There is no doubt that this is the dark horse of the season, a show with a very high degree of completion. Through a multi-line narrative, it shows all kinds of life under the "skin" of animals. The overall content of the anime is quite compact but perfectly paced. As our MC driver meets many people one after another, the character relationship structure steadily unfolds, and several seemingly unrelated circles are finally all intertwined, which makes me marvel at the cleverness of the script.
The characters are also well-shaped. The atmosphere and dialogue are very skilful, and the dry humour contains a great deal of information as well. Besides, this show also makes clever use of social media, such as the characters appearing in the theme song mv, as well as the Twitter account opened a year ago specifically for the hippo college student, which makes a wonderful connection between the inside and the outside of the show.
Some of the directing is also very impressive, especially in the last episode when the general direction of the plot is not surprising but it still makes an exciting directing. During the flying car scene, each person watched the taxi fall into the water and thus solved the confusion in his or her mind. The flying banknotes and the emotions associated with these are the best and most emotionally filled shot language I've seen in the first half of the year, which is a wonderful design.
Plus, there are almost no elements that are outside of the real world. The sense of realism is great. For example, the gatcha episode was thought-provoking. "Games should be an escape from reality", then such games are no different from shit reality. Also, the portrayal of the duo was interesting. One is dissatisfied with his current situation, while the other has no desire, which can be said to be two typical representatives of contemporary shachiku.
Back to the plot, the last episode paid off all the foreshadowing made in the previous twelve episodes. Actually, most of the information could be guessed from the foreshadowing, but it was still a big surprise reveal. The finale was a bit rushed, but the last-minute reversal and the open thrilling ending gave me a greater impact, which makes this original anime outstanding until the last moment.
For me, this is definitely an original show that is much more enjoyable to watch one episode a week than in one go. It gave me a great watching experience while seeing people on the Internet speculate about the plot each week. With anime becoming more and more clichéd these days and the pursuit of Blu-ray selling well, it's quite comfortable to bet on and finish this show. I also hope that there will be cooler anime than this one this year.
Overall, unlike previous gorgeous and concept-first anime, this one takes a path that tests the scriptwriting skills and the depiction of reality. A large number of seemingly useless dialogues, just like many messy lines in a sketch. It makes no sense to look at one of them alone. It is the accumulation of them that shows the sophistication of the detailing. With the fullness of details, the sense of reality spills out at different levels, gradually engulfing us viewers. When we come back, it seems like we are in the same place, just like Odokawa who woke up in the last episode.
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