Story
A lot of effort was put into the story and it showed on the anime. It flowed almost flawless, that you didn't even realize that you just watched 20+ minutes of it. The subtle clues, the main characters progression from young to older, everything was done so well. As for the premise of the story? It's very simple. The value of human life. If you've seen the entire anime you'll know what I mean because you watched that last episode and if you haven't seen it, just keep watching. I promise it will get you hooked. The art work might turn you off, but like they say "don't judge a book from it's cover"; the art work is the least important item in this anime and guess what? It makes no difference in the high quality of this show.
Art
Like I said, it isn't great, neither is it terrible. It's pretty average, but it just doesn't seem to matter when you have a great story line and characters. In the end isn't that what's more important? Still I enjoyed the ending sequence from the 1st part of the season. Loved the whole fire works show.
Sound
I really enjoyed the 1st ending song. It just seemed to fit in with this anime. As for the other stuff such as voice acting and the such, just superb. I don't think they could have come up with a better seiyu than the one they came up for Saki. Her voice convey's the feelings just right and you can really feel the emotion.
Character
For the most part they were great. Saki is a great main character with depth and looks. Yakomaru was a great character who represents a difficult situation in the story line. For the most part the main characters of this show really delivered. They are not boring or dull. They all have their issues, problems, etc and they are not generic at all.
Overall
I enjoyed this anime a lot. It has such great depth and character that it doesn't need fancy artwork or a bunch of jpop to make it great. It stands solely on the story and characters who are by far some of the best I've seen in all my years of watching anime. You know those tv shows, movies, etc that really make you think? Well this is that kind of anime. I give a 10 because it is just a great piece of work. A masterpiece imho. Definitely recommend.
