There was really something special about this show and you could feel that as Hori and Miyamura got to know each other in the first 8-9 eps: their relationship was fun, entertaining and you could feel their connection and how much they loved each other. This relationship was what made the show, it was the glue every episode to keep it entertaining and keep you coming back. The other characters were built and introduced fantastically too, some of them weren't that developed but that's fine as the main side characters were.

This all changed after episode 9 when it feels like the producers just forgot their relationship existed or something as they rarely interacted and took a real step back in the plot as they became the side plot. This was fine for a few episodes i thought, the other characters and relationship need to be developed at some point right? Few episodes passed and they still were barely interacting. Miyamura's bullies and randoms from his previous school come in for a bit (which tbf i quite liked) and throughout all of this their relationship just seems to be forgotten.

Ep after ep they just kept getting less and less time and interactions as the producers frantically try to involve every random side character in the school for some reason in the last 3-4 eps. You would never remember anything about any of the side characters apart from Yuki and Ishikawa and surely the producers would realise this? Chucking random relationships just gets in the way of what the show is about and what made it so good. 2 students with very different social standings both hiding who they really are to only show that side to each other, which i believe to be very beautiful and why their relationship clicked so well.

The last 3-4 eps very much felt like the producers knew that a 2nd season wasn't going to come and they had to fit as much of other relationships and of the manga as they could: chucking everything at the wall hoping something would stick. It makes sense that the season reached all the way to the 80th chapter of the manga. So many times in the 2nd half i caught myself thinking "have i missed an ep??" which is a terrible thing for a show to make you question. The best example of this is episode 11- where 2 characters we've never seen or i certainly don't remember seeing before take centre stage for no reason. Why do i care about these people i'm sorry i just don't. And even after Hori starts to tutor the guy's younger brother (which was quite cute) the episode ends and we never see them again. Wtf was the point??

Another extremely frustrating thing about the show is something that a lot of high school romance anime's struggle with- there's no real end goal. Unless it is just so fun and entertaining to watch (the first half) it always just feels empty because of that and just makes everything the characters do feel so pointless. It doesn't even feel like there is one even in the manga and for me at least when i'm not loving something the scene it always come back to the "what is the point of this".

This show was always the best when Hori and Miyamura were being dumbasses together: even things that shouldn't be entertaining were so much fun with those 2 on screen and every single interaction with them was golden. Every scene at Hori's house in general was great, especially when the Dad came into the picture i loved his character. As soon as they lost sight of that the show lost all appeal to me, such a shame.