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It's hard to get all that worked up over an obviously cheaply produced anime such as Rainy Cocoa in Hawaii. The series is banking on cute boys doing cute things and that's basically the only thing it's concerned about regarding the show.

Although there's really nothing here to recommend (unless you just NEED to burn twenty-five or so minutes), there are two things that this series does better than at least the very first Rainy Cocoa. The first is that there actually is a hint of substance. In the original short the characters were not only flat as a board but seemingly had no goal, ... motivation, or drive to do anything much at all. It was very flat and not the least bit entertaining even as cute boy/yaoi fluff. This season has the main character actually striving to set up the second shop for the owner; so while still not very compelling or explored upon it at least sets up a driving goal and an ending for the show.

The second is that the limited budget must have been increased, because we are no longer in just one room anymore. Hawaii actually receives quite a few decent backgrounds as characters travel around to either explore or to do things to set up the shop. It's still fairly limited in its backgrounds but there's a clear bit more effort her than last time.

Even with all this in mind, I still wouldn't recommend this series to anyone who wants to feel even the least bit entertained by a short anime. There are plenty of other fish in the sea, and plenty of other cute boy shows that are worth your time and energy (and cuter boys as well).

~Howl

Tsuritama is a story about fishing first and foremost. This is pretty obvious on the outset given the title and synopsis, but I say this in a very straightforward way. Tsuritama is about fishing, and that becomes a strength as well as a weakness in the show. Let's "dive" right in.

Characters/Story
Tsuritama has four main characters, each with their own little quirks and personalities as well as goals throughout the story. The first half of the story is quite lovely and got my hopes up for the rest of the show to be just like that. The initial protagonist Yuki struggling to fit in and overcoming ... his social anxiety through fishing really felt like it was a show about how Haru's worldview and overall attitude changes as he discovers more about fishing. Unfortunately about half way through is when the side plot of the aliens kicks into full gear and almost quite literally swallows the show whole. By itself the alien plot isn't terrible, but it nearly completely overshadows any character development that Yuki gets and doesn't feel tied in with his struggles very well. It starts to course correct at the end, but by then it's hard to care as much as in the beginning. The neat visual metaphors and whatnot in the beginning are nearly gone by the end, making me wonder if this show would have worked better being two separate ones

The characters are generally fun, although if you dislike high pitched anime boy yelling you'll probably dislike Haru for the first few episodes before he calms down in pitch. The strongest character by far is Yuki, who receives a bulk of the overall development and really the one who has changed the most in the end. Natsuki is fun to see loosen up over time (even with some questionable moments near the middle). Yamada...honestly feels like such a waste in this story. His character is alright but they really force him into the trio of Y/H/N without giving him a ton to do until the end.

Art
Tsuritama has a colorful, oceany palette and a pleasing artstyle overall. Characters appear off-model enough times to be noticed but this is balanced out by a few surprise sakuga scenes and interesting use of camera movements. The art and animation are generally serviceable (with props to the drawings of Haru's "demon face" which always felt like it conveyed that expression so perfectly for me).

Sound
Tsuritama has quite a few lovely background tracks that really emulate a sort of small town beach vibe that blends great with the series. I would say at times I was even paying more attention to the background music than the show, at least enough to want to look up tracks later on. The op is bright and poppy, while the ed is a bit more melancholy, both which I think represent some of the feelings the show is going for and add to the beachy vibe.

Overall
Tsuritama is hard to recommend seriously. I admire the first half a ton for the themes it's trying to touch on and the visual metaphors it uses to portray them. Where is gets lost for me is when it decides to almost completely abandon those ideas in favor for a far less interesting and investing side plot. If you enjoy colorful and fun anime about the powers of friendship and fishing, you'll probably enjoy this one quite a bit. Otherwise, you don't really have to bother unless you want something to breeze through on a slow day.

~Howl

Disclaimer: This review comes from someone who finished the original manga but never watched more than the first few episodes of the regular anime.

Koro Quest is something I mildly dreaded having to watch (the MAL challenge dictated that I watch an ONA and this was one of the first ones that appealed to me). The original manga I hold in considerable high regards for a shounen manga in that it was often more well thought out and interesting than many of its peers. Does this gag manga adaptation hold the same standard of writing? Well...

Koro Quest takes the main storyline of the anime and filters ... it in a fantasy-world gag sort of show that works about half the time. I could understand the main "plot" of the show and what was to come just fine, although if you've never seen or heard of AssClass before you would be twelve kinds of lost in this short series. It definitely feels like a spin-off series but one that packs a ton more detail than one might initially expect, leaving the plot mostly fill in the blanks for those who have already watched or read the series.

The gags themselves are ultimately what makes or breaks this series and for the most part they feel standard in a way that they're taking the baseline jokes of the original manga and stretching them out into absurdity. Sometimes this works, like with Karma constantly getting hit because he looks down and people, while others are just as irritating as in the first iteration, like Nagisa being forced into girl clothes for a joke. How much you like some of AssClass' original jokes will largely determine how you like the gags here.

The two things they do well that work more than poking fun at the actual story is the fantasy/game world ideas and the meta instances. Both of these show a level of actual humor often way more interesting than anything about the actual story. I think the spin-off benefits from being a fantasyeque show as opposed to just the regular story but in a gag manga form.

Overall, I'd say that if you had read/watched AssClass previously and enjoyed it, you'll probably get enough entertainment out of this short series to justify a watch. For anyone wanting to get into AssClass through this, just read the original manga. You'll be nothing but confused with this one.

Gamers! is an anime that initially you think is going is to be a show about gamers with a thinly veiled romance plot, only to be a romance plot with a thinly veiled gaming aspect. It's a show that relies on two things: the viewers tolerance and general understanding of the misunderstanding trope, and the heavy prominence of game mechanics references in relationship to, well, relationships and everyday life.

These two managed to work well on me, even as I'm one who generally hates misunderstanding tropes and usually only mildly likes gaming references.

What pushes this show into entertainment and why it works so well ... is the level of effort put into both the references and the misunderstandings themselves. The five main characters form a complex web of their own perceptions about what's supposedly really going on with everyone else. Characters that don't realize what kind of situation they're in perfectly understanding when one of their friends is bumbling up. It feels very true to life in that aspect, as each dumb teen is only perceptive enough to figure out one thing going on at a time and that's it. One of them even constantly tries to get the others into situations where they can talk it up only for the misunderstandings to pile up. All of this culminates in the sixth (and quite possibly best) episode, where the set-up and eventually pay-off is honestly good enough to stand on its own in a lot of ways.

The other thing this show thrives on is its gaming references, which are clock-full in each episode. Rarely do they feel cheap or shoehorned in either, some even being quite subtly (took me about four episodes until "Karen Tendo" really set in) and others are used to build whole episodes out of, like in Karen's episode or most of Amano's. They go all out with the sound effects and the "gameplay" of the games in-universe, to the point that most of them feel like they could be real games. All this extra effort really shows and makes the games and characters feel more alive because of it.

Obviously, though, the series isn't perfect, and I think a large portion of that rests on the second half of the series. The first half is the perfect string of misunderstandings that were relatable and that connected with the viewer while the second half...fails to use all of them properly. The series doesn't even try to end on any conclusive note, although I don't think it necessarily needs to, it does use a few episodes in the second half to set up a conflict it never resolves it in-universe and personally it feels like we're getting at least a little cheated out of the possibilities of that one storyline.

Overall, even though because of technical and story limitations in the end, I still highly recommend this show to people who are tired of stupid misunderstanding tropes and good rom-coms with a hint of gaming for extra flavor.

~Howl