Story; 8. Toradora, like all high school set anime, really doesn't have a shocking story; kids grow up. growing up sure is hard though! angst angst angst crush crush crush. And this show was no exception, however the character interactions and scenarios felt much more realistic than they are in many school series. There were not girls running underwear-clad through the halls, and no one ascended from space for the cultural festival that just happened to be full of student bunny girls. Everything that they went through in their daily motions was believable, and this allowed for fresh, entertaining humor to take place. This is the best comedic anime since Paniponi Dash easily, and this is a compliment, considering how much I loved PPD.
Art; 7. Sadly, the art was all over the place. I actually loved the character models. Taiga was perfect, Ryuji actually looked pretty cool in my opinion. Kushieda reminded me of Haruko (FLCL) in a good way, and overall the characters were all well drawn. But the art consistensy was absolutley terrible. Let's be honest here, I'm tossing Toradora in with Simoun now, because both series deserve much better art than they got, because they were both phenomenal. There were a handful of sequences that looked good, and stills too. But, especially in the shows middle, many scenes look thrown together; the climactic fight between Taiga and the Student Council President was terribly animated, which was a huge shame because they built up such great tension for it. Altogether the art is sub par, and could have been much better. Especially with JC Staff.
Sound; 8. Generic j-pop? check. Orchestra for teenage suffering? check. Terrible, cheesy synthed love themes for tender moments? check. Yeah, everything's there. Nothing special, but this could have been much worse (see: school rumble themes. jesus freakin' christ.)
Character; 9. The characters were the polish this story needed to outshine all the other titles in this genre the way it did. Taiga was an very hotheaded, and as a character she grew a ton from start to end. I really enjoyed her, and Ryuji as well. Kushieda was possibly my favorite character though, because I could relate best to her; also, the weirdness about her was entertaining and stayed within realistic boundries too, which I loved. She had hilarious careers too. Kitamura was the most badass student council member I've ever seen in anime, a good change from the expected geekiness. His antics were legitimatley entertaining, as was the hair dying segment something I've personally seen in school. And once again, the characters also work to make this feel so attainable, and that really gives it a great number of points for it's watchability. You can really get into it, and I totally dig that about it. Great characters.
Enjoyment/Overall; 8. Although the inconsistent art was annoying at times, Toradora was a very nice treat; I watched it much faster than planned, because I really wound up liking it. The great characters and ACTUAL comedy made it a really fun experience, and I absolutley reccomend this to anyone looking for good comedy. It's like a School Rumble that could actually happen.
