There is a lot written and even though I only read pre-selected posts, I had to cut mercilessly [trying to say "RTWT" — Ed.]. For starters, I skipped all reminiscences, everything about 1990s. I have no common ground with Suguru and Omo on that, really cannot evaluate anything. All midseries things had to be cut too, except one: blasted Hung never posted a closer for some reason.

What he did post, however, was quite bold. He made a bunch of predictions:

• the main dude and alien will have a series of misunderstandings, -- Hit, duh
• childhood friend might gain some traction but then lose out, -- Hit
• alien girl will arbitrarily be taken away from main dude for an episode or two, and when they’re reunited, they will end up together. -- Not bad
• All the while, “fu fu fu” senpai will manipulate the rest of the cast for maximum enjoyment. -- Hit
• Childhood friend will either hook up with blue haired dude, -- Miss

{Update: Evirus e-mailed that Hung literally used details from original Onegai Sensei for predictions.}

Also:

In a way, Ano Natsu De Matteru is a throwback to a time when anime plots were simpler. The cast represents a precisely honed set of love triangles and leaves things to sort themselves out. While it’s extremely predictable [], it’s also super enjoyable. This is like the comfort food of anime for me.

How could you leave us hanging, man?

An unknown for RP:

As for the plot, it was unbelievably real, especially to me. In some events, this was remarkably similar to something I had previously experienced, albeit she was not a crash-landed alien.

Heh. I can relate.

surprised [by] Tetsuro’s feelings for Kanna

You know, I was too. However, I think I wasn't paying attention. There were probably some hints, like in Toradora where everything was telegraphed in ep.2 and then most blissfully missed it.

Mike:

it was a great series simply because it did everything in its ability exceptionally well. It was great with its handling of its characters; it was great with evocation and although the plot was barebones the rest were enough to carry the series beautifully.

And yes, it was better than Ano Hana.

What an elistist, even in the trolling. Everyone else tries to contrast with Toradora.

Suguru (spoils heavily):

Ano Natsu de Matteru ends - almost exactly how I guessed it would, which means the writers were probably a little predictable, but it was executed really, really well, so I can't complain.

He rated the ending as "perfect finish in my book".

lostty is not terribly coherent, so I am not sure if he/she even means what s/he writes:

it was for the most part fairly unique, didn’t take the fanservice route, and was very tasteful.

Very true, actually. But then:

This series tried too hard to be the next tear jerking melodrama

Goes beyond opinionating, just objectively false. Probably was on bad meds while blogging. Great hi-res screencaps at least.

Omo:

I think it’s safe to say that ultimately NatsuMachi is the distilled essence of the contribution to Toradora from the team that brought you both.

the original two series had it slightly better

I’ll confess yet again that I am no fan of Toradora; I think it’s a great show but it was nowhere near as enjoyable as the hype was. [...] I think for the handful of people who truly enjoy anime like this, are so starved that we don’t really let the little details bother us. For the rest of us, those of us who are less committed to this sub-category of romantic comedies, well, the mileage will vary on how much you like watching the distilled essence of Toradora.

And "still well short of excellent" in the end.

BTW, there's an unknown at Metanorn, who was rather explicit comparing against Onegai Sensei. Even knew woh Ichigo was. {Update: CKS suggests that Remon literally is Ichigo, which is why she says "I am forever 17".}

Zyl:

inushinde's right though - this is a summer dalliance and no classic like ToraDora.

Harsh, man.

Overall, it seems that the only guy who thought before writing was Nova:

One of the strongest points of the show was that it cleverly avoided many of the teenage melodrama land mines that shows such as BRS charged head-on into, and so the entire love polygon the show kept spinning around didn’t manage to ruin the whole thing with overblown angst.

Ano Nuts always seemed to keep a bit of a distance from the teenager love problems instead of the usual failing practice of displaying them as world-crushing once-in-a-lifetime-issues, using the kind of moderation that’s pretty much vital for this type of dramatic setting.

One might argue that in the real world there’s no way everyone could have stayed friends after all that happened, but y’know, sometimes I watch anime to see a world better than ours, and as such Ano Nuts has my forgiveness.

There was much more where that come from, but I cannot quote the whole thing. He explains very convincingly why the ending was perfect, something Suguru didn't do. Although mind, I do not necessarily agree. In particular, he concluded that the anime "wasn’t the next ToraDora". Author and Omo versus Nobar-Zyl alliance, it seems.

Nova also had amusing comments:

Sage> No mention of Mio? I’m going to schedule your stoning for this week...

Nova> I was going to post a pic of her instead of Kanna, but most of the stuff I found was nasty :/

UPDATE: CKS joins Nova & Co with a paradox:

However, it's no Toradora; ultimately it will probably be forgettable but fondly remembered.

Forgettable to be remembered, is it like a romantic comedy that is not a comedy? Seriously though, not being a native speaker, I just assumed that "comedy" was a signifier, brought forward by the lack of a category. Conversely, Russian did not have a category for "fantasy" and lumped it under "sci-fi" for quite a while.

UPDATE: Hung responded with a review, and he liked the ending like Suguru and Nobar did.

It’s basically a re-make of Onegai Sensei, with the same character types (but different characters). The thing that made Ano Natsu enjoyable was that it was executed damn near perfectly. The pacing, animation, humor, etc were all great. I think the one thing it lacked was a bit of originality.

But as he points out, it was a good trade-off. His previous comparison with Infinite Stratos is not too far-fetched, IMHO.

UPDATE in June: Pixy admits to medium goodness, and:

The ending doesn't try to resolve everything, but it does provide closure; I found it satisfying.

Pixy also tripped SDB, who hated the angst. Mind, his perceptions were strangely warped:

Tetsurou's older sister, who is separated from her husband, is a cougar and seems to be chasing Kaito.

He admits that it was the "languid gay teacher" effect: only watching fragments.