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From the 3rd chapter to the end, my face was scrunched up in horror. The manga is extremely uncomfortable and uncensored. The author does an incredible job depecting adolescence in something as brutal as war.

The art is beautiful. The sketchy innocence of the style paired with the miserable things going on is incredibly uncomfortable. Quite a few times, I shed tears from just the surprise of the very sudden gore panels.

There's a lot to think about in Cocoon beyond just what happens in its short runtime. Mayu and San actually feel isolated. As their surroundings and companions come and go, Their struggle to stay ... unchanging can be felt. There's so much nuance and symbolism in the struggle of adolescence, girlhood, and love between them, which is pretty cool considering its brevity.

Definitely read if you like being sad and miserable.

This is wild. The art style is loose but so clear and beautiful. The plot moves a lot, but doesn't feel overpaced or rushed through the relatively short length of the manga.

The relationship featured is undoubtedly unhealthy and toxic as hell. But their motivations make so much sense. Especially in the format of this short-ish story, we don't really see anyone besides the main couple, and naturally assume that they can only mean everything to each other. As a result, I found myself just seeing the relationship as itself and naturally accepting the characters' toxic motivations.

The mangaka doesn't attempt to explain anything. Just ... leaves the story to explain itself. If that makes any sense.
Pretty art and banger storyline. Highly recommend.

Very standard yuri. Deliquent girl gets together with the elegant smart girl, but the smart one is actually putting on an act!
The characters are cute, but definitely lacking some depth. Honestly not much happens throughout the entire manga. The few minor conflicts felt insignificant, probably because too little time was spent on them or the characters were barely affected by them. They felt more like just things that happened than plot progression devices. Usually this would be made up for by fluff, but I didn't get much of that from this either (besides shiratori eating lmao).
The art is really pretty though! And it was ... definitely enjoyable despite my criticisms.

As a big Miku fan, I mainly went in for Miku screen time, which is a pretty low bar. That being said, I liked it a lot! The overall theme about music helping us through hard times is honestly a bit shallow, but very sweet. I would've liked more despair. The movie only really shows like a struggling artist or student and things like that (though I do remember a shot of a person standing on the edge of a bridge I think), and the darkness really just takes form as a big black wave that takes Miku off the planet. Also, I would expect ... much more of a conflict in the world if Hatsune Miku somehow disappears.
That being said, it is a show for kids and pjsk fans, so I would not expect more than that.
Storytelling, character, art, and music wise, it's great! Despite being a long movie, I never felt bored, probably because there are like 30 characters, and I would kick my feet and point whenever Miku or Mizuki showed up. The characters are all pretty distinct, although they only have about 1 personality trait each. Each of the groups has their own interpretation of the Hello, Sekai song, which was very endearing.
I also enjoyed the art, especially the hand animated dance and instrument playing sequences.
I only went in to the movie knowing what a Sekai (and Mizuki my beloved) was. I think that's enough information to watch the movie.

To preface I have not played Bandori and am coming here only from the 1st season.
What an incredible season. Beyond the sort of mindless fun and endearment I look for in these type of shows, the cast genuinely feels very developed. Each character and band is designed uniquely and distinguishable, and the show somehow made time to develop all 6 of the bands throughout the season. This is probably my favorite part of this franchise.
PopiPa goes through their fair share of conflict and are (in my opinion) carried out of all of it by Kasumi somehow being the world's biggest source of positive energy. Honestly ... the characters act much more maturely than I would expect from some high schoolers, but it's still believable.
The pacing of the episodes was comfortable. Story arcs never overstayed, and every moment felt impactful to the overall plot of the show. I actually quite liked the mini episode arcs for each of the bands.
Mildly warm take, but I love the 3d animation. Coming from the awkward concert shots in the first season, I'm happy to have proper instrument animation. Though the CG is definitely a different look, it's not bad by far.
And the music is so incredibly good. The bands all have distinct sounds to them (god I love hello happy world), and it's all just so fun to listen to. Every band is easily on par with the likes of K-On! or Bocchi or GBC for me.
I have no real gripes with it.