Well how should I begin?
My Experience While Watching This Series
Well my first inclination to watch this series came from a comment I saw in ANN as I was searching for another romance/drama/slice of life type of show to keep me entertained during the week. Decided to check Wikipedia for a summary and hey I thought it didn't look half bad. It seems like a sort of serious show and all so I throw up torrents for the first 4 episodes and dang, that hurt. The first scene when they were all little kids and Sana waved good bye to everyone almost made me throw all the episodes in the trash and call it a day. Well since right before this I watched the first episode of
ef~ tales, and gave up on that and also got disgusted by Hayate no Gotoku, I persevered through the first episode. It became ok, it was just an ordinary anime to me.
So with that I watched all the way through the four episodes on my computer and well, it was a nice lighthearted watch on my time slot for me during the week and I kept it. The Hinako episodes almost punched me in the face though, I could not stand that waste of color on this series. I was starting to feel that this was going rather sour.
This series definitely didn't show any great potential, BUT, then we got episode 8. At this point I almost found the series worth remembering for actually invoking emotion in me. I was quite disappointed with Clannad at this time so it was a nice surprise for me. With this I was curious to see to the end of the series.
Ah episode 9 then slowed down and felt so forced that it made me shrug. What happened to the drama they threw last episode? Well then, we wait till next week and yes I got more of what I expected/wanted from the series. Although the twins having to leave was sad and all, the idea of twincest did make cringe a little bit. Next week we were delivered a mad bitch with extra hot sauce. The ending definitely made this series worth remembering in my eyes, but then crisis fell.
There were only two episodes left to end this series. I realized how careful they'd need to make the next two episodes to have a nice ending. Episode 12 came, oh wow dramatic fail... The series was officially killed for me in this episode. I knew that nothing was going to fit right in the last episode and that they were going to go off with some half-ass piece of crap. Final episode came and it was even worst than I predicted with the whole epilogue cheap trick they pulled.
Initial after thought?
Wasted Potential
The Positives of the Series
-I though the series had some nice twists and curves
-Gave me a lot of anticipation for certain characters
-Invoked emotion
-Nice art in background
-Music wasn't half bad
The Negatives of the Series (There are quite a bit of them)
-Not using certain characters? ex, Aoi, teacher
-Introducing a worthless character (Hinako)
-Pacing
-Forced moments (Episode 12 should be enough to explain with its ending)
-Too much build up to certain moments then not making great use of them? (Crazy grandma, Sana's past
)
-Epilogue was terrible, especially how it leaves an unresolved situation in its place
-By the end I was starting to think that a major point of this series was that it was trying to sell controversy. Twincest, lesbian, child is of someone else's, love between a woman in her twenties and a 16 year old, suicide, etc. My personal view of the show became a lot lower by the end .
-Introducing a character in the last episode...
-A failure to explain certain situations in the show, leaving too many things unexplained
-Animation was extremely lazy in certain parrts
-The music serves as a double edge sword, while some of its good it didn't have variety
-Too many ideas to support, leaving areas focused then almost forgotten the next episode
Poor writing for this series, very poor indeed
Oh gosh I am certain I can think of more, but there definitely a lot more negatives than positives
Overall Rating and Conclusion
For this anime to have worked, they would've needed a longer run time. I do see that this was only supposed to be a promotion for the game, but that isn't a good excuse. It had its high points, but that isn't enough to make it a good series. It served as a good time killer for me in discussions/watching, but that is it. As much as I dissed Clannad for the Fuko arc, that series actually works out. Myself;Yourself fails compared to the quality of other series of similar genres. Like I said before it was just wasted potential. This is going to end up as one of those forgotten series in my head. I would only recommend watching this series if you are either A) Bored, B) Just a crazy Otaku or C) Have a destined view in life that you must watch every single anime in existence. There are way better shows out there that you should try watching before this one. If it had not been an ongoing series it wouldn't have stood a chance in hell of me watching it.
Rating for this series stands at a 6.5 and since I round up it gets a 7 on this poll.