I have always been a fan of the weird subgenre that denpa is for a really long time ever since I started reading VNs with one of my first ones being ChaosHead moving on afterwards to others with denpa elements Higurashi Saya no Uta Lain to more strictly denpa such as Totono CC and obviously SubaHibi. Afterwards I sort of lost interest and ran out of media related to the genre itself. Now revisiting all of Shafts anime just for the sake of it I found this. A denpa anime? By Shaft? Sounds like the fucking perfect combination for the genre and the premise felt like something different from other denpa works I have read so I gave it a shot. Was immediately disappointed from the first episodes since it was extremely easy to notice its source material was a LN. Lonely bland teenager protagonist who moves with her lonely horny hot aunt and her autistic daughter who happens to be constantly naked that constantly spilled delusional denpa related stuff. Trying to be positive I went in with the mindset of Oh well their misadventures are probably gonna be fun at least its shaft after all. But then I was surprised Erios backstory and plotlines was shown and resolved rather quickly and the series started moving in a direction I wasnt expecting at all trying to cover a shit ton of really cool concepts the complications of reintegrating into society society pushing people into taking moral decisions they dont wish to take compensating lack of personality hiding trauma nostalgia nerves happiness depression sadness any emotion really through the belief of aliens and quirkiness. I was not expecting at all for this anime that started silly to delve into the depression of a woman entering late adulthood full of inner conflict: her failures as a mother her selfishness in her past decisions her lack of regret on those same decisions the knowledge that the few family she has left is lethargic and soon to be gone all of it hidden and presented fantastically with the recurring theme that this anime has of everyone coping with their issues through the recurring facade of happiness quirkiness and aliens that the anime pulls constantly with depending on the case plenty of success. The characters themselves are all over the place Niwas as a character just felt okay he did his job moving the plot forward as a way of moving along the story Erios story is great although it felt rushed in the anime honestly many of the characters developments are just very rushed but the ideas and ways of doing them for each was good nonetheless. Memes chapters were fantastic and the highlight of the anime Ryuuko was good but annoying Maekawas felt lacking but I liked her too. The shows latest and the what felt like the curve ball of the show was Yashiro which introduced the idea of magical realism into the story itself which honestly just fits fucking fantastically within Denpa making the protagonist and yourself doubt almost anything that had happened before. Were all the facades actually real? Were all the decisions taken with the belief of aliens not being real correct? Do psychic powers really exist? Im not a lit major and this is more of a ramble than a review really but the wonder of magical realism from the little I have read is that juxtaposition of reality and magic. Was it really magic? Does it even matter? All thats left behind the introduction of the concept itself is the characters reaction and experiences after the events. Getting back on topic of it being an actual review: Story and writing were good the characters were all very likable I dont know whether the adaptation was loyal since I havent read the LN yet the music fit very well the OP is fantastic. It really shows that Shaft always had it in them to do this kind of stuff which would eventually be noticed in their future current shows. Im sad that this didnt get a s2 and apparently the LN was cancelled it wasnt perfect but it was a nice little surprise.