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Disclaimer: If you haven't seen the 1998 Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou OVA this review will not make much sense. Also I haven't read the manga so my perspective on this is informed on the 1998 show.

Quiet Country Cafe, while it isn't bad at all, lacks a lot of the qualities that made the original OVA charming, I would only recommend watching this if you really loved the first YKK OVA and want to see more. As someone who has neither seen nor heard of YKK, when I watched the 1998 OVA I was absolutely blown away by the breathtaking landscapes, wonderful (yet sparse) soundtrack, and ... overall uniqueness found in nearly every aspect of the show. It was a melancholic, yet hopeful, slice-of-life about a young woman living in the final age of humanity, spending much of her time learning what it means to be alive in a world that has grinded to a halt. Alpha's internal monologues and meaningful conversations with the very small cast really helped me understand the kind of loneliness that would pervade a time like this, and helped me understand how to properly live with oneself when there isn't anyone else around. Quiet Country Cafe, while certainly having its moments, didn't provide nearly the same experience for me.

For starters, while I still thought that the landscapes of the series were amazing (the final shot of Mt.Fuji without any snow on it was so beautiful and sad), they had a lot less definition and suffered from that issue a lot of 2000s anime have where the colors just aren't very vivid and nothing draws your eye, which I felt really did a disservice to a series that I feel focused primarily on the visuals of a world almost entirely abandoned or underwater. As a matter of fact, the characters felt really blah too; Alpha's model was completely recolored to be less vivid and at times was strikingly devoid of any kind of shading or details, as were the rest of the cast.

Additionally, I felt that the art was indicative of a shift in tone for the overall show; it lacked the contemplative nature of the 1998 OVA, swapping silent scenes meant to emphasize the emptiness and beauty in Alpha's life with music that felt almost omnipresent and was really lighthearted in comparison to the former OVA (it was still really good music tho). The silence wasn't just broken by the music, either, as Quiet Country Cafe seemed to revolve around the much more cohesive story of Alpha trying to repair her broken cafe and find herself while doing it. It lacks the leisurely pace of the former by focusing primarily on what's HAPPENING to Alpha or what she plans on doing next, all the while barely providing us a way to relate to her and take in the world she inhabits.

This brings me to the main problem of this OVA: it isn't really thoughtful. The main draw of the former OVA was its ability to let us dwell on the state of the world *with Alpha*, as most scenes are taken up by at least a third of silence, allowing us to empathize with the meaninglessness and emptiness of Alpha's life as well as the beauty and danger presented in the outside world. Instead, a lot of Quiet Country Cafe focuses on the actions and much more frequent dialogue of the characters as music plays in the background, while the few moments of silence are less contemplative and more...well, boring. That's another issue plaguing Quiet Country Cafe: it somehow has a faster pace and more of a story than the former OVA, but it's way more boring. To add insult to injury, the few (incredibly boring) moments of silence and calm also often happen in tandem with weird fanservice shots that just blatantly ruin any kind of serious or melancholic tone the show had left; like i dont want to be staring at Alpha's ass, that's not even close to why I, or really anybody, would be watching the show. It was so weird and jarring to see characters that were previously not sexualized be subject to so many fanservice shots out of nowhere, especially when they introduce one character with her boobs out, who says nothing and never reappears. Going off of that, the introduction of Takahiro, Matsuki, and Misago's storyline made zero sense, as it never went anywhere despite implying that there was more to the story, making their whole experience seem like it needed wrapping up.

Anyway, I was really disappointed by Quiet Country Cafe, which is a shame because I really loved the 1998 OVA dearly, but that's not to say it was bad. I think it was still a pleasant show that hasn't completely forgotten that the point of the story is about living with yourself and being ok with loneliness. It certainly has its moments, but I think as a whole, in the 4 years between the creation of these two OVAs, the creators seemed to have lost sight of their original intentions. It just seemed like it lacked a lot of the thoughtfulness and care that I loved so much about the first YKK OVA.