I think while reading this I was always comparing it to I Can't Defy The Lonely Girl, which had started a year prior and felt similar, both had a similar fairly fluffy feel to them, both got the main couple together pretty early on and then focused on getting the side characters together, and both felt really nice to read. But that one ended much sooner while this one kept going a bit longer, and then it introduced that kouhai. She is possible one of the worst characters I have read, and the drama around her was so incredibly stupid that it completely soured me on the manga. All logic about how the characters acted and thought was just thrown out the window for seemingly no reason. I hate it on a visceral level. It really felt like the author was just wanting to continue the manga but didn't know how with the tools they gave themselves in the existing characters, which they had plenty like someone mentioned earlier in the comments about Mashiro's health issues. The author could've even just worked with the feelings of unworthiness just without that stupid kouhai. Unlike I Can't Defy The Lonely Girl, The Anemone Feels The Heat just broke down at the end. At least the author was able to realize a bit of how stupid it was and made the last little bit just fluff so we had some happiness before the very end. But it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, like the ending of Liar Satsuki Can Sea Death, but a little bit better since it at least ended on some good.