The plot synopsis here is probably sounding all sorts of alarms, and the show can make a really rough first impression to anyone terminally glued to twitter or just generally unprepared for the places Japanese media can go. But really, the contents here aren’t objectionable. Don’t worry about spoilers in this review, they’re all marked.

This is a rare instance of the gender of the author really mattering to me here. The premise is a bit of a politically and morally sensitive topic, so to not handle it with maturity is a really big problem. In this case, they handle it with much more grace, and it ends up becoming quite artful. Especially when coming from an author that would’ve experienced elements of this firsthand, rather than conjuring some gross fantasy of underaged women out of what can’t be safely distinguished from a perverted interest.

The topics they cover still do border crass, however. I also fear this show has some dangerous appeal that could attract the wrong crowd. I'm not sure if I feel extremely comfortable with the way they do the typical route of creating comedy in absurd situations, but with situations involving inappropriate relationships with problematic age differences. To be fair though, I'm sure it only actually registers because of the way the show acknowledges the issues with it, and you're uncomfortable because you're meant to be as part of the art. There's probably so many shows out there that do the exact same thing without batting an eye.

You can kind of vibe the level of maturity out immediately when the premise is that they’re a literature club, and the writer is throwing out all these funky metaphors and philosophical takes, to be honest.

Visually, it’s pretty good. I like their splotchy paper-esque texture they overlay on hair and some other environmental features. Many shots are framed pretty nicely. Audially, I didn’t really notice much. Good enough, won’t take you out of the moments.

I’m glad we got a full satisfying story here. It goes to interesting places throughout with a novel-enough structure, high and low points at interesting times, and draws a fleshed-out arc in 12 episodes. Very little was underexplored, and I have very few questions remaining. You gotta appreciate media that sink its questions into you, release them all with answers, and then leave your life cleanly without dragging out over extra seasons, things left up for interpretation, etc.

My biggest issues came with the way they handled Niina (everyone calls her by her surname, Sugawara)

Spoiler, click to view

Niina has a very predatory relationship with a creepy old man, but I feel it never gets fleshed out well, nor does it ever resolve. I think at the end they might’ve been lightly implying Niina enters a relationship with Momoko, but you can’t say for sure. Either way, the relationship was really creepy, and that whole thing about “he never touched me once” was completely null and void by the end of the show, so that guy needs to be permanently removed from her life.

The moments are just really hard to watch, which is surely the point, but all they did is introduce it and didn’t resolve it in any way. This isn’t strictly a bad move, but I feel the narrative would’ve been better with some sort of resolution.

Otherwise, the characterisation was truly great, with each character having a lot of depth to them, with extremely clear motives, personalities, and acting very appropriately for their age.

Spoiler, click to view

Regarding Momoko, I’m not queer nor japanese myself so I can’t really speak to how delicately, respectfully and/or faithfully they covered her discovery, you’ll need to hit up somebody else or draw your own conclusions on that front. To me, it seemed alright with the time they allocated it, and it had an interesting intersection with the “primary” romance (in my eyes) between Kazusa and Izumi.

This show won’t make you upset (well, it might, but that’s probably just a reflection of the state of your own life, rather than how depressing the show was). Don’t come here if you’re looking for anything creepy, or anywhere near me for that matter, but if a clearly-first-hand exploration of the character development of pubescent women in modern Japan sounds interesting, this was a very mature and interesting exploration of those emotions.

Spoiler, click to view

Am I understanding what they were implying correctly with the “It fit” callback in the post-credits scene? If so, that’s a pretty tasteful way to say that, lol.