My initial criticism on this was super harsh, on it being a trash anime that tries to capitalize on the shouta-gal cliché (got burned out by the ludicrous Hajimete no Gal). Oh, how dreadfully wrong I was.
Now that this series has ended, I'm glad that I was able to get a good amount of enjoyment, so much so that this shall go into my Summer seasonal guilty pleasure.
Sunoharasou no Kanrinin-san is at heart, a 4-koma manga to anime adaptation, so don't go in and expect some plot holes or some insane storyline. It is also another slew of SoL (or Slice of Life) genre-themed anime, what that means is to just sit back, relax and enjoy what this has to offer. That's it.
4-koma adaptations are a boon a bain, because for this kind of series to work, the script and series composition has to be done properly like a progressing storyboard. Fortunately, welcome in the veteran Fumihiko Shimo (Jun Maeda-quality anime like Air, Clannad, Kanon; Kokoro Connect and few notables), so at least this series has some competency, and he does a great job at that.
Speaking of the characters, there are aplenty, aside from our shouta MC (Aki Shiina) and the gal MC (Ayaka Sunohara, which Aki always addresses her as Caretaker). For once I thought that this anime has some great character design, that is merely done to address the shouta-gal experience between Shiina and Ayaka, but that's not all! The "Student Council's" top brass also resides in the dorm, bringing us the sister-centric Yuzu, the playful Nana (Ayaka's sister), the calm and composed Yuri and the sis-con Sumire, who blemishes at the sight of Yuzu.
The aesthetics is where both Shiina and Ayaka stand out, with Shiina's boy-at-heart feminine posture, shorts and the oh-so-shy personality a temptation and Ayaka's large-breasted motherly figure, with her apron and caring behaviour that resembles the sibling (Onee-san) trait a lot.
Silver Link is back to direct the SoL genre again, after a few certain hits or misses, this IMO is a sleeper hit. For some reason (even in the PV), the studio opted for light coloured pastels on the overall aesthetics, and I pretty much got since this is meant to be a light-hearted series to begin with. Moreover, the animation looks clean and concise, so sasuga Silver Link, you've done a good job.
And oh how I love the music, especially the OP that is done by the one and only Megumi Nakajima, that's a super-catchy one if you so wish to desire. The ED is OK by my tastes though, decent but not bad either. The BGM is the same story, in the sense of placements and such, like it was made as gradual follow-ups to those light-hearted obscene stuff that are the irritations of certain characters and such. All this is thanks to underrated music composer Ruka Kawada, for her works which include Winter 2018's Gakuen Babysitters and works like "Is The Order A Rabbit?" and such.
I know from certain people that they don't care the shouta-con generic caricature, and just like the failure of last season's Tachibanakan Triangle (which has some similarities but many differences), another passing of mediocrity. Only the minority who cares enough for this anime will be pleasantly surprised and (like me) will get good vibes from this. I can't honestly recommend this anime if you don't care about the acceptance rates I just mentioned throughout this review, but it's honestly a good pass of time to spend on.
