Review of We Were There

*Review contains spoilers* Story 6/10 So, up until episode 15-16, this anime was really entertaining. The story between main characters developed way too fast and often made me think "this is going to well to last or be true"... Yes, it is also a bit cliche with shy girl falling for the popular kid, who has a bunch of problems and is not as nice as people think he is, but then other twists were added, which made an interesting watch for the most part (such as Yamamoto also being in love with Yano and Yano seemingly feeling pulled towards her for a reason or the other).I think some of the love triangle Yano-Nanami-Takeuchi could have been cut out, because it felt like they were dragging out that story of Takeuchi also liking Nanami but giving preference to his friend for too long...a few episodes of this arc would have been more than enough and could have made the anime shorter for its benefit...(and why would Yano be mad that Takeuchi gave up on chasing his girl? also...aren't there plenty of other girls in school? why so fixated in your "best friend's girl"? where did loyalty go?). To me, this anime could have been 18 episodes and that would have been great. By the end of it I was bored and the ending was just sad and unsatisfying.

I found refreshing though that Yano was not shy about his sexual intentions with Nanami and that they almost had sex. That was realistic and not often seen in anime of this genre.

Art 3/10
Man did I hate those drawings!!! I even had to double check in Google the date of this anime as the drawings make it look really old (90's maybe?)..body parts were often disproportionally drawn in comparison to the rest of the bodies (a hand often bigger than a face), missing eyes or face parts in close ups scenes, clothes were too baggy looking for their own good, bodies too short, characters felt 13 rather than 17, what's with Nanami's hairstyles?...In general, I really did not enjoy art in this anime.

Sound 5/10
Nothing too amazing about sound in this anime...I am giving it a 5 for effort, because they did have different complete songs (as opposed to just portions of songs or sounds), but I felt they were used way too much.

Characters 6/10
Yano-he obviously has issues to work on. At times, he was a jerk for no reason, specially towards Yamamoto (not that she didn't deserve it, I will get to her in a bit...). However, I did enjoy seeing some good character development in him and how he tried to be a better person for those he cared about. I think his sexual advances towards Nanami were funny (and, worthy of mention, it came to a point he didn't even care about sex, which made his feelings more believable). I think his confusion was also realistic because he had loved this person who simply passed away, leaving behind so many feelings and unanswered questions.

Nanami-I liked that she was blunt and often said what she thought. I also liked that she was able to remove herself from a relationship that she thought was not healthy for both. I did not like her reaction to Yano giving support to Yamamoto at a time of extreme need...she could have been more understanding and stop wasting time of being with Yano.

Takeuchi-This guy is easily my favorite character from the show and I often found myself rooting for him instead of Yano. Not that Yano was a bad person, but I felt Yano offered a passionate and intense love while Takeuchi offered a safe, steady and healthy love. When we are young, we tend to go for Yanos but as one grows older one understands the stability and comfort Takeuchis offer, and I felt that was exactly the juxtaposition offered by having these two love interests for Nanami. That being said, I really put into question Takeuchi's loyalty to his friend and why would he even want to be with his "best friend's" ex...that is not something you do!

Yamamoto-"wow man, what a creepy girl" was what I thought during most of her screen time. I don't understand how she could just sleep with her sister's ex and then harbor resentment towards him for being the only one actually using his reasoning and feeling guilty for what they did...and then, out of nowhere confessing his feelings to him? and THEN, going to the station where he is leaving but hiding instead of actually saying "good-bye" at least? (since she was already there, even though I am sure nobody invited her...obsessed much?). The best thing Yano could do was to stay away from her.

Enjoyment 6/10
So, up until episode 15-16 I would have given this anime maybe a 7 or 8, but to me, the last 10 episodes were really slow paced and basically running in circles with the story. When I finished watching, I stayed in a blank for about 20 minutes processing that bleak ending.

Overall 5/10
I don't think I would be recommending this anime to anyone even though it wasn't too dreadful. It was just OK.