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In the first five or so episodes I count about six cases of "sexual assault". Or at least what would be sexual assault by most western viewers. Yet you don't really feel a sense of outrage because in each case the victim's response is to swoon in a mock-Victorian way, and then get all horny about it within the next three scenes. Followed by some light self-contradictory angst, followed by more swooning.

The art is super low budget, technically pretty bad, but there is enough kitschy weirdness in it to raise it above the cost constraints.

The characters are kitschy but still pretty shallow.

The end of the ... anime isn't quite so good, the characters get a bit less creepy and when things start to make a fraction of a sense then the kitsch stops making up for the poor writing.

I still enjoy it though. It's groovy. Sort of...

Like Charlie Brown this is a very cute show with a deeply philosophical side. Without ever being even slightly intense it tackles some deep stuff, topics like loneliness, how strange people are, and where a certain odd shaped stick came from. It straddles the thin line between subtlety and meaningless masterfully, each new episode is a joy to watch.

Honestly I like this better than Snoopy, Charlie Brown's overt Christian messages can be a bit offputting, this show is equally as thoughtful but a whole lot less preachy.

I think it'd be a really great show to watch with young children, its one of the few shows ... adults can enjoy as much as children. It wouldn't be too overwhelming for children but it also won't insult your adult intelligence. It's one of the best slice of life TV shows, at least as good as even the mighty Shirokuma Cafe.

I'm a big fan of the original series and the manga. This was a huge let down. The animation quality is dreadful, lazy, sloppy and ugly. I think this is best illustrated by Usagi's buns, they are consistently drawn on top of her hair when clearly they should be behind her hair and peaking out over the top; this looks so ugly. Considering major details of the main character are so badly drawn you know what to expect from the rest of the art.

The story in the original anime and manga also came across as very kitsch, I think this was a huge part of ... its charm. The remake comes across as overbearing and too serious, 0% kitsch.

The art tries to emulate the manga style somewhat, but the manga designs where a lot cuter, Takeuchi had a very unique scribbling style of drawing. When these were adapted for the original anime big changes were made but the new designs worked really well in the context. The new designs emulate the manga designs too closely but lacking the charm, they come off almost as bad as modern American CGI.

Some things I can't blame on the remake, the manga character development was never a strong point. Everyone but Usagi/Chibi/Marmora are quickly discarded ending up as carbon clones, only there to support the main characters. If anything the original anime managed to improve on this, in spite of major story rewrites being made to target the show at a younger audience than the manga was aimed at.

I was really hoping to recapture some of the magic of when I was younger and watched the anime (the german version because it wasn't on UK TV) and read the manga. Rewatching the anime 15 years later in Japanese was still a really joyful experience. Watching this anime is something I'd rather forget about. It doesn't change how I feel about the first two works but it's definitely a huge disappointment.

Of the three meta-anime I've seen (Shirobako, Bakuman) this is my favourite. I like how they portray the reality of working life without resorting to anime tropes. In bakuman the typically super-asexual lead character plus relationship gimmick always seemed so unnecessary, what we have here is something more real, more similar to a slice of life. The three lead characters are suitably adorable in the way that people are adorable in real life, they have regular human flaws and worries. I think one of the things this anime does best is portraying the awkwardness found in any typical work environment, of course amplified by the ... nature of this type of work. I'm very sad to see the very low ratings this show has been given on my anime list, maybe this show is being punished for being a bit too unique or maybe because the younger demographic on this site won't understand the pain of employment that helps older viewers understand the humour here. I'd recommend it to anybody bemused by their job or wanting to see something that makes fun of anime tropes rather than using them as a crutch.

It's such a shame they only show this at the Studio Ghibli museum in Tokyo. I went to the museum hoping to see this but unfortunately they alternate it with 10 other movies so you would be a very lucky person indeed to see this in good quality.

However somebody managed to film a bit of it on their camera phone and uploaded it to the internet so this is the version most people are probably familiar with. It's obviously very bad quality but better than nothing and I really hope that one day Studio Ghibli decide to release this for everyone.

The Ghibli museum is a ... wonderful place to visit and I'm sure releasing these short films would do absolutely nothing to harm them, please release them for the world to see!

Non Non Biyori is just so cute, watching it is like being in a relaxing daydream. This stands above other slice of life anime due to its realism, pacing and lack of stereotyped behaviour. Some gags might involve the characters standing still and nothing happening for 10 seconds or more and it has a certain real life charm that really fits in with the countryside theme. The characters are also really unique and individual with no stereotyped "loli" or "moe" behaviour. Ren-chon is so cute and realistic almost to a Miyazaki level of adorable, and it's hard not to compare this to Totoro and some ... of the other sleepier Ghibli films.

This is one of my favourite anime, ever since Shirokuma Cafe ended I've been waiting for something just as charming and adorable and I was very happy to see this. I'd love to see more episodes, I think this would be awesome to watch alongside Aku no Hana... you could alternate between the light and dark sides of countryside living to get two unique perspectives of this type of living.

The first 5 or so episodes are *so cool* I thought this was going to be great. The first half of the season ended and it was going strong.

Then comes season 2. Along comes creepy incest stuff, annoying lolis and annoying characters. I'd give the first half a 7 and the second half a 1 and because it's so damned bad it just drags the whole rating down for me.

Also the "extra" chapter is nothing but a bunch of repeated scenes with lame stuff added.

This anime revels in dreariness and repetition.

The contrived and cliched storyline is fed in drabs and threatens to turn into something good without ever realising this threat. After getting halfway through the show, it spends at least 3 episodes just repeating old material. Then when you get near the end, like a second punch in the face when you're down it has another 5 whole episodes of material repeated from previous episodes. And WHAT material! Repetitions of nothing much happening at all. Now I love movies and series where not much happen and where the enjoyment comes from the portrayal rather than a traditional climax ... driven storyline; but this series has nothing else going for it.

The biggest tragedy of this series is the ending that is so pseudo-metaphysical I want to give the writers angry words for the insult to my intelligence. Whilst I'm sure people who think might consider "Greys Anatomy" well-written were probably mind blown by the semi-mystical ending, If you have any intelligence whatsoever I'm giving good advice here: this anime is not only a huge waste of time, but totally embarassing. I'm left wondering "How could they pass of this junk" and "If this got an average review of 8, then this is a bad sign for anime".