This was truly an amazing anime. It beautifully portrays the hardships of students during their entrance exams and how the main character, Yaguchi, tries to overcome those obstacles. The only downsides were the Ryuji's character which was completely unnecessary for this kind of theme and the side character development was a bit low. Overall the plot was pretty realistic (as much as a "Shounen Anime" can get) and entertaining to watch.

Unfortunately a rather lackluster adaptation. It has no where the same level of intensity as the manga and doesn't create the same emotional response as reading the manga, will have to drop the anime and just read the superior manga.

Score: 4* / 5* or 8 / 10 I liked it but less than I thought I would like it. When I read the synopsis and saw certain elements that I related to on a personal level, I think I idealized it a bit and while the series wasn't bad, it wasn't what I expected. It's like I said, on a more personal level I can identify with the protagonist and I think that's something that adds a lot to the series. I think that the times they talk about theory are right and that it's a good representation of what it's like to take this path in life, so if you're a person in the artistic field you'll be able to understand and relate to certain things. Of course that doesn't mean that you're going to love it, but repeating myself once again on what I said above, it's not like it's a bad anime, it's just not a masterpiece and that doesn't necessarily make it bad, it's just passable.

It felt like the beginning of the anime was pretty lackluster. I think the characters don't really get enough development aside from the MC in the beginning and there are many tropey and fanservice things that put me off. However, the anime shone more towards the end. We actually get a much better perspective on his thinking process for art and Ryuji gets more depth written into her character. I do think by the end it does capture the feelings of stress students feel when taking an exam, understanding what art means to a person, and has inspiration for people to pursue their dreams, but it took a lot to get to this ending in the anime. I may be interested to read the manga for more or binge a season 2. Great opening song for sure.

A fairly solid Anime that portrays a lot of meaning in a short amount of time, after all, a picture is worth 1000 words. For someone who was a novice to everything about art, I learned a fair amount about the creative devices used by artists in the development of their pieces.