Just finished the series (including episode 25), and this is the first show in quite a while that really makes me want to say a lot about it. The show really varied on an arc-to-arc basis for me, although my overall opinion is definitely on the positive side. I thought watching 6 arcs with 6 different girls of the same show would get tedious and boring, but they did sufficiently different things with each girl and each arc to make it fresh and interesting up until the very end (it also helped I watched one entire arc every day six days in a row). My overall main complaint with all the arcs was that it was too short, and they often rushed into the relationship without sufficient development. That said, it was still a very charming and cute show, and stands as one of my favorites of 2010.
Haruka Morishima arc (ep 1-4): As I really liked Haruka Morishima the character, I thought they could have done more with this arc. As the show progressed, I wished they had saved Haruka for later, for when we actually got to know her a little bit from some of the other girls' arcs. In the end, I thought this arc was the least rational out of the six. Haruka clearly rejected Junichi, and her reasoning, "I like older, reliable guys" really made sense to me. In another girl's arc later, she seemed to hint that while she was into those type of guys, a younger and not-so-reliable guy could pique her interest too. However, we don't seem to get any sort of warning or hint of that from this arc, and although Haruka started hanging out with Junichi quite a lot, it seemed pretty apparent to me he was friendzoned already, and that she really likes him as a friend but not a lover, especially after she stated that Junichi reminded her of a puppy she really loved but lost. That seemed like conclusive evidence that Junichi was a little brother/good friend type to her. Her dragging him alone to the Christmas Eve party made me raise an eyebrow, but her sudden outburst in the hotel room really seemed out of character to me. For her to suddenly be in love with Junichi and having wanted him to confess a second time came really out of the blue, and there was no warning or hint of it that I noticed. Overall, I would have preferred if they just didn't get together in the end, like what happens in a later arc. It would have made this arc much better in my opinion.
Kaoru Tanamachi arc (ep 5-8): A solid arc, and a very "safe" one in my opinion. It wasn't amazing, nor was it bad. It actually felt pretty natural and unrushed, and pretty well written. That said, nothing particularly excited me about it as I saw everything coming in advance, and it was done very standard without venturing into more creative territory. It was still pretty good though.
Sae Nakata arc (ep 9-12): From the other arcs I could already tell that she was my least favorite girl, since I never liked the really meek character types with the extremely high-pitched voices. That said, this was actually the most well done arc in my opinion. I can see people having problems with the narrator being there, but I thought the narrator was pretty funny sometimes and actually added to the story. The whole "instructor" development was really cute and felt pretty natural to me. And the girl surprised me by really having a backbone in the end, and I definitely appreciated her after this arc. The arc itself did go a little fast, but it felt natural enough that I didn't have too many qualms about it.
Ai Nanasaki arc (ep 13-16): Probably my favorite girl out of the bunch, or at least so I thought after finishing the arc. Her outburst of "I'm calling the police on you" in the beginning was kind of weird and forced, but she was pretty consistent after that, and had a cute tsundere-but-not-really personality. I think it helped that she seemed like a total bitch in the previous arcs, but turned out to be really cool in her own arc. This arc was quite rushed in my opinion, and things progressed too fast for my liking. Since the girl clearly didn't like Junichi too much in the beginning, I thought the transition between barely acquaintances to friends went a bit too quickly. Also, the amusement park scene with the turning into ramen was kind of awkward and strange, and didn't really make that much sense to me. Was he hallucinating? It seriously felt like he had some serious problems during those two minutes. The oden-selling scene was really nice, and I thought it was actually a pretty strong statement in showing the development of their relationship. The hot spring almost-hentai scene in the very end was also kind of weirdly placed. Overall, I really liked this girl for her guts and personality, and though I had some issues with the arc, I definitely enjoyed it a lot.
Rihoko Sakurai arc (ep 17-20): I wasn't fond of Rihoko in the first place, and the whole childhood friend thing has been done to death, so I wasn't really looking forward to this arc too much. And the arc pretty much met my expectations. Rihoko didn't even end up with Junichi (which is good, because absolutely nothing in the entire arc suggested him being interested in her), which made the whole arc in turn a little bland. It wasn't bad, just...uninteresting. Probably my least favorite arc out of the bunch.
Tsukasa Ayatsuji arc (ep 21-24): I wasn't actually expecting much, and Ayatsuji seemed kind of boring, but this arc gave me the biggest shock out of any arc in the entire series. Since it seems like the characters were pretty consistent throughout all the arcs, and nobody's personalities themselves seemed to actually change, just their situation (much like other-world Haruhi in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya), I could probably assume that Ayatsuji was hiding her true personality the whole time in all the other arcs. This made Ayatsuji an extremely interesting character, and made the arc the most interesting one out of the six for me. In terms of pure drama value, and ability to keep me watching, this arc came out clearly on top with its twists and turns, and Ayatsuji's interestingness. That said, I still had many problems with this arc. First, I thought this was the most rushed arc out of any, and the show kinda ended before the relationship even got going. Also, while not out of place this time, I would have liked Ayatsuji to take a little longer to be interested in Junichi, as well as stronger character background as to what exactly makes him so interesting to her. They kinda just forced him in as her love interest, while giving the weak justification that "he's weird, he doesn't run away from me after seeing who I truly am." That was great and all, but I thought Junichi showed the least backbone in this arc out of any arc besides the first one, and I didn't particularly find him likable or worthy of like in this arc. Also, they never tied up loose ends, such as what she scribbled or why it would get her in trouble, or why she didn't like her sister much. In that sense, it really was rushed a lot. What I did like was the scene when she suddenly snapped out of pretending to have permanently gotten rid of her "old" personality. I thought it was a really powerful statement and really powerful scene, and I could actually feel her emotions as a viewer. Overall, I thought this arc needed more episodes for sure, and more wrapping up of loose ends. Tsukasa, being the yandere surprise she turned out to be, probably stands as my favorite girl out of the 6. Didn't expect it, but that was the charm of the show in a way.
The 25th episode with the Risa girl was alright in my opinion. The scene where they went through every single girl and Risa showing them the picture dragged on a little too long in my opinion, but it was kind of interesting to see their various reactions. Given that Risa was the reason for Junichi's being stood up in the beginning, it makes me wonder if the same was true in the other arcs, and whether Risa was actually in the background with the same role. Also, since Junichi went the super-harem route in this mini-arc, I started wondering if this arc maybe tied everything else together in some supernatural way. Though, given the series' origin, it was probably just another route in the visual novel that was independent of the others.
For the most part, I liked Junichi as a protagonist. Sometimes, he was a little too perverted for my liking, and other times, he stuttered too much and seemed like a pansy, but the show was pretty good at making him a pretty consistent character throughout all arcs, only "changing" personalities due to the company he was with. I didn't like Miya at first, but she is pretty funny actually, and surprisingly not annoying. Overall, restarting the timeline for each arc was a pretty good idea in my opinion. Not particularly creative, but this is actually this first time I've seen an anime adaptation of a visual novel go out and do something like that, and it worked quite well in my opinion. It was interesting because each arc was handled quite differently and not in a formulaic way, and it was really interesting to see girls who had previously fallen in love with the protagonists in other arcs have no interest in him in others. I could tell that the original visual novel had very strong writing, and while the adaptation into an anime had some minor problems, it was overall still a very good show. My enjoyment rating would be quite a bit higher than my objective rating for the show as a whole, but enjoyment is the most important thing in the end. This show gets an Excellent from me.
[EDIT] Since others did it earlier, I figured I'd rank the arcs. First in terms of pure quality, and then favorite to least favorite.
Quality: Sae > Kaoru > Rihoko > Ai > Tsukasa > Haruka
Enjoyment: Tsukasa > Ai > Sae > Kaoru > Haruka > Rihoko
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