Review of BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense.

[JP, subtitles are available from several different groups with primary difference being translations of panels and chats. No matter which release you go with it is easy to miss critical plot-important details contained on those panels. This thread: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1819624 || has the fully translated panels from episodes 1-5. If the plot becomes absurdly unbelievable to you or the panels are obviously not fully translated you should especially have a look at it. The quality of the dialogue inconsistent. Sometimes words get replaced with unrelated ones like 'sayonara' reading as 'good night'. This breaks some puns/references that you will catch no matter who you are ifyou pay attention.]

This anime received a lot of care into visual effects. The story is ok.
The events of the plot are enough to justify the differences in strength, but compared to the novel they are lacking. Changes are made to squeeze it into 12 episodes obviously and the aloof nature of Maple's behavior is less aloof due to it.

Maple is funny. Maple is cute. But Maple is missing something from her character in the anime, not as a comparison to the novel but as in herself. She's unfinished. That turned this from a 9 to an 8.
Everyone else is unfleshed. Not woefully so just to feeling complete indifference to something bad happening for them. They can do good things with a good feeling still. Enough to go from 8 to 7.

The peak kind of cascades into the later episodes like a rising wave up to the very end. Put another way it gets better and at a steeper rate as it goes.