She seems to have incredibly strong starts in her anime, but then often hits massive roadbumps as she goes along, some worse than others. Hana Saku Iroha might have been her best ending because it was one that wasn't coated in stoopid amounts of melodrama which seems to be her trump card. (Or trap card-- not to be confused with her other trap card. ). AnoHana was infamous for its eyerolling emoness, though it's present in a lesser degree to True Tears. Looking at these 3, I find it pretty evident that she's just winging it as she goes along and doesn't have a plan. (Anohana can't be ero-comedy??? NOOO!!!)
I'm sure you guys will disagree especially on TT (When I found out who won in that, my reaction was more "Cool story bro" then feeling sad for someone) , but I just notice her stories are mostly memorable for their starts and premise, and sometimes when it builds up in the middle.
Note that if we look at her original works save Hana Saku Iroha, it's always been one cour.
The most extreme case for me was Canaan which had a great beginning and then made me fall asleep for some reason.
Do you think she has what it takes to write a series longer than that? I'm almost confident that True Tears would have devolved into HSI had it been twice as long. Maybe not to that degree, as she seemed to have some reservations.
I've normally chalked it up to PA works for 2 of her more famous anime being unable to finish properly, because as I brought up in the Tari Tari thread that she's unable to end well, and there's also I guess AB! for PA works, where Jun Maeda was unable to write period.
Poor PA.
And I love AnoHana the most out of her works...