This is probably the most thought-provoking anime I've seen since Frieren. It's one of those shows that are painful to watch but they hold very necessary themes.
On the surface, this is an alien invasion sci-fi anime. But at its core, it's a sad, frustrating drama about different sides of humanity. You'll realise that within the first few episodes. This is just the author's take of what might happen on earth during a certain "alien invasion", and sadly it feels plausible. It sort of reminds me of the movie "Don't Look Up", but this is a pretty serious take on the situation.
While exploring human greed, arrogance and short-sightedness, this story also has many thought-provoking themes like the difference in understandings of justice for different people. How is that sense of justice formed? And how it can get entangled with convenience and affect one's actions. This is also a story about friendship, loneliness and guilt.
This show was also a lot more gutsier than I expected because there was some very disturbing stuff that happens even if not on frame. The animation and the soundtrack are pretty good too.
While I loved this anime till the 14th episode, the final 4 episodes were definitely not what I thought the story needed. But this story is very emotionally complex, so maybe a difference in perspective might change this opinion. But as of now it felt rushed to me. I really didn't understand the unreasonable decisions that the people in power made towards the end of the story. I get the point the author was trying to make, but there wasn't any build up to those decisions. While I understood the conclusion, I didn't really feel satisfied.
This is a very weird and complex story having numerous themes about humanity so there are some unnatural shifts in tone across the show.
But overall, I think this was a very impactful story. If it was marketed differently outside of Japan, it would have been a lot more famous.
