Ouch, that was a rough first episode, even as someone who’ve read the manga before. The contrast between Takopi’s cute design with the bleak, rough style of everything else really captures the contrast between Takopi’s innocent and the much more bleak reality of both Shizuka and Marina.

They also drew Shizuka’s house with a messy background to reflect how messy the reality is. Shizuka’s depression isn’t as simple as being bullied, her home was a wreck because of her mother is allegedly having an affair with Marina’s dad. There’s also a glimpse on Marina’s side also having a broken home because of it.

This is a wonderful adaptation, with not only a great animation but also great cinematography. I like how they depict the bullying with Marina and Shizuka with that split view. I also like how they show Takopi’s first-hand experience with bullying and how scary it looked at the point of view of the victim. There’s also this beautiful sequence of Takopi hesitated on helping Shizuka facing Marina.

Oh boy, I’m not ready experiencing this the second time