Five childhood friends grow apart after the death of their beloved friend Honma Meiko, or simply "Menma". Years later Yadomi Jinta, nicknamed "Jintan", leader of their group, lives as a shut-in when he unexpectedly starts seeing the ghost of Menma, who only he can interact with. Menma returns and asks Jintan to fulfill the forgotten wish.
The story is sweet and works well with its great presentation and beautiful animation. The animation is very smooth, and the direction of the episodes flows well, the music is great, and the acting is solid. The main opening theme “Aoi Shiori”, sung by Galileo Galilei has become one of my favorite anime openings.
The characters are overall good, each get a decent amount of screen time and have some benefit being within the story, but some have more relevancy than others. Characters like Tsuroko could’ve just been cut from the script and there wouldn’t have been much of a change. The major development the characters receive is them pushing away their selfish desires in the end. The last episode is especially memorable and the ending is satisfying.
Looking back, my main issue is that it should've been a movie instead of a TV series. The plot felt like it was stretching for longer than it should’ve, instead of using it's time to better expand it, a good chunk of the plot focuses on Jintan trying to somewhat prove that he can see Menma's ghost and gain everyone's trust. Despite Menma being able to physically interact with objects: pick them up, eat food, cook, shower and more. Jintan never once thinks to have her perform any of those actions in full view of his friends to prove her existence, as Menma is less of a ghost and more like an invisible mute.
People give the argument that Jintan had trouble believing he was really seeing Menma, but at one point he tries to prove her existence by saying she baked bread for her friends. One of the characters even points out the absurdity saying that ''A Ghost baked bread for us?’’. The scene just becomes laughable to the viewer.
Eventually they cut the bullshit and have her interact with objects and communicate with her diary. To the viewer this feels jarring and the conclusion as to why this wasn't presented several episodes earlier is that Jintan was just stupid. The best decision would've been that Menma could ONLY interact with her diary and no other object.
