The language thing was a bit off-putting for me too, but I was willing to let it slide. The biggest issue for me was the fact that everyone behaved very Japanese and were kinda drawn like Japanese people, except with the stereotypical big noses and crazy exaggerated eye colors. Based on what I know about the differences between Japanese culture and German culture, a fair amount of the dialogue and some key plot developments would've gone very differently had it been German people behaving like German people. I have been trying my hardest to imagine that this is in some strange-looking part of Japan but they keep referencing German cities (especially ones that I've been to) and historical events. I don't know if I can do it. These people just aren't behaving or speaking at all like real Germans would!
People can cherry pick examples of movies that did the same; however, the truth is that most media of a higher caliber that involves stories about speakers of their native language set in a foreign country will either use subtitled dialogue or will have people speaking English clearly as non-native speakers to the native speakers involved (which is realistic in some parts of the world). It's fine to have stories about people living/traveling abroad that focus on people speaking their own language while in another country, but if those moments of language interaction with the locals isn't genuine, then it becomes hard to ignore.
Someone else suggested looking for a German dub of this, but that would just be bonkers. A Japanese story about Japanese people doing Japanese things and speaking Japanese to each other in German? No thanks.
Like the OP, I'll keep trying this if the story is engaging enough. So far it's been "meh". Heard a lot of great things about this one so hoping for it to get better.
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