This series comes under heavy criticism from BOTH the anime community and the rest "mundane" group of people who don't like anime. Unlike the rest of thee animes, this one unfortunately has nobody baking it up.
This show is the most realistic anime I've ever seen especially because the animation that the studio decided to use is called rotoscoping, a style of animation where people are filmed in live-action and animators draw over the film frame-by-frame. This same style of animation is also the reason it gets more hate than it should. It isn't that spectacular initially but you'd get used to the animation which infact truly suits the storytelling. Conveying a more realistic perspective, the characters in this show aren't exactly what you'd call "anime" attractive but this same fact also makes them seem like your next door neighbors.
The story revolves around our protagonist "Kasuga Takao" a young boy in middle school who loves books especially Baudelaire's "Aku no Hana/ Les fleurs du mal/ Flowers of evil". One day, he forgets his copy of Les Fleurs du Mal in the classroom and runs back alone to pick it up. In the classroom, he finds not only his book, but Saeki's gym uniform, a girl who he has had a major crush. On a mad impulse, he steals it.
His life after that turns into a huge rollercoaster since Nakamura, a weird girl from his class, sees him steal. Now everyone knows that some "pervert/ deviant" stole them and he's filled with guilt, terror and the feeling that he's committed a sin and hurt the one girl who he loves and who's his "Femme Fatale". Further, Nakamura forces him to do certain "things" which are not exactly normal and makes him undergo a huge character inspection of some kind.
The entire story has been amazingly written and the music is also one of the major factors which keeps you hooked throughout. The slight discomfort with the animation could well as be borne until you get used to which doesn't take a lot to be honest. The manga version is superior but that doesn't mean that the anime has let it down in any way. It's truly one of a kind and one of those rare series that you watch that just changes how you see people.
