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I need to be honest about REC, this is going to be a VERY, very subjective opinion on my part, just because I love this anime.

I'm forty years old, and pretty much I have watched and rewatched REC since I'm 28 years old.
Every time I watched it, it pushes me to be a better person, a better husband, why?
Rec touches many adult themes in many ways, despite it only has 9-10 minutes of content each chapter and it does way better than many animes of 25+ episodes with 22 minutes episodes.

The way the main characters meet each other is kinda silly, let alone the part ... how they ended living together is way sillier.
From then, the anime turns out to be more serious than it may be intended to be, giving some space for comedy.

1- What happens to a couple when one of them is becoming successful while the other is struggling?
2- What happens when someone can not express his/her feelings because they feel insecure?
3- What happens when you give your best in work but things are not going accordingly?
4- What happens when you feel you are a boulder in the way of the person you love, you do not want him/her to go but also you want this person to fulfill his/her dreams?

Spoilers!!
From here I'm going deep in my viewings of the series and I will mention stuff some of you could consider spoilers, so you were warned. Also, my opinion of how REC showed me how to be a better person, which you would find boring, sorry for that.

Not everything is so serious, there is a space for comedy and absurd animation scenes. Also, the atmosphere isn't that grim at all. Even on the job, our male protagonist has a good friend that supports him when things aren't going all right. It is not like the male protagonist is not talented, on the contrary, he is a hard worker and talented marketing designer, but the series explores when even people like him are struggling.

One of them develops feelings of insecurity because the career of the other is having a big push.
Of course, this could mean this person won't be needing the other financially, this is a pretty adult thing. So this person is fearing it could be alone again at any moment.
At the end of the series, we learn we have to develop a relationship based on our honest feelings and caring, not on things like the house, the money, the status.

I think Rec showed me that saying "Welcome Home" to my wife and daughter every single time they get through the door is important, take time to have a hot meal when they come from studying or working, saying "Good morning" every single day, and hugging them every time they have to go out, making them feel there is someone waiting for them at home, is very important, do not hide those feelings!!

PS: The scene when Matsumaru runs and hugs Aka when she said "Let's Go home" is breathtaking.
He throws away his briefcase, somehow indicating what you have at home is way more important than you have out of home. I love it and I learn a lot from it.
Thanks to the anime makers and the mangaka for REC, maybe not the most common format and time, but deep enough to make us meditate about our personal situations.

I know nothing about the Anime Industry. I'm just a casual watcher. So, when a second season doesn't advance too much from the first one I do not know who to blame, the manga creator or the anime scripters.

I know the premise of the series was to be a comedy, over romance or character development.
Despite this, the first season offered us some development in the story, pointing out there was actually something else aside from the absurd idea of people living happily under a bridge.

Dad may be accepting his son is achieving something he never could. The relation between the main characters going deeply with ... both accepting they want to be with each other forever. Some very powerful mysterious guy who is interested in keeping things as they have always been under the bridge.

The second season barely explores those main arcs in order to give the comedy more importance. The thing is the comedy gets old fast and some arcs are just not that funny, you can giggle once or twice, maybe, if you are used to absurd comedy. To be honest, I think the only funny arcs were when the Amazonian woman was introduced, the Sister training system arc and the independent movie arc with P-Ko.

Nino stays the same, sadly no character development, she stays as the first season ended (If you think this is a spoiler, I'm just assuming you already watched the first season) realizing she likes Recruit for real.

When you think things are going ahead with an important announcement that could affect Nino and the rest of the cast, early in the second season, nothing happens. I don't know if they run out of manga material, but part of the rest of the season is about how they prepare for this event. And you expect the event to come out because it would make clear some of the mysteries around Nino, it never, never happens.

The second season ends, worst than the first, because it ends in the same way, meaning zero further development in the relation between the protagonists and the main arcs not being explored at all.

11 years after the second season, and 6 years after the last publication of the manga, it is pretty obvious the anime makers didn't make the best choice by not giving the series some real character and story development. Again, who to blame, the mangaka or the anime producers and scripters?