In episode 10, plot emerged!
In episode 11, a character that actually looked like a Kaori Yuki character showed up!
And the mystery of the cosplay was solved:
Then ep 12 was all...series and lacklustre.
So;
eps 1-9: Glorious crack when watching with likeminded folks. (I cannot emphasize the last part enough.)
eps 10-11: Plot emerges!
ep 12: Crack vanishes, angst takes over, and we have one of my least favorite types of endings ever.