Listen. I love ~problematic~, weird relationships. Specifically, I enjoy it when a good writer convinces me to root for something unhealthy, or to consider something clearly the exception to the rule, if only for a little while. This show only served to convince me that both Hijiri and Akira act like children and have peas for brains. There is no reason for Hijiri to like Akira back. He inspired her to keep going, he remembered her poem, sure, but this show did not give us any sufficient bonding moments, LET ALONE reasons for Hijiri to like Akira. Unless you want to go for the "duh she's a pedophile" angle, but for media (stories and characters) I prefer to assume that it's more of an all-powerful-love thing. Generally, despite personally liking these tropes for the drama of it all, I would prefer to discourage this type of content because it can give young people a skewed idea of how acceptable relationships like this are.

Onto the review:

This show could have been saved if it had, like I assumed it would, carefully built a relationship between these two in fragments over the course of 3 years, where at least the first year would have been completely, undeniably platonic (from Hijiri's side).

Ideally, I would have liked to see them interact quite innocently in the first year, then for romantic ambiguity to show up in the second year - he's working extra hard to convince her, she's flattered but dismissive of his feelings, and as they meet-cute at school and around town and she sees him more out of school she'll start to wonder about her own feelings and start avoiding him from the start of the third year. Things could culminate in the middle of the third year, with Akira feeling heartbroken and rejected and arguing with Hijiri about whatever they do or don't have, and Hijiri having to walk away from that with a similar feeling but remain firm in her denial, because rumors are spreading as their mutual feelings strengthen. Maybe the rumors get out of hand and/or she'd choose to resign because she recognizes these feelings are unprofessional. Hijiri, or any teacher figure in this type of story, should only be allowed one or two moments of impulsive romantic gestures - if she resigns and her reason for resignation is 'proof' of their still-unclear relationship, it should be a romantic gesture initiated by Akira. Anyways, Akira confesses once again after graduation, and it still can't be a very public thing but they can be together.

Instead, they are mistaken for a couple before the feelings (which are there) have properly blossomed, so it feels like Hijiri is rushing to apologize for something clearly undefined, but she falls for him as the apologies and misunderstandings increase. While I feel like, in any other case, that would build some resentment or the determination to put an end to whatever their relationship wasn't yet.

I can't believe this has an average rating of 8.6. That is madness. You are all crazy.

The directing was pretty good, not great. The acting is serviceable. The story and two main characters brought it down so much, but I still finished it.
The only reason I rated it a 4.5 is because of Haraguchi-san. We have decided to stan forever.