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Ame-con picks up from the previous season, continuing the adventures of the Hawaiian cafe branch. However, two of the cafe characters have disappeared without explanation (or maybe it was really briefly mentioned and I just forgot about it?).

The story feels the most cohesive out of all the other four seasons - there's a distinct issue that's made clear from the get-go and each episode follows the main character as he works towards remedying that issue; there aren't really full filler episodes that don't contribute anything toward the progression of the story like there were abundant throughout the previous series.

The opening theme used feels strangely ... unfitting, while the ending theme reverts back to the slightly grating song from the first season (it's apparently sung by Aoi but he's not even relevant any more...)

Going meta the last few episodes was amusing. However, the ending I felt was terrible - introducing a faceless fangirl and then abruptly ending the entire series on such a strange note.

The second season of Rainy Cocoa puts three of the previous season's characters on a bus and introduces four new ones.

This season had a segment at the end of each episode (which was 3x as long as the actual episode) with the voice actors having fun. I actually enjoyed these segments a lot more than the episodes themselves.

I have to say I found the twins really annoying, Haruka's character inconsistent/developmentally rushed (although that is more due to the constraints of the series itself), and Jun really flat (though he's not really supposed to do much).

The "story" is just a mishmash of snippets in an ... attempt to make some sort of sense.

The anime itself I would give 3/10. The special segments at the end were enjoyable and are more 7 or 8/10.

TL;DR The storytelling is quite bad but I had a ton of fun watching this. It's a show designed to market their game to kids, so really don't expect much out of it.

I watched the English version (which, from my understanding, came before the Japanese version), so I will base my review off of that.

Story 3/10
The storytelling itself is extremely poor in that each episode rushes the viewer through a fast narration giving background, before throwing you straight into the action. I get that the purpose of this show was to market their toys/game/whatever, so they didn't focus too much on properly guiding the viewer ... through each of the stories, and also, each episode (of the first season anyway) is mostly self-contained so they have to squeeze as much as they can into a 19-minute segment. Due to the rushed nature, there's hardly a sense of proper atmosphere throughout the episodes, as everything jumps from scene to scene quickly. Sort of like a patchwork quilt, where you can clearly see the edges of one scene/time period that choppily flips to the next without transition. Furthermore, there are oftentimes points are brought up for no reason and then not elaborated upon (eg. one character's passport being illegitimate), so I don't see why they really needed to bring it up in the first place if they are already pressed for time and could have just used that time for more action scenes/proper storytelling.

The stories themselves are super cheesy and pretty hilarious if you don't take them seriously. Lots of things happen for the sake of it and don't particularly make that much sense (eg. This here's the biggest mammal in this star system... okay let's just freaking throw it into outer space!!!, or We're gonna switch to this new fortress that we have absolutely no idea how to use and it might even be rigged but oh well!!). Not to mention a tooon of plot holes and inconsistencies and loose ends. (shrug)

Art 7/10
I personally love the art style and character designs; they're really cute. It's no million-dollar-budget movie, but often even a crowd of background characters will all have unique designs. Animation can get funky sometimes, but again, it's not exactly an art-focused show. I'm not an expert on CG though, so can't comment on that.

Sound 8/10
Although it doesn't have a wide variety of soundtracks, I loved the music; the main theme played when they deploy is super enjoyable, along with its variations, such as the piano version.

Character 7/10
Not much to say on these characters. Generally likeable, typical characters found in this type of shounen-for-young-kids-style show. Obviously I'm not going to compare character development to something deep like FMA, but as a marketing show, the predictable and static characters get the job done. The English acting can get a bit cringey though.

Enjoyment 9/10
What can I say, maybe this is just my thing. Also because it's pretty hilarious.

Rating: 3/10

One of the biggest issues is that the plot and the way characters act just make no sense. Oftentimes nonsensical things just seem to be normal to characters and don't require more examining. The puzzles themselves oftentimes don't make any sense either and I have no idea how the character draws conclusions sometimes. It feels like a very sloppily thrown-together show that someone with no concept of good storytelling wrote.

The characters are very bland and flat. The main character is so well-loved for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

The OST does not stand out at all (oftentimes it's some vocal song that's probably the ... ending theme?), and I found the opening theme to be bad, in terms of both vocals and how it matches the music.

The art is strange - character designs do not stand out, and some of the drawings (especially of muscular men) are really weird. Additionally, characters oftentimes have a really heavy outline and stare right at the camera when talking, so it seems like one of those visual novels/video games. This is further compounded with the contrast between the not-very-good CGI (?) background and the animated characters. There's also a ton of repetition in terms of reusing footage - which would be okay if it was a longer anime, but if 1/5 of each episode is the same footage (transforming sequence, Q-Stone sequence) then it gets bland really fast.

Overall, everything is just not good - story that makes absolutely no sense and characters act nonsensically, music and art do not stand out either (which sometimes, for me, are somewhat redeeming factors).

*Contains spoilers, probably*

I slowly watched this series with a friend over the course of a few months. After finishing it today, I'm left confused - what type of anime is this exactly?

Art:
Let me start with something simple: the art. The SAO anime series has pretty art, in both character design and background design. The style of character is typical of other fantasy anime that you see currently, very colourful and lots of variety. Evidence of the beautiful background design can be seen in the second opening sequence, when they are showing the different places in Alfheim. Some of the inbetween or faraway shots of characters ... are of low quality, however. For example, when we first see Asada Shino in real life, it is in a bird's eye shot of her, and her limbs look totally skinny and strange. Other than that, I did enjoy the art.

Sound/Music:
The soundtrack itself is lovely as well, with the serious pieces being quite emotional. I didn't care for the opening/ending themes that much, but they aren't bad.

Story/Character:
Okay, here we get to my issues with this series, and I'm sure that many others would agree. First, the characters. Basically the only new recurring character (other than the bad guy) we get in this series is Sinon, who is trying to find out how to be strong and move on. We get this whole arc, half of the series, devoted to her finding strength and finding happiness... and then, just like Sword Art Online I, all that gets tossed right out the window and she takes on a cheerleading backseat in Kirito's harem. Not only that, but her cool demeanor goes with it, and she appears to develop some sort of *thing* for Kirito too. Ugh. Really?
The Gun Gale arc is extremely bleak and dark (literally) compared to the other arcs in the series, and compared to the original Sword Art Online arcs. I'm not even sure how they thought the whole arc was good writing - 'I just came out from being stuck in a survival game for two years, and now that people have been dying in this new game, I'm gonna go and investigate and hope I don't die as well'? C'mon.
Asuna and the rest of Kirito's harem are basically nonexistent for this entire arc; Kirito just abandons his friends and goes on his own adventure. Oh wait, Asuna does that later too.
That bit with Shino's crazy attacker was unexpected; there was absolutely nothing leading up to that conclusion. Not sure how I feel about that.
Also, Kirito, why are you groaning and acting like you're going to die in that final dramatic scene at Shino's place? You've been playing a game where getting injured doesn't actually cause pain, so if you didn't get injured, why are you acting like you did? Sigh.

Looking at the arcs individually, I found the Alfheim quest arc not too bad. It's nice to see mythology incorporated into these things. I just wish that each of the Norns could have given them a quest, not just Urd, and then her two sisters appear at the end for no reason other than aesthetics. Why have 3 when only 1 does anything? Why Norns then, why not something that is only 1?
And the logic when Kirito needed to find Freya's lost item - use lightning magic so that the lightning/thunder powers in Mjolnir will be attracted to your magic and lead you to it. What?

That final arc, the Mother's Rosario arc - completely different from the others. It's like the writers went - OH, all that character "development" we did for Asuna before and then tossed out the window, okay, let's just give her some more "development"! I realize that the anime follows the light novels or something, which I've never read, but the final arc just feels like they slapped it on just so they could do something for Asuna. Now it's her turn to abandon her friends and go on an adventure. Then the writers tried to make it really heartbreaking. I guess it was kind of sad, but if you compare it to the beginning of the show.... I mean, Sinon just completely disappeared. Is this the same show, or just a "fanfiction" using the characters?

This show went from gun-fighting to fantasy to... that last arc. I guess the only way I can really summarize this show is that it's about video games. I wasn't able to really enjoy it because of how unrealistic and clunky it felt, not smooth or natural at all.

Just like the original Sword Art Offline, I found the specials to be incredibly boring and hard to sit through.

The humour is so forced it isn't funny, and the same predictable things happen - they show some clip of Kirito getting harassed by girls, then they harass him more.

Movements of the characters are few and very repetitive, and it doesn't feel like they're actually adding much content at all, except for some technical trivia (eg. Kirito talking about the types of guns and how they work). I found that the general atmosphere was very awkward and scripted, not natural at all.

Story: 9
Kaiba is definitely a roller coaster that will throw you around. I definitely liked the more episodic stories at the beginning of the series. Those are the ones that we can somewhat relate to, each with their own problems. I found the ending of the series somewhat confusing; it felt pretty rushed, and I just couldn't make any sense of it. However, that doesn't make the series any less enjoyable.

Art: 8
I really didn't know how to rate the art - because it's so unconventional, I don't really have anything to compare it to. On one hand, it's simple, and at first seems greatly contrasted ... against the matureness of the story. However, because it is so simple, the art contributed toward its dream-like appearance, adding atmosphere. In addition, I personally felt that I was able to take the series more seriously due to the nature of the art - it's not like other anime, so I pay more attention to it and what happens in the story. Not to mention everything is so smooth - it may look like designs were just made up without any planning, but all the art is so consistent - the backgrounds, the characters, the detail.

Sound: 7
A lot of the soundtrack is this ethereal, dream-like lull, save for a few tracks fitting for chase scenes. The soft tracks contribute to the dream-like atmosphere of the series, but that means on the surface, it appears to lack emotion. It doesn't really feel like a piece that will cause you to be emotional just by listening to it. However, one can argue that because it doesn't force the emotions on you, that it also promotes the emotion of the scene - it adds without being noticeable. For example, that one specific "piano" piece in episode three (and comes back in later episodes) is very simple, and doesn't vary too much in terms of dynamics and other emotional aspects. However, when coupled with the scenes it is played against, it adds to the emotion that is being thrown at you.
The opening and ending themes are no different - again with the dream-like, lulling atmosphere. Not something that I'm really into, however.

Character: 9
As a lot of people have mentioned, a lot of the time you will end up sympathizing with the "bad guy" and kind of hating on the "good guy". I think it's great that there's more than one side of each character; each person's motivations have a hidden side that no one else knows about - and this is true for real life.

Enjoyment: 8

Overall: 8

The one thing you notice about this anime is the art. It's so colourful that sometimes it hurts to look at. However, this is what makes it unique and very beautiful. The backgrounds are all equally as colourful and detailed as the foregrounds.

Story was enjoyable, as well as most of the characters (and their designs). Characters weren't overly annoying. A bit too much fanservice though, that makes it kind of awkward to watch.

Music wasn't anything special, and the opening/ending themes didn't seem to catch my attention much.

Overall, I was surprised that I enjoyed a series with so much fanservice, but I think what ... won me over was everything else - the story, the art, the characters.

Am I watching a reverse harem or a magical girl? Seriously.

Music
The OP and first ED were not very good. Singing is kind of off (some notes just make me cringe), and the instrumental itself is not any better. Second ED, the harmony didn't seem to fit that well. The voice parts don't mesh together and sound like they are competing against each other instead of complementing each other.

Character
Character design is okay, nothing too special. MC is designed to only look pretty. She's also one of those girls with no backbone either. The other characters are not enjoyable either. The mean girl is obviously trying too ... hard to simply be mean - that's not realistic. The teachers too - is this a class, or are you deliberately trying to seduce your students? Makes no sense.

Story
Everything goes too fast - although I suppose it is due to the timing, with it being 4-minute episodes. However, it doesn't flow well, if a character suddenly jumps to a conclusion or a decision after very minimal exploration of the background. It also seems WAY too convenient that all three profs are so friendly with this girl and none of the other students (even though there are hundreds of these other girls), and just happen to hang out with her all the time. That cooking competition was a joke - this is cooking, not some kind of battle where you fall down and can't get back up again. The competition summed up the whole series: "How can something so illogical happen?"
The maro things are also kind of out of place and never were explained - especially that strange dream the MC had.

Overall, nothing special about this show. I think highlight of the show might be the art and designs of the characters and backgrounds, but even then I don't think it's super amazing.

I greatly enjoyed Antique Bakery. It was very refreshing to find a "light" comedy without the use of annoying, overreacting characters. The series started out very light-hearted and relaxing, and the darkness creeps up on you, hovering just a little while until the end of the series ends, and it takes off with a sigh. Nothing big, no major climax - save for the "fake" climax near the end.

Art:
I noticed some figure poses were drawn awkwardly - noticed in the first scene with the boy running. The series uses CGI background juxtaposed against the drawn characters. At first, this contrast seemed strange, but I ... got used to it. The CGI itself reminds me of playing a point-and-click game that tries to make itself appear realistic; those end up being quite beautiful. The actual character art appears to be unpolished shoujo art style. The drawings give the impression of a casual webcomic - the lines are not thick or dark-coloured. The shading (especially on characters' hair) seems very rough and quick. It almost looks like original art found on a social media website (DeviantArt, Tumblr). I was surprised when I found out the show was made in 2008, as the art style seemed very old with its unpolishedness. The comedy "chibi" characters are amusing.

Music:
The OP is great. I never skip it. It's so upbeat and happy, although some might not appreciate the use of autotune. I, however, think it's awesome.
The background music is soothing. I was surprised to learn it was variations of classical pieces! The first time, it distracted me from the scene, as I was trying to figure out if it was actually the classical piece or not!

Story:
I enjoyed the humour. "I have powerful connections [to help you get a job]. Ramen shop, ramen shop, or ramen shop!"
Antique Bakery is one of those anime where they don't fully close with the final episodes. It's subtle and not jarring, just like the characters in the series, just like the episodes and the stories of each. This is okay, because as the theme song says, life goes on.