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As much as I want to review this and be honest, I'm fully aware of how many people are going to read this and think I'm close-minded and that I should stay on my Tumblr blog to write some more callout posts.

The last thing I'd tell anyone to do is to not watch an anime if they want to. It's just that... this one personally felt so weird to watch.

I'd like to preface this by saying that everything else in this show is great. The characters (mostly), the design, and the soundtrack are all adorable. They all worked together to create an adorable concept about ... the lives of some middle schoolers. I found it quite hard to continue after a while, and it all boiled down to the character that's come under the most scrutiny: Miyako.

I'm not going to come out, guns ablaze, whining about how she's a pedophile. I don't believe she is, but I personally saw it as a bit odd to see her desperately trying to befriend Hana. Trust me, I've seen people over her age that befriend young children with quite the different approach, one that doesn't include bartering with snacks for the child to wear costumes. The way I saw it was, "Oh, she's a shut-in otaku. She probably doesn't have a whole lot of social skills," and I would truly like to keep it that way in my head.

I gave this anime four other chances with its other episodes, and eventually gave up. I couldn't force myself to watch it, not because of the age gap between the friendship, but because of the way it was shown. I would have loved this series if it was about little kids hanging out and living their own lives. Unfortunately, it wasn't, and I was turned off by that.

TL;DR. Miyako's a little weird. If you like age gaps between people or you like "loli" characters (none of my business), you'd probably get a kick out of this show. Otherwise, it gets a little uncomfortable if you aren't into that stuff, like me. 6/10.

I don't think there's ever going to be a time where this series doesn't manage to hold up.

I love series that show the lives of retail workers that shows what we, the customers, don't usually see. This series manages to have such an eccentric aesthetic down pat, and tell a humorous story with it.

Everything from the moments with foreigners who stop into the shop (see the iconic "SPECIAL YAOI BOOK" instance), to the designs of the characters (come on, who thinks of a different way to hide every employee's face and make them work with the characters themselves?), to the intro and ending (painfully ... chaotic and colorful, and sets a great tone for the show), all harmonize and manage to showcase the life of a bookstore worker. It's tons of things you'd never think would work together, but they manage to in the most bizarre of ways.

I've rewatched this show far more times than I'm willing to admit, but only because I don't think there will ever be another show quite like this. On top of that, it's so much easier for a busy person like me to watch this show, seeing that the episodes are all around 11 minutes long.

Overall, I'm truly disappointed that this show doesn't have as much attention as it should. It's a quick, fun show, and gives a nice introduction into the wacky world of a bookseller that just so happens to be a skeleton.

Perhaps I'm just biased towards shows about people living their lives, but this one felt different and better to me. It's a short series, with the episodes being around 3 minutes, so it's great if you want to get committed to an anime without spending a hilariously large amount of time on it.
Although the comedy is a bit dry, it does a great job of conveying the life of a retail worker, and on top of that, the ending theme (or opening?) is absolutely great.

Not much else to say about this anime. If you're looking for something short and silly and you want a great ... little song to go along with it, Sore dake ga Neck is your show.

Before I continue, I'd like to say that I don't particularly consider this an anime.

This show has three main components I can think of: a 2D animated segment, a short 3D claymation segment, and a live action segment. I'd like to break all of these down and give my thoughts on each bit.

The 2D animated parts are definitely very cute. It does a great job of conveying the simplicity of the manga itself (which I ended up reading to get my fix for the current pause until the next episode), and the color scheme is very attractive to look at. There are only a ... few main characters (being our MC Kaede, Dinosaur, and Kaede's ex, Shouta), and I personally prefer series with not a whole lot of characters, because my brain will instantly start forgetting them all if I'm not hooked immediately. There isn't much backstory to these characters though, leaving the viewer in the dark about them. The comedy is simple (depending on what you find funny, in this case, a dinosaur just being stupid, which is personally my favorite kind of humor, seeing that I laugh at anything remotely funny), the storyline is simple, and overall, the animated bits are great if you're just starting out with anime. I would rate the animated segments a 7.5/10, seeing that they are on the short side with minimal character development, but are very pleasing to the eye.

Next, we have the claymation segments. These feature minimal dialogue, and heavily feature the dinosaur doing very mundane things that it is unfamiliar with. I, personally, am very impressed with any kind of stop motion, which is why I enjoyed this part so much. There isn't much to say, seeing that these segments are very short, and that they don't tie much in with the story. I would give these an 8/10, as the detail put into them is definitely visible.

Finally, we have the live action segments, the part that most fans love to hate. I personally love these, and saw them as a huge surprise in the show. Although most of the speaking is from the woman playing Kaede, we have shots of an adorable Dino costume that only makes various airhorn noises. These don't tie into the story at all, and are just a cute addition that I personally like. The stories are distinctly different, and play out like a simple slice of life show, combined with you talking to your little cousin that your grandma made you talk to. I don't hate these in the slightest, but I can 100% understand where people are coming from when they say, "I didn't like the live action parts since they didn't add much and weren't great." Coming from someone who loves the unexpected parts of shows like these, I would personally rate them a 9/10. They're unexpected, and are definitely unique to shows like these.

Overall, I can understand people being thrown off and deterred by the live action segments and the claymation. They're not necessarily "anime," and this is an anime site. If I was to rate this show overall, I'd give it a solid 8.5/10, but when only focusing on the traditional "anime" segment, I believe it does deserve the 7.5/10 I gave it.

TL;DR It's a beautiful blend of different types of shows, but if it's strictly traditional "anime" you're looking for, it's easy to understand if you're turned off by its variety. 8.5/10.