How dose the story/plot compare with the manga/LN? I was wondering why the character designs are so diffident form the anime and manga/LN. Is the story/plot different?
Isn't the anime's art derived from the light novels art? I thought it was Akira's manga adaptation that was different (though a lot of other manga adaptations with likely varying character designs also exist). Personally I prefer Akira's character designs over the others.
I've only seen like 1-2 episodes of the anime and have mostly followed Akira's manga adaptation, so I can't really say how the various versions vary. In the anime though I did note that they were using some sort of magical lantern to show like memories and ideas/concepts, which I know is not at all present in Akira's manga. Should note though that Akira's manga adaptation was the manga adaptation that was approved as the "official" adaptation of the light novels, but that seems to have given to that adaptation awhile after it was already being published, so was more like an after thought of having to recognize one of the manga adaptations as "official".