This was a long run, I should really stop doing 2 cour anime if I'm not certain I will like it. I felt committed after 10 episode and my need to not drop something halfway kept me posting and watching even though I had long lost interest. Alas I have finished it, at least it had a very strong ending.
It originally aired with Anohana which it was constantly compared to. It was on equal foot on the first episode, but it was quickly out shined by Anohana's better pace and drama. Alas it was forgotten and dropped by many, but I preserved! Rambling aside, onto review:
Story
A very simple slice of life story with no gimmicks attached. Unlike other anime, nothing extreme happens with extreme over dramatized events like cancer. I guess this is what slice of life was meant to be until they got all flowery with love triangles and what not. For me, it was pretty boring but I guess that is my taste. It came back with a very strong final episode which I liked greatly. To bad it wasn't enough to redeem the agonizing torture the rest of the season was.
~5/10
Immersion
The flow of the story was just brutally slow. The story was split in arcs where nothing really happened. I guess that was more an issue with the style they were going for. The setting was pretty normal, the struggles of an inn within the rural areas run on outdated business models. Anime usually have very innovative settings, this one was as simple as can be. At least it fit well right?
~4/10
Characters
Apart from Minchi that I hated with a burning passion, the rest were decent. Yuina was the one that stood out for me, the big city dreamer stuck in the small town. Definitely the best character that brought the best out of everyone. The only other character to take note of was the grandmother who really shines by the end. The rest were pretty crappy characters with their miniscule development they weaved into each of their arcs. They seemed no different after their arc ended too...
~5/10
Animation
This is where this anime shines. This anime should be renamed to scenery porn since that was all it was. It had amazing backgrounds with great animation. It really showcased this strong suit throughout the anime and especially by the end credits where they recapped it all. Everything just looked amazing to bad that is not enough to redeem an anime.
~10/10
Personal Satisfaction
I know I wanted to shoot myself watching half these episodes; That can't be good. There were a few select episodes that weren't so bad but they were overshadowed by the ones that put me to sleep or made me rage. It did have a very redeeming ending that I wasn't expecting at all. It wrapped things up nicely with good closure which most anime seem to fail at. Always tough to balance overall versus the ending in weighting.
~6/10
Overall
One thing was brutally obvious about this anime, it was not meant for me. They were aiming to do something with this that was clearly not my cup of tea. It just means I should stick to my random humor and plot heavy stories; Slice of life just bores me to sleep. I sure slice of life fans, like Aria, would love this anime; Same kinda slow paced thing.
Final Score [6/10]
~Pearz
