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I’ll try to be succinct and direct. The character designs are fantastic (minus one LARGE exception), though this is unsurprising given that comes right from the Fate franchise. The fight scenes, though always very short, are an absolute treat to watch as they are incredibly fast-paced, full of memorable angles (the director is clearly an ass man with the poses that all of the girls take while fighting), and impactful sound effects to really hammer home the whole experience. If this show was just the fight scenes, or if they at least had more of them, this would truly be a top tier show.

Instead, ... however, the storyline is absolutely ATROCIOUS in how dull it is. The MC talk-no-jutsus his way through basically every conflict, with everyone finding him beyond charming despite his one-dimensional character. Almost every battle ends with some inexplicable Deus-ex-machina-type resolution that makes you wonder why things were even done the way they were in the first place. Also, Gilgamesh is just not as charming in this as he was in Fate/Zero, though it was at least nice seeing him again.

In the end, you have to sit through a lot of boring dialogue and simplistic plot developments to get to what is (other than the final battle) truly impressive fight scenes that you really wouldn’t want to otherwise miss.

To anyone who tries to tell you this show has a unique twist on shojo romance, don't let them fool you - at the end of the day this show is just as hackneyed as your average shojo romance.

On the one hand, this show does need to be acknowledged as having a lot of unique characteristics compared to your typical shojo romance. First, it regularly brings up the forbidden three letter word in shojo romance (SEX), and although it doesn't show anything, it's clearly a big part of the story for many of the characters. It also includes many of the darker aspects of adolescence, ... including struggles with body image and bullying. So for some this might make it seem like the show is more "real" that your usual "I'm so inexperienced about love I don't even know why this guy is trying to hold my hand" romance (I'm looking at you, Naho from Orange). But truthfully, it's completely the same:

- Despite certain characters being more "experienced" than others, they are all, as the story tries to tell us, pure-hearted maidens who are just trying to figure out love.

- People are completely oblivious to normal human interactions, though instead of it being mis-read signs of love it's people not realizing how absolutely cruel and heartless they are acting/speaking in the presence of others. Seriously, I've never seen a show reach quite this level of cattiness that could have been resolved if just one of them had the slightest ounce of self-reflection.

- The drama is almost exclusively driven by a total lack of the basic capacity to communicate as a human being. I wish I was kidding about this, but in one episode (the last!) about 5 minutes of the show is wasted watching a character run around looking for the other character because he somehow failed to see her hiding behind a telephone pole that was literally right outside of his house in an otherwise quiet residential neighborhood. And this only happened because they somehow forgot how to use their cell phones, which were ultimately the main tool that produced the initial misunderstanding that caused all the running around.

- It introduces a new character at nearly every episode who's sole purpose is to stir up drama. They then only have a few seconds of cameo in later episodes, so you wonder why they were even introduced.

At the end of the day, if you are a hard core fan of shojo, and I should add, are also a fan of the aesthetics (the characters certainly also break a bit of the typical mold in their looks, which I wasn't the biggest fan of), then you'll certainly get something from this show. But if you are looking for a really fresh take on shojo romance, look elsewhere.

When I first picked up "Blue Flag" there was a lot that was making it difficult to get into the story but by the end of the first volume I would have to say I was at least mildly enjoying this stock shonen romance story. The narrative centers on a basic love triangle, or maybe it’s a love quadrangle, or perhaps even a love pentagon? While it is obvious the focus will be on a core of three high school students that need to sort out their feelings for each other, every side character that is brought into the early story seemingly adds yet another ... layer to the network of relationships in which everyone appears to be in love with the wrong person. I wouldn’t say the characters were boring, but the angst of the main character, the earnestness of the girl, and the bubbly optimism of the best friend felt a little too convenient. Now for some these things will be exactly what makes the reading juicy, but in general people should brace themselves for an extensive use of misunderstandings to drive the plot alongside fairly predictable character growth moments. And in short that summarizes my take on this story – it looks like it’s going to play it close to the pre-constructed script of a romance manga, albeit with a shonen flair, and so anyone that is looking for a fresh take is unlikely to find anything too original to keep them going. Nonetheless, those already converted and looking for more in their favored genre of high school shonen romance will undoubtedly find plenty that keeps them turning pages.

As for the art, I felt it was really lacking throughout the exposition chapters. The pacing between the opening panels felt really stilted with gaps often forming as it tries to leave a little too much implied rather than shown. Similarly, each panel is incredibly sparse with next to no background art to help one feel like the world is full, and character expressions are drawn in such a small manner that they are overwhelmed by their white backgrounds. Further on that, character designs struck me as a confusing mixture of different series all hobbled together rather than having its own unique look – the main character strongly reminded me of Deku from "My Hero Academia," his cadre of loser friends appeared to be borrowed from Inio Asano’s "Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction," the best friend looks like every hunky high school boy drawn in a manga ever, and the main girl looks to be so faintly and uncertainly drawn as to be an afterthought. Still, I could see how some will see this as helping to powerfully convey the personality types of each character, and even being a bit original in not having a singular “look.” For me it just made it hard to see how everyone fit together as part of the same story.

In summary, the art just barely keeps the story afloat, and the story barely recommends itself beyond tried and true tropes. Judging this series on its opening volume, it leaves little to recommend itself if you didn’t already find the cover art or the back page description enough to make you want to throw yourself full on into it. For those that did find that enough, I think they’ll find about what they were expecting.

It's probably a bad sign when, in a romance story, the most enjoyable parts are when the couple are at work and not when they are actually interacting with one another. The amount of tension they are able to build as Nanami navigates working as a telecaster is actually quite well done (the mangaka clearly did their research for the series and is putting it to good use), but when it comes to the romance of the story its pretty much stereotypes shot right through (old girlfriend, mistaken understandings of situations, "I just can't help it" attractions, etc.).

I really wanted to enjoy this series ... because I felt it had a novel characterization lined up for Asuka as she is a go-getter business woman who actually wants to get married, quit her job, and be a housemaker. I felt like the dynamics of being a professional and wanting to get married would give an interesting setting for the story, but it's mostly just been dropped in the conversation as an afterthought it feels. The real problem, however, is that I cannot for the life of me discern any reason why the main couple are together - they jump from just getting to know each other and having a basic respect for each other's personality to suddenly "being in love" and dating, and then while dating they literally never see each other (I'm not just saying this - its literally what they are dealing with for several chapters - and also what gives all the good material with them at work). As things progress, you start to seem some more thoughtful reflection by the characters as the main plot line takes on a little more depth, but its done so gingerly and in such small spurts its hard to believe that there is really much substance to the characters. In the end, this is a drop.