Finally got myself up and around to watching this. Overall - i am very impressed. This can be considered a little gem among the mases. It handles it's cast very well, and the characters are surprisingly well fleshed out - something i didn't expect at the beginning. Though Haibara did get the shaft - i assume there is more to his story than we got to see.
They could have done something more with Momo's story as well - an interesting issue was raised concerning the situation with her boyfriend, but it almost felt like an episodic adventure - the issue gets dropped and forgotten after the story has been told, with no lasting effects. (Where does she get the money from anyway ? 0_o)
Sayoko's/Asami's story was pretty touching and has a lot more to it than i originally thought - i always wandered why she was so ...indifferent(?) towards life, even though she has a daughter to take care of... one of the reasons she slept so much was, probably, because she wanted to run away from the reality and the pain caused by her lover's death. Sayakos mother is a milf
Tamami...ouch - now this was a creature i couldn't stand. If they intended to make her annoying and dislikable - congratulations, it worked perfectly. By the end of ep8 or so she was clawing at the very ceiling of my tolerance, and i simply wanted her to fall in to a pit. Maybe that is why the episodes 16-19 or so seemed like the worst of the lot for me - they were fairly focused on her, and i was at a state of mind where i rather saw her going instead of coming.
Talk about psychological problems - she needs to get over her dependency complex and obsession complex towards Kozue and find some more friends or something to do. Her life evolves around Kozue to unhealthy levels. At least she was smart enough in the end to realize how stupid and selfish she has been, and that she cared for herself in the first place, not Kozue. In short - i hate her guts.
Kozue was an interesting character, and in the end her different personalities were there for a reason. Though i think they should have expanded a bit more on this.
The personality that didn't make much sense for me, and whom i better saw walking instead of coming was Chiyuri. Seriously... what is the reason behind her? I guess i can understand why the other personalities were the way they were, but this one... *Le sigh* - i just didn't care about her at all. All the other personalities were interesting in their own way, but this one was just annoying.
Speaking of which - ep3 and appearance of Nanako had me in stitches each and every time when she was staring at Shiratori with a blank face and making that weird, buzzing sound
The personality i enjoyed the most was Natsume - i wish we had seen some more of her. (Gee... no wonder she didn't talk at first before Shiratori came - the whole mob was nothing short of stalking her, and making hell of a lot of noise while they were at it... i just kept thinking: "Who would want to talk to any of you in the first place
")
That said... overall we got to see less of the other personalities than i expected - after they introduced the first two i though we would see them popping up each and every episode, but that wasn't the case at all. (Shiratori's influence? Momo mentioned that she was even thinking for a while that maybe it was ok... perhaps with gradually getting closer to Shiratori, Kozue felt less of a need to "escape" from reality frequently).
The character that amused me the most - the occult club president. Good grief, she was simply hilarious
She cracked me up every single time, and the VA was perfect for the job. I wanted to see more of her.
Shiratori himself... well, i will be honest - at times i felt almost annoyed by his lack of a backbone. Like the matter concerning the drinking in his apartment - sheesh, he needs to learn to say no. (Or to be a little mean in Tamamo's case...she seriously deserved a slap for how she treated Shiratori...or a visit to psychiatrist ...or preferably both).
I will give him credit though that he didn't stutter when confronted about his feelings for Kozue. And in the end he was the one who managed to break trough her shell.
What left me disappointed was the ending though - one thing i hate the most is an inconclusive ending when it comes to romance animes. And while we know where the relationship is going, and that it is a matter of time... seriously - would it kill them to include a kiss scene ? Heck... a confession would be enough for me. (Although we did get something half-similar to that on the train). Argh... if there is no 2nd season planned, then i consider this a weak ending for the romance part of the story.
Overall - quite impressive indeed. 8.8/10
...any one care to spoil how it ends in the manga ?
