The first 9 minutes 40 seconds of Sora ni Manimani look very much like an extremely low-rent reprise of Honey and Clover to me.

The art, on the average [1], is unimpressive. Yoakena was better, what to say about Toradora, Kimikiss, etc. So, I'm not optimistic. I'll give the story a chance, but if it continues to turn around the dysfunctional relationship of Mii and the loser, out it goes. I cannot believe I am about to compliment Taiga here.

UPDATE: The second part was even worse. Saku put up a pretty decent fight and won some respects for talking down the nasty little bitch at first, but with the railroad plot like this was there any doubt in his doom? Even the better parts came out screwy, namely Fumie Kotozuka. Where are the likes of Yuri Kurosu and Sumire Kusou? Not made anymore, apparently! I was so upset that I closed VLC without listening to the ED.

[1] The short scene in the train with the whispering girls was drawn ok, but it was about the only 7 seconds of good stuff. Granted, scaling characters down for a group that listened to Mii's recruiting looked ok as well, but that was even shorter and static.