OVERALL RATING: 7.3/10

plot: 7/10 -- i went into this show thinking that it would be a very romantic & wholesome anime. which it kind of is. this anime is about how a girl & a boy navigate their feelings for one another & pursue a relationship together while learning what love is & how to love each other. i really love the idea & the concept of the anime being about discovering love, but i feel that this idea wasn't executed properly due to the characters' personalities & backgrounds. the two main characters didn't feel right for this idea. seeing them interact was very cute sometimes, but there was a lot that happened that i feel was not realistic in the slightest. for example, at the very beginning, hananoi spends hours in the snow looking for hinase's hairclip. it might seem romantic, but in hindsight, it was episode 1 & they've barely interacted so, realistically, it's weird. many other things happen that just seem to be portrayed very romantically, but if you actually think about it in another situation, it's just not romantic.

world/setting: 8/10 -- the setting is mainly just a simple high school in which the two characters meet, a typical high school romance setting. i like that there is also a workplace that becomes significant to both characters as well as other places in their area that they go to on dates, as well. there's nothing particularly extraordinary, it's just a simple world for the two of them.

purpose: 8/10 -- both hananoi & hinase have clear goals. hananoi has always liked hinase & wants to spend as much time with her as possible while hinase wants to learn what love is. together, they nagivate their feelings to figure out what they mean to each other. i would say that i didn't like how hinase decided to be with him to learn what love is like, especially when he really liked her so it just felt a bit weird to me.

characters: 4/10 -- i did not like hananoi or hinase & none of the other characters really stood out to me besides hananoi's grandmother & hinase's sister. hananoi felt much too clingy, almost giving yandere vibes. he seems to be a very romantic person who cares about hinase more than anyone else. however, something that has bugged me throughout the anime was how mean he was to everyone else she was with. he was rude to her friends & did not bother trying to get along with them at all. it doesn't matter if he's the nicest person ever to hinase. i think he still has to be kind to her friends. nobody should get a pass to be rude to their significant other's friends. on the other hand, hinase seems like a perfect, ordinary girl who is always very kind & sincere to everybody. overall, she's kind of boring. she doesn't seem to have a detailed personality, she is just the girl who always does good. i did like their backgrounds & how they came to be who they are. i also think there was some character development for both of them, but that's really all.

storytelling: 6/10 -- the storytelling was fine, i can't think of anything that was particularly great about it, though. i kind of felt like i was watching a story unfold & that was all.

enjoyment: 7/10 -- whenever hananoi & hinase spent time together & tried new things together, i was mentally kicking my feet & thinking that the scene was very wholesome & cute. however, other times, i just felt like the story wasn't really getting anywhere & nothing seemed to be realistic. it was more of an idealistic, romantic fantasy that just would never happen in real life.

animation/visuals: 9/10 -- i won't say the animation was perfect, but i love the art of this anime & there was nothing bad about it, at all. it was very enjoyable & i thought all of the scenery such as the snow & the cherry blossoms were all animated well.

pace: 8/10 -- the beginning seemed quite fast to me. during episode one, hananoi apparently gets dumped in public by his ex girlfriend & then he meets hinase & he falls in love with her? then the two start interacting more & more from there so that beginning was really weird to me, but i think the pacing of their relationship after that was fine.

soundtrack: 9/10 -- i really like the soundtrack for this anime, especially the ending song. everything fit really well, i liked the vibes of the music. i do think some of the soundtrack gets overplayed a bit, though. you tend to hear it a lot.

gut feeling: 7/10 -- i think the anime isn't bad & it was more enjoyable than not for me. if the characters were a little different, i feel that the idea of falling in love could have been portrayed in a much better way.