SHOSHIMIN: How to Become Ordinary

Almost nothing happens for the entire show, and we learn almost nothing about any character, but I was riveted by the end. The whole thing is incredibly thick with anticipation, and the anticipation never pays off, but I was satisfied nonetheless. I still don't understand how the producers spun so much quality out of so little material -- like a delicious stick of cotton candy, which is exactly the kind of thing our protagonists would eat.

It's like Encyclopedia Brown, in Japan, but with the unfulfilled promise of incredible violence. It's a romantic drama where the characters never touch and aren't in love. The last episode spun me around like a top, twisting and turning and arriving in an entirely unpredictable place that somehow competed multiple satisfactory character arcs at the same time. I just said "Wow!" again out loud while typing this. Oh my goodness.

(Maybe this is more like a 9/10? But the middle episodes did drag, until I saw the whole picture, so... maybe I'm just due for a rewatch in a few years.)