夜のクラゲは泳げない S1

I'm so torn with this show... the first 2/3rds were excellent. They grabbed me totally by surprise, and created a very vibrant show with colorful characters, who had unique life paths and development. Mix in some cgdct, a multimedia project called JELEE, potential LGBT representation (both yuri and gender-identity related), and there really was such a strong foundation for the show. Wrt gender identity: it's all but explicitly said later on, that a certain character is some sort of non-binary, trans, or somewhere along that spectrum. Wrt the yuri: it stays subtext till the end... but it's so so heavily implied (in the show and promotional materials), and then just totally ignored in the last 1/3rd, as if it never happened. At best it's an open-ended "read between the lines" sorta ending. Most of the time the writing was good (if a bit meandering and overambitious), and even the last 1/3rd of the show has some great moments.

Unfortunately the last 1/3rd really soured me. There's a point where they introduce some very painful drama (not a bad thing), which they unfortunately really fumbled in the following episodes, in a way that just really made a lot of the show up to that point feel completely meaningless. By the end it manages to land on its feet, and give everyone a happy ending, but never actually goes through the process of resolving the various dramas properly.

At the end of the day, I think the show had some really great elements, but bit off more than it could chew, introducing various characters and elements earlier on, only to drop or make poor use of them. It would have benefited from an additional episode, to tie things up better. I have some fond memories, and would maybe even rewatch it sometime (or more likely read the manga or LN, in hopes that they handle things better), but in the end, I feel a bit let down.