This is probably the most thought intensive anime I've seen lately. It is definitely not for those impatient people. You have to take your time to try to understand and digest it. To someone, re-watching an some episodes entirely or the whole series may be necessary. Once you do have everything together, you'll realize that this is one true masterpiece.
Come to think of it, more than half of the story are spent on conversations. It's especially bad towards the end of the series, where some episodes almost entirely spent on talking. I can't think of any other anime that has more talk than this one.
The structure of the story is also quite interesting. There are lots of narrative mode changes where it'll switch among the first, the second, and the third person point of view many times even within the same episode. That's what gave me most trouble because sometime the changes aren't very clear, and by assuming the wrong narrative mode, there are massive confusions. I guess that's another reason it is so thought intensive.
Final scoreboard (out of 5):
Drama: 4.75 (Intense)
Comedy: N/A
Action: N/A
Art/Animation: 4 (Interesting...)
Sound/Music: 4 (Not too much impression)
Character: 5 (Great depth)
Plot: 4.75 (Very well constructed)
Ending: 4.5 (Typical)
Re-watch value: 4 (You probably have to in order to clear couple of things up)
Overall (not average): 4.75 ~ Complicated
Recommendation: If you're not interested in thought intensive or complicated story, then this is not for you. If you don't have the patience with lots of conversations in an anime, this is not for you either. Otherwise, I would recommend this as a first tier anime.
