The good: the animation is nice, begins with some great potential. I liked the spoiled girl Reina who is the only one who acts in an understandable manner as a 12 year old who has just been transported to some alternate dimension on an abandoned apartment building.
The bad: 1. All the other characters are irritating to no end. Particularly Natsume who may be the most annoying character ever put to film. She constantly whines, puts her friends in danger, makes ridiculous decisions, and she has this awful habit of crying then when someone tries to comfort her "oh no I'M FINE *big fake smile*". She even has the cheek to slap her best friend after they try to save her life.
2. The story really goes nowhere. It's really heavy handed in trying to have these kids learn lessons but what's the actual message? Letting go of the past? An apartment building not being able to let go of its tenants? It's overly long with minimal pay off. It seems to literally be "apartment carries kids to sea, apartment then lets kids go back to their own reality".
3. The world building is really poor. It starts off interesting- apartment building mysteriously transports them to sea. There's a black blob under the ocean that seems mysterious and spooky- do they elaborate on this? Absolutely not! They come across places from Natsume's memories at sea- does it fit into the plot? Nope! The character of Noppo and that other girl at the Ferris wheel aren't really delved into either. Who are they? Spirits of past children or guardians of those areas? No idea! Also why was there a Ferris wheel from Reina's past but this was all due to Natsume? Why no memories from the other kids??
4. The amount of times a kid slips and has to be caught dramatically by another character is ridiculous. I began laughing every time it happened.
Overall, meandering plot, terrible characters, poor dramatic devices, a world that isn't elaborated on at all, overly long runtime. Some pretty animation that's about it. Would not recommend.
The bad: 1. All the other characters are irritating to no end. Particularly Natsume who may be the most annoying character ever put to film. She constantly whines, puts her friends in danger, makes ridiculous decisions, and she has this awful habit of crying then when someone tries to comfort her "oh no I'M FINE *big fake smile*". She even has the cheek to slap her best friend after they try to save her life.
2. The story really goes nowhere. It's really heavy handed in trying to have these kids learn lessons but what's the actual message? Letting go of the past? An apartment building not being able to let go of its tenants? It's overly long with minimal pay off. It seems to literally be "apartment carries kids to sea, apartment then lets kids go back to their own reality".
3. The world building is really poor. It starts off interesting- apartment building mysteriously transports them to sea. There's a black blob under the ocean that seems mysterious and spooky- do they elaborate on this? Absolutely not! They come across places from Natsume's memories at sea- does it fit into the plot? Nope! The character of Noppo and that other girl at the Ferris wheel aren't really delved into either. Who are they? Spirits of past children or guardians of those areas? No idea! Also why was there a Ferris wheel from Reina's past but this was all due to Natsume? Why no memories from the other kids??
4. The amount of times a kid slips and has to be caught dramatically by another character is ridiculous. I began laughing every time it happened.
Overall, meandering plot, terrible characters, poor dramatic devices, a world that isn't elaborated on at all, overly long runtime. Some pretty animation that's about it. Would not recommend.