Positives:
+ Sweet and innocent. Red flags may go flying up when you hear it's an anime about 6th graders in love, but there is zero fanservice or sexualization of the characters here. It feels like it was written for the actual demographic it portrays (middle school-aged girls), rather than for otaku voyeurism. Rest assured, there is nothing in this series that could possibly qualify as objectionable or creepy.
+ Convincingly portrays the transition from childhood to adulthood and all the anxieties and grey areas that come with it. All the blushing and nervousness in the romance comes across as more true to life when it's 6th graders doing it rather than high schoolers or even adults, like in most anime romcoms.
+ The chibi comedy stuff can be pretty cute. It's not like it'll have you laughing out loud, but you'll probably at least smile at how adorable some of it is, like when Hanabi wags her twintails like a dog when she gets excited.
+ The increased roles for Inaba and Tsutsumi significantly improve the 2nd season, and they are arguably more well-developed and interesting than some of the main cast. They both end up being pretty likable despite their initial portrayal as jerks trying to steal away the main girls from their boyfriends.
+ Marin as the romance teacher is a fun ongoing bit, though it would have been nice if they had given her more to do than just repeating that one gag.
+ Season 1 OP has a bitchin' guitar riff.
Negatives:
- This show is a fatal dose of syrupy sweetness. It is so overpoweringly corny that I had a hard time making it through, even with my high tolerance for that kind of thing. Every possible situation is a setup for one of the boys to deliver an embarrassing line laden with shoujo tropes like "if you ever cry, I'll be the first one by your side". The dialogue is cliché, cringeworthy and doesn't feel like the kind of things anyone would ever say in real life.
- The male leads lack personality or interior lives. Yuuto in particular has exactly one personality trait ("cool") and is never developed beyond that. You never even get basic details like what he likes or dislikes, what his family is like, or what his dreams are. He is like a robot that exists solely to deliver embarrassing lines of dialogue.
- Lacks balance. The show is primarily structured around its two main relationships, Hanabi and Yuuto, and Yui and Kazuma. Unfortunately, it tends to go into deep focus on one of these relationships for 2-3 episode arcs while totally ignoring the other during that time (Yui and Kazuma get the short end of the stick more often than not). It's not quite as bad in the 2nd season, but the relationships are forgettable enough that you will start to actually forget them when they get backburnered for long stretches.
- Kazuma is thoroughly unlikable and lame. His immaturity is probably accurate and appropriate for his age, but he's such a miserable little shit that it's hard to understand why Yui likes him at all or why she's so devoted to him when he treats her the way he does. Their romance falls flat largely because it's obvious that Yui deserves better and you don't really want to see Kazuma win, especially when a better character starts trying to woo her in the 2nd season.
- Cocoa's presence as a bitchy manipulator is grating and repetitive. Somehow she always manages to manipulate people and convince them that they're doing something wrong even though she gets caught lying and loses face in front of the entire class repeatedly. It's like everyone exists in a state of perfect naivete where their memory resets at the beginning of each episode and they all forget that she's a lying snake that can't be trusted about anything.
- Basic and cheap animation and questionable character designs, especially when it comes to some of the side characters
