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THE GOOD:
Nice visuals? Check. Laid back atmosphere? Check. Good vibes? Check.
Despite being a "Honda ad", this looked like it could become one of my favourite slice-of-life anime...

THE MEH:
...until ep. 5, when things started going downhill (ironically... if you watched the show, you know what I mean). First of all, there's a noticeable drop in production quality. Not the end of the world, it's a common pattern in many shows after the first few episodes. But at the same time, the story also takes a worrying turn. The Cub, which was initially described just as a passion for Koguma and Reiko, appears for the first ... time as an obsession: Reiko's goal with his bike is not only obviously unrealistic, but she is completely unprepared for it AND puts herself in danger to achieve it. First red flag.
From this point onwards, we don't watch two normal girls living a normal life anymore: we start watching two addicted who would do ANYTHING to spend time with their Cubs, especially Koguma. Unplanned hundreds' miles journey on dangerous roads? Check. Risky driving-for-fun on the snow? Check. Sociopathic behaviour to other characters vs. unhealthy attachment to her bike? Check.
While my enjoyment of the series took a massive hit because of this, I was still hoping it was just a... bump on the road. "The MCs will learn to balance out their lives and their passion." Right?


THE BAD:
...well, they didn't. In the last few episodes Koguma starts talking about her Super Cub as if it was a miraculous solution for all of her problems. Worst, she starts SELLING this idea to other characters. Textbook addiction.
The straw that broke the "scooter's back", for me, was the rescue scene.

[SPOILERS AHEAD, SKIP THIS SECTION. YE BE WARNED]
Imagine this: terrible weather outside, icy roads and snow everywhere. You receive a call from your friend: she just had an accident with her bike, called you because you were the first on her phone's list. You don't know where she is, and you hear her passing out mid-call.
What a normal person would do: call the emergency services, inform your friend's relatives, and only if the weather allows for it, go out to try and find her.
What Koguma does: takes her Cub WITHOUT INFORMING ANYONE and goes out searching, risking an accident herself multiple times due to the roads (thus endangering also her friend's life, since no one knows about her yet). When she finds her fallen into a frozen river (because of anime logic), she clumsily moves her out without checking if she is injured or not (risking further complications in case of fractures and head/spine shocks), then she puts her, still wet to the bones, in her Cub's front basket and brings her home. She is literally freezing exposed to the cold winter air? Who cares.
[/SPOILERS]

At the end of this, I had no further hope for the show. I finished it just because only very little was left, but I would have dropped it if I had to watch even 2-3 more episodes.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Despite the nice visuals, this is one of the worst series I've ever watched. It's a real pity, because it started off as a promising and relaxing slice-of-life anime with some interesting ideas in terms of direction and writing.
Not recommended, unless you are OK to watch only the first 4 episodes and call it a day: if the show ended there, it would have been a solid 7 in my books.

THE GOOD:
This show is visually and cinematically stunning. There are movie productions out there that would kill to reach this level. When it comes to series, this is my favourite of 2024 purely from the production perspective.
Voice acting is also fantastic. Although all the VAs did a wonderful job, I have to specifically mention Tono (Anna) and Teresawa (Chika), who managed to really bring to life their characters.
The soundtrack is top level, and it perfectly complements the show. Special nod to the 2nd and 3rd EDs, focused on Lemon and Chika, which are among the best EDs I've heard in a while.
And then we come ... to the script. You'll be hard-pressed to find one as good as this, in 2024. Dialogue and FMCs characterizations are probably among the best of the last decade.
Finally, the theme. No one ever follows the "losing heroines" once they are rejected, having to face their day-to-day life, watching their crush going out with another girl while trying to elaborate their pain. It's a surprisingly deep concept, which the show masterfully develops, jumping seamlessly from comedy to drama.

THE MEH:
They went a bit overboard with fanservice in some cases. The main culprit is the store-room scene in ep. 2. There are some other gratuitous fanservices in different episodes (on the beach, the culture festival preparation, etc.), but I found those more acceptable.
Not a deal breaker for me, since the scene in ep. 2 furthers the plot while the rest is usually limited in scope (i.e. part of a scene that doesn't focus on the fanservice, or very short). Still, a bit tasteless in some instances.

THE BAD:
Weird to say, but the weakest link of the series is its protagonist. The MC shows very little agency throughout the show, so his characterization ends up resulting pretty weak. He takes the initiative only a handful of times during the season, mostly towards the second half and especially in Chika's arc: this displays a certain character growth, but it's not enough to save him from the "self-insert syndrome" he suffers. His only saving grace is his chemistry with the FMCs, Anna in particular.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
A very good show, and for me a contender for anime of the year 2024. It's not perfect, but I enjoyed it a lot.
Also, please give us more Anna. Best romcom character of the year by miles, in my opinion.
Recommended if you like good animation, good dialogue and you want to watch "romance" from a different perspective.

THE GOOD:
The premise of the show is brilliant: if you were choked by debts and only had 2 years to live, you probably wouldn't want to spend most of your remaining time fishing with some newly found friends... and yet, that's EXACTLY what the MC needed to exit his spiral of negativity. It's a refreshing take of a not-so-original idea, that drives you into a psychological and introspective direction to find out what "living" really means.
The visuals are solid, especially the character design, and the animation looks good too.
The voice acting by Fairouz (Hana) is great, with Iwanaka (Hiro) as close second, but in general ... all the cast did a nice job.

THE MEH:
Pacing is the main problem of the series. All the episodes from 4 to 9 feel almost like filler, with only a few minutes of significant plot and character progression spread across more than 2 hours of runtime. Then you have too many things crammed into the last 3 episodes, which obviously make them look rushed, and ultimately fail to provide proper closure to the two main character arcs (Hiro's and Takaaki's).
Mind you, those "filler" episodes are relaxing, have overall good vibes and are nice to watch. But I'm pretty sure the writers could have cut some of the fluff to further the story more and eventually give the audience a well balanced watching experience instead of shoehorning all the drama in the last hour.

THE BAD:
I won't lie, I didn't like the ending. Without spoiling it, I can only say that the way they handled it undermined the whole premise. They could have pulled it off in a way that was true to the premise, but they didn't... maybe because they didn't have enough runtime left.
Also, Hana is just waifu-bait: in the key visuals and trailers she is presented almost as one of the MCs, but she is just a side character, and unlike others in the cast she has zero development. The only MC in the show is Hiro, with Takaaki as co-protagonist.
Finally, from a visual perspective, the CGI didn't always blend in nicely, especially when it came to fish rendering and animation.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
I cannot say I hated the show, but it was a mixed bag for me. If they handled the pacing differently and gave the MCs the attention their arcs required, I would have loved this series.
Recommended only if you like fishing, or feel-good vibes, and you're not too nitpicky about story developments.

THE GOOD:
Visuals and character design are what stands out the most. You want pretty waifus? This show has plenty. The animation is also nice, considering that's "just" a romcom.
As far as characters go, Yuki steals the spotlight. She is the beating heart of this season: her goals and actions are what moves the plot forward, and her chemistry with the MC is better than Alya's.
Voice acting is solid, especially from Amasaki (Masachika) and Maruoka (Yuki).
Sound production is also top notch. The soundtrack is decent and it offers multiple different EDs, which are all pleasant to listen to. I'm not a fan of the OP, but ... credit's due where it's due: the quality is incredibly high.

THE MEH:
Pretty much all the characters are unrelatable. Sure, they all have their motivations, but they are far from anything the audience could experience. Not only all the protagonists are from rich families, their traits aren't exactly things you see around everyday. Alya is Russian and a textbook tsundere; Yuki is a scheming mastermind who is secretly an otaku with a brother complex; Masachika is a lazy genius with an ongoing family feud; Ayano is a loyal servant with ninja skills... yea, good luck relating with any of that. The only character that is somewhat relatable is Masha because, at the end of the day, she is just kind and always trying to help her sister.
This might not be a problem for someone, but I couldn't really feel invested in anyone from the cast because of it.

THE BAD:
I'm not a bigot, I'm not against fanservice... but this show makes abuse of it. I can handle it when used sparingly, or when it furthers plot/characterization. Here it eats screen-time without furthering anything: for the most part, it's just eye-candy for male audience.
We have the famous feet-fetish/panties scene: absolutely useless, since the MCs forget about it shortly after, and it's also out of character for both of them.
We have the camera indulging over Alya in the dressing room while changing clothes, which is gratuitous and unneeded; we have the notorious hypnosis scene, which is so detached from the story that you could safely remove it without changing a iota of the plot. And so on.
I can stomach fanservice that is part of a meaningful scene (e.g. Yuki's shot waking up her brother). But if it eats screen-time just for the sake of it, then it's a no-no.
Finally, the writing can't really convey the "genius" of Masachika. He is described as this "superior IQ" character, but nothing he does or says really highlights it. His speeches are nothing special, just filled with uninspiring sophistry, and yet they make his audience act as if they were listening to a Nobel prize. He solves conflicts by using information that is not anticipated to the viewer and, as such, he looks like he is pulling off a deus-ex-machina instead of a genuine resolution (e.g. the dispute between the baseball and the football clubs).

FINAL THOUGHTS:
One of the most disappointing series I watched this year. The hype was unwarranted, at least for me. Sure, there is some character development, but the plot is so contrived and riddled with meaningless fanservice that I couldn't enjoy it.
Recommended only if you're craving for waifus... and even then, other shows could quench your thirst while also offering something more.

THE GOOD:
Most of the ideas you'll find in this work are nothing short of phenomenal. The obscure and eldritch entity that haunts the town, and the way it affects its citizens... it's sometimes as mind-boggling as the horrors you could find in Lovecraft's works.
The art is on par with those ideas: detailed and realistic, it really makes you feel the pain, the anguish, the fear the characters are experiencing.

THE MEH:
Ito might be a good horror mangaka, but he's not a good storyteller. The breakdown of each chapter is effective, but when they are read one after the other they usually don't work well, unless they ... are part of the same arc. You have the MCs going through events that would traumatise you for life, but then somehow after the end of the chapter it's all business as usual, as if nothing happened. Which is jarring. If it would have been me, I would have fled that damn town after chapter 3.
The work is also scattered with infodump. I understand that a certain amount of infodump is inevitable in the medium, but the author goes a bit too far, especially when he uses them to resolve conflicts "off the page" at the end of most chapters, so that he doesn't have to clean up the mess of the horror that was just unleashed: that's just lazy writing.

THE BAD:
The worst aspect of this manga is characterization. We meet dozens of characters, but NONE of them has any personality whatsoever, not even the MCs. If I were to ask you the interests, motivations and fears of Kirie and Shuuichi, you would be hard-pressed to find even a single answer. And the reason is: those traits are never mentioned in the story. Kirie is just a pretty high-schooler that screams in front of the various horrors. Shuuichi is a bit better defined, but his characterization is still sub-par... the fact that he is the best character of the bunch says a lot. The rest of the cast is disposable, so when they end up inevitably dying a horrible death you don't even feel bad for them, you only get shaken by the gore.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
This is definitely a manga worth reading, the ideas are excellent, the first chapters are truly disturbing. And the art is amazing.
But you won't find any character to root for, here. It will be a miracle if, by the end of the story, you'll even remember a name beside those of the two MCs.

THE GOOD:
The main praises go to the solid voice acting. Hayami (Honjoji) punched well above the weight of this series. The soundtrack was also decent, with a truly fitting ED by Gohobi (one of the surprises of this 2024 for me, thanks also to their OP for Giji Harem).

THE MEH:
Pretty much most of the rest. The production value is just sufficient and floats around average, there's nothing that stands out in terms of animation or direction.
The story has an interesting (if not original) concept, but the writing makes too much use of clichés in an uninteresting way. For example, I found the recurring internal monologue ... for the MCs intriguing at first, but it quickly became boring and it looked like the writers were just trying to pan scenes that could have been resolved in half of the time.
The MCs didn't have great chemistry and their growth only blooms in the last episode: in the rest of the series it's just chocked by melodrama.

THE BAD:
Only very few things really irked me in this show, and nothing like the MCs' characterization. It's OK to be shy, insecure, and even "on the spectrum" so to speak, but they never acted like adults, not even once during the show. They gave me middle-schoolers vibes, which is not good for a couple of travel agency employees. Especially for the travel agency.
Beside their characterisation, writing also had other issues, like heavy reliance on melodrama, which badly affected the pacing around the middle of the season. Not to mention the deus-ex-machina which solved the whole "Anchorage issue" in the last episode, and the dangling threads left without a closure (who did all those mysterious calls to MCs and the travel agency?).

FINAL THOUGHTS:
This isn't a bad show, but it doesn't stand out in any shape or form. If you want romance, drama, comedy, you have countless series which are better produced and more compelling.
Recommended only if you already watched all of them and you are still craving for more.

THE GOOD:
Pacing and narrative flow are fantastic. This show is FAST. In fact, it's so fast that many times the ED catches you by surprise: "how is it possible that the episode is already over?"
But the main appeal is that the story flows seamlessly, from one scene to the next, from one episode to the next, from one arc to the next. Despite all the crazy things that happen, none of them feels forced... which is quite a feat considering that we're talking (among other things) about ghosts, aliens, stolen "family jewels", weird powers, talking maneki-neko dolls, delusional characters, mediums that perform exorcisms using baseball ... bats, cows, and even romantic moments. And yet, when put together, it all works.
The animation and the direction are very dynamic, they go hand-in-hand with the flow. Visuals might not be as detailed as other shonen series, but they perfectly make up for it by conveying the necessary energy and liveliness with the animation.
Sound production is also top quality. Voice acting by all the cast is almost perfect. The music is great, and the classical music ideas used in some scenes are worth a special mention: the mixed Rossini/Orff's theme in ep. 4 and 11 is hilarious, and Mozart's guitar version theme played in ep. 5 greatly enhanced the lunch-break scene. OP and ED are as crazy as the rest of the show, and whoever contracted Creepy Nuts deserves a raise.

THE MEH:
Characters are interesting and have great chemistry but some of them are quite shallow. Even for Momo and Okarun, which are fleshed out the most, motivations are often paper-thin, and many possible conflicts are conveniently swept under the rug, at least in this first season. E.g. where are Okarun's parents? Are they really okay with him being away most of the nights? And with him having his clothes and uniforms ripped apart every other day? Etc.
Mind you, this isn't a deal breaker, since this way the story flows naturally and focuses only on the "interesting stuff", but it would be good to have at least some of these points addressed.

THE BAD:
Not much, to be honest. Someone might not like the fast pacing because it gives characters and audience very little room to breathe. But it was not a problem for me, the writing handled it nicely.
Also, you need to accept a certain level of absurdity and nonsense: this series is close to a fever dream. If you are looking for a rational, philosophical story... this is not it.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
I usually don't like shonen anime. This one, however, had me immediately invested because of its pacing and seamless flow across several ideas from different genres. Is it a masterpiece? Maybe not, but it's very good and I enjoyed it more than I expected.
Recommended if you want to experience a REALLY wild ride.

THE GOOD:
The show displays some incredible CGI: the expressiveness of the MCs is as good as the best traditional productions, with a touch that only 3D models can give (e.g. hair physics, dynamic shots, etc.). Then we have the concert sequences: their visuals, animations and direction are nothing short of impressive. This anime is definitely worth a watch for those alone.
Music production is also quite decent... It's a series centered on a band, the opposite would have been a disaster. :)
The main characters are well written: they all have their unique personality and motivations, and most of them showcase an interesting growth. Some don't get ... the development they deserve, like Rupa, and Nina is a royal PITA up until ep. 10, but their banters and interactons are enjoyable.

THE MEH:
No matter how well they are done, CGI models still appear stiff and unnatural at times. Moreover, the use of these models alongside traditionally animated characters in some scenes can be jarring.
From writing perspective, the pace of the show varies wildly, with some tight and emotional episodes followed by others that look like filler.
Nina's motivations are well presented, but the backstory supporting them is confusing: they could have simplified it and made it clearer without losing any impact.
Also, the plot deflates spectacularly in the last 2 episodes, with an unsatisfactory anticlimax. Granted, this development triggers more character growth, but it leaves a bad taste in your mouth: when episode 11 feels more of a closure than the last episode, you know there's something wrong in the script.

THE BAD:
For a series focused on an indie band with "rebel" vibes, the showrunners chose to stay on the safe side.
There's nothing "rebellious" in Toge-Toge's pieces: lyrics are pretty generic, with some forced and "fake" rage sprinkled here and there. The music follows suits, with basic pop/rock progressions. Ironically, they sound as mainstream as their mainstream rival band. I would have loved something more ambitious: dissonances, weird tempo changes, wild modulations, strong lyrics that hit you like a punch... alas, Toei wanted to please a wider audience. Maybe they already had Spotify playlists in mind?

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Good show carried by aesthetics and production value. The story has issues but it's not without merits. Pity that the "rebellious indie band" ends up being as safe as K-ON.
And I'm sorry Rupa: you slap really hard, but Mio is still the best bassist girl around. :)
A must watch for those who really like "girls doing music" series, and recommended also to people who enjoy character-driven stories, provided that they can stomach the MC.

THE GOOD:
Golden comedy moments sprinkled with romance and otaku references aplenty will make you smile throughout the episodes. Audio production is solid, from music to voice acting (particular nod to OP and ED themes, both great).

THE MEH:
Visuals and animation are average, but they are enhanced by a decent direction. Comedic timing can be off in some cases, but not enough to spoil the experience.

THE BAD:
The series is very episodic, so you can't expect a real plot or any story/character arc. There's a hint of an arc at the very end with Kou, but that's cut short without any closure.
That's not the real issue though: there ... are many good romcoms out there which are episodic in nature (e.g. My Love Story). The elephant in the room, here, is the characterization: the protagonists are all grown-up adults and office workers, but NOT ONCE in the series they face or even discuss about adult or work-related problems. This makes the whole office setting just "cosmetic". If almost all the interactions could be carried out by college students or even high-schoolers, it means that the MCs characterization is pretty weak.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
It's a nice and lightweight series if you just want to unplug after a day's work, but you won't find anything more than that, here.
Recommended only if you're a hardcore otaku.

THE GOOD:
Stunning direction and visuals, good animation, and great music, especially the songs if you like the genre.

THE MEH:
The CGI is overall good, and in most cases it blends nicely within the visual flow. But in some scenes it sticks out like a sore thumb, looks lazily done and seems not adequate for a movie production. Belle's concert is one example.

THE BAD:
The writing is all over the place: dangling story threads without closure, story elements and themes introduced abruptly without proper anticipation, plot holes, characters lacking development, or motivation, or both. If you're looking for a movie with a tight plot, this isn't it.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Disappointing. ... The production is triple-A level, especially the animation and the music. The story concept isn't bad either, but it looks like it has been put together by five different writers, each one with their own ideas and without any coordination whatsoever.
I wouldn't recommend watching it, unless you think that good visuals and audio can make up for a very poor script.