I’m 90% through — no meaningful spoilers below — just highly highly recommended, it’s made me feel some strong emotional things
Stream of thoughts…
The main story is a murder mystery with plenty of action, comedy, fantasy thrown in, and a unique structural device that is the best application I’ve seen since Edge of Tomorrow
Though it was somewhere between episode 5-10 when the story finally “hooked” me, the payoff is really worth it, primarily emotional investment in the characters, all because of how patiently the story is told
The characters are very very well developed — full back stories, interesting and unpredictable arcs, complex relationships
There is a fair amount of fanservice which I can only assume is a “Japanese” thing and perhaps a wish of the author / creator — and now I’m wondering what is the female version of fanservice but as I type this, I already kinda know, it’s the extremely beautiful man who is also an impossible gentleman
I’m convinced childhood flashbacks are a way to “hack” the audience’s emotional involvement — we can’t help but feel both nostalgic of our own memories, and people just care MORE about kids
The art is just GORGE — diverse, detailed, hyper realistic with touches of fantasy, really world building — sometimes the art will suddenly switch to a “horror” or “comedic” style and it’s like a sneak attack you don’t see coming