There is a reveal at the end of episode one that make it hard to talk about this series without going into spoilers and ruining that incredible reveal. Yes, the show is a bit slow before that reveal, but trust me its worth it. I will be trying to avoid spoilers during my review, but I'd still recommend just going and watching the show before you continue reading. Its absolutely fantastic. Its so good that even I, someone who rarely cries over fictional characters, cried.
Story - Though episode one starts off somewhat bland by anime standards, it quickly redeems itself with a shocking and well-executed reveal. This reveal comes into play for the entire show, and the balance between what is shown at the beginning and what is reality is handled brilliantly. Every story beat is told nearly flawlessly and even the scenes that clearly only exist to be fan-service are pulled off well.
Animation - The art is jut wonderful with great direction and character designs. Everything down to the editing is done incredibly well. A few elements could be considered a bit generic, but overall the look of this show is stylized and aesthetically appealing. My only complaint is that no-one really looks their age. The teacher looks like a teenager, and the high schoolers look like 10-year-olds. The female characters only have boobs when the fan-service demands it. There are only a few scenes where the "teenagers" look like teenagers. Overall, this isn't so much of a bad thing, I just found it a bit inconsistent.
Audio - I watched this with the Japanese dub, and for the most part the voice actors are pretty good. The overall sound design and music is as well.
Characters - There's not much to really say other than everyone is fleshed out, interesting, and entertaining.
Theme Song - I just want to say that the theme is great. As the show goes on there are subtle changes to the visuals being shown, but the upbeat and catchy song stays the same. This is a song that I went out of my way to put on a YouTube playlist. I also want to point out that the animation for the opener is creative and fluid with a lot of imagery and I just want to acknowledge all the effort that was clearly put into it.
Story - Though episode one starts off somewhat bland by anime standards, it quickly redeems itself with a shocking and well-executed reveal. This reveal comes into play for the entire show, and the balance between what is shown at the beginning and what is reality is handled brilliantly. Every story beat is told nearly flawlessly and even the scenes that clearly only exist to be fan-service are pulled off well.
Animation - The art is jut wonderful with great direction and character designs. Everything down to the editing is done incredibly well. A few elements could be considered a bit generic, but overall the look of this show is stylized and aesthetically appealing. My only complaint is that no-one really looks their age. The teacher looks like a teenager, and the high schoolers look like 10-year-olds. The female characters only have boobs when the fan-service demands it. There are only a few scenes where the "teenagers" look like teenagers. Overall, this isn't so much of a bad thing, I just found it a bit inconsistent.
Audio - I watched this with the Japanese dub, and for the most part the voice actors are pretty good. The overall sound design and music is as well.
Characters - There's not much to really say other than everyone is fleshed out, interesting, and entertaining.
Theme Song - I just want to say that the theme is great. As the show goes on there are subtle changes to the visuals being shown, but the upbeat and catchy song stays the same. This is a song that I went out of my way to put on a YouTube playlist. I also want to point out that the animation for the opener is creative and fluid with a lot of imagery and I just want to acknowledge all the effort that was clearly put into it.