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Another one of the shows that has a great general premise, but then doesn't do much with it for most of its runtime. The main recommendation I got for this show was that it was "different" to a lot of other romance shows and if you just look at the surface level elements, then you might even agree. After all, this show starts of by having the two characters already be in the relationship and they even have sex in the first episode. But if you look past these simple changes, then you will notice that the romance isn't that much different from your typical ... romance. Which is a shame, because it didn't have to be.

So let's start with the first aspect, the fact that they are already together. While most hail this as a revolutionary idea, it just creates more problems than it "solves". Don't get me wrong, I also dislike how most romance shows out there try to keep the status quo for too long and the characters awkardly move around just starting a relationship, but you don't solve that issue by just skipping that phase. Because now, it's kind of hard to get into their relationship as it's implied at several points that they have some kind of backstory with one another (they've known each other for a while) and you get hints every now and then, but this can't solve the problem that we completely missed out on that development. Why not have at least 3-4 episodes of them getting together? Why is that not an option? You might say, they want to get to the meat of the story right away, but that is the next issue, there isn't actually much meat to the story.

The story is more or less a Slice of Life show where it's about the two main characters Yui and Masugu who want to become better in their carrer paths while also having a relationship with one another. And since the focus is more on that career part of the equation, the romance between the two feels heavily underdeveloped despite them already being together. Yes, they often play the typical tropes of a romance anime, but it feels so hollow very often, because at the end of the day, it is still the same as other romance shows where the status quo of the relationship won't be be changed. It might allude to it every now and then, but once that moment is over, we are back to the usual. And the worst part, it didn't have to.

I am not even talking about big drama here, but as mentioned above, the main focus is them both advancing their careers which comes with its own hurdles. And this could have been used effectively to develop their relationship. As most people probably know, if you have stress at work, having someone you can rely on, even if it is just for not being alone is a great thing to have. And the show is at least acknowledging that. But instead of using moments like these to develop their relationship (as they understand how much it gives them to just be together with the other person and therefore wanting to take the next step for example), afterwards it's right back to career progression.

And that is also why I can't really see them having sex immediately as a positive. Again, I like that the show doesn't shy away from the topic and I am not arguing that it is unrealistic for them to have sex immediately after getting together. It is quite realistic in fact. But realism doesn't make for a good story. A story lives off the fact that things develop. Getting intimate with one another as a sign of taking the next step in a relationship. It is exactly one of those potential signs to show that they are not just staying at the same level but they are progressing. But since they were already doing it from Day 1, there is no potential for development here and you are still stuck with the same tropes you've seen in other shows.

At the end of the day, the show seems to really try to surprise by subverting the surface level elements that people are usually criticising about romance show. That being, the characters not getting together and them shying away from being intimate. But it completely fails to undestand WHY this criticism is made. The underlying criticism of romance shows is the lack of development, both on an emotional side (them not being able to just confess and get together) as well as on a physical side (them shying away from intimacy). So the show just "adressed" this by skipping these parts, thereby creating the same lack in development every other romance has.

This show is a bit of a disappointment for me, because it could have been great, but it wants to be a parody without understanding the underlying genre (the villainess genre) well enough to be a good one. Which isn‘t to say that the jokes can‘t be funny, but the jokes aren‘t varied enough to carry the show throughout its whole runtime and the story and characters are basically non-existent. To give you an idea, imagine Konosuba (a parody of the standard Isekai genre), but take away all the actual story elements like the party meeting and fighting different demon army generals and also take ... away all the arcs that give you a better understanding of the main characters, so that their only contribution is to say their one line jokes like „Explosion“ all the time and nothing more. This is in principle what this show is. But if you want to read a more detailed explanation, continue reading.

1) Story

The story starts quite funny, because while you have the typical villainess genre setup with it playing in an Otome game, it‘s not a female player that gets transferred to this world, but a 52 year old salaryman from Japan, who only knows this game, because his daughter played it and now he has to live his life as the villainess of the story (named Grace). And that‘s pretty much everything there is to say. This is the first big issue with the show: it has no actual story. Usually in villainess anime, there is some form of motivation that drives the plot forward. Most often, it is the knowledge of the player that the villainess is going to have a bad ending as she usually gets punished for her actions, so they try to avoid that. But here, our MC just wants to play his role as the villainess. Despite being an Otaku knowing that this isn‘t what you‘d do in that situation. And also, he is obviously fumbling this idea which is one of the main gags. At some point, it is mentioned the goal might be for him to reach the ending of the game, but since we have no clue what that „ending“ is even supposed to be or if he has to be careful, the show is just a random collection of Slice of Life elements with no deeper story.

2) Characters

Now you might say, Slice of Life elements sounds fun. And they are on the surface. But if you don‘t have a story, then the characters become important, because you want to see them develop or just interact in different situations with one another. This is a second big aspect of villainess shows as these are not so much about strong powers, but dialogue choices as the underlying games are usually Otome games where you can romance different options. Sadly, this aspect is also heavily underdeveloped. Again, in a setup like this, you would expect some form of conflict coming from the fact that the MC is in the role of the villainess. Usually, the villainess already has some form of reputation and maybe even a group that copies her behaviour, so a sudden shift in personality means that people now either start to target her as well or they are very cautious expecting some deeper plan behind this nice facade. You know, something that makes the MC have to actually interact with these characters, understand them on a deeper level than what is shown in the game and by that, form new relationships. But not so here. Yes, Grace had a reputation, but from episode 1, everyone just accepts her shift in personality. Even the other bully characters completely change in the first episode to copy her new, more graceful appearance. Not only that, but all of the characters are very 1-dimensional. Again, a big thing about shows like these is usually that the MC gets a new perspective of the other characters because instead of them just being romance options, they can interact in all kinds of ways. But not so here. For one, because our MC doesn‘t know the game well enough to even make a comparison. But secondly, because all of these characters only have one quirk that gets repeated whenever they are on screen. And nothing more. Most egregious is that when it comes to Anna, the original protagonist of the game. Again, the show copies a lot of the surface level elements, like her being a commoner in a school for nobles and who is picked on by the villainess in the game, but instead of creating an interesting new relationship, Anna‘s whole character gets reduced to saying „Sasuga Grace-sama“. Yes, I know that the original MC (as well as basically ever other character) falling for the new villainess is also a trope of this genre, but at least put some effort in and don‘t make it happen in episode 1 already. Now, there might be ONE exception to this and this is Grace as they gave her a „reason“ to become a villainess, but this comes with its own problems. First of all, it's not really explored and only hinted at in a total of three short scenes. But more importantly, this whole "backstory" starts to make less and less sense the more we learn about Grace's surroundings. It's again very surface level. The author understood that the villainess shouldn't just be a villainess because she is in the game, but they didn't care enough to craft a world that actually supports this idea. Which in return means, the opposite happens as Grace's reason for being a villainess ir more or less just "because it's in the title of the show". Maybe they have a bit more planned with that in the future, but considering the show misunderstood every other part of the genre, I highly doubt it.

3) Comedy

But okay, so much for story and characters, but as mentioned in the beginning, this show wants to be a parody and one might say that they don‘t care much about anything else but the jokes. So are they any good? Yeah, they got a few chuckles out of me every so often. Obviously, since there is no development in story or characters, the jokes stay mostly the same over the course of the show, you will basically have seen them all by episode 4, but they can be fun regardless. There are jokes about the MC having a „cheat skill“ where all his actions and words get translated into „noble form“ which is kind of fun. There are obviously his attempts at being a villainess and either fumbling, because he is too much of a good guy or people around him misunderstanding and reading more into his actions (which is one of the jokes normal villainess genres like to do as well). There are the jokes around the other side characters, like how one is constantly doing dad jokes, which our MC obviously appreciates. And then, since our MC and his whole family are Otaku, there are obviously references to other shows. But this last point in particular was the weakest, because these references are often not included properly. For example, there is a father-son-Kamehameha reference, but the story didn‘t support this and it wasn‘t even funny in the moment. It was literally just „We need a reference here as a joke, pick one“. All in all though, I do think, the jokes are good and if you don‘t mind them not developing and just cycling through them, then you can have a fun time.

4) General criticism

Finally, there is one last critcism I want to adress, because while it might not be a big issue, I found this really annoying at times. As mentioned, there is no story or character development and obviously, you can‘t just have jokes every second, so one question might be: How is the rest of the time filled? Mostly by exposition. Really boring exposition. I am not joking. There is a whole exposition scene to explain the simplest four-element magic system I have ever seen for several minutes. And that‘s not even the worst part. The show repeats exposition at several points. This magic system? Yeah, it gets explained to us once when they basically get their element (to avoid spoilers I leave that vague) and a second time, when they fight for the first time with that element. It wasn't complex enough to have one exposition scene, but they really went and said "Make two boring exposition scenes". And this example isn't an exception, they did this several times over the course of the show, which resulted in some really boring moments.

5) Summary

All in all, the show is fine. It‘s a simple parody like a lot of the Isekai parodys where they just make fun of the surface level elements. If you like the jokes, it can be entertaining, but it‘s not a show where you should expect anything more. And it's definitely not a show where you will be interested in future seasons. For that, it just doesn't do enough or anything at all.

I am recommending this show to every hobby writer out there... to see how hard you can fumble simple concepts. I am not even going into the whole "kidnapping" aspect which you should already know to avoid (at least if you are trying to build a romance and not a horror show). But this show is a perfect example in how to not write a story. From setups that have no payoff (like Clarke saying that he doesn't want to take Leitica away from the village she started a new life in that never results in anything), to thematic cohesion (there are several side stories ... where the moral is to give someone or something its freedom even if you dislike that which obviously clashes with the main idea of the show), right until bottled character arcs (in which Prince Clarke notices, his decisions are the reason for why something is not as he would like, but instead of changing, he is just waiting for it to get better... and it does at some point), this show breaks with every basic rule of story telling. So if you are an upcoming writer and you believe that you are able to go against established story telling rules, watch this show to see how fast this can create a mess of a show.

Oh and while we are at it, if you are an art student, maybe check out episode 7 to see which colours you should not combine, because they make it really hard to read the text (not that it matters, but it's fascinating that this show even fails this simple task).

I still don't get why this show has such a following. Probably because the author is known. Well, I never saw Hyouka so I went into the show without any prejudice and all I can say is that it's boring and predictable.

The show starts out in a somewhat interesting way. Yes, the mysterys themselves are pretty boring, but that's not the issue, because obviously this is about the characters, right? I mean, they tell you in the first episode that both of them want to become normal people, so you are wondering: What is it that makes them "not normal"? Well, here is the first ... reveal for you, the one thing you immediately think of is true for both of them. I won't spoil the exact "solution", but the problem is that the characters want to appear deep, but they are really shallow, beacause they both have exactly two quirks that define them. And once you understood these two quirks, nothing can surprise you anymore.

And here is the thing, if the show didn't think of itself as some deep masterpiece, this wouldn't be an issue. It would just be two somewhat weird people that try to appear normal who are thrown into different scenarios. That could be an okay show. But for both characters, the anime takes its time to "reveal" their secrets and both times, I was just like: "Wait, that was not supposed to be obvious?"

This ultimately lead to the final arc of the show where suddenly things turn serious, but again, it's immediately clear what is going on here. However, we spend 3 episodes trying to build up suspense just to have one of the characters tell us all this obvious stuff in the final episode in an exposition scene that makes Sword Art Online exposition scenes look fancy. No seriously, the finale of the show is a boring exposition scene about things that you probably already realized and didn't even think they were supposed to be a mystery.

So in summary: This show is one that wants to appear deep, but once you look behind the curtain, you realize it has nothing really to offer. In terms of mystery, it is just weak as the mysterys revolve around the characters and they are just not thought out enough to surprise you. But it seemingly thinks that it has such deep characters that it can feel pretentious.

Nana is one of those shows that I can totally understand why people might get interested in. It has a very different atmosphere compared to a lot of other Slice of Life and Romance shows. Not only is it actually portraying adults, it's also adressing some romance aspects that you usually don't see adressed in anime, like for example that just loving someone doesn't necessarily mean you will have a fulfilling relationship. You have to work for it and sometimes life just has different plans for you. And this is something that drew me into the show as well. The problem is just that Nana ... is also a series that is a bit too real and forgets at the end that realism doesn't mean you have a good story. Which ultimately leads to a very unsatisfying ending. And while I can appreciate a lot from the show, we all know that if the ending is bad then it can ruin the whole show for someone. But if that introduction was not enough, let me go into a bit more detail.

As you probably know already from the synopsis, Nana is the story about two girls who are both called Nana and who are both 20 years old. The first Nana is a singer who was in love with the bassist of their former band (Ren), but he decided to go to Tokyo and join a different band leaving her behind. The second Nana (which to avoid confusion is refered to as Hachi in the show, so I'll do that from this point as well) is a kind of naive girl who already got into several relationships in parts because of her naiveté. Similar to the first Nana, her boyfriend (Shoji) moves to Tokyo to study art at a university, but instead of breaking up, they stayed together and once Shoji was accepted into the unversity their plan was for Hachi to follow him which she ultimately does. Nana and Hachi randomly meet on the train to Tokyo and later become roommates in the same apartment to save money and from this point on, the story taks off.

While both Nanas start out with pretty different lifes, over time, they become closer and closer, not just in terms of relationship but their general life as well. For example, while Nana still wants to be in a band even without her ex-boyfriend, Hachi not only becomes a fan of this new band, but interacts with all of the band members and meets people she would have never met without Nana's involvement. In the same way, Hachi does not only help Nana to kickstart her new band by supporting her, but also helps her in other aspects of her life that I am not going to spoil here. Overall, the characters are well done (though I want to mention here that this comes with a big asterisk that I am going to explain in a bit), you can understand where they come from, some have had bad childhoods for example and while you might not agree with some of their actions, they never do anything that comes out of nowhere or doesn't fit their character. The only thing that was a bit jarring at times was how the characters would crack jokes at serious moments (even 4th wall breaks at one point), but even that I could explain with the characters only being around 20 and having to somehow live with all the circumstances around them. And while the constant drama was something that could become tiring, especially because it's not just your typical anime drama that you feel can get resolved with one or two talks, that alone wasn't enough to make me dislike the show at least in some aspects. Because I actually thought the drama was overall well made. The problem is just that with so much drama, the conclusion has to be well done to make up for it and sadly this wasn't the case.

Which brings us to the negatives of the show. And just for completion sake, yes, the artstyle is a bit strange in some places especially when it comes to limbs (mostly arms) that can look off at times. And honestly, hearing the same song over and over again was also getting a bit boring at the end. But overall, these are small things that alone wouldn't have hindered my enjoyment of the show. As I wrote in the beginning of this review, the show does a really good job at creating realistic scenarios. Because while the act of being in a band to become famous isn't something most people can relate to, what they might be able to relate to are the relationships in the show. Both in terms of romantic but also just platonic friendly ones. The show makes it clear that relationships are a pretty fragile thing. Even if you have the best intentions and like/love the other person, simple things can already create cracks that over time become bigger and bigger and if you don't adress them early enough, things will break apart with both sides being left sad and disappointed. And this doesn't just go for the two Nanas, but the side characters as well, because nearly every character in this show has a somewhat problematic relationship (maybe aside from Jun and Kyousuke) which enforces this overall theme. And while this was super interesting at the beginning, at around episode 30, I was seriously starting to wonder where the show wanted to go with it. Because it seemed, it was just going with the same idea over and over without actually changing anything.

One aspect this was heavily noticable in was in certain character arcs. While the characters do have some sort of development over time, there are also things that seemingly go nowhere or at least in directions that feel really strange. For example, one big issue of Hachi in the beginning is how she doesn't value money or is at least very bad with it. Because she doesn't really know what she wants to do job wise, she is only getting simple jobs that bring her enough money to get by, but not enough to significantly save something. Though, this issue also exists, because every excess money she has, she is constantly spending on clothes and other itmes she wants to have. Now, with an obvious flaw like this, you can already see that this might be part of her overall character arc in the bigger picture, but without any spoilers, the way this is adressed in the end is just really unsatisfying. While I can make excuses for why this part went the way it did, because yes, the way it goes is kind of realistic, as mentioned before, realism just doesn't necessarily make for a good story. Especially if you only adress it in passing at the end and don't actually examine this deeper with the character.

To maybe show this better, let me give you another example, where I can be a bit more detailed. At one point Nana mentions to Hachiko that she might lose so many jobs because she isn't actually doing something she enjoys. So she should look for something she wants to do instead of just doing job after job. And the next job we see Hachi doing is one where she gives out food samples to attract people to buy something. Which seems to be in reference to the fact that since she started to live with Nana, she enjoyed making food for others. So you are interested to see where this goes. And it just goes nowhere. Like seriously. Her friend mentions at the end "Wow, you seriously became a good cook" and that's literally the conclusion of that development.

Which brings us to the biggest issue with the show which is the ending. The ending is just not satisfying. Not only does it feel like it comes really abruptly, which is super strange considering that every episode has some voice overs of either Nana which happen after the ending, but it also ends on a note that is just bad in my opinion. Yes, I understand where this ending comes from. It is basically all said with that one comment Nana makes in the last episode regarding Nobu. I understand that. And I even understand that this ending is realistic and that some people (and maybe even the author) have experienced something similar in their lifes. But I seriously have to ask, if I want people in fictional shows (that go through the same struggles as me) reach the same unsatisfying conclusion as me? Or do I want to see them reach a better version because it is finctional? Again, I can totally see how people can relate to that ending, I just don't see why you would enjoy this ending for characters you spend 47 episodes following.

All in all, Nana is a strange show to me. While I can totally see the appeal with the themes the story is adressing (as this drew me in as well), I am really struggling to understand why so many people did not have mixed feelings about this ending. Again, a show could be the best thing to exist, if it fails to land the ending, it just leaves a bad taste. And it also means, it is a show that I would never want to watch again. While I enjoyed a lot of things on my first watch, knowing that this ultimately leads to this ending, makes the drama that you have to go through not really worth it.

Let's start with the obvious elephant in the room: Yes, this is a story that features a physically 10 year old Jill (mentally she is 17 as she regressed after being killed) being in a relationship with the physical 19 year old Hadis. I won't try to sugarcoat that, it is one of those ideas that can easily kill the show for someone. And that's totally fine. I am also not going to say that it "has a story reason" because we know that the author could have just slightly changed the rules for Jill to not being physically 10. However, if that premise did ... not make you drop the show and you'd like to know how serious this matter is, let me just say these two things:

1) Jill is a character first and foremost. She is not a trophy piece for the male lead and she is also not portrayed as a fetish character. She is never sexualised at all (I know a low bar, but we know anime), meaning she is always wearing non-revealing clothing, there are no bath scenes, no underwear scenes or anything that you usually expect from anime. And I would definitely not recommend it if that was the case.
2) While the age gap can not be overlooked, one has to accept that the relationship is mostly on the emotional side and not the physical. Meaning that Hadis' and Jill's love come mostly from loving the character and what they mean for their live and not because they are necessarily sexually attracted to them. And since Jill is mentally 17, this whole aspect was not as bad as you might expect.

Now with that out of the way, what I can say about the show is that if you can look past the controversial decision, then you get a really well-written fantasy show. The anime constantly walks a fine line between serious tone and humor and while this can be jarring at times, one has to give credit to the writers for actually making something this difficult work. The humor contrasts the seriousness very well without actually undermining it. It also helps to give the characters a second side that make them more entertaining in a result.

But what is the story actually about? You have heard the premise: Jill, a warrior princess type gets betrayed by her fiancé and is going to be killed, however, instead of dying she goes back in time keeping her memories. In order to not having to get engaged with the same man again, she is proposing to a seemingly random person which turns out to be the emperor of the neighbouring country which they had a war with in the original timeline. The idea is now obviously for Jill to figure out what made Hadis the way he is in the future and how she can prevent it. However, despite her age, she is not just looking for information, since she also has a lot of magic, once she figures out what has to be done, she is fighting on the front lines as well. Which makes her an entertaining character that can carry most of the show by herself.

But the good thing is, she isn't the only reason why I consider the show well written. The other characters work well as well. Be it the male lead Hadis or even the side characters. They have a similar seriousness to them, but can also goof around which again, helps this show to never get unnecessarily dark.

But what really made me like the show was how well the whole regression aspect plays into the story. When you hear stuff like that, you immediately think of political betrayals. And yes, this is part of it. But this show goes a bit further and actually has a really interesting story for the world involving two gods and their love/hate for one another. Not to spoil anything, the show is really well done at giving the right amount of information every time so that reveals don't become overwhelming as everything you knew changes, but still give you enough information that you can slowly but surely piece together what is the truth of the world and how this affects the present. It's one of the best in that aspect and I can only recommend it if you enjoy a mystery like that.

As for negatives (other than what has been written in the beginning) are both animation and (in some parts) pacing. Animation isn't truly bad, but it's noticable especially in the fights where the characters can be a bit too stiff. Though, I also have to say that the show comes with a fantastic soundtrack that can make you forget the not so good animation. As for the pacing, it's usually okay in my opinion, but I am also more a fan of a bit faster pacing compared to slower. But even I have to say that there were one or two moments where I would have liked if they gave it a bit more breathing room. Still, overall, it's not too bad.

In the end, the show is a really well-written fantasy show with a great balance between seriousness and humor and a strong mystery around the regressing story point. I won't tell you to forget that there is an age gap, because this is't possible, but if you do think that this might not be too much of an issue with the points I raised, then give it a shot. I feel, you won't be disappointed.

I have been recommended Monster for a while now, but I was always a bit hesistant to try it out, because it has 74 episodes and that is quite the commitment, but since I enjoyed Pluto (despite some issues here and there), another work from the same author last year, I decided to give it a shot finally. Because I thought, maybe having 74 episodes would fix some of the issues I had with Pluto. But the thing is, the opposite was the case (though as you can see, I still rated it fairly high).

But let's start with the good things. The first 10 episodes ... are really interestingly made, because it's not quite clear yet where the show wants to go and the stretch in between episode 25 and episode 38 are definitely some of the best thriller episodes you can watch. Furthermore, the anime plays in Germany (and Czech Republic for a bit) and the attention to detail is astounding. Not only are all the letters and newspapers in German, but the cities are very closely drawn to what they truly look like. It's been fun to see small details in the background and say "Oh yeah, that's this building" despite there being nearly 30 years in between when the anime plays and today. Lastly, I do like the general themes of the anime and some side characters like Grimmer are really well done.

But if this review is mixed, it means that there are also problems, big enough to make me dislike the show at certain parts. One of the biggest problems is the length. As mentioned above, this show has 74 episodes and if you think this would mean that there is a lot more depth to the characters, then you are sadly mistaken. Instead of using the time to create some really interesting, multi-layered characters, the anime likes to repeat itself over and over again. While Tenma has a really interesting arc in the first 10 episodes, he becomes a really boring character for the rest of the show and the most interesting part (episodes 25-38) has him absent for 90% of it which is not what you would like to have for your main character. And the problem is, this does not just go for Tenma, but also the side characters (with some exceptions) and most importantly the main antagonist of the show. The reasion why episodes 25-38 are working so well is because it uses completely new characters (so there isn't as much repetition), but it's also the only point in the entire show where the antagonist is actually present and the anime is SHOWING you what he is like rather than just telling you.

And that is the biggest problem for me, the show is telling you way more than it is showing you. It always tells you how evil the main antagonist is, but aside from this one period, you don't really see it. I guess this was done to make him more mysterious, but it just didn't help with the engagement for me when the show is this long. That isn't to say that the show isn't trying to show you something every now and then, but most of the time, it's failing, because things like with Nina are so dragged out that they don't leave much impression once you have all the information. The only time this was done well, was with Grimmer in my opinion, which is probably also why he is the best character in the show imo.

What is left at the end is a show that has some interesting ideas, a total of around 20-30 episodes that are really strong, but also more than 40 episodes that feel a bit dragged at best and completely pointless at worst as the show keeps introducing new side characters that only appear for around two episodes most of the time which would be fine if the main cast was more interesting. It's definitely a show you should try out I think, but you should be aware that it can really drag at points. Also, I feel the ending is kind of meh. I get what they were trying to go for there, but I don't think they really nailed that idea.

Just as a small part here: The review was written preliminary after the first 6 episodes, but overall, all I wrote back then still holds true after having watched all episodes. With the addition that I really enjoyed the character moments in the second half even more than I already did in the first half. They really nailed the "show-don't-tell" storytelling aspect in this show.

World Dai Star is a very good combination of your general Cute-Girls-Doing-Cute-Things genre with the profession of acting. The main character Kokona wants to become a world famous actress, but is missing what people call "sense" and is therefore being rejected ... after most auditions. She is encouraged by her friend Shizuka to still try and is finally able to perform well during an audition joining the SIRIUS theater where she learns to improve her acting while also having fun with the other actresses.

I don't want to go into more details of the plot, because there are a lot of potential spoilers here, but there are interesting aspects that keep the story engaging, ranging from understanding the abilities of the different actresses (the "senses") that are all describing different acting styles, but also the understanding of the problems that come with this kind of style. For example, one character is able to read the thoughts of the audience and is therefore able to adjust their acting so the audience enjoys it more. But that also leads to her acting too much for the audience and going against the original plan. All of that is combined with fun moments between the girls that strengthen their friendship.

Where I think the anime is very strong is in its presentation. The animation is some of the strongest of the season when it comes to the acting scenes. The movements are so fluid that most shows can't even compare. This helps to show small details in the acting through which the characters define themselves but more importantly their role. The second part of the presentation is the fact that the show is not afraid to leave things up to the viewers. Episode 1 for example has a big twist at the end that is not put into the forefront too much. It shows that the show trusts their viewers to pay attention and not needing to explain every small detail. Which is also why a lot of people actually missed this twist (as you can see by checking the comments for that episode).

Therefore, I recommend everyone to give the show a shot for at least 1 episode. You can probably gauge if you like the show or not after that first episode and its twist. But I think, the show deserves to at least get this chance, because the passion in this project, especially when it comes to the acting scenes and the fluidity of the movement, can be felt like in no other anime of the season.

The show is my personal anime of the year of 2021. Not because of the story because this one is quite simple: A small aquarium is going to be closed, but the grand daughter of the owner doesn't want to accept it and tries everything to get more customers. Helping her is a girl that lost her job as an idol and who doesn't want to go home yet since she doesn't know where to go in live. It is a perfect coming of age story about two girls and their completely different starting positions. However, both of them develop over time and it feels ... great to see their growth over the 24 episodes as they help each other through hard times. Furthermore the side characters are really lovable and while some of them could have gotten a bit more time, you will love them all in the end.

The reason why I rated the anime so high in the end is that it was able to make me feel sad in the end. Not because something sad actually happened, but just because halfway through the last episode, I started to realise the feeling that this would be the end of the journey. And while it isn't the most action packed journey, it was one that will stay with me for a while.

As for art and sound, I think the anime speaks for itself. The art is beautiful and the colour scheme together with the music creates a warm feeling that perfectly encapsulates this anime. Furthermore, the anime has these moments of peace where the visitors of the aquarium see some kind of spectacle with the fishes that connect to them on an emotional level. These scenes are directed wonderfully without a single line of dialogue or monologue being spoken and you completely understanding what goes on in the head and heart of the person seeing this.

All these things are the reason why you at least should give the anime a chance.

I won't write a long analysis to this show. I will say this. You will see a lot of people claiming that the ending was bad and it ruined the show. It's not true. I won't claim that the ending was perfect. There will be things at the end that you personally might want to get resolved, BUT in general the ending is a satisfying ending to the story of all 4 main characters. However, it is important to remember that the show will require you to pay close attention. In order to understand all, it is probably best to rewatch the show after you ... finished it, because with the things you know, there is a whole new outlook on a lot of the details that you couldn't put together at the beginning. And I assume a lot of people just didn't do that, especially since the last episode came out 3 months after the ending of the second to last episode. But I mean, don't just believe me and don't believe the others. The show is great, has very strong animation, especially in the first half and a super interesting soundtrack with 4 strong characters. Try it out. It definitely earned it.