As someone who's generally a fan of visual novels, I was interested in ATRI: My Dear Moments since it was written by Konno Asta, who also wrote some of my favorite romance visual novels like If My Heart Had Wings and A Sky Full of Stars (if only THOSE got anime adaptations). Despite its popularity, I was weirdly hesitant and never actually read it. Maybe it was because it’s a linear, all-ages VN or because it’s 10+ hours long. My gut told me I’d stall it since it felt like it’d fit an anime adaptation better.

Thankfully, the anime adaptation came out, and as someone who’s watched my fair share of anime adaptations of visual novels, I’m glad this one turned out to be pretty competent. It helps that it’s linear, so there’s no need to worry about cutting routes. I looked up lists of differences between ATRI’s anime and VN and, while I’m kinda disappointed by what didn’t make it in, I’m overall satisfied with what we got.

Konno Asta, to me, is a master of creating wholesome, emotional moments, and when the anime focuses on the emotional development of Natsuki, Atri, and a few others, those are easily my favorite parts of the story. Some of the buildup to these memorable moments reminds me of the best parts of the common routes in If My Heart Had Wings and A Sky Full of Stars.

The characters, in general, are fairly likable. None of them are close to being my favorite visual novel or anime characters, but they fit the setting and plot just fine.

That said, the pacing and plot convenience are definite weak points. Considering the original VN is around 13 hours long, which already feels too stretched for this story, the anime’s ~4-hour runtime still feels all over the place. Even with cuts, the execution is uneven.

While the wholesome emotional character development is nice, everything else is much more hit-or-miss. The first half of the show is mostly slice-of-life. Some parts are kinda nice, but others feel padded out. Apparently, this was even worse in the VN, so I’m glad I never read it.

The worst part, for me, is the melodrama. In the visual novel world, there’s a genre called nakige—stories meant to make you cry or at least hit you in the feels. Sadly, this story doesn’t handle its "sad" moments very well.

A central theme is whether Atri, as a robot girl, has emotions (a heart). It’s a nice concept, if unoriginal, but the obstacles thrown in to explore this theme feel contrived. A few "villains" pop up just to create conflict and question Atri’s humanity, but the drama feels insincere—like it was forced into the story without proper buildup.

I liked the setting of a high-tech world where a city was devastated by rising tides. However, outside of a few great flashbacks, the story does a poor job making me care about this world. Most of the focus is on personal struggles and growth within a small part of the city. So, when the plot suddenly shifts to world-level stakes, it feels out of nowhere. The forced nakige ending—why does every robot girl story need one?—felt too predictable.

At the end of the day, I still enjoyed the ATRI anime well enough. The likable characters and their emotional growth carried the show. But the forced melodrama, poorly built-up plot elements, overly padded slice-of-life, and predictable nakige stuff made it a lot less consistently enjoyable than it could’ve been.

If this had been a ~2-hour movie focusing on personal growth with properly paced setting drama, I’d have liked it a LOT more.

As it stands, it’s an enjoyable enough show, just a bit messy.