Review of We Were There

Quick Review: Story: 9 (Manages to suck me in to this story from the very beginning and somehow forces me to find out whats next) Art: 4 (its just damn awkward staring at characters for long periods of time without eyes.) Sound: 5 (Not every scene when the on screen characters, gasp, gulp, groan, or preforming an act of moe, needs to buzzed in.) Character: 6 (The fantasy slowly and effortlessly turned into reality.) Enjoyment: 6 (No matter if you're a drama buff or feeling nostalgic of that love lost, this is indeed a drama roller coaster.)Overall: 30/50 = 6.0 (...What is happiness to YOU?)

Full Review:
___Story___
This review is coming from a person who is not entirely into the Romantic Drama genre (prefer romantic comedies). So lets get to the brass tacks of this heart wrenching tale of an 'ordinary' girl and her boyfriend. Clearly the most important part of any deep seeded, plot twist driven, emotional roller coaster is the story. If you have watched any soap opera, telenovela, or romance anime/manga, you know how they normally go, Point A, plot twist, point b, repeat. This works perfectly fine in this show. And it even manages to suck me in to this story from the very beginning.
They perfectly sugar coat a taste of things to come, when you realize that such an important thing happens very early in the anime. I laughed a lot and cried a lot and even got pissed alot, but the story story still kept me wanting to know, 'whats going to happen next?' Behold, the power of the 'next episode' previews and skillfully placed teasers throughout the ending credits. Never have I experienced such a perfect mix of ending credits, cliffhangers, and music mold into such a unique experience, that I realized that i had spent over 10 hours watching this show.

___Art___
Aside the standard 'shoujo style' of drawing, the art direction is actually very 'unique' to say the least. It's sort of hard to describe the awkwardness I kept feeling when ever I tried to determine the feelings of the characters on screen. The first thing that will stick out the most is that 90% of the time, you will see all the characters with either one eye or no eyes. Now I don't know if this is to avoid "watching" their emotions like we normally do and instead, watch their emotions through sounds via the voice acting and chance flags. Whatever the reason, its just damn awkward staring at characters for long periods of time without eyes. Sometimes its just downright scary. And a large amount of the time, its not even necessary.
Sometimes I thought this was just a move to save time and money since you will also realize that they do A LOT of flashback inserts, especially during the later episodes. If you take a technical standpoint to that issue, from episodes 15 through 26, a full 8 minutes is wasted to the last episode recap, opening theme, and flashbacks to previous episodes. That is disappointing to say the least. But in their defense, each episode is riddled with so many plot and emotional twists that most viewers would easily forget why they are acting 'that way.'
Another useful 'cost cutting' technique that they seem to over use would be the pan and scan shots. Which means they draw an 'elaborate' drawing, then they pan and/or zoom the camera up, down, left, right, in and/or out to get the most effect of the drawing. In small doses, this is perfectly fine like in very important (emotional) scenes. But they do take this technique to the Nth degree. Do we really need to see a pan-shot of Nanami's face with no eyes for a full 8 seconds? There are many artistic flaws like that.
A little bit off topic but, this series does lend itself to very beautiful still shots worthy of any picture frame. Just google search the images for this show and you will understand what I am saying. Ironically, that is the reason why I started watching this show is because of all the artwork depicting this show.

___Sound___
As with any drama, there is a wide range of emotions being displayed through all the characters. Some of them play it out very well, some of them not so much. But any show that manages to get the audience to relate or feel the same way as the characters on screen, should be commended. They did a great job in creating such a wide range of emotions by not only voice acting, but the music and sound effects played a large part into pushing that emotional envelope.
The various songs portrayed in this show all came in at perfect times and never felt like it was awkward or forced. The lyrics to all 9+ songs are sure to bring tears to any drama lovers eyes. As it did with me numerous times. There is nothing really wrong I can say about the music in this show. Its all very appropriate and at times, too appropriate.
Again, with such a great execution of song usage, they manage to screw things up with using the same sound effects over way, way, WAY too much. As seasoned, anime fans would know, when a chance time (or flag) occurs, a 'pleasant' beep would go off. It sounds harmless at first, until you realize they are going to use the same sound effect 10-15 times in every episode.
Not every scene when the on screen characters, gasp, gulp, groan, or preform an act of moe, needs to buzzed in. Granted, half of the time the characters don't have eyes (the most predominant way to read their emotions), but at least let the audience realize these flags on their own instead of literally chiming in for us.

___Characters____
Love them, hate them, or both, they do pull off their lines with ease. They can pull of their personalities with perfection, but for some reason, I had no connection to the characters after watching for a while. I grew to love Nanami and the other cast of characters early on (remember sugar coating), but the plot twists weren't living up to my expectations later in the series that I just gave up cheering for them. The fantasy slowly and effortlessly turned into reality. That's when I started to become disappointed with it as it started feeling like high school all over again. Take that however you may (good or bad) I'm sure you're like me and just end up wanting to watch what happens next 'just because'

It's also a little hard for me to feel an attachment to the characters when they appear not to have any eyes for no apparent reason. I feel like this show would feel much more complete if they completed drawing their eyes, no matter how ugly they are. Kudos to the main cast though as they did manage to just keep it somewhat interesting from beginning to end. Hell, I even caught myself yelling at the screen from time to time at how irrational this drama can be. But hey, that's life right?

___Enjoyment___
No matter if you're a drama buff or feeling nostalgic of that love lost in your past, this is indeed an emotional roller coaster for the soul. Be prepared to cry tears of joy and sadness, and reflect on things that could have been that never were. You will most likely experience all of those things. But sadly the production value and direction they took this show is what ultimately gave me this score. I really wanted to give this show a 9 or even a 10, but the excessive nuances are just too much bear for this poor soul. Maybe they might do a re-release down the line. I'm sure that's just wishful thinking on my part. And on that note...

...What is happiness to you?