Finally got around to watching the rest of this series (see my
previous post in the thread). As I implied in that previous post, I pretty much watched this show to see how that poem would be incorporated, so I was pretty much watching the whole thing with a mindset of the symbolism involved.
Overall, the show didn't disappoint in that regard. While not done quite as well as I would have liked, the symbolism and the poem were still worked in well, and there was some good character development in the meantime.
Spoiler for Thoughts on Episode 12:
At first, yeah, I thought the resurrection of Hayami was quite the Deus Ex Machina. Then I remembered that her death was so sudden, that was pretty much a Deus Angst Machina... so I guess they chose the lesser of the two evils?
Then I thought about it and... really, it makes sense, if it's seen from a perspective of Takuma's having to learn to accept death, with Hayami replaying the scenario of his real mother's death so as to give him a second chance at doing so... and when he was able to do so, Hayami could be given back to him.
Yeah, it could be done better, but... it works for me.
As for the poem... I can think of a number of ways it could be interpreted in the context of this show, all of which are true to some extent... so let's just say I was satisfied with how it was used and leave it at that.
Overall, I'd give it a 9/10... it lacks something that makes it a truly powerful show for me, but the character development and its incorporation of symbolism are good enough to make it a show worth thinking about.