This review will contain no spoilers unless later warned. Edit 6 reviews later: Give me some leeway since this is my first review. Ive unprivated it so people can see my growth over time but this one isnt great. 800https://tiny.io/i/vEJHp8R.jpeg Overview Emotional yet frustrating. To Your Eternity is a flawed gem a diamond in the rough that is simultaneously masterful in its premise while being mixed in its execution. It depicts the struggles of a being named Fushi a being that experiences psychological and physiological stimulation to grow or evolve. Sent to earth for mysterious reasons we watch as Fushi obtains emotions and rational thought developing from a blank orb to a kid searching for his place in life. I very much like this aspect of the story I think the concept is beautiful. Its a wonderful way of presenting character development in a more physical present way even if it throws a bit of subtlety out of the window. Plus its just a fantastic way to convey the themes of death and memories being all we have. Characters Imghttps://tiny.io/i/y5TPSU8.png The characters at least to me are what make this story great. How they affect and change Fushi helping him to experience shocking and new things is very well done. Sometimes especially in the case of Gugu and Pioran they experience a nice arc of their own. A sister growing to protect her siblings a romantic coming of age a child coming to terms with her parents actions an old woman fulfilled in life theres really a lot to like in the characters even if they only exist to springboard Fushis own development. My main permeating issue with these are the tertiary cast though. Theres a good few characters particularly in the Janada Island Arc that feel a bit underdeveloped which makes emotional beats feel a little hollow. Overall pretty premier stuff though just dont expect to have your mind blown. While good thematic depth is present its still a fun Shounen at the end of the day. Spoilers for character death. https://tiny.io/i/SKxEIH8.png As for the antagonist on this note its pretty interesting. There are three total characters you could say take up the mantle of this for the series but none of them feel quite apt. If you care about VERY minor spoilers skip past this paragraph because I will expand a bit upon the premise here. First of all The Man In Black is definitely the least traditionally antagonistic. Hes fine enough as a character though hell just need more fleshing out as a character given we get a second season. His best parts are definitely when his opposition to Fushis ideals are highlighted and Fushi is forced to play directly into his hands but this isnt anything super phenomenal as of yet. Now as for the Nokkers I mean theyre okay. I really like how they take Fushis memories really accentuating the importance of how someone is reflected upon postdeath. In the end theyre just a typical mysterious alien force however. They didnt add much beyond their strategies to kill Fushi being cool and adding intrigue into what Fushis purpose is. I really hope to see them being given some sort of leader with an actual personality or something to ground them as the antagonistic force opposing Fushi. Nameless individually uncharacteristic creatures dont really work as antagonists unless its horror. As for our final antagonist Hayase I thought she was good but had major issues. Read the spoiler paragraph below to see why. Spoilers for Hayases arc. Production Imghttps://tiny.io/i/81rdg8W.jpeg The production value of To Your Eternity is lackluster to say the least I really hope to see this improved in the second season. The OST was alright though amazingly unnoteworthy but thats not my main issue. The animation really took a dive the further the series went on driving down the quality of life for the show. It may appear arbitrary but it became increasingly frustrating to see an unfitting color palette and poorly drawn backgrounds in certain scenes. Worst of all however the direction became a detriment to the plot at times. For example Hayase had a Nokker enter her arm to grow to the size of a balloon bursting to leave almost no wound. Most of her skin was fine and it doesnt even make sense her skin could stretch so high in the first place. Also one time they knocked out someone by sending an owl to attack them. Little details like this drastically affect the experience of the show in my opinion making the quality of the story get drowned by lack of care. This may be something the manga will fix though. To be fair there were some scenes I thought looked REALLY good. Its just unfair to pick a biased sample when most of it falls into a below average adaptation. Its certainly not insufferable just dont expect anything phenomenal. Conclusion https://tiny.io/i/qXtt267.png Overall I very much look forward to seeing more from this story experiencing the beauty of Fushis arc bloom. I just hope they can really fix the nagging persistent issues bogging the show down from production to the useless characters. I would also like to see the thematic prevalence here compounded upon and turned into something greater. Not that it was bad here it was great its just nothing truly special YET. Anyway I really enjoyed this story and I definitely recommend it to those of you interested. Thank all of you for reading and enjoy the story