ANY of these characters?! My main problem is with Haru, but your mileage may vary: every single one of the leads are insufferable in their own frustrating ways. Charisma is a word absent from Yesterday's monochromatic dictionary.
The art in Yesterday is okay, faring well because of how dire things look in the writing department. It has clear, crisp animation and a decent budget. I liked the color palette at first (no pink moe hairstyles in sight!), but it starts to blend together in an ugly grey-ish mush as the episodes go on. The places the characters visit are mostly desert, the streets they walk feel empty and cold, which sometimes adds to the experience, but it is so overplayed, it loses its impact very fast. Characters are walking back home in a grey background to a grey apartment. Next scene, it's the end of the afternoon and everything is a nauseating orange. This, but it's 12 episodes. And the grey easily overshadows any other color used, to the point the stunning display of cherry blossoms in the second episode begin to look like a dream. Man, the late 90's were whack. Thank God mankind invented different colors!
The sound is on a similar note. The main trick here is the lack of any background music to add weight to some of the characters conversations. This would be a good thing... if they had anything good to say instead of repeating their doubts and fears EVERY.SINGLE.EPISODE. And when the music and the dialogue stops simultaneously, it's more unbearable than anything you ever experienced in real life, because it also goes on and on and ON AND ON.
Other times, they just go with a cheesy piano noodle here and there, some strings, you know the deal. The show doesn't have an OP (which means an extra minute and a half of awkward silence and sighing every chapter!), but it makes up for that with three decent different EDs. I like the second one's theme (an arcade game - one of the few times the show executes the "vintage anime" aspect well is through videogames) and the third one is wasted on this wreck, its bright colors not fitting the dull experience that preceded it.
Direction-wise, it nearly equals the train-wreck the script is, the staff running out of ideas on how to handle scenes so equal in action and tone. They had to adapt a long-running manga with 11 volumes and they just decided to fill half of it with filler in the form of silence and the characters looking hurt/sad. It fails to build any sort of atmosphere.
Were you to create a drinking game where you take a shot every time the characters are staring at each other in silence or sighing, you probably would end up in a hospital bed halfway through it.
Oh, and as the anime draws to a close, they ditched the organic-if-boring approach to one sprinkled with cliff-hangers. Pathetic, cliché ones at that, and so out-of-nowhere that you wonder what was the point, it's like the show is AIMING to be tone-deaf. These cliff-hangers stand out not because they're shocking or well-placed, but because they are one of the few things not repeated to death in the anime. They're there because the previous 23 minutes didn't show any progress, so these final 10 seconds need to.
Some of the cinematography shines, though (Shinako's flashbacks, Haru's hanging out with the hipster), but mostly in the beginning, because as the repetitiveness of the show comes crashing in, it's hard to keep adding new spins to another stalking/walking scene. The last episode has some interesting camera shots and perspectives, despite the content.
Yesterday grabbed attention for being a seinen with adult characters past high school, but with the way it is written, it fits better with the adolescent crowd, and honestly I don't see it faring well against recent high school (melo)dramas, with even flawed titles like O Maidens In Your Savage Season showcasing more depth. The discussion surrounding Yesterday in anime forums simply boils down to "exciting" shipping wars - although I don't see this one being remembered for very long.
Compare Yesterday with, say, Welcome to the NHK (adult life struggles + zaniness) or the more recent 3-gatsu no Lion (where a contrast in tone succeeds) and nothing remains. As a cautionary tale for a younger audience, its messages ares all muddled -- "teens will be teens"? "moving on is hard to do when what you need to move on is yourself"? "focus on individuality, romance can wait"? None of these felt earned or properly addressed. Perhaps "life is boring and grey" is more fitting.
For those that want something similar to this show but done extremely well, look no further than Honey and Clover. It's a stellar show that executes the end of adolescence and the start of adult life with perfection, with one its main characters being very similar to Rikuo but with actual payoff. It even has romance if that's what drove you into Yesterday in the first place. The anime adapts all the manga in two seasons, too.
What I got from this in the end is the following: it's a mediocre show with average-to-downright-terrible characters, severe pacing issues, a glorified walking compilation not worthy of its pretty visuals. It's just a very basic soap opera that occasionally paints a realistic portrait of grief and loneliness, but instead decides to focus on artificial creepiness and over-reactions. It's a love triangle/quadrangle between two different age-demographics where everyone acts as kids, a coming-of-age story that doesn't really go anywhere. It makes any other love story with the slightest bit of characterization and proper storytelling look better in comparison.
Yesterday is now tomorrow and I need a break - here's hoping I don't run into a stalker with a pet crow.
Jun 20, 2020
Yesterday wo Utatte
(Anime)
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Almost there, going nowhere.
I don't mind a realistic, slow-burning slice-of-life anime, nor do I have a problem with melodramatic teens experiencing love for the first time. My taste nowadays will probably gravitate towards the former, but sometimes you just gotta have some of that seasonal high school angst in your life. A young girl who just had her heart broken and is running home screaming while some classical music is blaring in the background? In small doses, but more importantly, when done RIGHT, it pleases me a lot. The (main) problem with Yesterday wo Utatte is that it wants to be both... and doesn't succeeds ... 
Jun 25, 2018
Yowamushi Pedal: Glory Line
(Anime)
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Yowamushi Pedal: Glory Line contains some of the franchise’s best moments, but also shows occasional signs of stagnation.
With the previous season of YowaPeda (New Generation) being a pretty straightforward transitional affair, more focused on following the aftermath of the 41st InterHigh and introducing new characters now that the third years graduated, I wish I could say Glory Line dives instantly into adrenaline-heavy, fast-paced cycling action. It does just that… for the most part of its run. The show still invests too much time on characters I couldn’t care less instead of jumping right into what matters: hot, sweaty 2D boys battling for dominance. Still, this season ... 
Jun 20, 2018
Mahou Shoujo Ore
(Anime)
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Mahou Shoujo Ore presents a synopsis so great one may argue the actual anime isn’t necessary, since it’s unlikely it will reach the absolute zaniness of its premise. And to be frank, parody anime as a whole is a tricky business: jokes being repeated to exhaustion, plots that refuse to go anywhere (when it can afford to have a proper plot to begin with) and characters who are just basic archetypes tend to be the ground rule, which means the number of parody anime that manages to be something more than a bunch of random gags stitched together is ridiculously small. Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boueibu
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