>>281482708
>is the whole point of the show just to show chino's slow transformation into cocoa?
Yes exactly, but it's only late in the manga that the full Cocofication happens. Another interpretation is that Chino has not changed at all, she used to be genki like Cocoa but then she got depressed when her mother died, so now she's just slowly reverting to her happy not-traumatized self thanks to Cocoa.