Cloverworks actually did it, again*. This madlad of a studio is releasing banger after banger this season across three shows. Unlikely to be replicated because of potential burnout issues, but still, mighty impressive.

Does it meet my initial hype? Short answer: Yes and no. Long answer: Yes, and it's more fully-realized in MDUD.

*See below

After properly watching Episode One, and also watching My Dress Up Darling S2, I can tell MDUD is the studio's passion project, sadly at the expense of this anime and perhaps Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus, which I haven't started yet. The telling sign is the inconsistency of animation quality: Rintaro's CGI walking sequence at 0:40 of the OP, juxtaposed with the scenes depicted just eight seconds later, made me cry inside at the what-could-have-beens.

This team can draw excellent animation if enough resources are given. See Akebi's Sailor Uniform. Here, they have to be selective on where to spend their time and money, For example, car animations are... ass, like they used Blender to move them from point A to point B and call it a day. On the other end of the spectrum, the sakuga moments are absolutely brilliant, like I can count the number of shows that have better shots than those with only one hand. Kaoruko's reactions and faces are some of the most expressive I've seen yet.

Other stuff I noticed:

• Episode structure, eyecatch, and title card is reminiscent of Your Lie in April. I was half-expecting wacci's Kirameki to play in the ED.
  Eyecatches

  

Title cards

• Just like MDUD S2 is Bocchi-fied, the gags include artstyle changes to a lesser extent. I hope it's not overdone here. KaoruHana's story feels like it should be taken seriously.
• Kaoruko's face looks like a grown-up version of Akebi Kao's in some ways

As for the story itself, I need more time to digest it. I just finished The Dangers in My Heart and am feeling kinda empty right now.

By Cloverworks standards, the quality could be better. And yet at that state, it's much, much better than other shows out there. That says a lot about what the studio's capable of. The BD release may contain quite a bit of cleanup work. This show more than deserves to be a moving artbook!

Is this even available anywhere outside Japan? I heard Netflix has it scheduled for September

Gross, Netflix jail

My first impression is: this looks like another rehash of Romeo and Juliet + Beauty and the Beast

My most anticipated Romance Summer Anime. Her drooling over cake is so cute. She is eating cake but I will get diabetes xD

This doesn't appear to be doing anything new (at least so far) but Cloverworks' gorgeous animation and direction really sell it regardless. Everyone's very cute and I'm eager to see them grow. I give the premiere a 4/5.

P.S. netflix please let this out of jail, what is wrong with you

so there isn't a official dub yet