Review of Sing "Yesterday" for Me

This was a major disappointment for me. The art looks great, the mature tone is adequate and it looked promising, when I still had hopes for a good character arc for the main characters. Sadly, there is not. The characters don't really change or learn anything and the flow of the episodes gets to a dead point in the second half. Up until episode 7, I was enjoying this anime quite a lot. Things seemed to be progressing. But from episode 8 at the very start it all begins to go down. It starts with quite many events that, although they are not a big dealthey are depicted in a somehow more realistic tone than the usual, and they were important for the characters. There are a couple of scenes that show determination in some characters, and I was hoping the rest of them would learn from that and also have their moments later on.

Too bad I was so wrong. The characters don't advance at all from episode 8. The episodes are filled with pauses, contemplation of the nothingness, and repetition of the same situations (the boring ones) we already saw. When something appears to change, it immediately doesn’t. Most of the times due to the extreme shyness, laziness or whatever craziness the main “adult” characters have in their heads. I feel like the show would have been so much better if Haru and Rou were the main characters. They know what they want and they work for it even if it means to suffer from it. Completely the opposite of Rikuo and Shinako…

The worst characters are the main ones, Rikuo and Shinako. Both are so empty of drive that look just as bored as the audience. Haru is more interesting, but the whole thing of "crow girl" that gave her an interesting introduction doesn't really lead anywhere. In the end the reason she is so madly in love with such a useless guy as Rikuo is completely empty. Plus, we don't really see her much in the second half of the show. On the other hand, we see quite a lot of Rou, but it doesn’t really add anything new to what we know in the first half.

Side note for a thing that particularly bothered me: Rikuo gasps, breaths and sighs more than he talks. It drove me nuts. It perfectly shows how passive this character is. At some points it was just too ridiculous.

The plot is so limited that it completely relies on the characters, and the characters don’t hold up. The only way I think someone can enjoy this is watching it in a couple sessions top, so that the “power” of the initial episodes lasts until the end.

First 7 episodes: 8/10

Last 5 episodes: 2/10

Note: Check the date when reviews were posted. This anime finished (1st season, in case there ever is a second one…) around the 20th june 2020. Some positive reviews were posted way before the downfall of the anime.