I wrote this review when I watched the last episode of Summer Time Render during fall of 2022. Because of that all the written down thoughts and impression you will read below personate still my honest and unadulterated feelings about the series.
At first, I have to say that few anime were able to rise my interest so much after being introduced to the story, the environment and it's characters, in the first episodes. It happens very rarely that an anime has this special vibe surrounding it and an interesting premise as it's foundation, that I fully absorbed by it, watched multiple episodes successively, after getting in touch with it for the first time. It was a knew and unfamiliar feeling for me to get that engaged in a plot, and develop a curiosity to know more and discover new aspects of the story. If I didn't had a watching routine, I would've bingewatched this show with certainty.
One of the key qualities of this anime are the one after another created twists, as well as difficult situations and problematic tasks, that have to be solved. In my case, they always got me with that, I was always curious to know, with what procedure they would engage, the new situation at hand and what instruments could be the solution for it. The thrill during the first episodes was on another level.
Especially the characters of the show are a great plus. They all differ, have various backgrounds and distinct characteristics. What has to be point out in this context is, the amount of good written female characters in the series. Back to all characters in the show, my favorite among them all, happens to be Nezu-san, or in another term, the old bearded sniper, he's a calm and collected fellow and has this aura of life-experience and seriousness around him. In addition to that, he's a badass when it comes to fighting.
From the two openings, I considerably prefer the second one.
Aside of that, I found the music mostly fitting to the atmosphere and the presented situation, but none of it soundtracks sticked to my mind permanently.
As a negative aspect, I unfortunately can't avoid to remark, that the show lost it's magic for me, in the last episodes.Spoiler, click to view (Since it was less about riddles and mysteries and more about combat, which can be explained since there was few new things to discover, one was already known to the abilities, elements and characters of the show).
Also the ending left me a bit disappointed, it's admittedly logical and reasonable but I didn't got me from an emotional perspective. Spoiler, click to view(I just didn't like that they rewrote history itself, not just a few days, and that all those memories, experiences, relations had been fade away. A happy ending for everyone, with the exclusion of myself as a viewer, not for me :D)
But that doesn't negate the fact, that we talk about a great mystery show, which I would always recommend :)