When I first watched this I went into it with very low expectations what with its low mean score and it being some very random and very niche idol anime. At best I thought it might end up a fun show that Id forget half of in under a week after finishing. But oh boy did it surpass my expectations a lot. This show that I went into with basically nonexistent hopes became my fourth favourite series. It has since fallen to fifth but nonetheless the impact remains... Music: I mean... I did not have high hopes for the music upon reading the title. This is perhaps the area where it exceeded my expectations the least though it was still somewhat better than I had presumed being more just simple pop music than outright techno. And the secondary group has somewhat poprockish music though they only have two inserts. They also have a great singer ...Who barely has any lines... Also the opening at the very leastties into the story so well lyrically to the point where elaborating on the meaning could quickly go into spoiler territory. And its fairly likely all of the main groups songs have such lyrics though I can only prove that offhand for a couple lines. Story: Its simple straightforward and reasonably wellwritten. All around quite solid and a pretty much flawless merger of the main genres. It follows the conventional music anime plot structure perfectly the biggest tweaks to the format being more buildup to the later drama and the rivals leader getting a focus episode before most of the main group. The increased buildup might be because said drama is not as character focused as a typical music anime so it more reflects the scifi drama side of it. The main complaint I can see would be that it can be a bit too predictable. I mean whether you look at it as a music anime or a scifi the biggest twist/break from the conventions of the genre is very likely its combination with the other. There are a couple more minor issues I also have that are spoilers... In ep6 I also said I took issue with the format of some exposition later on but somehow that felt less annoying on a rewatch... Characters: Thanks to good execution of the typical focusepisode style all of them are given reasonable depth and memorability. The small cast size compared to many music anime no doubt massively helps it in that regard. The casts personalities are all quite distinct and... hm does that thought count as a spoiler... Ill tag it in case I wont bother going over the characters one by one this time since as good as they are Im not sure I have much else to say Overall: Mm... the way this show is is so perfect for what it wants to do I feel Its a good show... but how can such a simple somewhat formulaic plot resonate so deeply with someone? Enough to become an alltime favourite? Despite merely going down common routes playing out like any number of other stories might have... something about this one in particular feels... different. Perhaps... thats the heart of this story Yes while looking at the plot and characters from solely a writing standpoint its not especially outstanding in any way and even has some noticeable shortcomings... the show that knocked it out of fourth place for me wasnt a show that was outstanding in those regards either even if they also had their fair share of exceptionally powerful emotional moments but rather it was something else like this just good with some clear shortcomings that resonated strongly with me for some reason. though okay maybe the writing in that other one was more consistent... I still think it was this emotional resonance that resulted in those positions especially considering the scene that did result in this shows drop. I think everyone should give this show a decent try. Whether or not it leaves the same impact or not will depend on... something but even if it doesnt have that impact its still a solid show