I think the designs of the sets and the overall aesthetic of the movie were great. A great composition of minimalistic Japanese lifestyle was presented as the near future where the movie takes place. And when you think about all the minimalization attempts gaining traction in our everyday life, it sure doesn't seem far fetched. Which is what I liked the most about the movie. It tries to tackle the questions it asks in a very subtle way. Just like how the future that's presented to us is coming from a slight part of our reality, the sci-fi aspect of yang not being a human also has that sense of reality to it; unlike how artificial intelligence is represented in other sci-fi movies, After Yang has a fresh take on the struggles of a hypothetical consciousness trying to make sense of their existence. This time the question isn't "What makes someone a human?", it is -as it was stated several times in the movie- "What makes someone Asian?".
But that's also where my main criticism of the movie starts. It felt like writers never meant to "tackle" anything per se but rather they wanted to ask the question and leave it there. Still it could've been more compelling if the characters had been given enough opportunities to be developed. At times it felt like writers were too proud of asking the question to bother to provoke thought in their own discussion. Lines such as "...such a human thing to ask isn't it? We always assume that other beings would want to be human." present questions like why wouldn't they want to be, or why would they? We all have our own set of beliefs but people depicted in After Yang don't seem to. They behave as if they are the spectators of their own life. And the large chunk of the movie where Jake watches Yang's memories materializes the movie's attitude towards approaching a topic. Which was quite unfulfilling to be put through.
