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The show is a lot of fun, and overall I enjoyed my time with it, but the writing has issues. The pacing is just downright bad and every plot line suffers for it. The show has so many plot lines crammed into it, and not only does it not have enough time to properly go through and resolve them all, it doesn't use the time it does have efficiently. It also keeps ramming new discoveries and new issues all the way down to the last episode.

The political intrigue balloons in scope and starts meandering. A bit over halfway through Season 2, so many things ... start happening at once it would already be hard to follow if the writing held up to begin with. A lot of WfM's plot developments don't have a lot of logic behind them, but Season 2 has the worst of it - things just start happening with no explanation, plot twists come out of nowhere and are handwaved away (a LOT of things get handwaved away), things just... happen, with no real reason behind them. Beyond being hard to follow, it becomes hard to care about.

The main duo's relationship suffers the most from this - unlike in Season 1 where the politics, the overarching story, and the character drama between our main two were nicely intertwined, in Season 2, for the most part, these plot threads are now separate. The main duo have no time to breathe, and their story has no time to develop. It doesn't feel like a conscious decision by the writers, but rather a consequence of a lack of runtime.

The show is still gorgeous, the characters are still fun, the ending, while feeling rushed and generally unsatisfying, still has a lot to love. Many plot lines go nowhere, many of those that do get resolved don't get resolved well, it becomes hard to follow and can generally feel like a bloated, meandering mess at times. Still - while I can't outright recommend it, I had a lot of fun with the series.

As an aside, it was great to see some yuri in a mainstream franchise like this. While it ended up being a minor element in the grand scheme of things, I hope WfM is successful enough to bring more yuri to genres we don't see much of it in. Failing that, I hope it's at least successful enough to make bigoted corpo suits think twice before trying to walk back on yuri developments in shows.

Overall, the manga is great, but it feels like it's two different stories mashed together into one, and not in a good way.

On one hand, you have a cute, heartfelt story about two insomniacs meeting and growing together due to their shared condition. The manga has a fair bit to say about how conditions like insomnia are treated by society, how they affect relationships, etc. The relationship that develops from this connection is really cute and is used by the author in very creative ways, with the couple hanging out at night, helping each other sleep, stuff that isn't usual in other romance stories ... and really helps set this manga apart from others. Since insomnia is something that can happen to anyone, the author is able to use the condition to tie together two characters that otherwise may have never have met, and their shared experience brings them closer to form a relationship unique to them.

On the other hand, you have a very grounded and incredibly emotional story about being in a relationship with someone who's terminally ill. The manga takes an incredibly realistic approach to the struggles on both sides. From the maleMC struggling to accept the situation, to him thinking he has only to realize it scares him much more than he thought, to him overcompensating and getting a reality check. Similarly, from the femMC, trying to accept the situation she's in, but still dealing with feelings of unfairness, to setting boundaries with her partner, trying her best to live positively, and trying to come to terms with her future. The writing is impeccable and the struggles of the couple feel incredibly real, it never feels like tragedy porn, and the author doesn't play with your emotions. The story presents the cold, hard truth, the emotional and physical struggles of the characters, the highs, the lows, and the consequences.

Put both the halves together, and it becomes muddied. Individually, they're amazing, together, they detract from each other. Once the story shifts gears and becomes more serious, it begins to feel like the first part of the story is just setup for tragedy bait, and this feeling works against the second part. It's still an amazing read with some of the most incredible emotional beats I've seen, but it would have worked far better as two separate works. As it is, even though I rate it highly, it's hard to recommend personally.

How Do We Relationship is a raw, emotional, and heartfelt look into romance. It's less of a romance manga and more a manga about romance, exploring why and how people get together, how they date, how they fight, how they make up, how and why they break up, how their lives change for better and for worse. It's a very grounded look at relationships, and it's not afraid to show both the good and the bad. The story centers around lesbian romance, and has a lot to say about the queer experience as well.

The characters feel very human, and the manga takes great care to ... avoid labeling characters as good or bad. They act emotionally, they make mistakes, they say things they don't mean, some don't understand themselves, some don't understand others. It really feels like every character is trying their best, and the manga does a great job at making you feel exactly what they're going through at each point of the story. Romance is very emotional, and the manga is great at making you feel what the characters feel, whether it be love, hate, or anything in-between. There's a lot of embarrassment, too.

The story follows a variety of relationships, and each of them has a unique flavor. It delves deep into every aspect of any given relationship. It shows why people get together, and how the reason for the relationship affects it. It shows how different personalities clash and complement each other. It shows how different people view sex in a relationship. It shows both the importance of communication and how difficult it is. It shows that different people need different things to be happy. It shows how relationships change you, in what ways, and how much. Most importantly, it shows that love on it's own isn't always enough to keep people together. It's not afraid to say, sometimes, even though there's so much love, even though you want to stay together, even though, emotionally, you feel like you would do anything to make your partner happy, the harsh reality is that not all relationships work out, and the world doesn't end together with your relationship - life goes on, and people change, and you have to learn to move on.

From love to heartbreak, to new love, from shame and embarrassment to growth, from the elation of love, to the bitter, pure, heart-wrenching despair that comes when it finally clicks that the relationship is over and there's nothing you can do about it. How Do We Relationship takes great care to show the good and the bad, carefully, respectfully, but holding nothing back, resulting in a breathtaking and beautiful story about why people seek out love. I cannot recommend this enough - there is nothing else like it.

Girls Band Cry is about staying true to yourself, not letting others get you down or hold you back, and the sense of freedom that comes from expressing yourself. It's far from the first anime to have these themes, but it sets itself apart from other similar shows with a display of raw, visceral emotion and passion, a unique cast of characters, and a very grounded approach. Girls Band Cry is about a group of flawed individuals stumbling into a band, and isn't afraid to show the reality of how messy and difficult human interactions can be.

The character drama is incredibly raw, the band butt ... heads, argue, fight, scream, cry, make up, and go on. Girls Band Cry isn't afraid to show characters be rough and insensitive, it never tries to portray the characters as perfect, right, or anything other than human. The MC in particular is masterfully written - she's a shy, insecure teenager out on her own, and she gets no pity from the show. She's an angry, wounded animal, she lashes out at others, she lashes out at herself, she lashes out at the world, and is often doing so unfairly, to the detriment of both her and everyone around her. Through her, the themes of the show take on a different color.

It's about staying true to yourself, and not letting others get you down or hold you back, but not due to some lofty dreams or high ambitions but as a pure, unbridled show of spite to everyone who's wronged you. It's about the sense of freedom that comes from expressing yourself, and the incredible catharsis that comes from understanding yourself and flaunting your flaws to the world. It's about flipping off the world and saying "I'm right, you're wrong, and you can't hurt me anymore".

The anime is mostly CGI, with 2D for backgrounds and background characters. The animation is incredibly expressive at times, especially during the performances, but often also during normal character interactions. The worst of it still ends up looking pretty great, though it's not always very exciting. The VAs for the main cast are all rookies in both voice acting and music, they were put together in a band specifically for this anime. You can definitely feel they're rookies at times, but it feeds into the setting very well.

At the time of writing this, the anime is not licensed in the West, something that feels genuinely criminal for the insane quality of the show. Do yourself a favor and find a way to watch it, and make sure you don't stumble on a machine translated sub.