Story 10
I particularly love how we see this poor, tortured [socially] girl whos been alone, and bullied, and has given up on having friends, or any kind of social life [consequently, the first few episodes were painful to watch, but it only adds to the value of the anime], but we get to see over the span of the episodes how things begin to look up for her.
Also, more often than not, when watching a romance anime, I almost automatically expect its a tsundere type story, but this time, we see a welcome change as this one is more of a Kuudere [bonus points!]...
Art 10
its not mind blowingly fantastic, but certainly nothing to complain about... and to me, art and sound scores dont affect final score, unless they render an anime unwatchable... and that hasnt happened yet
Sound 10
First off, the OP song... "Friendship ~「for Sukitte Ii na yo」" by Okazaki Ritsuko... absolutely fantastic, especially for this anime... normally we see up beat, happy songs to start an anime off, this one was slow and sweet and the lyrics were pretty simple but deep... I guess the best way to describe it is a harmonious oxymoronic piece of melodic poetry... [I chose those words very carefully, so take a moment to digest them :)]
~Also, unfortunately, Okazaki Ritsuko passed away quite young due to an unfortunate case of stomach cancer, and I would like to take this opportunity to pass along my condolences~
The rest of the OST is very pleasant to listen to, and is very fluid to the mood of whatever is happening... but one exception, the ED song, I found it a little off, and sometimes disrupting to the mood, but most of the time I skipped it anyway
Characters 10
In my opinion, the characters are a little extrapolated from typical roles, but still resemble a typical romance. Already mentioned, the Kuudere thing was nice, as was the lead guy who wasnt always perfect, and he caused some drama, and even made some audacious moves, but ultimately he treated her well, and did his best to make things better after he messed up... There were some characters that didnt really matter, but youd be hard pressed to get mad over that, after all, high school is full of things that dont matter, and no matter what story youre viewing, theres always an entire active world surrounding it
Enjoyment... its a 9... but its a 10 too
Sometimes its not the feelings the story causes that matter, but the intensity of the feelings, and I think thats one area anime in general shines its brightest. here we see feels at the beginning... I almost thought this anime was going to be in the [Ano Hana/Clannad] category of sadness, but it did a 180 and had a very heartwarming finish. I would love more of this story to be manifested into a sequel season, but I have doubts about its fruition [just a feeling], however we do have a live action film to look forward to later this year
Overall 9
A masterpiece for its class... I give it 100%, only thing is there are anime that go beyond [waaay beyond] expectation, and while Sukitte Ii na yo is totally fantastic, its just not mind blowing
Recommended for fans of Romance, School life, Shoujo, and lower mid range drama
